One month after P.J. Brown voiced displeasure over his role, Bulls coach Scott Skiles has offered to change it.
“I’ve been too inconsistent for P.J. in finding him his minutes,” Skiles said after Sunday’s practice. “I need to do a better job of that. P.J. has been our best interior defender. He’s our longest player. He has been a very good defensive rebounder for us. He’s a conscientious box-out guy. He does a lot of things out there.”
Brown eventually apologized for uncharacteristically rocking the boat, which is more characteristic of a Bulls team whose starters and reserves often are interchangeable.
Indeed, Ben Gordon acts like a cat sunning himself when asked the difference between starting and subbing, boringly saying there’s no difference in his approach.
Andres Nocioni is so comfortable with returning to a reserve role that he recently went to Skiles on his own to voice concerns over whether the Bulls’ small front line was having a negative effect on Ben Wallace.
And Brown is back to flashing the professionalism that has defined his 13-year career.
“I’m just trying to help us win,” Brown said. “Defensively, I’ve had good games. Offensively, I haven’t been where I want. Starting gets you into a rhythm faster. I’m ready for whatever.”
Wallace is the wild card in the short term because he skipped practice again with his strained lower back and is questionable for Monday’s matinee against San Antonio.
But when Wallace regains his health, look for Skiles to return to the lineup of Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, Brown and Wallace that went 3-3 over this season’s first six games.
“We’re coming to the midway point,” Skiles said. “P.J.’s a veteran guy who has a lot of experience. I have to find different and better ways to use him.
“He’s one of those uncanny rebounders. He can rebound sometimes without jumping because he puts his body on people. He clearly has had a defensive effect on people one-on-one on the block. People have had a tremendously difficult time scoring on him down there one-on-one. Those are all important things come the end of April and into May.”
That Nocioni is so amenable to bringing his manic energy and efficient scoring off the bench makes such long-term planning for playoffs even easier for Skiles.
“For me, it’s fine,” Nocioni said. “I know what happened. We lost too many games. We need change. With Ben Gordon in the starting lineup, [Skiles] needs more points from the bench. Now I need to be prepared because my role is different. The bench, sometimes, you have great opportunity first to see the game and what the team needs.”
Skiles knows it’s a luxury to coach players like Gordon and Nocioni, whose mind-set and approach rarely change, even if their roles do.
“Noce has a concern that he voiced to me a couple of days ago that he may be too small to play with [Wallace] to start the game,” Skiles said. “He’s aware of the dynamics of the team. Neither one of those guys ever make a peep either way. And they’re both good at both roles.”
Gordon is averaging 14.4 points in seven games as a starter and 22.5 points in 31 games off the bench this season. Skiles said Gordon proved he could start last season and theorized perhaps he merely struggles to start games at the start of the season.
Gordon has started just 57 of 200 career games but scored 24 points in just 27 minutes after starting Saturday.
“It was a little different my first two seasons because I wasn’t used to starting,” Gordon said. “Now I know how to handle it.
“I’m going to play the same regardless. I don’t think starting changes much of anything.”
Skiles is counting on that mentality for all of his changes.
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kcjohnson@tribune.com
