Chicago Bulls re-signs back up forward Taj Gibson for another season - NBA Update
As expected, the best team of the last regular-season Chicago Bulls re-signed their back up forward Taj Gibson for another season.
Gibson was picked up by the Bulls in 2009 draft, when Chicago drafted him as 26th overall. Since then Gibson is with the Bulls. Taj has been able to put up a decent performance in his last three seasons. His career scoring
average is 8.0 points per game and 6.6 rebounds. During this period, he has maintained an awesome shooting average of 0.659 percent from the field.
In the beginning Gibson was used as a starter, but when the Bulls signed Carlos Boozer last season, Taj was assigned the bench role. However, when Boozer struggled in the 2010-11 season playoffs, Chicago gave added minutes to
Gibson and he didn’t disappoint one bit.
Gibson made his first impact in the post season, when he helped the Bulls trounce past the Atlanta Hawks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. He tallied 7.8 points, grabbed 4.0 rebounds and blocked 1.8 shots per game that series,
which the Bulls won 4-2 and moved to the Conference Finals against the Miami Heat.
Bulls routed the Heat 103-82 in the very first game. Gibson spent 23 minutes on the court that night and scored nine points, seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks. However, the mighty Heat came hard on the Bulls in the remaining
games, as they claimed the series by 4-1 and knocked them out of the title race. Taj remained scoreless in the final two games and scored at an average of 5.6 points in the series.
Gibson recently told in an interview how the disappointing loss to the Heat has spurred him to work even harder, "We're close. But one thing I remember right after we lost was the coaching staff saying to us ... 'It's not going
to be easy. Teams understand the capabilities that you guys have now. You have to dig deep. You have to work harder in the offseason. Push yourself to limits you never saw or felt and remember what it felt to lose to Miami. Remember what it felt like to see
them celebrating on your court.' That's the mindset I've been taking with me the whole time I've been working out and that's the mindset our whole team is going to have coming back.” I know we're going to come back on a hungrier mentality."
If Gibson can pick his game in the next season and prove himself to be a reliable offensive outlet, then with a hungrier Derrick Rose already in the mix of thing, the Bulls can certainly go one step further.
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