Chisoxfn

Yeah - this was a real nice move and sounds like Bulls kind of navigated behind scenes with his agent at some point later in the draft when it became evident he wasn't going to go as high as he expected. Seems like he could develop into a solid bench player over time. He needs to improve his shot, but he has speed and is a solid passer. Could be a nice change of pace back-up PG and maybe he ends up having some VanFleet in him. Interesting since Dotson was originally who UNC was targeting but eventually they went and took the lesser recruit Kobe White. Now they will be on the same team. At one point White/Dotson had some beef (I think more Dotson - who was the higher recruited player), but they eventually played on one of Chris Paul's AAU teams I think.

At least he got good PR advice. Exactly what I would expect someone to say.

I actually appreciate the Bulls front office following their instincts. I think so many people get caught up on aggregate boards and value and less on principle when reality is there is a giant clutter of people who are pretty similar all across the board. And this year more than any year - makes things an even bigger crapshoot. I know nothing about him so hard for me to say and will be interesting to see what the Bulls do. I'm like Fathom though where there is something about Wendell that doesn't add up. I just don't get the impression that he puts the effort into his overall game. Opposite of Lavine - who I get why people have concerns, but he's kind of like Jimmy Butler (well no one is Jimmy Buckets) in the sense that every year he puts in a ton of work and gets better...period. Every year in this league (when healthy) Lavine has got better and so with that in mind, I don't mind an org betting on that person because you can at least see constant development. I haven't seen any of that with Wendell. He looks literally like the same player (sans a bit more muscle) as the day they drafted him.

I'm curious if Mitch is trending towards healthy. Mainly because I want to see him finish out the year and just let it ride. With this oline and this system he'll probably be just as bad, but hey, crazier things have happened. If Pace was confident he'd has another year, I could see him ride with Bray and just throw this thing down the tubes to maximize his pick for a new shot at a QB as well.

That is a really good move. Type of move Bulls should have done the last 3 years.

I'm the inverse. I'm kind of over Wendell. He may become pretty good - but he's been so injury prone. I'm also 100% okay if the Bulls just want to slow play this and evaluate the squad this year, with their own coaching staff and development staff and than start making moves around the deadline once they have a much better idea of who this team is, etc. I kind of expect the Bulls to move down, unless Ball is there. I do think they like Ball a lot.

Interesting; I'd move down with Boston and take Kemba. Not sure what they are doing and why they would do it. Lavine, White, Kemba is probably a unique set of guards too. At this point - my view is just find a way to get better players....than rely on front office to pivot those better players into stars. Find a way.

I tend to agree with you; given the various extremes, I presume the Cubs will have a harder time getting a premium prospect given the contract. We shall see though.

It is kind of funny that a year ago - Darvish contract was more of an albatross and not moveable (definitely 2 years ago) and now we are all saying it is a steal. It is still a LT deal for an aging pitcher, but it seems the type of move that makes sense given White Sox philosphies. If he pitches anywhere like last year, awesome deal, but as long as he's healthy he should be pretty solid and help in that department and likely you aren't giving up any or your stud pitching prospects (which I think is key - because guys are going to be hurt and if Sox are going to win a series they are going to need to find some internal, home grown aces or have those prospects to leverage for future moves). In general - I like the view of Darvish - although I wish you could get him in a deal without dangling Madrigal, but to be honest, of all the Sox more marketable guys, he's the first one I'm dealing.

