Chisoxfn

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 17, 2016 -> 04:56 PM) So Dick Allen and the Southside Hitmen didn't matter, the White Sox drew 1.5 million one time when Harry was announcing. That is when they won 90 games, not the opportunity to sing take me out to the ballgame. In fact, the attendance per game the next 4 years after Harry left, was higher than it ever was when he was there, and higher than it was at Wrigley with Harry there during those seasons The flipside of this argument is if the Sox keep Carray do the Cubs gain the exposure they got due to Harry? Maybe we don't look at this from the Sox angle but more of the Cubs angle. Was there another personality who could have kind of done the whole "loveable" loser concept and made the whole park experience and listening experience similar. Harry was tremendous for the game of baseball. I don't know that announcers actually help draw fans in any significant manner, but Harry might have been the exception and he definitely helped build the whole "Cubs" persona.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:18 AM) Couldn't agree more Echo your guys sentiments here.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:15 AM) That would be my disappointment, but if they move on to the next tier, I'm fine with that. Could end up as a blessing in disguise.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 08:19 AM) Like an all star game? Except they play good defense. Anyone that thinks the Warriors are bad for the game are still sour about the 3 point line and jumpshots. So, for the longest time, the problem with NBA was it was a selfish league and players were only out for their stats, now the most unselfish team in the league is dominating and they are bad for the league because ...no idea. Can't comprehend. They are incredibly exciting and wide open and the brand of basketball anyone would say they love to watch. I said if the whole league went the way of the Warriors. I think what the Warriors do is awesome and entertaining and I agree they do play defense. I enjoy watching the Warriors but if the whole league turned into a run and jump shooting league, it would be incredibly boring, imo. Either way, its nonsense, you can't mimic what their brand very easy (Steph is a unique talent).

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 05:24 AM) The pilot is the car that literally every family buys, I am not crazy about the redesign since it looks more like the absolutely s***ty CRV but people swear by it. My sis and my SIL both drive a pilot. My 2005 was awesome (stupid car that rear ended it). Styling wise I like the new Highlander more than the Pilot, but the features of the Pilot / tech are just fantastic. Although the whole touch screen everything would drive me up a f***ing wall. They are getting too cute...everyone knows nobs for volume work better than a touch screen for volume control.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 21, 2016 -> 06:51 AM) Again, I said nothing about social, cultural or economic impact. I'm talking pure basketball. On the court. 48 minutes. 94 feet. The way the Warriors constantly move, cut, pass and ultimately shoot, there's never been anyone like them. they put up a stat last night stating that the Warriors have 20 games this year with at least 30 assists as a team. there's still half the season to go. The next two highest, the spurs and hawks, have a combined 17. I have actually heard some NBA commentators say the Warriors are the worst thing to ever happen to basketball. Of course a lot of that was driven by a jealous Mark Jackson. I do agree if the whole league played like the Warriors it would actually be really bad for the game / brand. I wouldn't quite call it an all star game, but it would be close to that equivalent and the NBA all star game is absolutely horrific (outside of getting to view some stars joking with each other and some crazy plays). Warriors are fun because they are unique in there style and amazing at what they do. If the league moves to be more like them, I think it will be bad. Than again, Spurs don't play like them and they are fine. Reality is each team needs to play according to there talents and there are many ways you can win a title, most importantly, under almost any scenario, you have to have a superstar.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:16 PM) If you want fuel efficiency in an SUV, there is (or was anyway) a Highlander Hybrid, but the differential cost is huge. It was like 8k or something ridiculous. I've been salivating over the Lexus NX hybrid SUV, but it's not cheap either (comparable price to a Highlander, and more luxurious and more efficient, but much smaller). Hard to find an SUV with truly good fuel efficiency that is relatively inexpensive. I wish they still made the Escape Hybrids, was kind of mad Ford dropped those. Yeah...I was looking at Highlander or Pilot and those are about 35 (after negotiating) the way I'd like them equipped. Hybrid is low to mid 40's and at that point you lose the 2nd row bench and are forced with captain seats (which if my kids were older, I'd be all for, but at this point, my wife still likes to sit in the back with both kids on longer car rides + its convenient as we have extra seating capacity. But Hybrid Highlander's incremental fuel increase vs. cost is totally non-economic. Where as the Sonata Hybrid, total opposite, I pay like 1K more (thank you extra incentives) and get a pretty noticeable MPG increase (and Hyundai has lifetime battery warranty vs. Toyota's pretty s***ty battery warranty). I actually pushed for the minivan but my wife thinks we are too young for a minivan (I just think it is most functional). I was sold on the "cooler" box. Haha. Ultimately, we decided we'd rather take the difference in cost and dump it into the kids college fund. By the way, the current Pilot's and Highlanders, for there size, get pretty damn good mileage, imo (19 / 27 & 19/26, respectively).

