Balta1701

Bulls have played 23 games. Only 3 other teams in the league have played 22. 5 teams have played fewer than 20. And the Bulls hit another B2B tomorrow, with games on the road at Philly and then NYC. Man, this team needs some time off.

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Jan 31, 2012 -> 04:24 AM) 3 main faults I've had with him over time; 1 - Overpaying guys on the MLE. He loves targeting players after their rookie deals have finished and then signing them to MLE+ deals. The Hedo Turkogly contract I'll give you was a fantastic signing (5/29). Mickael Pietrus (5/29) and Glen Davis (4/26) have not been. Jason Richardson for 4/25 looks like another bad deal right now. 2 - The 2 big trades he's made since we made the NBA Finals. Getting an aging Vince Carter for Courtney Lee (who I think would be starting for a few teams if he wasn't in Houston right now), albeit Ryan Anderson has become the best player in that deal. Killed our chemistry though. And the Arenas trade, that's Otis picking up his old Golden State buddies. 3 - Not being able to find that 2nd superstar, overpaying for Lewis, and we've basically had no-one come out of the draft since J.J Redick 4 years ago. And if it was up to him, Dwight Howard would be a Net, and Brook Lopez (pre foot injury) and Gerald Wallace would be Magic players right now. here's my issue DB... I look at every one of those and feel like it's a "Trying to find that last piece next to Howard" role. He's trying to keep Dwight happy, convince Dwight he can win in Orlando, and build a team that can "Win now" at any cost. Those deals all look like crappy deals...they're all overpays, but if the other alternative is not spending money and letting Dwight think that the team won't spend money to put players around him, then the other alternative is worse. Same with those big trades...if the guys aren't working that curently are on the Magic, those are desperation, hail mary "Maybe guy X can recover his former glory next to Dwight" deals. I don't think you make any of those deals if you don't have the specter of "Departing Dwight" hanging around your neck. Just like Cleveland doesn't make a bunch of their bad deals if they didn't have the fear of "Departing James" hanging around theirs.

QUOTE (Real @ Jan 31, 2012 -> 02:42 AM) • Baseball America's Jim Callis said he would rank Cespedes in the 7-15 range of their top 100 prospects list, and that he would take over as the top prospect of pretty much any team that signs him. Remember not to read too much into this, if the Japanese pitchers are a decent comparison, Matsuzaka came in as the #1 prospect in MLB when he was posted, and I expect Darvish to come in pretty highly as well.

6 points, 5 rebounds for Boozer.

Spending by outside groups was about 2% in the 2008 GOP primary, and is 44% of total spending this year.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 05:38 PM) Based on the fact that it cant be a "sign & trade" Orlando has very little room to leverage Hedo in the deal. If they have other suitors who could absorb that deal, it could give them a lot of leverage.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 04:57 PM) If the Bulls won the Championship this year and Howard left, I dont think theyd fire Forman. Don't underestimate the difficulty of pulling it off with a team that has less than 2 months to Gel, with a key guy stuck into a totally new system, and presumably with a substantial loss of depth (which next offseason can be replenished with exemption guys).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 04:47 PM) If he is committal, do you trust him? The dude has been willing and unwilling to play for some of the same teams. If he clearly states that yes, he will sign an extension with the Bulls if traded to them (as he did for the Mavs, Clippers, Lakers, and Netropolitans I believe), then yes, I'd go ahead and trust him...but Forman ought to make sure to hear it in person...because if he changed his mind, that should end any GM's employment.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 04:39 PM) So in other words, it doesn't matter what he said now. Either way, you've got to understand that there's a way for him to leave immediately after the trade, but if he's noncommittal, then you simply cannot do the deal.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 04:38 PM) That is pretty contradictory. Yes. That's exactly the design of the new CBA. If he's noncommittal now, or leaves himself any out door, he can take that out door. He could also just decide to change his mind later...but if you can't get him to say "Yes, I' will sign an extension", then you're trading for him with the expectation that he's leaving.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 04:35 PM) I'm down with PK and MB. The Buehrle one seems like a no brainer. Perfectos don't grow on trees. The only issue is whether we give M-56 his statue before he retires.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 03:45 PM) It is all immaterial, because they Bulls don't make the deal without Howard extending. Let's be clear though...the Bulls actually CANNOT extend Howard immediately, based on what I think is the correct understanding of the new CBA. They have to wait until he becomes a Free Agent, then they can extend him and offer him more than other teams can...but they can't trade for him then immediately extend him as the Knicks did with Anthony last year. That's why him indicating a willingness to sign an extension in the future is so important...he can still change his mind.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 03:28 PM) I didn't have any part of that. True, but the cap people in this thread. I didn't think either team did, but I've been convinced.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 03:25 PM) "Open to a trade" is code for that. I don't want Code if the bulls are going to dismantle their frontcourt. You guys have convinced me that both Dallas and New Jersey can be on the market for a max contract this offseason...that's huge competition.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 03:13 PM) Howard is a f***ing doofus. Why didn't he say this before? Like 2 months ago? Did he actually say he'd sign an extension with the Bulls? That's really the only Q that matters.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 03:04 PM) Id imagine Hedo is amnestied the next season if he was a part of the trade. Honestly I think if it was available they'd do everything in their power to get Howard, minus trading Rose. Then of course, that leaves the Bulls stuck holding onto Boozer's deal with no amnesty option. And basically requires JR to pay the luxury tax for those 3+ contracts.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 02:42 PM) Noah + Kover get's it done after March 1st. Does Noah's salary count completely under the new CBA or is it still 1/2 of his total salary like it was under the last CBA? The Wikipedia entry was unclear.