Yeah - forget Quinn and Foles, bring in one of the other veteran QB's as a backup at a lower end range and invest in the oline. I also was pretty vocal about Ebron over Jimmy Graham. Thought that was an atrocious move too - in terms of how much the Bears paid, but after last years dumpster fire I get why they did it. Reality is their production has been similar, although Ebron has been more steady vs. Graham who has kind of become non-existent later in the season and doesn't play with the same physicality as Ebron (who can still make guys miss and use his athleticism). Ebron has his own flaws though. I don't know if Kmet was not on the same page but the problem with scheme is there were at least a number of plays where next thing you know 2 bears wideouts are in the same spot or they are all just so bunched up I literally think the scheme enables the d to not have to play d. I read in Biggs piece he thought some of the plays where we had 2 guys in the same spot had to deal with Foles holding too long and not releasing on time - so that might be true, but you could here the commentators all night talking about some of the formations and how they didn't really give the unit much chance. I think I saw a Todd Haley quote in Biggs 10 thoughts - focused on how Bill Parcells used to come in each Tuesday and tell his offensive staff to cut 20 plays from the play sheet on a weekly basis and how Haley realized over time it was because it really forced the OC's to truly think about what the very best plays are to run vs. fall too in love with all the cute stuff. I very much think this is a theme and Lazor over time might be better at it (I thought the tempo and pace of play calls in 1st half was pretty decent - foles had some costly miscues that got in the way). 2nd half - well disaster - so many bad 2nd down plays where guys just got blown up / went backwards.

Yesterday - there were a lot of guys open and plays to be made. Nick Foles is check down city. Trubisky was a check down guy up until this year. This year he was actually going downfield at a much higher clip, it was why I had some optimism that he had made progress. Foles missed a ton of stuff and he is hearing footsteps (which I get and I don't blame him) but reality is while there are plenty of blame to go around, Nick Foles has been absolutely atrocious at QB for the Bears this year.

I really can't fathom how much guaranteed money the Bears have tied to Foles too ($24M guaranteed; I think $16M still on hook for). That actually was one of Pace's worse moves - just given how bad that contract wise. If Foles was any good - he opts out and Bears paid him (not that anyone would have complained about that). IF he wasn't very good...you had $8M/yr tied to him which as far as I'm concerned is too much for a backup QB.

If it were me, I'd pay the money for Bauer or a top flight pitcher, hold my young top talent and find a more cost-controlled outfielder who you don't have to give up premium talent to get. I'd also look to go bargain shopping. I don't see the point in spending money on a RFer when the rotation is where we have massive holes. I'm sure we can find a decent enough RF'er without spending huge money and more likley not having to pay up a premium prospect. On the pitching front - I think if you can land an ace without having to attack the trade market, you do it. Problem is Bauer is basically the only guy.

Past the NFL trade deadline, so not much to do there. The hard part I have with Pace is, yeah, he missed on Trubisky - we all know it and there are some other misses (including spending the money on Quinn vs. focusing on the oline). But he has drafted Whitehair and Daniels (Both higher end investments) + signed Massie via free agency and given extensions to guys like Long. So he has invested in the position but offensively he has definitely had a number of misses. But on the defensive side of the ball - he has had some massive hits (don't get me wrong - he's had his misses; Floyd never ended up becoming the edge rusher we had hoped, but he was always an underrated linebacker and is having a great season in LA this year) and ultimately has built a pretty darn good defense. And despite Kmet not emerging (at least not yet - also no TE has really done anything this year), this years draft still looks pretty good. He also invested much needed money into facilities and had clout and vision to do that and in my opinion has been pretty honest when it came to admitting his mistakes (was not shy to cut his guys). His record - obviously poor - but he inherited about as crappy of a set-up as possible and instilled Fox, whos shifted the culture and Nagy, who as a HC has done a decent job with culture, etc. He just is a complete turd offensively (I'm sure he has things he's good at - just not owning the whole thing when it comes to offense design). I actually seriously wonder - how much of the offensive failure is on Pace (including some of his higher profile misses like Dion Simms, or Jimmy Graham (too much money - clearly was a need) or even on the oline (never quite figuring it out - they've used finesse guys after Fox had built a power running scheme - but the finesse scheme/oline thing was very much a Nagy concept...probably too focused on getting cute vs. reality). I really wonder - how much did Pace fail because Nagy really didn't know what he want / wasn't able to really provide effective clarity around what he needed. GM's job is to trust coach to some extent and work with them on desired scheme, etc. I think Monty was a guy Nagy wanted and Nagy has always raved about him. I am probably grasping at straws - I just really hate having to completely start over again because I think Pace has some good qualities. To be frank - Nagy does too - but running an offense isn't one of them and well that is a damning failure. Will be really interesting to see what this team does after the bye week. I legit think they need a spark and maybe Mitch can do that. I do think the offense has always liked him and you've seen guys like Cohen almost hint that they need Mitch back (and we know Zach Miller has been saying for weeks more Mitch). Reality is nothing is saving this offense - it just sucks. I legit don't understand why as a Bears fan I've literally never been able to see any offense. I literally can think of one years a kid with Curtis Conway and Jeff Graham, who put it all together for 1 season and than there was a year with Cutler and Martz where the offense was clicking right before Jay hurt himself tackling someone in a blowout win against the Chargers (huge win - followed up by the Caleb Hanie experience). You had the Trestman era where the offensive talent was legit (Marty B, Alshon, BMarshall) but personalities were insane and Trestman couldn't handle it...but that is basically it. Outside of that - pure & utter crap.

