15 minutes ago, Quin said:

Pax is sitting here grinning as he listens to jeers of "GarPax sucked ass" on the radio while he walks past AK in the Advocate Center and cashes "special advisor" checks.

I wonder if he's getting more than the "Ambassadors" like Scottie and Joakim.  The team's got money to burn.  You and I could be Ambassadors too.

2 hours ago, chw42 said:

Bulls looked dead in the water today down 19 in the third. They're probably gonna win by double digits. Crazy how good this team is. 

Celts couldn't miss on that run - but this team had no give.  Awesome win.  I loved it...."AYO SILVER".  In the words of the immortal Stacey King..."Bang Ban Bang"  

1 hour ago, bmags said:

Ayo May have had rough offensive nights, but he’s fearless. I’ll take that

His misses though were on good moves earlier. When he learns to finish through NBA contact, etc, those moves will come up. But he's just got an "it" factor where you can see he fits in the NBA. I'm not saying he's going to be some great player, but you can just see he's going to have a solid career.  Which - I take any day of the week out of a 2nd round pick.  

1 hour ago, lostfan said:

I remember people (not necessarily here) clowning the Bulls for signing DeRozan but he's been a fantastic addition. Everything you'd hope to get out of a veteran, and he fits right in.

His mid range game is just stellar.  I think having Ball and Lavine near him who help create spacing has been huge on his efficiency too.  I wondered how the fit would work but recognized Demar was a good player and who cares if you overpaid.  But man - at this point - he's just so damn smooth, what a fantastic addition and as I always said - when he ages if you need to move on, AKME will figure out a way to move him for another star.  

One thing I'm not very good at, and certainly not by just watching TV, is really judging athleticism. Obviously, Zach Lavine and Ja Morant kinda jump out the building, but I would not have guessed Ayo scored so poorly on athleticism. His length and anticipation must make up for so much of that, because especially defensively, he seems to be able to stick and recover so well. 

Ricky O'Donnel made me laugh last night with a tweet that DeRozan is basically 97-98 Michael Jordan, and it really does feel that way watching him at times (obviously, exclusively on offense). It's wild watching right now in this version of the league especially.

3 hours ago, bmags said:

One thing I'm not very good at, and certainly not by just watching TV, is really judging athleticism. Obviously, Zach Lavine and Ja Morant kinda jump out the building, but I would not have guessed Ayo scored so poorly on athleticism. His length and anticipation must make up for so much of that, because especially defensively, he seems to be able to stick and recover so well. 

Ricky O'Donnel made me laugh last night with a tweet that DeRozan is basically 97-98 Michael Jordan, and it really does feel that way watching him at times (obviously, exclusively on offense). It's wild watching right now in this version of the league especially.

This is just one profile, but I remember when the Bulls drafted Jimmy the report on him was that he wasn't athletic. He was basically a good defender, could draw fouls, and he got slapped with the dreaded tweener label.

https://www.espn.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4685044/draft-profile-jimmy-butler

Quote

Positives: Smooth scorer... Can score inside and outside... Solid rebounder... Can be a lockdown defender

Negative: Not a great athlete... Lacks great quickness or explosiveness... A bit of a tweener?

Adding DraftExpress as well: https://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jimmy-Butler-6315/

Quote

His athleticism won't allow him to create consistently one-on-one at the next level, but he's a functional ball-handler who can take what defenders give him. If he develops the ability to stretch the floor, there's no question that he'll be a nice addition to a team with a bench full of athletic scorers. Butler may struggle with the athleticism of elite wings at the NBA level, but much like Lazar Hayward and Wesley Matthews before him, he's well versed in compensating for his limitations and takes pride in his play defensively.

Not saying Ayo is gonna be Jimmy, but I feel like you'd be hard pressed to find someone say Jimmy isn't athletic. It feels like the athletic label only gets applied to speed demons or guys who have springs in their legs, when so much more goes into athleticism.

1 hour ago, Quin said:

This is just one profile, but I remember when the Bulls drafted Jimmy the report on him was that he wasn't athletic. He was basically a good defender, could draw fouls, and he got slapped with the dreaded tweener label.

https://www.espn.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4685044/draft-profile-jimmy-butler

Adding DraftExpress as well: https://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jimmy-Butler-6315/

Not saying Ayo is gonna be Jimmy, but I feel like you'd be hard pressed to find someone say Jimmy isn't athletic. It feels like the athletic label only gets applied to speed demons or guys who have springs in their legs, when so much more goes into athleticism.

If he can even be in the same neighborhood as Jimmy that pick will be an absolute steal.

1 hour ago, Quin said:

Not saying Ayo is gonna be Jimmy, but I feel like you'd be hard pressed to find someone say Jimmy isn't athletic. It feels like the athletic label only gets applied to speed demons or guys who have springs in their legs, when so much more goes into athleticism.