Is that like a day later or something? I thought it was always scheduled for 2 years from now, with this years version being the ground war movie (forget the name).

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 01:40 PM) I can see you are a gar pax believer. Using the word "core" and "hinrich" in the same sentence. Gross. Yes, cause Kirk Hinrich was not an extremely valuable point guard during his first run?

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 01:38 PM) Regular season record doesn't matter. Even according to the front office. They fired Thibs, not because of his regular season record, but because they were "worn out" by the time the playoffs came around. If you are going to convince yourself the this Bulls team is a contender go ahead though. Last time I checked a contender doesn't go double OT with the sixers. Last I looked the best team on the planet doesn't lose to the Bucks either (and when they lost to the Bucks ,they were I think one of the 5 worst teams in the NBA) oh wait, they did. And wasn't that a Bulls team playing without Pau & Rose (yes still pathetic, but whatever). This Bulls team is widely considered the 2nd / 3rd best team in the east...that makes them a contender in my book and they have consistently been in that position for a long time. Bottom line...this team has beaten all of the contenders. Not saying they'd be the favorites in a 5 game series, but I still believe that there are only 3 teams who would be material favorites over the Bulls in a 7 game set (Spurs / Warriors / Cavs). Outside of that, I think you have another few teams that are relatively on par with the Bulls (with those teams primarily being western conference foes).

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 01:34 PM) How about this: GarPax have drafted an MVP, a ROY (and a runner up), a DPOY, a sixth man of the year (and a runner up), four All-Stars, multiple All-NBA defensive players, and signed an All-NBA 1st Team center. Other than the Spurs, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better drafting team with the only blunders being Teague over Draymond and Snell. They've cleared space and tried to sign big tier free agents multiple times. But the Heatles happened and Melo decided money was better than winning. People like to call Snell a bust, but he's more serviceable than most guys picked where he was picked.

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 01:26 PM) Ryan Pace knows what he is doing. He's done a good job changing the roster and culture. Hired a good coach as well. Bears are on the up and up. That is great, only two of them have actually built perennial winners / contenders. Paxson & Bowman. Period. End of Story. Cubs are sexy and 5 years from now they might have won their championship and be consistently contending and passing up one or both of the Bulls / Hawks, but until that has happened, they do not get that credit. And Ryan Pace, lol. I love what the dude has done but they aren't contenders today and he hasn't proven jack s*** about being able to build a contender (I like him, don't get me wrong, but Paxson has built a core of Curry / Hinrich / Deng / Gordon / Ben Wallace and than a core around Noah / Rose / Deng and than a core around Noah / Pau / Butler / Rose and well we'll see where next, but there have been a variety of cores, some which contended better than others, but all which were consistent winners (and during that time he's also been able to take shots at superstars..yes he has failed, but so did everyone else).

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 01:16 PM) No theyre not Spurs Warriors Clippers OKC Cleveland Miami I just want to point out that outside of the Warriors, they have beaten all those teams on that list. The Bulls also have the highest winning percentage in the eastern conference vs. teams above .500 and the 2nd most wins vs. teams above .500 in the NBA (tied with the Spurs...whose winning percentage is significantly higher). Bulls winning percentage vs. .500 or better teams is 3rd in the NBA.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 12:16 PM) Classic oxymoron definition. The east f***ing sucks. And even assuming Rose never gets hurt, they lose to the Heat in '12, '13 and '14 and lose to the Cavs last year as well. Yes, but following your logic, LEbron would have won the past 5 championships or so. So unless you had Lebron, you would be the failure. Now the Warriors are here so they will win the next 5.

QUOTE (ozzfest @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 09:39 AM) Front office rankings in Chicago (in terms of which teams have the best chance to win it all). Which is how a front office should be judged. 1) Blackhawks 2) Cubs 3) Bears 4) White Sox 5) Bulls I don't even know how to analyze that list. But if I go back to Paxson's era I'd say it is Hawks and Bulls and than no one else is even close. Bears are probably 3rd (again, spanning Paxson's run...Cubs would probably rank last and Sox would rank 4th).