The obvious next step once you've compiled those lists is to turn it around, and ask what the average performance level of A and B graded pitching prospects was, and what the bust rate is. If you label enough guys as A/B, you're bound to hit on the good pitchers pretty often.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 01:52 PM) I'm in the same boat. He might work out, but I was hoping that they would really clean house, not just bring in a guy who basically was in the same team for a number of years. I would have taken the Pats guy with one mission: bring everything they do there and bring it here. And bringing in one of Pioli's assistants doesn't count?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 02:26 PM) It wont be Noah + Deng (I cant imagine the Magic wanting Deng's salary while hes injured). Id assume that its Noah + a few of Gibson/Asik/Butler + Future rights to Mirotic + draft picks Yeah the Bulls might lose depth, but who cares. you can find semidecent guys off the street. The other big problem is that Noah is a BYC player...since he just signed his contract extension. The NBA Trade machine isn't 100% clear on what the rules are for him but he can't be traded until March 1, and at least on the previous CBA, only 1/2 of his salary would count towards the salary cap match. Thus, if the magic took on Noah, they'd also need to take on another $12 million or so to match Howard's money. Basically, that means Boozer or Deng, unless the Bulls sent over the entire bench and the Magic were interested in Noah + the entire bench. Noah + Gibson + Asik + Korver might not even be enough, depending on how the rules are written.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 11:12 AM) Not happy with the Making Work Pay Credit goign away. I kept that out of the equation on what I pay so it was free money....not anymore. If you've noticed, although that went away, there was a cut of the social security tax that offset a portion of that. If you have an income below abotu $40k, making work pay was a fair amount better, if you're somewhere in the $60-112k range, then the payroll tax credit has helped you more.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 10:55 AM) Doesn't sound like he's going to try to part-time it to stretch it to 500 homeruns or anything. Which is probably good -- I mean, I'd love to see him in the HOF, but he seems like the kind of guy that would be one of the posterchildren for the impending new wave of guys that have some 'automatic' milestones but aren't getting in, like Johnny Damon. It's an iffy assumption I grant, but if he keeps up this current level of production, he'd have to play 2 years beyond his current contract to hit 500. He's at 396 right now, so if he keeps hitting 30 a year like he has almost every year, he'd get there. If he were to have similar campaigns the next 2 years, he'd be in the 460 range, and if he's coming off a good season, a 1 year contract as a DH either here or somewhere else would make a lot of sense, depending on what happens to that other DH on the roster. If he gets to the 480 range, I wouldn't be surprised at all if he pushes it 1 more year to see if that number can be reached.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 10:50 AM) Retractions due to making things up or just being wrong? The most well known, the Himalayan glacier claim wound up being pulled from a non-peer-reviewed study and press statements by a particular guy, and still made it past the IPCC reviewers. There have been a few other attribution errors and people ahve taken issues with how material was summarized and condensed, but that's about the only serious one that should not have been included. The reality of course is that the IPCC report has been wrong lots of times...but a huge majority of those it has underestimated the impacts we've already seen, because the document is designed to be a conservative document built for political consumption, and they know they can't push too hard no matter what the data really says.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 10:44 AM) I'm not aware of any papers being retracted for falsified data. There have been a couple, hugely0-publicized retractions from the IPCC 2007 report, but out of 2000 pages, that does happen. And it's astonishing how much press those have gotten

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jan 30, 2012 -> 10:40 AM) What would you have them trot out? They're the people advocating for the status quo...all they must do is point out how wrong the those seeking drastic change have been. ?