2017-18 official NBA discussion thread

[Quin]

Shouldn't have trusted this FO to lead a rebuild.

 

If anyone had said this roster would be playing like this on day one of the season, they'd be in the severe minority.

 

Pax needs to start making trades now. Dunn & Lauri both feel like they can be Robins, but we need the Batman.

[Quin]

Niko is a better shooter, but Portis is definitely the better defender and can still shoot the ball. Have you seen Niko play defense, 0 toughness, and would get eaten alive down low. That's why I think Portis can be because of the style he plays.

 

Also, how does Portis' attitude suck? Because he punched a guy?

 

Do we watch the same Portis? He's a matador on defense. Meanwhile Niko has been diving all of the place for loose balls and keeps his feet moving.

 

And no, Portis' attitude sucks because he's always mean mugging and flexing after every shot. That's fine for the big moments, but it's all the damn time.

[GGajewski18]

Do we watch the same Portis? He's a matador on defense. Meanwhile Niko has been diving all of the place for loose balls and keeps his feet moving.

 

And no, Portis' attitude sucks because he's always mean mugging and flexing after every shot. That's fine for the big moments, but it's all the damn time.

 

I respectively disagree.

[southsider2k5]

The Bulls are now sitting in the 9th spot for the draft lottery.

 

 

[Brian]

The Bulls are now sitting in the 9th spot for the draft lottery.

 

But only like 3 games away from worst record. We can still do this guys.

[bmags]

So, watched first full bulls game of the season last night. It was just bland. There was so little exciting about the Bulls style of ball it made them hard to watch, and they still won the game. They won because they didn't turn the ball over, they didn't make mistakes, they let the other team make mistakes and just played normal basketball. There wasn't huge amounts of ball movement. There wasn't spectacular plays. There were no great feats of strength. They just played decent basketball and let the other team make more mistakes.

 

I hate to say this...but that looked like a very well coached team winning the game because they were following a coaches formula to the letter.

 

I wouldn’t say your summary of their play matches how they’ve looked this last month, but your last sentence is correct. No matter how you slice it, Hoiberg has been a big contributor to this success.

 

Markannen started season running one play very successfully. It was countered, and then they started running cutting plays and post plays that he has ran well, hitting against the knock that he’s just a spot shooter.

 

Dunn has improved dramatically. The overstocked front court has been managed well. The athletic ran a piece today showing even stuff like plays out of timeouts we’ve started to become one of the top teams in scoring.

 

This with a seriously awful bench and mostly terrible guards. Like awful.

 

He is growing as a coach. Heads will be happy.

[Chisoxfn]

I wouldn’t say your summary of their play matches how they’ve looked this last month, but your last sentence is correct. No matter how you slice it, Hoiberg has been a big contributor to this success.

 

Markannen started season running one play very successfully. It was countered, and then they started running cutting plays and post plays that he has ran well, hitting against the knock that he’s just a spot shooter.

 

Dunn has improved dramatically. The overstocked front court has been managed well. The athletic ran a piece today showing even stuff like plays out of timeouts we’ve started to become one of the top teams in scoring.

 

This with a seriously awful bench and mostly terrible guards. Like awful.

 

He is growing as a coach. Heads will be happy.

Hoiberg has the guys playing hard and they appear well coached (more importantly...the coaches seem to be getting good development out of the players). Agree with everything you posted, with one exception, the bench. The bench has been quite good (Niko / Portis / Nwaba have all been excellent off the bench (even Grant isn't awful as a bench guard). Dunn is really fun to watch.

 

I am obviously in the minority, but its been fun watching Dunn / Lauri get minutes. I hope this team can find a way to get a top 5 pick while still seeing a ton of growth from its core players. I could argue Niko is making a solid argument to be part of that core.

[Balta1701]

Hoiberg has the guys playing hard and they appear well coached (more importantly...the coaches seem to be getting good development out of the players). Agree with everything you posted, with one exception, the bench. The bench has been quite good (Niko / Portis / Nwaba have all been excellent off the bench (even Grant isn't awful as a bench guard). Dunn is really fun to watch.

