Stacey King's Blog

The injury to Tyrus Thomas and the fact that the Bulls are on the verge of the annual November "Circus Trip" out west will provide Coach Vinny Del Negro many question marks. It will be important to get the rookies some quality playing time. Taj Gibson will start. He has done a great job coming off the bench and has played well as a starter.  James Johnson is also going to have to get some playing time. He has almost become the "forgotten man" here in the regular season. I thought he played very well in the preseason.  The Bulls will need to find a way to depend on Johnson. It is also going to force the Bulls to play a bigger lineup.  Luol Deng is probably going to play some power forward.  Chicago will miss Tyrus' shot blocking. I think in the long run it is not going to have the impact it would have last season. I'm sure Vinny would love to have Tyrus back, but I don't think it will hurt as bad as everybody thinks.

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