Is Taj Gibson Overrated? (Part 1 - Offense)

Carlos Boozer cause an uproar in Chicago in February when he said - publicly - that he wanted more 4th quarter minutes. Head coach Tom Thibodeau’s response was that Boozer had to sacrifice being in during the end of games, much in the same way Taj Gibson sacrificed starting.  Bulls fans freaked out.  We were so close!  Booz, say one more stupid thing so that Taj gets to start!

AHHHH I DON'T PLAY DEFENSE

Boozer has had a tough go in Chicago. It was going to be tough to live up to his 5 year, roughly 16 million dollar a year contract. The Bulls had a ton of cap room that season, having cleared much of their salary away in a bold attempt to sign LeBron James. They had weight to throw around, and it was impossible not to overpay Boozer with so many teams bidding for his services. Remember, this was a guaranteed 20/10 guy in Utah, an All Star forward.  

Taj Gibson, on the other hand, is a homegrown talent, drafted late, a diamond in the rough.  He has a reputation as a blue collar player and a hard worker, propagated by one of Stacey King’s favorite one liners after a quintessential Taj play : “Hard hat, lunch pail.”  Its not hard to love the overlooked hardworker.  It’s very difficult to love the overpaid mercenary. The disdain towards Booz is propagated even further by his offensive game, which is based around rainbow jumpers and fadeaways, and his defensive game, which is nonexistent.  With Boozer as a foil, Gibson looks like the gritty player that Chicagoans love. Bulls fans are already looking forward to Boozer being gone and Gibson starting, presumably with his game blossoming as a result.  

One of Taj's most memorable moments against the Heat last year.  He had 12 points in total, but these two stood out.

However, the more Gibson plays, the more I wonder about whether he is a bona fide starter in the NBA. He has a highlight slam or block every once in a while, and it seems sometimes like highlight plays have buoyed Gibson’s sterling public repoire with Chicago fans.  Basketball is such a nuanced sport that it’s hard to say one way or the other whether Taj is overrated.  Several parts of his game have improved dramatically.  Unfortunately, other parts remain underdeveloped.  

 

Gibson’s play has dramatically shifted away from the basket since last season.  More than 44% of Gibson’s field goal attempts came within 3 feet of the basket, and, not surprisingly, Gibson made nearly half of those shots (49%). This season, however, Taj has ventured away from the basket, and although the majority of his shots still come within 0-3 feet of the basket, the percentage has gone down dramatically, to just 38%.  Those 6 percentage points moved outside the paint, where Taj is now taking 23% of his shots, up from 17% last year.  

Bulls fans seem to think that Taj’s jumper has improved over the past season, and that he is more than capable of hitting a fifteen footer. However, Taj has only made about 40% of his shots in between 10-16 feet for his career, and he’s actually doing slightly worse this season.

Part of this has to do with increased usage. Gibson is the focal point of the offense for the second unit, and more attempts has led to a much increased usage rate, up from 18% last year to 23% this year.  The majority of Taj’s offensive touches come when he is posting up - about 33 percent of Taj’s offensive plays.  This makes sense - Thibodeau loves to post his bigs, and loves to go to Taj in particular. However, Taj isn’t actually that good of a post up player.  When he’s guarded by a single defender, Taj is averaging about .827 points per possession, which is in the bottom half of the league.  

We are faced with a dual problem.  Taj isn’t a great post up player, but he isn’t a great mid range shooter either.  Taj is most effective on the left block when he posts up and take short, aggressive turnaround jumpers.  He’s actually very good going over either shoulder, and scores more than half of the time (56%) when attacking defenders over the left shoulder, and puts up similar numbers going over his right shoulder .  He needs to become more comfortable attacking the rim from different spots on the court, however - Taj posts up on the left block 79 percent of the time and is abysmal coming off the right block, in the bottom quarter in the league in efficiency.  

So we’ve established that Taj isn’t the best offensively, but he certainly isn’t the worst.  Resoundingly average is perhaps the best way to put Taj Gibson’s offensive game.  I can already hear the Bulls fans yelling : “Wait just a minute! Anything Taj does on the offensive end is a bonus.  We love him for his rock solid defense.”  If by rock solid, you mean, ‘slightly above average,’ then I agree entirely.  

Check back next week for a breakdown of Taj Gibson on the defensive end.

All date acquired via Synergy Sports and basketball-reference.com