Game Thread: Bulls/Bucks

Notes and links after the jump...

Preseason MVP: Jim Paschke
Jim's videos on Bucks.com are the only reason we've been able to see any video of the preseason, so for that we owe him a big thanks.

Gardner: Delfino and Thomas to start on Saturday
Charles Gardner reports that Skiles will be changing up his forward rotation on Saturday.  We knew Delfino would get a look at the small forward spot at some point, but the more interesting choice is Kurt Thomas at PF.

"He's in the right place all the time defensively, and he's a conscientious box-out guy," Skiles said of the 6-foot-9 Thomas. "We've been getting killed on the boards. We'd like to present a little tougher front to start a game."

Rebounding is what Ersan Ilyasova should be bringing, but so far he hasn't grabbed a single board in 36 minutes. Of course, Ilyasova's not a bruising postdefender either way, so if Skiles decides to take a game-by-game approach to the 4 spot then we could see Thomas starting at times even if Ilyasova comes around. I'm not a big fan of that strategy, mainly because I'd rather see Thomas soaking up the backup PF minutes but also because I'd hope to see Ilyasova create mismatches on the perimeter against bigger players. 

As for Hakim Warrick, he's played well (by the box score at least) in the first two games, but I'm not sure he can start every night.  He's not big enough to defend good post players and he can't stretch the floor either.  And on the plus side, his offense could be more useful off the bench with the second unit.

JS: Bucks rotation still up for grabs
Garry Howard takes stock of all the confusion surrounding who's going to play where and how much. Scott Skiles isn't tipping his hand, but he's obviously still trying to figure things out himself.

"I could see a 14- or 15-man rotation," he said. "Everybody is going to have to do something as the year goes on. I don't think there's any doubt about that. In an ideal world, we'd have a bunch of guys playing very well and would have a nine- or 10-man rotation and we'd be winning games. But my instinct is - and not that it means we won't be winning - is that everybody is going to get a chance at some point. We're going to need everybody.

"As the season goes on I'd like to have some sort of rotation but I'll bet you that everybody comes into play at some point."

Tribune: No Rose?
Derrick Rose (sore Achilles) missed the Bulls' 102-101 win over the Jazz in London, and is not expected to play tonight either.  Would have been interesting to see Rose matchup with Jennings, but we should see plenty of that in the regular season.