Talking Points

Hinrich, Gordon and Duhon have provided a formidable and tough-minded backcourt for the young, stampeding Bulls this season.

By Brett Ballantini | Posted April 22, 2005

The two are nearly the same age, basketball lifers, former college All-Americans, and NBA first-round picks.

Both have memorable games on their resumes that remain embedded in the minds of NBA fans. And they form the cadre charged with the mission of leading the Chicago Bulls back to the Promised Land.

Oh, yeah—they also played the same position.

It would have been hard to pick two more similar people to direct a franchise than former point guards John Paxson and Scott Skiles. For Chicago’s current point men, it’s quite a bonanza.

GM Paxson and his handpicked coach, Skiles, share the same vision of the prototypical Bulls player: hard-nosed, hustling and smart. The one specific addition the two make when it comes to filling a spot at point guard, however, is crucial: leadership.

“The one thing I look to in a point guard that I may not distinguish as much at other positions is the ability to lead,” Skiles says. “[That player] is an extension of our coaching staff on the floor, and we can’t accomplish much if he’s not handling his job right.”

Paxson echoes the sentiment, saying, “Scott and I were both guys who were lucky enough to be in a position to run teams on the floor at every level of basketball. We might not have had all the answers, but together I don’t think there were many problems we couldn’t solve.”

And don’t think the current crop of Bulls point guards don’t realize they’re being taught the game by two seasoned and successful pros. Rookie Ben Gordon speaks for all when he states simply, “It was an honor to be selected by the two of them, two guys who have had great success at the NBA level.”

Here’s a dissected look at how close Chicago’s point guard corps is shaping up to become the Bulls’ biggest strength:

Second-year guard Kirk Hinrich has performed up to—and above—expectations this season.

The good news for Skiles and Paxson is that their team MVP from a year ago does helm the most important position on the court. It’s a lot to ask of a second-year player who is still feeling his way into the league, but Kirk Hinrich is Exhibit A for Paxson’s new brand of Bulls.

“There’s not a guy in this league that lets it hang out any more than Kirk does,” Paxson says. “It’s the biggest part of his success at such an early point in his career.”

Hinrich showed just how tough he was right from the start of the 2003.04 season after starting the season in a hole—a 14-pound hole. Hinrich caught a wicked flu strain at the end of the preseason and missed the first five games of his professional career. The fact that his indomitable will impressed itself on the entire team not long after his return to action and quick ascension into the starting lineup says much about how impressive a figure he cuts.

The Bulls coaching staff dealt 2004 No. 3 overall pick Gordon a challenge from the moment he was selected by expecting him to master both the point and shooting guard positions at the NBA level. “It’s a lot to handle, yeah,” Gordon says. “Especially on the defensive end, having to guard players who sometimes are five, six inches taller and 30 pounds heavier.”

Skiles agrees. “Right now, we’re throwing the equivalent of the NBA kitchen sink at him in terms of a learning curve, and that’s not easy.”

Gordon is the emotional polar opposite of Skiles, however, and his aggressiveness will have to soar for him to succeed at the highest level. Under adversity (such as a shooting slump to start the regular season), Gordon’s soft-spoken demeanor can easily be interpreted as a lack of passion. If he thought University of Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun was a demanding coach, meet Mr. Skiles, Ben.

Second-round choice Chris Duhon and third-year player Jannero Pargo have a common link: A tendency to be overlooked. Unlike the high-lottery, high-rent attention paid to both Hinrich and Gordon, the two have had to prove themselves at every level. The undrafted Pargo played for the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors last season before finishing out the year with the Bulls, and now dreams of sticking with his hometown club (“I just keep hoping I’m back here for a reason,” Pargo says) for many years to come.

Duhon was one of the nation’s most highly-touted high school players when he entered Duke, but saw fellow classmates Mike Dunleavy and Jay Williams eclipse him; Duhon started to turn heads again with a heroic, sore-ribbed effort in the 2004 NCAA Tournament, as well as a solid performance at last summer’s NBA pre-Draft camp in Chicago.

While all of the team’s point guards clearly have a positive upside, one easily-overlooked area where Paxson saw a void on last year’s team was mental toughness: “It’s pretty simple—it’s been a long time since we’ve been as mentally tough as we should be as a team. Every player has to answer for himself in terms of preparation and consistency, but our point guards have an opportunity to lead the way for everyone else.”

Super-sub Ben Gordon made a solid case for an unprecedented double-double—NBA Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year. (Ray Amati/NBAE/Getty Images)

Bulls fans haven’t seen the likes of Hinrich since the days of the notoriously floor-burned Dennis Rodman. “He doesn’t stop moving,” Paxson says. “We all are fond of calling him ‘workmanlike,’ which is a little unfair. Yes, he is all business, but Kirk is also a guy with enormous gifts. And no one outworks him.”

The smooth operator gets notably antsy when the spotlight is turned on him. “I just try to play the same way in games that I do in practice,” Hinrich says. “That’s the way I’ve always been. I love to play and hustle, but I don’t think I— or anyone else—should be celebrated just because I’m giving my all. That’s what everyone should be doing.”

Duhon quickly found his niche with this Bulls team as a sparkplug. “When Coach calls on me, he knows he’s getting a guy who’s reliable and will bring energy into the game. If things aren’t going well, and we need a spark, he knows he can turn to me.”

