Jenksismyhero

Blow out city. They don't deserve a bid.

Just terrible. I'm not even sure I want them to win this game. I'm ready for the season to be over with.

QUOTE (farmteam @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 06:24 PM) Been combing through this thread for advice. My car ('02 VW Cabrio, just under 91,000) has had a lot of maintenance lately and I'm getting fed up with it. I have a really basic problem though -- not a lot of money for a new one. I'm thinking lease one now as it will be newer so I won't have to put up with maintenance for a bit, presumably. I'd like to stay under $180/month. Am I crazy for wanting to go the lease route? This is my first time ever looking to lease or buy a new car, I got my current one off a friend in college. If I'm living in lala land with these thoughts, tell me. Also, I saw the truecar.com references so I've been looking at that, but does anyone know a good site to compare lease estimates across makes? Mostly seems like you have to search by make first, and I'm not attached to any specific make or model. Leases are fine so long as you know the negatives going in: most require a decent deposit (VW usually has that sign and drive deal though), they cost more in the long run if you're going to keep leasing, they have mileage and wear and tear restrictions, etc. $180 seems really low for any kind of car payment. What are you looking at?

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 03:54 PM) I highly doubt the Bears didn't make phone calls about Cutler. Just because other teams said they didn't doesn't make it true. Teams lie about everything. And if they didn't, that doesn't bode well for the future. I still don't get trading Marshall if they had no intention of trading Jay.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 03:23 PM) Way I see it; Keeping Jay means we can at least be in contention for possible playoff spot before season starts. Given where we pick, any other direction we would have headed would have pretty much been a 2-3 win team, imo. I wouldn't be surprised if Jay plays better this upcoming year and we still move in another direction, but Jay's contract becomes more cap manageable going forward and if he can repair some of that reputation you could actually be talking about a decent asset. I have more faith in this staff than any staff the Bears have had in a long time. I also like the methodical approach they've taken to FA. Can you please pass the good stuff? I'd like to try it.

Pace makes it official. Cutler the starting QB. Hoo-r....a.....y....

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 11:18 AM) Maybe you could stretch it because it is a state university, therefore an extension of government? Kinda pushing it though. Either way they were threatening a race of people, so it won't fly. No lawsuit grounds that would work here. Univ of OK is a public university, it's absolutely a government agent subject to the Constitution. That's very settled law. Whether this is threatening speech is the question. I don't think generalized threats (if that's what this would be) against a race is enough. The exception of threatening speech is pretty narrow. You gotta be specific, basically inciting immediate violence.

Yeah I thought the same thing:

QUOTE (bmags @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 11:11 AM) Why would there be a first amendment issue here? Univ. of Oklahoma is a government agent (e.g., a state institution), acting against someone for words they expressed. If the Univ of Oklahoma were expelling students for saying that George Bush is a bad President, do you think that would be ok? edit: to get away with it, the Univ. is going to have to argue that it was a threat against someone. Hence the usage of the words "hostile educational environment" in the Univ. president's statement. I don't think any court would buy that though.

Has anyone bought one of the package deals Abt and other stores sell? I can't tell if they're good deals or if they throw in some junk dishwasher or stove to make the deal better for them.

I don't think speed and explosion was missing from his game the last month. He's had that back since the summer and it was only getting better. So if that's what you guys are going on, i'm confident he can, barring another injury, be a really good player again. Does he need to evolve his game a little? Yes. Does he need to be more of a facilitator? Yes. Can he still take over for 3-4 minutes in crunch time? If healthy, yes. Obviously i'm being optimistic today, but there would have been no chance in hell that I would have traded Rose after one injury to his knee at age 23 given his talent and marketability. After 2 surgeries I would have looked around and started planning for a possible future without him, but I still would have planned for him to come back and be a part of the team. Which is what they did by bringing in Pau and bringing over Moritic. This third injury was always a risk and happens pretty frequently. Everyone overreacted. It's not another major injury, so I don't think it plays a huge part here. It's just s***ty timing and interrupts the whole teams ability to gel going into the playoffs.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 09:30 AM) None of them have Derrick Rose's smallish body either. Rose's game is all athletic. You see what is left of Derrick Rose when he can't explode. It happened to Allen Iverson before him after a decade of abuse, instead of major injuries, but it happened. An ACL just makes it happen quicker. Westbrook is about the same size as Rose.

