nitetrain8601

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ May 12, 2010 -> 04:21 PM) According to Sam Smith, sources around the league are saying LeBron is now taking the Bulls very seriously. If its a sign and trade, he has LeBron to Lakers for Odom/Bynum or the Bulls for Deng/Taj/1st. If it's just a signing then he has the Bulls being #1, and trying to trade Deng for a PF. The second I can, I sign LeBron, then call up the Suns or Wolves, who have both liked Deng in the past. Offer up Deng, a first, and maybe JJ in a sign-and-trade or normal trade for Stoudemire or Jefferson respectively. I lean towards Jefferson, as he would be cheaper. If they get Jefferson, sign Ray Allen and Brad Miller with the leftover money, then to round out the bench, sign Alexander, Pargo, Richard, someone else to minimums to round out the team. A starting lineup of Rose/Hinrich/LeBron/Jefferson/Noah with Taj/Allen/Miller coming off the bench would be near impossible for any team in the league to keep up with. That's not even feasible past signing LeBron. Deng would have to be traded, but the Suns won't take him because they don't like spending money, and they especially hate paying lux tax. Wolves won't take him, as he's in his prime now and the Wolves are nowhere near ready to compete for even an 8th seed. Last, but not least, his contract is going to look worse and worse as each year. Let's say they will take Deng though. The Bulls would be paying the lux tax without a doubt with either Stoudemire or Jefferson, and they would be paying quite a bit. Ray Allen will come cheap, but not Vet's exception. Maybe if you get LeBron, trade Deng and/or Hinrich, and go after Allen can you sign him. Brad Miller would almost definitely be gone as he's garnering interest from Houston, Sac-Town and another team I forget.

Back to the topic at hand. South Loop is my best suggestion. It's starting to boom and apparently, Daley and Co. are putting a lot of money into it and Bronzeville.

I say we interrogate them, Casino Royale style. Towards the end if you know what I mean.

Over under on 5 years until he's broke or should we set it lower?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 6, 2010 -> 08:30 AM) The question I care about is...what happens in his offense if you have both a play-making point guard and 2 guys who need to play down low (i.e. Bosh and Noah) or if you have 2 guys who are dynamic in attacking the basket (i.e. Rose/Wade or Rose/James). Bosh really doesn't play downlow. He's a faceup guy who prefers the high post, but he knows how to drive. QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ May 6, 2010 -> 09:00 AM) That's where having a big with a jumpshot comes in handy. Ideally, you leave Noah around the rim, and you have Bosh cleared out a bit. The good news about both of those guys is that they're good enough handling the ball that they can drive. Bingo.

Yeah, the dribble drive offense is nothing like Phoenix's offensively actually. I don't know where Cal got that. It's more like Boston's. In fact, Boston runs a tangent of it IIRC. Basically, you don't need an awesome PG, you just need guys quicker than the defense who can get into the lane. The way it works is, Derrick has the ball, everyone basically clears out and he drives, once he gets right outside the lane, he has to make a decision. If he has his man beat, and no help is coming over, he goes to the basket. If the help comes, he dumps it off to the guy the defender was supposed to be guarding for an easy bucket. If everyone stays at home and Rose is unable to get into the lane, he can either spot up for the jumper if he likes it, or pass and they proceed to do the same. It works for big men that have speed(good for Noah and Tyrus, maybe for Taj; bad for Deng). That's the reason why there aren't high assist numbers in the offense. You are basically going one on one and passing it out if you are unable to make it past your defender and then they go one on one. Boston has a great setup for it though. They have a deadly shooter who will keep the other guard from cheating down, they have a PF who can beat most PF's nightly, they have a PG who's blazing fast, and they have another guy who can kind of do it all in Pierce. The only player who really doesn't fit that system is Perkins, but he's one of their defensive enforcers.

If we hired him, I would be happy if he brought World Wide Wes with him too. Then we'll have LeBron, Bosh and Wade all wanting to play for us.

Honestly, I had DirecTv for a year and Dish for 6 months. Honestly, I liked Dish's interface on their boxes alot more. Loved their DVR and the channel and picture quality wasn't too far off at all from DirecTV. The bill was pretty consistent. DirecTV seems like the pro choice, but my beef with them is their sports package to get Comcast SportsNet was 15 bucks extra a month, my bill was never the same month to month(I'm not talking $5 differences here either) and their prices on their boxes which you don't get to keep. Right now, I have Comcast as that's the only choice for me. I wanted U-Verse, but they charge for HD.