Pargo brings quickness to the floor that is simply stunning. While he’s been in and out of Chicago’s point-guard rotation, Pargo’s scrappy play keeps him around. “He’s one guy who didn’t give up last year,” Skiles says. “And that makes an impression.”

Learning the Game

It’s rare to be on an NBA roster and not be a basketball lifer. So whether it’s Hinrich and his father/coach bleaching Iowa blacktops with wear or Gordon marking off three-point arcs on courts in and outside of New York City, this group knows its basketball.

But youth rears its head in this group, all separated in age by about one year (Pargo, the oldest, is 25; Hinrich, 23; Duhon, 22; and Gordon, 21). All readily acknowledge the seismic shift between amateur ball and the pros. “I’ve learned so much about the game from Coach Skiles and John Paxson in the past couple of months,” Duhon says. “And I’m learning a lot from Kirk, going against him in practice and seeing what he’s doing out there on the court.”

“Being a quick study is key,” Duhon adds. “I’m a guy who picks things up really quickly, and that’s been an advantage for me. You draw up a play once, and usually I’ve got it.”

“Kirk probably had it tougher last year,” in terms of learning the NBA game and lifestyle, Gordon says. “We have a peer group here that can really pool what we’ve learned. We’re working together to succeed.”

Interestingly, it’s the basic things that become so important for a young player learning the NBA game. “Most important is making the simple plays,” Duhon says. “You can’t get away with much here. The challenge is to make the game simple—make the easy pass, the tight dribble.”

“We were both considered ‘feisty’ on and off the floor,” Paxson says of Skiles. “Perhaps more so now than when we were playing.”

As big as the impression Hinrich made on the Bulls and the league last season was, leadership is the area which he still needs to develop. But, even on a young team, it’s hard to expect a 23-year-old to come in and take over.

What a younger star most often does is lead by example, and that’s just where Hinrich excels. “Kirk fits the mold exactly of what we want to do with the Bulls,” Paxson says. “He’s one guy who really fits the mold of the old Bulls, where each of us led by example in his own way.”

Duhon and Gordon both cite Hinrich as a player who does exactly that. But that example-setting practice only goes so far.

“Sure, in time we’re looking for Kirk to step up and really vocalize his leadership,” Skiles says. “He’s the heart of this team, and the guys respond to him.”

For now, Hinrich is the guy that the rest of the playmakers are studying closely to gain a foothold in the NBA. “It definitely helps to have Kirk here,” Gordon says. “Not just in any one area, but overall, it helps to see someone my age that’s been through it all and come out ahead.”

Point Taken

When the Bulls point guards are pressed to pick their childhood heroes, it’s Gary Payton and Isiah Thomas—not Skiles or Paxson—who come up most often. But this young group is listening—and learning.

“You have two guys who have succeeded at every level in Coach Skiles and Pax,” Hinrich says. “Coach had to put his head down and will his team to win, and himself to success. With the Bulls, Pax had to be the ultimate point guard in terms of sharing and doing what’s best for the team. They’re a great pair to learn from.”

Hinrich may well be Chicago’s best point guard since Paxson. And he’s closer than anyone to filling out all the categories in the brain trust’s wish list for a “perfect” point guard. But the sophomore star has a talented group of guards playing behind him, a group that could push Hinrich—and each other—for many successful years to come.

“John’s got the rings, which says it all,” Skiles says of Paxson. “It’s the reward we’re both working toward now, together.”

One guy, from Indiana, continually overshot the expectations set for him, ending up as a college All-American, first-round NBA Draft pick, top-five career NBA free-throw shooter, and the all-time NBA single-game assists leader.

The other, from Ohio, outshined both his brother and father to carve a successful career at every level, similarly winning All-American honors and first-round NBA Draft status. While never the star, he stole significant spotlight time in two NBA Finals, the brightest stage in all of basketball.

How’s that for point guard credibility for your team leaders?

What’s most striking about the Bulls and their steps from old to new guard is how similar the two men—Indiana-born Scott Skiles and Ohioan John Paxson—picked to steer it are. It’s almost eerie: nearly the same age (Paxson is 44, Skiles 40), draft position (Paxson was drafted No. 19 overall in 1983, Skiles No. 22 three years later), college honors (Paxson was a Second Team All-American in 1982 and 1983, Skiles in 1986), and career length (Paxson played in 11 seasons and 772 games, Skiles 10 and 600).

“We come from very similar backgrounds,” Skiles says. “We share philosophies about the game. Our personalities are pretty similar, too.”

“We were both considered ‘feisty’ on and off the floor,” Paxson adds, laughing. “Perhaps more so now than when we were playing.”

The one significant difference in their two careers came in the postseason. Paxson, who played in 119 playoff games for the Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs, is remembered for his playoff heroics—most notably the sizzling shooting that sealed Game 5 of Chicago’s first title series in 1991 and the three-point “Dagger in the Desert” to win Game 6 of the 1993 Finals. Skiles wasn’t as fortunate, playing in only two of three games in the Indiana Pacers’ sweep of his Orlando Magic in 1994’s first-round playoffs.

While it could be argued that Skiles enjoyed a more successful career, outscoring Paxson by four points per game and three assists per game, there’s no doubt which path the head coach would like to have taken.

“John’s got the rings, which says it all,” Skiles says with a smile. “It’s the reward we’re both working toward now, together.”