Will Andres Nocioni Take Minutes from Tyrus Thomas?

The emergence of Tyrus Thomas over the past couple of weeks has been an extremely encouraging development for the Bulls, not just for this season but also for their long-term future. But as we get closer to the playoffs, will Scott Skiles suddenly be forced to put Thomas back in his box?

Andres Nocioni is set to return from the plantar fasciitis in his right foot, and he'll need at least some of his minutes back. Skiles recounts a conversation he had with Thomas when Nocioni first went down:

''I went to Tyrus immediately and said, 'OK, I'm going to try to get you 20 minutes a game, in that area, 20-plus. Be ready.' And I was able to know that I could promise him that and not go back on that promise,'' Skiles said.

''Now Nocioni is going to come back here at some point, and Tyrus has proven himself to be a capable player. But we miss Nocioni from a spacing standpoint -- his three-point shooting, his toughness. He leads our team in taking charges, just a bunch of little things. It's something, hopefully, within the next 10 days, [Nocioni] suits up for a game and we have a little bit of time to figure it out before we actually get into a series.''

Trying to find minutes for good players isn't exactly a bad problem to have, but by the same token you'd like to have a pretty rock solid rotation heading into the playoffs. But Matt Berhardt from Blog-A-Bull is hoping that things don't just return to what they were:

Nocioni's injury coupled with moving Ben Gordon to the starting lineup exposed a gaping wound in the preseason idea that this team was deep. With Duhon, Griffin, and Thomas they may be deep with defenders, but Skiles is right about needing Noc's shooting. But where I didn't want him to shoot so damned much to take away shots from Gordon, Hinrich, and Deng, the team could use him to come off the bench in spots to provide shots when those players are on the bench. I've seen too many 2nd quarters lately where Malik Allen is the secondary option on the court.

So I wouldn't see it as Noc taking minutes from Thomas, but instead from Allen or Khryapa. I want Noc back, but in that role. Because his old one has been taken by Tyrus Thomas.