QUOTE (LDF @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 09:28 AM) i will interject on this by saying, while technology has improve, a person will never be the same after a knee. Medically it is impossible to have the structure of the knee be stable. Are you 100% after any surgery? No. Can you function at an incredibly high level again? Yes. It's not like he would have been the first to ever come back.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 11:06 PM) The university has gone and expelled them, which seems like pretty clear first amendment violations. Probably, but what are the odds the students choose to file suit to defend their rights to be so racist in 2015? 1970 maybe, but not today.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 11, 2015 -> 09:14 AM) Actually after his ACL tear, I said exactly that. I was on the ultra-paranoid end of Soxtalk when it came to Rose's first knee injury. I thought there was a pretty good chance he would never be the same again because his margin for error was so small with the type of body and skill set he had/has. I would have traded him for the best, non-ridiculous offer, at that time. Well that's insane. Guys come back from knee injuries all the time. Look at Westbrook right now. You don't throw away a max, franchise guy without giving him a chance to come back. Would you have gotten rid of Jordan for breaking his foot?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 04:57 PM) And apparently all of that was the result of the front office, and not the coach. But yes, counting on Derrick Rose to be healthy after two knee surgeries was brilliant work by the front office, if only the coach hadn't have gotten him a third knee surgery all by himself. Speaking of living in an alternate universe.... If there were any more sunshine in your reality, you'd be living on Mercury. More realistically, a star player, two knee surgeries later, who is afraid to play at 100%. A former DPOY who is coming off of knee surgery, and no where near 100%. A former All-star center, coming off of hte worst stretch of his career. A rookie who was no where near ready to contribute, can't shoot, and defends even worse. I gave credit to both. Not sure why you're ignoring that. And I'd like to know an alternative plan for Rose up to this point. After one ACL tear do you trade him? No, you don't. He comes back, tears his MCL, has 3 years left on a max deal. Who's taking him? What free agents are out there that you're going to pick up? Yeah, yeah, "look at all the players moving teams," the broadest response that ignores reality, like cap room, assets, competition from other teams, a players desire to play in Chicago, etc. It's far easier to complain about some magical answer that doesn't exist I guess. I just stated the facts. I don't expect them to contend for the ECF, let alone the title, without a healthy Rose. But there is talent on this team. The Bulls surrounded their franchise player with plenty of help. Unfortunately it's a team that can never stay healthy led by a player that can't stay healthy. After this year I have no problem with them drafting a PG for the future or even signing a back-up that is starter quality (if that's available because, again, reality). Lastly, Noah is getting close to 100%, if not already there. He's been good the last week or two. Pau was terrible in LA because of the situation, not the skills (see, this season). And I was referring to Mirotic, not McDermott.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 04:13 PM) They needed more than Rose all along. Everyone on the freaking planet knew it. Thibs coached the s*** out of the roster he was given. He coached them to more than just about anyone else could have. Management hasn't been able to get Thibs the other big time player he needed. The closest they have come was getting Pau here, and really there wasn't a whole of excitement over him, as most thought he was going to be nothing near his good ol days, yet he gets here and is great again. Who was a viable option? http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?p...reeAgents-11-12 Hear are your free agents in 2011 and 2012. Love and Howard are the only two I see on there and Love ended up signing an extension and Howard, IIRC, had no interest in the Bulls and was traded to the Lakers and ruined their short-term future by not resigning (oh and he's not really been dominant Dwight since). You're living in an alternative universe man. There was no realistic option out there that would have done anything to make the Bulls THAT much better than they were in 2010. And shoot, look at the team right now. Your starting 5, if healthy, consists of a hall of fame center, the youngest MVP in league history and multiple all-star, the reigning defensive player of the year and all-star, a budding all-star, and a solid vet, with a bench that consists of a starter-level 6th man of the year candidate and a really good rookie in waiting. But yeah, the FO sucks and hasn't given Thibs ANYTHING to work with.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 03:58 PM) All you have to do is look at the players who have changed teams in the NBA, and know that if the Bulls wanted to, they could have gotten into deals for just about any of them. But they don't. They tied their wagon to Rose. This team has need another star even with pre-surgery Rose... they still haven't gotten it done. Yeah they tied their wagon to Rose, the freakin' youngest MVP in the league's history. Are you saying that was a bad move?!