QUOTE (Tex @ May 4, 2010 -> 06:03 PM) IIRC most posters here felt Paulie offered the team a "home town discount". 'tis true. I personally didn't want him back only because I thought he was too slow, we started hearing about his hip condition, and in 2005, he didn't have a great year, save for the playoffs.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ May 4, 2010 -> 02:46 PM) I think part of it is that the jobs that he was interested ended up hiring before he could go through the interview process since his team tends to play deeper into the playoffs (Boston). Chicago might have hired him back when they hired Del Negro if they ever really had the opportunity to take care of that. It's actually because he's not a people person supposedly. There was an article today that compared him with the Hornets' first ever head coach. They said he was a greattttt assistant, but he just wasn't head coaching material for whatever reason.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Apr 30, 2010 -> 10:43 AM) Couple of interesting pieces from a chat wrap by Steve Kyler of Hoopsworld (main rumors guy over there) that is Bulls related; Also, I wouldn't believe in Kyler. CBS just had an article today stating VDN wouldn't be fired "For Cause" and it seems like JR likes how he's handled the whole situation with Paxson. From what I've heard, JR is going to evaluate VDN, not Paxson. Also, the main thing in the article stated the players really liked VDN. I suspect that's because he allows them to play with freedom and has their back, especially in Noah's case which was stated in an article on Wednesday.

QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Apr 30, 2010 -> 11:31 AM) Lee is a tier above the rest of those options, but I'm still not a fan for a few reasons... 1) As you mentioned, someone is going to overpay him. I think if you give him more than $12 mil a year that can easily be a Deng-like albatross. 2) He's not really a difference-making scorer that can consistently create quality shots, he's a guy that gets his points off pick and rolls. He averaged 20 a game this year, but a lot of that is because the Knicks are awful and they play at a pretty good pace (he also shot well above his career norm on long jumpers). I realize Amare is somewhat similar, but he's more explosive, has a history of being a dangerous mid-range shooter, and has put up big numbers for more competitive teams. 3) A lot of his value comes from rebounding, which is something the Bulls already do pretty well with Noah. I really worry that if Lee is the big signing of the Bulls' off-season that they're going to be paying him 15 mil a year to put up 14-9 on a team that actually has some decent scoring options and another big man that already does the dirty work. Having that much money tied up in two good-but-not great players like Lee and Deng is just asking for trouble. I agree. First, that list is flat out putrid. Contenders? Yeah, maybe for one 50 win season and a 2nd round exit. And secondly, David Lee is getting vastly overrated. He's not a good defender. He's a good rebounder and decent offensive player who found the right system for him. He would be a mistake though for anything over $10 million. And if you took three of those guys, combined them, they would still not be better than Ben Gordon at 60 million. What's so good about Ben is that he was legit starter material, a legit dynamic longbomb scorer. Most three point shooters are not great scorers. he was a rare breed. That's what the Bulls missed the most this year. The closest guy you could get to Ben is Joe Johnson, which is why I wouldn't be too mad about getting him. Lee = Deng is probably the best comparison I've seen from a Financial standpoint.

Well, there's legal ramifications they have to hitch out such as not getting sued by VDN once he is fired.

Yeah, that's a dumb rumor. He signed the LOI and all accounts state he was more than happy to sign it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 27, 2010 -> 07:59 AM) I certainly didn't get the impression that either of those were true. I got the impression that JR didn't want to get into a bidding war against the Knicks for D'Antoni, because he was going to lose that bidding war, and I got the impression that Doug Collins had the job if he'd wanted it and he decided he didn't want it. JR kept stalling with D'Antoni. Despite JR stating he doesn't get involved, he really really does. He got involved in the Deng negotiations, he didn't want Gordon, he's been Hinrich's biggest fan. JR was basically dicking around with D'Antoni and Mike wouldn't have it. Collins wanted the job, badly too. Paxson was completely on board with it and that's when Doug talked about it on TNT basically sounding like he would be the next coach. JR stepped in and basically told him he didn't want to have to fire his friend, so he didn't want to get him the job. VDN was a lameduck coach since he was hired. The Bulls only wanted someone to work cheap until 2010 came around and then go from there.

Drive Thru at White Castle.