 

I am obviously in the minority, but its been fun watching Dunn / Lauri get minutes. I hope this team can find a way to get a top 5 pick while still seeing a ton of growth from its core players. I could argue Niko is making a solid argument to be part of that core.

The way they're playing right now, it will take several major trades of players away from the Bulls or a major injury for this team to be thinking about a pick better than slot 10 or so. This is both a credit to Hoiberg and a reason to think the Bulls are going to be stuck drafting around #10 for a long time.

 

They better hope they find a 2nd round bargain at some point.

[Jordan4life_2007]

The way they're playing right now, it will take several major trades of players away from the Bulls or a major injury for this team to be thinking about a pick better than slot 10 or so. This is both a credit to Hoiberg and a reason to think the Bulls are going to be stuck drafting around #10 for a long time.

 

They better hope they find a 2nd round bargain at some point.

 

They're everywhere. There's never been this much talent available at any point in NBA history. Jokic? Green? IT? Middelton? That's just off the top of my head. All 2nd rounders. And I get sick to my stomach whenever I watch a Jordan Bell highlight video. This dude can play. He might make Draymond expendable when the time comes.

[Brian]

Niko doing it again

[SoxAce]

Markkanen was a beast in this game.

 

Oh... and good lord Russ....

Edited December 30, 2017 by SoxAce

[Jose Abreu]

What the Bulls are doing this month is really incredible. 10-2 with Niko, and with Lavine, this team (barring trades) could actually slip into the playoffs. After a 3-20 start, who could've predicted that?

 

And I hate that so many people can't wait to trade Mirotic. I know he's only signed for 2 years, but do you really want to trade someone who's playing this well? The odds we get someone as good as him with the pick we'd get are extremely low, IMO.

[southsider2k5]

What the Bulls are doing this month is really incredible. 10-2 with Niko, and with Lavine, this team (barring trades) could actually slip into the playoffs. After a 3-20 start, who could've predicted that?

 

And I hate that so many people can't wait to trade Mirotic. I know he's only signed for 2 years, but do you really want to trade someone who's playing this well? The odds we get someone as good as him with the pick we'd get are extremely low, IMO.

 

That is quite literally the definition of rebuilding.

[bmags]

I think at very least you trade Lopez. You gave Felicio multi year money, and your best lineup features Mirotic at Center. He’s been a true pro but no use to keep him.

[Jose Abreu]

That is quite literally the definition of rebuilding.

And that's why the bulk of the talent acquisition of the rebuild should be over now. Dunn/Markkanen/Mirotic/Lavine have proven that they can produce at the NBA level, so trading any of them when we're already assembling a solid core would be counterintuitive. With our current roster (when healthy), this team is a big FA signing away from being a top-4 team in the East.

[Jose Abreu]

I think at very least you trade Lopez. You gave Felicio multi year money, and your best lineup features Mirotic at Center. He’s been a true pro but no use to keep him.

If anything, giving Mirotic more minutes would probably make the team even better. Even if Lopez doesn't get a 1st rounder, moving him makes sense

[southsider2k5]

And that's why the bulk of the talent acquisition of the rebuild should be over now. Dunn/Markkanen/Mirotic/Lavine have proven that they can produce at the NBA level, so trading any of them when we're already assembling a solid core would be counterintuitive. With our current roster (when healthy), this team is a big FA signing away from being a top-4 team in the East.

 

Uh, god no. This team has zero superstar potential players on it. You aren't winning a damned thing in the NBA without at least two of those guys on your team. This team would be the very definition of NBA hell just like the last decade. 2nd round playoff team at best. Free agents don't come to Chicago anyway, they sure aren't coming here for this trash, when they have other way better options.

[bmags]

Yep. Gotta be ready to trade any one of these guys for an elite player.

