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Remarkable.

I guess France? The French have looked by far the best to me.

Afflalo is not part of a melo plan. He is the plan.

No, the bulls perpetually afraid of total failure, will always take the road more traveled. Their management under Jerry will be just good enough in a horrendous conference to never get fired. Just bad enough to waste a good shot at a ring. Pathetic.

Taj is old, he's not that good of a trading chip, and we are asking team to take on ful salary. In those situations you get not much, you especially don't get a high draft pick in a deep draft that teams tanked for.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 10:08 PM) Cap f***ed and devoid of first rounders due to dealing them all for garbage Are you telling me Bargnani was not the key to their playoff run? They didn't make the playoffs?

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 09:34 PM) I had thought so but wasn't sure. The expiring pick part makes a little more sense cause of the funkiness of the CBA there is some value in having Boozer on the books to create potential flexibility / options for them to land another piece. Also, next season Knicks will have 20 million in cap, getting boozer allows them to have a starter without a longterm commitment in cash, i.e. they'll have maximum flexibility with lots of money next FA season.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 09:45 PM) I don't think that if everything had been done perfectly as described on gold tablets handed down from an omnipotent deity that it would have turned out much better than this. When you hit a hornet's next with a baseball bat it doesn't matter whether the bat is wooden or aluminum, the results are likely to involve stinging. This is how I feel. When you see what has happened from the Arab Spring, and how much effort and violence occurs as the countries try and govern, which of those convinces any American of "Well if the US was involved it would be a well-established secure democracy!".

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 08:46 PM) That would still leave the Bulls with this year's first round pick, Mirotic, Gibson, Butler etc. Subtracting Melo for Boozer? My god. Talk about too good to be true. Tax-wise, would they still need to trade butler?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 08:47 PM) IIRC that sign and trade was almost entirely done for salary reasons, but the details escape me. I don't remember either, it was pre-2011 bargaining agreement that gave home team 5th year so I don't remember it anymore. Maybe it was to get bird rights for him or something?

That would be insane. TBH, I looked back at Lebron's S&T with Cavs. They actually gave up 5 picks total, with zero leverage as well. I thought we'd actually have to give up a bit of a package for this.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 06:48 PM) CONCACAF kicking some ass. Agreed, what a fantastic world cup for the Americas (unless Brazil loses and they kill every living footballer).

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 06:47 PM) I hate being such a pessimist on this topic but don't let yourself get excited, man. That doesn't work. There is nothing else to do right now. This is the most dangerous time for rumors like this to start. There isn't enough sox news to fill the void. This is sucking the soul right out of me. After he stays, I can't wait to start psychoanalyzing how he doesn't want to win. How do people keep not seeing that the Bulls are the perfect fit?!

If I was James Brown I'd be practicing this nonstop.

How much stock do we put in David Schuster's sources?

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 07:36 PM) I have this gut feeling that nothing will happen or we'll end up with bread crumbs. It's just the Bulls way. OMG BULLS TRADE FOR AFLLALOLOL

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 06:51 PM) I love Jo Noah. Hell I was the one saying he should get MVP votes for this year. I just don't see him being what the TWolves are looking for right now. The Heat? Sure. Somewhere he could maybe win a title? Absolutely. Minnesota makes no sense. I actually agree with you. I really thought if Love forced a trade it would cost less after seeing what Howard (hell, also Paul) fetched. But Love has made much less of a DEMAND portion, just made it clear he was not going to sign. But from GS perspective, A team with Curry/Love/Bogut is much easier to work with than if the Bulls go with Rose/Love/Taj. Rose is much more of a wildcard, and team has shown how much Noah can carry on his own. I am thrilled we are in on Melo, but man I would have loved to see how Noah could have learned to play with Love.

God damn I'm going not going to last this. This will end up killing me.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 06:01 PM) Patrick Mannelly announced his retirement today at 39 years old. He had a job that was largely thankless and overlooked, but he did it very well for a very long time. I don't think he was overlooked, he was one of the most popular bears players. I'm not that sad, i'd love if we could find a longsnapper that is a legitimate backup. Last year we had 2 players whose sole worth was special teams (Hester/Mannelly)

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 06:35 PM) I don't think the Bulls have a player to match Thompson. Noah is older, more expensive, and isn't nearly as dynamic of a scorer. You don't need a dynamic scorer next to Pekovic, you need someone to guard the rim. I think this board continues to overrate butler and underrate Noah. There aren't that many centers in the league. Look at the garbage people trot out there.

The difference is David Lee has a terrible contract for next 2 years while Noah's is pretty onpoint. David Lee is not a feature of that deal, though he is a nice player if isolated from money. I still maintain moving Noah for Love defeats the purpose of competing now. I have no idea what garbage we'd be throwing out at C.

I still think that both teams going in the crapper at the same time, especially with baseball's popularity struggles with teenagers was terrible news for the Sox. I have not had a single person invite me to a baseball game this year (I've invited several). Nobody talks or cares, and it's no surprise when people talk about baseball they say both teams are terrible. They aren't even bothering to pay attention. If cubs get competitive with Sox, all things considered, that is good news for attendance. But I'm surprised baseball revenues are up because it has some terrible popularity trends coming their way.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jun 20, 2014 -> 03:58 PM) To me, there's way to much in these threads about "earning" and "winning" and "fickle fans" and "excuses" and justice and righteousness and crap. The bottom line is this: the Sox are in the entertainment business, and if people aren't watching, they need to do something different to make them watch. They don't "deserve" fans. It doesn't matter what happens in Milwaukee or whatever. They're a business on the south side of the city of Chicago, and their market is made up of people that live on the south side of Chicago. So they need to get creative to produce a product that will appeal to those people to the degree that those people will consume the product in a profitable manner. All this "shaming" crap has got to stop. We make the team sound like a book store whining about the Amazon Kindle. "Well I just don't know why people don't enjoy the FEEL of a real book like EYE do! I just shake my head at kids these days! This generation just doesn't have GOOD taste!" No, the reality is the world doesn't bow to your whim. Just because you make a book doesn't give you the right to be paid handsomely for it. This is how capitalism works. There are people and they have money, if you want that money than you must do something that convinces them to give it to you. Changing nothing and whining because people don't mold their desires around YOU does nothing but put you out of business. "Poor musicians" are the same way. You actually DON'T have the right to live your dream; what you DO have is the right to attempt it unimpeded. No one is going to write you a check in the event that you didn't do something that anyone gave a s*** about. If attendance is really an issue, the Sox need to be willing to discard the model of how a team gets people in the stadium and replace it with one based on Chicagoans in 2014. Between the constant evolution of technology and pop culture, the answer to "what people want" is always changing and always will. Discovering and executing this is the very nature of private business. Pitch perfect.

I got lucky last year with Jose Fernandez. Hoping to strike gold twice (obviously will not be that good, but I have quintana who is fantasy fools gold).

My team died when Jose Fernandez went on DL. Can't express how nice having 30 points automatically (sometimes 60) does to help win. I've been in the doldrums but took a flyer on Andrew Heaney weeks ago and Henderson Alvarez. I've been really pleased with Alvarez, and just hope like hell Heaney is bigtime.