Chisoxfn

A couple things (beyond the fact that this guy is purely some twitter fake insider clown): - 30% of Bulls field goals have been taken by Dunn, Thad, and Coby; 3 guys that are legitimately at the bottom of the NBA efficiency wise. If you want to know why Bulls are struggling...this is a great starting point and it doesn't even highlight Lauri and the long stretch he had as a poor player (he has bounced back to solid...but still regressed from last year and from many's projections). -He has the same TS% as Kawhi, LeBron, and Kyrie. Higher than Mitchell, Beal, DLo, Siakam, CJ, Tatum, Wiggins, and Westbrook. Among guys averaging 20 a game his BPM is also higher than Mitchell, Derozan, Booker, Tatum, Beal, DLO, Westbrook, Dinwiddie, and CJ. - Lavine also has Career high in PER, OBPM, DBPM, BPM. Even stats like WS and VORP are already at career highs (and these aren't posession based stats, meaning he's already eclipsed previous career highs and we are just at the halfway mark). - Oh and his 3pt% is just above 40% and on volume, no one who has made as many 3's as him has a higher % than him. Bottom line: Lavine is the least of the Bulls issues. He is the one dude who continues to get better and based upon the above...while he still has issues, he has closed the gap defensively and is continuing to get better and more efficient offensively. Just imagine what his offensive numbers would look like, if he actually had real players around him who could make shots (boy could we use Porter, a real Lauri, and a PG who can shoot/play).

I think they are investing everything on the QB position and its importance. I don't think you bring in coaches so you can land a vet sto-gap like Foles. They are going to add a vet to drive competition and give them a ripcord to pull if things are looking bad 6 weeks in (and in some ways its going to make things even harder for Mitch...because I think he is a guy who lost his swagger this past season with everyone second guessing everything and having someone like Foles/Dalton or whomever beyond him is only going to intensify that). The best case for Bears is Mitch breaks out and basically just doubles down this offseason and takes an F-IT mentality to the field where he just flat out BALLS. Have fun and ball out. Oversimplifying things, but the dude just thinks too much on the field and that breaks down his ability to read and react. And I think a lot of it comes down to that back of the mind, you over magnify on the what can go wrong. vs what could go right). Dude needs a mental coach to help him with visualization, etc. Shoot, I'm not even close to a professional athlete but I deal with that when I play basketball...when I have a swagger that my buckets are going in, they do and I just play quicker and react faster and make moves. When I'm more worried and focused on NOT turning the ball over or making sure I hit the bucket, every part of me moves and reacts just a bit slower and that difference is the difference between me making baskets and getting layups vs. not. Super basic level cause I'm not a professional athlete, but I really think Mitch's issues lay between the ears and not from the smart vs. not smart, but from mental blocks / lack of confidence/swagger. Maybe he can go all Greinke (remember when he finally got past his mental issues and broke through). Dude was ready to retire and play golf cause he was such a mental headcase. Konerko was kind of the same way...he had his best years once he freed up mentally and got over "fear of failing".

And just like that, I get excited again. I didn't like the OC move, but this is a nice move and as I say the OC at least has NFL play calling experience and seems to have gotten the most out of mediocre QB's in the best, albeit, his offensive numbers as an OC were downright offensive. John D did well in Philly (to the point many thought he would potentially be our HC over Nagy) with Wentz/Foles and in Jacksonville I know he got let go, but Foles was hurt and he got pretty sweet production out of Minshew.

I agree with you. But teams that are forced to trade star players, rarely win.

What would a package around Porter's expiring(ish) contract plus Lauri get us? Will be interesting to see who is on the block, but if i were the Bulls, I'd start looking at packaging pieces to find anyone. Maybe Twolves want to ship Towns out and start over?

I know the Bengals offense wasn't that bad (prior to AJ getting hurt, etc). That said, this isn't near as enticing as getting Sherman. I get it, Nagy doesn't want to relinquish play calling, but I think in hindsight we will all regret the day he didn't take a step back and hand the reigns to Sherman (where he could still be the head coach and have strong say...but leave gameday playcalling to his seasoned OC). The good news is the Bears at least went hard at Sherman, which indicated that to at least some extent, Nagy is okay having someone come in the room and challenge him. I sitll say this guy is a step up from Helfrich, who had never called a game at the NFL level as an OC.

I post about Kafka but Biggs evidently said something about No Kafka and that Bears are targeting former Bengals OC Bill Lazor. I don't believe he coached for anyone last year.

Defillipo an option for OC? Or is he going to head back to his comfort zone in Philly? With Sherman turning down Bears (because of his inability to call plays), I presume Bears would at least try for Defillipo (but he may have same concerns Sherman had) or they are going to go with Kafka (KC QB coach).

Where is Frank Thomas Big Hurt baseball??? Got to rep Lyle mouton and Craig grebeck!

Beating the dreams while being the softball team was always great.

Technically the outcomes listed above are also the nature of real sources too. So it is hard to determine and the reality is, someone is going to naturally be right from time to time and if they read the tea leaves well enough, they can play that "fake" role pretty good. Its almost not a fake role, but like a quasi information role.

WCJ is out at least a couple of weeks (per Shams). No surprise. Maybe Bulls get a lottery ball to bounce their way and / or luck in to drafting a star. Things are so much different in the NBA when you get one of those. We could use D Rose 2.0. Who is projected to be the top pick (please don't say the Lamelo Ball haha).

I just don't think this. I see a guy who is literally the only guy on the team who can score and he still scores. Dude has one of the purest shots in the league and can explode to the hole and the reality is he is surrounded by sub-par guys who either can't shoot or won't (WCJ / Sato / Dunn) so teams can pretty much collapse on Lavine. On a better team, Lavine's efficiency would go up and I don't see his scoring shifting that much. Personal opinion. Dude makes so many things look easy (on offense). This isn't Ron Mercer being just a massive volume guy on shots.

And Kyle, what do I know. I would have never traded Butler to begin with and would have let Butler try to recruit others to come to Chicago (which I think he would have done). Would they be better, I don't know, but I would have stuck to my guns. I don't think you should ever trade a top 10/15 player in the NBA unless he is forcing his way out (with few exceptions in between). Period.

Lavine has gotten better every single year. He is by far and away this teams best player and he puts 110% into everything he does. His defense has gotten better, his offense is more efficient, he tries to get others involved. Lavine is 4th in the NBA in 25+ point games. The reality is, he is the scapegoat for everyone because Lauri stinks, because Porter got hurt, because no one else can look to create when things lock down in the final few minutes of a game. The good thing is that with Lavine, Lauri, White (who certainly has his issues) and Wendell, those are all chips who you can move various places or package for stars. If you even put a star around those guys, the team would be better. I won't comment on Porter because this team has a handful more wins with Porter and is probably in the 8 spot with him (at a minimum). Or if Thaddeus Young was even a serviceable player vs. the blackhole he has been all year (dude is giving his best Jabari Parker impression).