[Balta1701]

Uh, god no. This team has zero superstar potential players on it. You aren't winning a damned thing in the NBA without at least two of those guys on your team. This team would be the very definition of NBA hell just like the last decade. 2nd round playoff team at best. Free agents don't come to Chicago anyway, they sure aren't coming here for this trash, when they have other way better options.

Well, there really aren't many "way better options" this year - at least in terms of teams that can offer a max deal. There's only a couple that have enough space as of now.

[Chicago White Sox]

Uh, god no. This team has zero superstar potential players on it. You aren't winning a damned thing in the NBA without at least two of those guys on your team. This team would be the very definition of NBA hell just like the last decade. 2nd round playoff team at best. Free agents don't come to Chicago anyway, they sure aren't coming here for this trash, when they have other way better options.

100% this. Failure to land a star in this next draft will have epic consequences for us long-term. We need to draft & develop one ASAP and then find a way to acquire a second one using our cap space or other assets, which will be a challenge for our front office. With the approach GarPax took with the rebuild (trading Butler for solid players but not getting a single potential star back), time is of the essence because we have enough talent (especially once Lavine is healthy) to quickly blow our draft position and enter NBA hell for the foreseeable future. And the scary part is I wouldn’t be shocked if Michael Reinsdorf was ok was with that as long as we were consistently a 7/8 seed and got him some playoff revenue.

[Balta1701]

100% this. Failure to land a star in this next draft will have epic consequences for us long-term. We need to draft & develop one ASAP and then find a way to acquire a second one using our cap space or other assets, which will be a challenge for our front office. With the approach GarPax took with the rebuild (trading Butler for solid players but not getting a single potential star back), time is of the essence because we have enough talent (especially once Lavine is healthy) to quickly blow our draft position and enter NBA hell for the foreseeable future. And the scary part is I wouldn’t be shocked if Michael Reinsdorf was ok was with that as long as we were consistently a 7/8 seed and got him some playoff revenue.

As of right now, the Bulls are not on a path to get a "Star" in this draft or any in the near future, unless they find someone who dramatically overplays their draft slot. This can, of course, happen, but that's what it requires.

[thxfrthmmrs]

And that's why the bulk of the talent acquisition of the rebuild should be over now. Dunn/Markkanen/Mirotic/Lavine have proven that they can produce at the NBA level, so trading any of them when we're already assembling a solid core would be counterintuitive. With our current roster (when healthy), this team is a big FA signing away from being a top-4 team in the East.

 

Markkanen and Mirotic are redundant, neither can be your rim protector. You have to trade Niko in this case. Holding onto a future 6th man to hurt your draft pick isn't a smart way to rebuild.

[Jack Parkman]

My god, they just keep playing well. Somehow, it seems they made out way too well immediately in the Butler trade, as they traded a top 20 player for 3 solid players, they probably would be a worse team with Butler than without him. Even the scrubs are en fuego, and this winning is really going to mess with things. It would be like if the Sox finished with 78 wins this year.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Jack Parkman

[Balta1701]

My god, they just keep playing well. Somehow, it seems they made out way too well immediately in the Butler trade, as they traded a top 20 player for 3 solid players, they probably would be a worse team with Butler than without him. Even the scrubs are en fuego, and this winning is really going to mess with things. It would be like if the Sox finished with 78 wins this year.

I'd be ok with that. The White Sox are already swimming in talent. If they get a #12 draft pick this year instead of #8, I don't think that changes my goal of 100+ wins in 2020 one bit.

 

Very different from the Bulls, where they need to find top flight talent, likely in the draft, and these wins are in the way.

[Jack Parkman]

I'd be ok with that. The White Sox are already swimming in talent. If they get a #12 draft pick this year instead of #8, I don't think that changes my goal of 100+ wins in 2020 one bit.

 

Very different from the Bulls, where they need to find top flight talent, likely in the draft, and these wins are in the way.

Yeah, you're right. GarPax can't even tank correctly. They are the most LOL worthy FO in sports. Also, is Dunn hurt? I haven't seen him in a few games. EDIT: Dunn is on the floor now.

Edited December 31, 2017 by Jack Parkman