Rip Hamilton is injured again.
I'll pause for a few seconds to let everyone finish gasping and questioning their god.
Okay, good. Shocking right? Not really. I WAS BEING SARCASTIC. Anyways, I thought I would take a look at the statistical impact Rip has had on the Bulls when he's played with the full starting lineup. Join me on this magical journey.
For this, I will be using the awesome Play Index+ and, more specifically, the Lineup Finder.
Now before I look up these numbers let me just say that with the "eye test", Rip seems to provide a whole different dimension to the offense. He draws attention from multiple defenders coming off screens and takes much needed pressure to score off of Rose. If Rip was healthy, I think the Bulls would have a decent shot to take down the Heat. On to the numb3rz!
The two lineups the Bulls have used the most this season and the lineups that I will be comparing:
- Rose, Brewer, Deng, Boozer, Noah
- 235 minutes played in 18 games
- 13.05 minutes per game
- Rose, Hamilton, Deng, Boozer, Noah
- 164.9 minutes played in 9 games
- 18.32 minutes per game