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 03:37 PM) Well, they could have given Lynch the ball on the 1 yard line

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 03:51 PM) They didn't really miss out on guys, but you just listed a half a dozen of them? So you have no names. Who are these stars they're missing out on that were realistic options? Lebron wasn't reality. Melo is literally the only one they "missed" on (missed since he was all about the money that the Bulls couldn't get close to, and it's now looking like a great miss), the others were choices they made, good or bad. I get the pent up frustration with the Bulls FA post-Jordan, but realistically since 2010 they couldn't have done much better. They've tied their wagon to Rose, they gave him a much-deserved max deal, and then he broke.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 03:29 PM) The front office has struck out on star after star, and has spent year after year filling the roster with ad hoc replacements trying to bridge the gap until the next star fell into their lap. Well, I don't disagree with that in principal, but in the time period we're talking about, they've struck out on 2 guys that would have made an impact and a bunch of guys who were ad hoc replacements you're talking about that wouldn't have changed anything. Lebron was never coming here and Melo is a good miss now. Aldridge is the only other guy I can think of that really wanted to be here, but then you lose out on Noah and how much better are you really? Who else did they miss on that would have made them contenders? They're not perfect - Lee would have been so much better than Boozer - but I'd give them a B+/A- in Thibs' tenure. End of the day, they're stuck with Rose.

QUOTE (shysocks @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 03:08 PM) I equate maxing out and overachieving, but that's semantics. To the bolded, what action should it come down to? I know you're not suggesting it, but let's say we fire Thibs. We replace him with who? Some schlub who's not as good? Somebody who also would not have won in the playoffs against long odds? What's the point? People clamor for change for its own sake without considering what the alternative might look like. To the last question, what I'm suggesting is that they'd win fewer regular season games with a different coach. Under various circumstances, that would mean missing the playoffs. For one, after Deng was traded last year, I bet that team crumbles under 95% of head coaches. I'm with you, all I'm saying is Thibs could stand to learn a little as well. He's the old man stuck in his old ways. To me, that's been a detriment on occasion to the team. Would it have changed anything given Rose's health? No, they weren't winning titles anyway. But that doesn't mean going forward it shouldn't be a concern of the front office.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 02:59 PM) Unless we are talking about someone like Popp, no the Bulls aren't getting the playoffs with that squad. They were left for dead by everyone. Oh bulls***. They could have sneezed and gotten into the playoffs in the East.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 02:58 PM) Seriously, if Jimmy Butler was all star material, he wouldn't have been drafted #29. Do you honestly believe if he gets drafted by say Michael Jordan and Charlotte, that he is still turned into an all-star? If the answer is no, the answer is coaching did it. And look at those names... Pau is having his best season in years and years. Noah is another one of Thibs classic overachievers. Taj is another Butler who turned into something WAY higher than anyone expected he could be when he was drafted. So the front office gets no credit whatsoever for putting together pretty good teams year after year?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 10, 2015 -> 02:50 PM) If playing through injuries means that the players: don't lose time on the court in the next season, don't lose effectiveness (shown by the fact that they keep reaching the playoffs despite Rose's injuries), and max out their performance while the Bulls have them under contract...I'm ok with all of that. If you're not going to say that Rose's injuries are on Thibs you lose. You're not showing me any downside whatsoever. We'll see in a year or two if guys like Noah and Butler can maintain their level of play I guess. At the end of the day, you're right, this doesn't mean much because they're not winning without a semi-healthy Rose. They can either achieve what they can and get to the playoffs and lose, or they can be hurt from overplay and get to the playoffs and lose.