In the Michael Jordan era, Tex Winter’s triple-post offense was the set scheme the Bulls could improvise from; it was the chord progression to “I Got Rhythm” in Jordan’s performance of “Cherokee.” Since Jordan’s retirement, however, the triple post has become an end in itself. Where once it was the framework for bebop, it has now been orchestrated in sonata form for a symphony. The notes are all there; it’s the energy and crispness, rather than the serendipity of inspiration, that distinguishes the performance. The triple post runs more fluidly now than it ever did in the Jordan years, which is why some longhair basketball fans–the newspaper reporters who see every game, for instance–say the Bulls are playing better now than they ever have. In a way, that’s ridiculous–what basketball fan, given his or her dream evening, would possibly prefer to see the Chicago Symphony over Charlie Parker?–but like all sophistry there’s a certain logic to it. The Bulls are playing better than they ever have: they’re getting more out of their potential, as individuals, and they’re more devoted to their tactics, as a team. To the fan, their pleasures are sublime, where Jordan was an impending rush that never seemed to crest. Same team; completely different set of responses.
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There are many reasons for that success, but they were put most succinctly by Head Coach Phil Jackson in a recent Q-and-A with the Sun-Times’ Lacy Banks. Banks asked Jackson if the rest of the league had misjudged the talent levels of new additions Pete Myers, Steve Kerr, and Bill Wennington, three players the Bulls basically salvaged from the scrap heap this season. Jackson said the rest of the league hadn’t necessarily misjudged their talent levels, but it had underestimated how valuable those humble talents were. The rest of the league, Jackson said, tends to rate players by athleticism–according to speed, agility, and leaping ability. The Bulls–and General Manager Jerry Krause deserves at least as much credit as Jackson in this regard–brought in players intelligent enough to adjust quickly to Assistant Coach Winter’s triple-post offense (a long-term problem for new players since Jackson adopted it in the late ’80s) and capable of handling the team’s rigorous defensive preparation for each opponent. And, with a philosophy of interchangeable parts replacing their reliance on Michael Jordan, it’s been defense and a fluid, balanced offense that has won games for the Bulls this year–that and Toni Kukoc’s last-second miracles.
That, however, was expected. What was not expected was Kukoc’s courage at crunch time. While the Bulls deny, with Jordan gone and their offense balanced, that they have a so-called “go-to guy,” the fact remains that, more often than not in the first half of the season, when they needed a basket in their final possession the ball wound up in Kukoc’s hands and he was likely to take the shot. And, considering he is a rookie, he hit a surprising number of those shots, most recently two weeks ago against the Indiana Pacers, when he sank a game-winning three-pointer off the inbounds with eight-tenths of a second to play.
That patient, incisive execution describes the Bulls these days. They’re running Winter’s triple post with a clinical efficiency. Armstrong scooted around a Scottie Pippen screen and, drawing two defenders, passed to Pippen cutting to the hoop for a jam. Wennington, setting a similar screen, trailed the ball into the just-vacated area and set up for the open shot–a play that has become something of a trademark in his short stay with the Bulls.
Asked to describe what distinguishes the 1993-94 Bulls, Jackson listed “their dedication to playing together, moving the ball, organizational skills on the floor, (and) their work ethic is very good.” Discipline and determination will always win games in December in the NBA. The question is, how will the Bulls fare in March and April, or in May when the playoffs begin? To the Bulls’ credit, they are already addressing that themselves, both in Jackson’s quotes above and in Pippen’s harsh grading: he gave the Bulls a B minus at the halfway point. Pippen has moved into Jordan’s locker, and has assumed Jordan’s role as the team’s leader. He stayed an unusually long time after the Bucks’ game, summing up the team at the halfway point. “I think we play well, but we haven’t shown that we’re a good road team yet,” he said. “Winning home games, that’s not gonna take you very far in the playoffs.