QUOTE (bmags @ Apr 26, 2010 -> 07:27 PM) i have a hard time calling a sixth round pick on anyone a waste. As do I. I honestly believe he could develop into a good QB under Martz's system. Anyone beyond round 4 is pretty much a crapshoot.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 26, 2010 -> 09:21 AM) They make it sound like the Bulls had a choice. VDN's hiring was symptomatic of everything else that has gone wrong...basically since the year Wallace was signed and Thomas was drafted, I'd say. They did. D'Antoni's first choice was Chicago. JR didn't want him. Doug Collins wanted to come along, JR didn't want to have to fire him again. Everyone else out there were okay options, but none really stood out. As far as VDN alienating players, I'd say the author is wrong. This team played hard for VDN, even when it was known he was a lameduck coach. When management quit on him, his players still kept playing. Derrick and Joakim seem to like him a lot. The only player VDN had problems with is Tyrus. You may be able to add Jannero in there, but he sucks and was mad about PT when he deserves none. Right now, the only player with a bone to pick is Acie Law. If the Bulls did have Ben Gordon this year, I have no doubt they would've been nothing lower than a 5th seed. They missed his dynamic and consistent scoring. Bulls basically win when Deng and Hinrich are hitting shots. If not, they are toast and they still give up a lot of points because the defense doesn't have to work hard, nor do they have to respect them. Management is who set VDN up to fail, and I'd say he's still done a damn good job considering he made the playoffs both years.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Apr 26, 2010 -> 01:58 PM) You do when he has Jenks' track record, you have no better in-house options, and your bullpen outside of Thornton is pretty much terrible (nobody could've foreseen a converted SS becoming our best bullpen arm this winter). Better to pay Bobby year-by-year than to throw a $10M+ multi-year deal at somebody like K-Rod and hope that he doesn't blow his arm out. I don't want Bobby around next year, but bringing him back this year was absolutely the right thing to do. Don't worry. I also do not believe the bullpen is as strong as people make it out to be. I think Pena, Putz, Williams are all big question marks. 2 of those 3 will get a lot of the innings. Jenks is also entering that territory.

A big mac with fries.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Apr 26, 2010 -> 04:05 PM) Nice stat wite. Bring this back up in July/August as well as I wanna see if some of these guys are still the same. I know for a fact Richard was 91-93 early on before he was cranking it up at 94-97 around that time last season (between AAA and the bigs). Couple the fact that he is probably the top 5 best pickoff pitcher (not just LH) in the game. I don't think David Price (or Kershaw) will be third (or 6th) on that list very long either. I'm shocked Johan isn't on the list.

You could make an argument that he has more power than Pujols. It wouldn't sound strange because there are several players who have more power than him. What you have to take into account is overall package. Howard isn't that great in terms of overall. He K's way too much for my liking. That alone would make me shave $25 million off his contract.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 11:32 PM) I was going to post something similar. The rest of the west (and the league for that matter) is being put on notice. The Thunder have arrived and they're not going anywhere for quite a while. But it all begins/ends with Durant. He wasn't supposed to be THIS good THIS fast. And Westbrook is not of this universe. He makes prime Kevin Johnson look slow. Fisher better hire somebody to pull a Nancy Kerrigan on Westbrook. Eh, I would wait a little before I crown them. For Durant, he was always supposed to be an instant superstar since he was in high school. Then they made that rule change regarding playing at least one year college ball. He's certainly a heck of a talent. With that said, the Blazers looked promising as soon as they drafted Oden and had all these lottery picks already on the team and people were ready to give them the West for the next 10 years. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. We'll see what happens. I really really like the team and hope they do end up winning a championship in that town as they have some of the best basketball fans in the world.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Apr 24, 2010 -> 01:48 PM) I know nothing of the guy. Can you give me a scouting report and why did he fall to the 6th? Cas he played at Central Michigan. The guy was a beast at QB. The main concerns is that he did not play in the pro-style offense and his arm strength is not that of Jay Cutler's. With that said, he can still make any throw and with pretty great accuracy. He's also 6'3 and has a great IQ for the game. He reminds me of Chad Pennington before his first surgery in terms of accuracy and touch. I would say he's a better playmaker than Pennington though. He can make good throws on the run. He's going to need like 2 years on the bench to learn a pro style system though. Many thought he was a 3rd, possibly 2nd round talent.

The Bears got LeFevour? That's a pretty damn good pick. He's a guy who actually has a chance to be a damn good QB.