I really hope Foles injury isn't bad. He is an awful QB (at least starter), but a good dude. I also hope Mitch's injury is not as bad as we think and he can get to work immediately on getting ready to be the starter. Shock us and win out with Mitch and have an inprobable run with Lazor calling plays. Probably have a better shot at winning the lottery but I legitimately believe this team has been and would have been better with Mitch running the show (no doubt in my mind). Will be curious to see what the reports are on that shoulder.

With a defense this good - you can't call them a bad team. Defense has missed opportunities to be transcending but it is just beyond pathetic how bad this offense is. Coaching, bad QB play, etc.

Yeah - there were a chunk of those today. I literally think the whole scheme is just too cute; too much trying to mad scheme people open and not enough putting your players in best place to give them preferred matchups. Now I still think the Bears find a way to win this. Missed PAT's always come back to haunt teams. It's happening and no matter what magic Foles works - I'm still switching QB's!

Yeah - that was just another play where Foles blew it. There was the pick to Miller that was a bad throw (and should have been an easy play); There was this play to Miller (tough throw but clean enough pocket for Foles to make a play) and than there was a pass to Robinson down the seam that Foles threw a lame duck instead of a good strike. All 3 would have been big plays and went horribly the other way. Nick Foles can't ad-lib or really do anything off schedule and you can see that this team is not rallying around him at all. Not saying he is the only problem and this clearly shows this offense has bigger issues. Maybe scheme is the issue who knows. I just know if Trubisky is healthy - you need to turnt he reigns to him after the bye week - period. No excuse to not. Foles has done everything worse as far as I'm concerned and basically had 1 good quarter this whole season (Mitch had twice as many haha).

This is it; If Mitch is at all healthy, he is your guy after the bye week. Nike Foles is HORRID.

I saw Miller make one run - so evident to me that Montgomery is part of the ground game issue. Miller is coming off ACL injury and looked so much more explosive than Montgomery. Montgomery may break some tackles, but he is slow and not good.

Bulls make QO to Valentine (surprisingly); No QO to Shaq Harrison / Kris Dunn.

No Qualifying offer to Shaq Harrison either.

Than Skrine committs straight up PI (without it getting called) and it is still a TD. That was too easy (and I can't believe they didn't throw a flat on that on Skrine to boot).

That pick on Foles - tough play for Miller...just a bad throw by Foles. He had Miller open for a pretty nice play with a better throw.

Not the post I should have replied to - but Oladipo is an interesting piece. He's had injury issues but when healthy is a pretty darn good player and the type of guy I think you win with. Good defense, etc. Not sure how it would play with the Bulls pieces but he's a talent and I don't like making deals with Pacers (they tend to be pretty shrewd).