Salmons: 'I just can't get it going'

Late Saturday night, John Salmons talked inside the Bulls' locker room in his typically thoughtful and ponderous manner.

He shared how earlier that day he had told Randy Brown, the Bulls' director of player development, that Saturday marked the first time Salmons had looked at his statistics.

"Everything is down," Salmons said. "It's not just 3-pointers. Even my free throws are down. I don't know. I just can't get it going."

The list of the Bulls' offensive problems is long. They have no stretch-the-floor shooters. They're getting little bench production. At times, they struggle completing simple perimeter passes.

That's why they rank 28th in scoring, 29th in shooting, 28th in 3-point shooting and 29th in 3-point attempts. High on that list are Salmons' struggles. It's like he's shooting upstream.

After a breakthrough season in which he averaged 18.3 points on 47.2 percent shooting, including 41.7 percent from 3-point range, Salmons is averaging 13.8 points and shooting 38.5 percent.

That percentage drops to 32.7 percent from beyond the arc, which is magnified because, with 98 attempts, Salmons is by far the leader on a team with little 3-point presence.

This has contributed to a lack of proper spacing and limited Derrick Rose's penetration and effectiveness.

"Having 3-point shooters spreads the court and opens the lanes up more," Salmons said. "But that's the makeup of our team. It's something we have to fight through. We can't worry about not making threes. We have to be true to our team and use what we have."

Twice last week, players refused to take the bait when asked about the offensive sets and play-calling.

Rose, when asked, did offer he operated more in isolation while in college at Memphis but said he still feels he gets enough opportunities now. Luol Deng merely said this: "We execute what's out there."

But the fact remains that without a true 3-point specialist or post presence, the Bulls lack offensive options.

"We don't take a lot of threes," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "That's not the way we're built right now. It doesn't stretch the defense when you're not able to make threes. So it makes it harder.

"You just try to do things to compensate for that by being more efficient. It puts more pressure on your ballhandling and decision-making. When you're not effective offensively, it affects your defensive transition."

Salmons was supposed to make fans forget Ben Gordon, who remains out for Detroit with a badly sprained ankle he tried to return from Dec. 2 against the Bulls. Gordon is averaging 18.7 points on 44.7 percent shooting, 35.1 percent on 3-pointers.

Salmons does offer more positional size and has defended well at times. But his dribble-drive approach hasn't always meshed with Rose, and he has struggled handling more defensive attention.

"I just have to keep working at it, get my extra shots up," Salmons said. "It's a long season."

Given that watching the Bulls' anemic offensive performances is akin to root canal surgery, Salmons is right on target.

(chicagotribune.com)