Chisoxfn

Now when are the Bulls going to all of a sudden make a play for Bradley Beal - who has tweeted on multiple ocassions going back past month+ about Donovan and the Bulls (including again tonight). Do you trade Lavine for him (plus picks) or do the Bulls package other young players for him (Lauri, Kobe, etc)? Than go out and lure Giannis next year. Or just let this year play out and go all in for Giannis & AD and let the rest of the chips fall out where they do

Love this quote from Billy D (from sometime this season). It is like the exact opposite of Boylen quoting he wanted his offense to average like 35+ assists a game (which had like NEVER been done in the history of basketball). Also a pretty sweet youtube video. Donovan:

Can't tell - do you not like the job he did at OKC? I actually thought the opposite - I didn't think anyone expected him to get as much out of that team as he did. You saw young players develop and obviously Chris Paul was masterful (and probably played a HUGE part in what OKC did as well). To your point - they could have found an assistant who was better, but coming from where they were a year ago - this is a pretty masterful hire if for no other reason than literally in the course of an off-season the front office has potentially cleaned up some LT perception issues (front office & head coach). Now proof is actually in the pudding - but pretty happy with the initial steps made by the new regime.

He is a professional coach who is pretty well respected around the league, including by players. I don't know that he's a home run coach - but from a respectability perspective, this is a home run hire. You went from Boylen who is the exact opposite to a guy who has real clout around the league.

Is this "the cerb". I figure this is just like 2005 - start to struggle right at the end and than a new Joe Crede will appear and Sox will win the series. Hope all is well!

I don't disagree with what you said. My view is - give me 7 or 8 weeks and than I'll come to judgement. I would be pretty slow to pull the trigger, but that is partly because I think pretty lowly of Foles. If I were running the franchise, we would have had Cam as our QB.

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-mitchell-trubiskys-improvement-makes-the-chicago-bears-a-playoff-team Not sure I would buy it all - but would be great if he can keep building on things. Eyes have definitely said he's been better, but point production still leaves a lot to be desired. I've always said best thing that could possibly happen for Bears this season would be Mitch taking real steps forward.

On a 1 year deal - I don't get why a team would worry about him pitching more. If it works out, awesome and if it doesn't, worse case you are giving some extra rest to your arms that are signed LT and/or are going to be around a lot longer. Is there a reason why Bauer wants to pitch more - does he have a view that the more you throw the stronger and more resilient the arm is?

Set up a new garbage disposal this weekend. Probably not a large feat for most - but I was pretty proud of my basic accomplishment there. I've now redone some electrical and redid my kitchen sink + fixed leaky garbage disposal.

Tigers were actually having a shockingly good season, so I dont' think that was the case - now it could have been one of those situations where he new next year he wasn't going to be back either way and thus why not start sooner vs. later. Hopefully whatever is ailing him isn't serious and is more short-term vs. long-term. He was a very good manager for a long time.

Something is up with Anthony Miller - dude has a monster game in week 1, than this week he has a couple huge drops, but he's also barely on the field. It is pretty evident to me via play calling / snaps, the Bears just don't like what they see out of him and they can't trust him or at least there is that belief. Hope I'm wrong - because he seems to have the god given talent to play wideout. Maybe this is the wakeup call he needed - you can't jus rest on 1 great week - to deliver you got to do it week in and week out (and trust that the stats will show up when you flat out execute play in and play out). Mooney (sp?) brings some much needed speed to this offense. One thing about the Bears offense - it is flat out SLOW.

A win is a win - it wasn't a pretty 2nd half but the team looks like it is finding a solid identity on offense (around a power rushing attack). They need to generate more points though and Miller had some really costly drops. Should be an interesting game against the Falcons. Defense is going to give up points and offense is going to need to be able to score quite a bit to win.

Wasn't it AJ?

Excellent post & thank you for your service!

I presume next year he'll be back in the minors working things out and thus you probably aren't messing with his clock much at all? Now if he comes up and lights thinks up like K-Rod - that is a different conversation. Risk here from a service time manipulation perspective would be if he were to get hurt (kind of like Kopech where we lost a full season of eligibility while he was on the DL).

The league shares the money from TV deals which include playoffs - so yeah, gate money is something just the teams that make the playoffs make - but the real money is the TV money and that is what we are talking about here and what is going to be shared and ultimately when negotiating the union is going to look at the aggregate revenue streams (or they should).

This - Spot on

The league makes more money in playoffs - with the league making more money - that money needs to be shared - so if you get dispropriationely more money in playoffs than regular season (as a league) - than it makes sense from a revenue share perspective, etc, that you end up in a similar spot and I would ultimately assume a better spot (because I don't think owners are doing this if it didn't generate MORE revenue - and obviously players aren't signing off if they don't get their split of the extra revenue). So while they have to negotiate - principally speaking - as long as this brings in more revenue - it is good for PLAYERS and OWNERS

You could do it where you have as many as 8 teams - but if you don't hit .500 or this or that - than only 6 teams get in and the top 2 teams get automatic byes because 7/8 seeds don't qualify.

The owners are just switching out regular season money for post-season money. Net net same money to go around to players with potentially slightly less average games. Now I'm sure there will be a massive discussion between owners & union on this exact point - but eventually that is how it should work out.

This is really a key point.

16 seems like a lot - I think an in-between approach between the old and new would make more sense, however in general expanded playoffs with shorter regular season is what I would like to see.

I guess some mixed reports - others are saying he hasn't requested a trade - I know Cohen and I think some others on the Bears are tweeting Pay Arob. Reality is this tactic is kind of necessary at times given the nature of football (so I absolutely get it from a players perspective) but it is also a very delicant balance for a front office as to how you handle these things and establish precedent. In general - I feel Bears actually have this happen a lot less than other franchises, but that might also because they just don't have as many elite playmakers either haha.

Interesting - Timing stinks cause we could have gotten some real value for him in the off-season - now a lot more pressure. Really don't like the timing of this - but that probably makes it a good play from Robinson's perspective.

I'm going to let this year play out - as this defense still has a nice window - but you are right - depending on what happens, the Bears could face some really difficult choices. We also don't know what the FA / Trade market might look like on the QB front either - at I still go back to - this team is a good QB away from still having a pretty nice window - although they could do some "Patriots" type moves where they trade some guys on the older end while still getting value (kind of extending the window a bit - which is probably what I would do regardless of how the season plays out). That said - enough about next year - we are a week in and I'm still excited about this year!!!