Welp...in the market for a car (unexpectedly). Our 2005 Pilot got rear ended and now damage has totaled the vehicle out (thankfully everyone was okay). Rec actually happened about a month ago but insurance has been a drag as other drive has been lying (thankfully police report called her out for such). Either way, was curious to see if anyone here happens to have a Sonata Hybrid (I've done the research, but curious in case anyone here happens to own one of the Hybrids). We are leaning towards getting the 2016 hybrid limited (was amazed at the bargains they got on those things). I actually was figuring I'd buy the all new pilot or highlander (our other vehicle is the previous generation Hybrid) but after seeing the cost of the Sonota decided we'd go a bit more economical and fuel efficient for our 2nd driver (knowing we have the bigger car for weekends / kid hauling).

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 08:39 AM) Kawhi is leading the Spurs to championships. Yet he ays in the same league as the Bulls were LeBron and Curry are god. I wonder how he did it. Oh wait, his FO goes out and gets FAs and they make the necessary trades. Miami 6 years ago was s***. Had no assets other than Wade. Yet they aggressively went after guys and even after they got the big three, they went after guys like Ray Allen. So I ask again, why does the excuse train get to keep rolling when every other exec hasnt. What excuse train? Outside of the Blackhawks, no other organization in Chicago has been even close to as successful as Paxson has been while running the Bulls. Yes, the White Sox got a ring and the Bears sniffed a superbowl but the Bulls have consistently been playoff contenders and were at one point legit title contenders and they have consistently found new assets while going through this extensive run. Have they failed to win the title and lure the biggest fish, yes, but I still objectively look at things and say they have been one of the best front offices in basketball. The best, no, but close to, and for that, I give them credit and give them the benefit of the doubt. It isn't easy to win a title and the fact that these guys hasn't shouldn't mean you can them and go another direction. They have been ripped consistently for one thing...the Thibs fiasco and deservingly so. Other than that, I don't see any reason to put them on blast.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 20, 2016 -> 08:30 AM) Look at what Minn got for Love. Bulls couldn't compete with that. If Love became a Bull, Butler would be a Twolve and the Bulls would be worse off.

Coops track record speaks for himself. He is that way with the players and it is why it works so well and he's fully entitled to his opinion of the fans. And from my conversations with Coop, I always appreciated the fact that he was a straight shooter. I also think he's very fan friendly (in the sense that he'll talk to fans a ton during spring training and throw balls to kids, etc).

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 11:37 AM) There is an embassy 2 blocks away. I have passport pictures and have printed out computer typed application. I'm sure it is pretty easy. Is it for vacation or work?

QUOTE (bmags @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 11:08 AM) Need to get Visa at Chinese Embassy this week. Anyone been to do the same? Any tips? I just mailed mine and didn't really have any issues. From what I remember (its been a few years), the process was way faster than I expected (part of that might have been they had ramped up their department in anticipation of the world fair...which was when I got my work visa to go there).

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 11:02 AM) After reading that I still say the same thing: you guys are crazy if you really expect the Bulls or ANY sports franchise to compete for TITLES, which is what you two are b****ing about, when your star players gets hurt for basically 4 seasons in a row. You're complaining that the Bulls didn't so SOMETHING when they've done quite a lot. Some of the moves worked out, some of them didn't. You can't expect GM's to be perfect. The behind the scene stuff, fighting with VDN, the way they let Thibs go, etc. has been embarassing. But from a strict basketball perspective, I think they've done a pretty fantastic job making this team a playoff mainstay and an ECF contender on an annual basis given that 20% of their starting 5 can't be counted on to play consistently and hasn't for about 5 years now. I agree with all of this (and really can't argue the points made by the others, but go back to the above from you Jenks). You need to think realistically. I absolutely am sickened by how things went down with Thibbs (and that is probably a knock on both Tom and the Bulls FO for their unwillingness to work together) but from a pure basketball perspetcive, the Bulls front office is one of the best in basketball, imo.

Since Christmas, Derrick Rose is averaging 18.5 PPG on 47.8% shooting and .941 FT%. One issue is his turnovers and assist numbers are trending the opposite direction.

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jan 19, 2016 -> 09:50 AM) Offer him 4 years with mutual 5th year option. $10.5M $20.5M $21.5M $22.5M Option year $23.5M or $5M buyout if player exercises option but club declines. Why would he get less in AAV than Upton? If I were him, I'd expecting just as much. This is a significant reduction from what Upton got. I think for 4 yrs 90-100M you have a shot at getting him.

How good is Pau playing right now. I realize he is expiring, but if the Bulls are going to look to retool, I'd have to think their'd be a contender out there who would give up something pretty solid for Pau.