I feel like Jimmy's average wingspan didn't help him either.  Along with speed and hops, I think longer, lankier guys are considered more athletic.

1 hour ago, Quin said:

This is just one profile, but I remember when the Bulls drafted Jimmy the report on him was that he wasn't athletic. He was basically a good defender, could draw fouls, and he got slapped with the dreaded tweener label.

https://www.espn.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4685044/draft-profile-jimmy-butler

Adding DraftExpress as well: https://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jimmy-Butler-6315/

Not saying Ayo is gonna be Jimmy, but I feel like you'd be hard pressed to find someone say Jimmy isn't athletic. It feels like the athletic label only gets applied to speed demons or guys who have springs in their legs, when so much more goes into athleticism.

You are probably right, though, Ayos measurables were pretty terrible. I think his vertical was only like 34 inches which was comparable to a Center/PF, not a guard. Looks like Jimmy was a near 40" vertical. So some of this stuff may be real and limit his ceiling a bit, but for the past few years with our rooks we've talked about how they had great feel - yet weren't showing up much in counting stats.

Well, Ayo's feel on offense is hectic, but the you know when that dude is on the court. 

Well would you look at that.  Using your 2nd round picks pays dividends when you know what you are doing.

What DeRozan's game brings to this Bulls roster reminds me of what Rip Hamilton was supposed to bring to the 2011-12 Bulls, but then just gets me depressed thinking about it. Rip had an impeccable midrange game that would've been perfect as an outlet to keep teams (especially Miami) from focusing on Rose to shut him (and the whole offense by extension) down, since nobody else on the roster could create their own shot. This team doesn't seem to have any of those limitations offensively. Of course, we know it didn't work out that way, Rose and Hamilton hardly ever played together that season, and then it all came crashing down when the playoffs started.

8 hours ago, almagest said:

If he can even be in the same neighborhood as Jimmy that pick will be an absolute steal.

Jimmy was low 1st round but he made something out of himself with a lot of hard work. Something Joakim, a high 1st rounder, also did.  Made the departed front office look better than it deserved, those two.  Ayo is a PG playing out of position.  Didn't he win the Cousy award as best college PG?

On 11/1/2021 at 10:34 PM, Quin said:

Pax is sitting here grinning as he listens to jeers of "GarPax sucked ass" on the radio while he walks past AK in the Advocate Center and cashes "special advisor" checks.

maybe he isn't grinning as much as you might think 

 

2 hours ago, Kyyle23 said:

maybe he isn't grinning as much as you might think 

 

Ok, fine. He's glumly cashing checks.

I know some people have strong opinions on Stone and Benetti, but Stacey and Amin are definitely worse. Enough fucking Bane impressions. 

This will be an interesting two games. Sizers are good and they have size in Embiid. Will be curious how Bulls counter / what happens. Hoping for a split. 

I mean, DeRozan has just been incredible for the Bulls. 

It's great that they have the comeback mojo in this team, but I would rather them not have to come back by 18 every night 

DeRozan has been the man. LaVine playing hero ball again was bad. Ball was not good at all tonight. 5 turnovers is very uncharacteristic of him. Vucevic anytime you wanna show up offensively, please do.

Edited November 4, 20214 yr by SoxAce

10 minutes ago, Kyyle23 said:

It's great that they have the comeback mojo in this team, but I would rather them not have to come back by 18 every night 

The funny thing is that when they've had huge leads in games, they've let the other team cut it down by at least half almost every time. 

1 hour ago, SoxAce said:

DeRozan has been the man. LaVine playing hero ball again was bad. Ball was not good at all tonight. 5 turnovers is very uncharacteristic of him. Vucevic anytime you wanna show up offensively, please do.

For the game to be that close with Lavine and Vuc playing horrendous was actually a blessing. Lavine just was awful offensively in the last handful of minutes.  Team D really tightened late in that game.  

Yeah I think Javonte needs to swap out soon with DJJ. Would really like to figure out a way for Vuc's shooting to return without needing to do the "feed boozer" stuff we had with him. 

56 minutes ago, bmags said:

Yeah I think Javonte needs to swap out soon with DJJ. Would really like to figure out a way for Vuc's shooting to return without needing to do the "feed boozer" stuff we had with him. 

DJJ matches up much better defensively. I also like his energy on the court a lot, even though Javonte is also a high energy guy. The +/- for Javonte in his last 2 starts don't lie though. He's not fit to be a starter on the team. 

1 hour ago, chw42 said:

DJJ matches up much better defensively. I also like his energy on the court a lot, even though Javonte is also a high energy guy. The +/- for Javonte in his last 2 starts don't lie though. He's not fit to be a starter on the team. 

Yep, I think he'll still be an asset on the bench. But it's not working to start games, and they've been way too sluggish multiple games in a row.

Time for the annual ridiculous "get more stars to Chicago proposal":

Pat, Coby, DJJ, and Brown + whatever draft capital we have left for picks. Hope T-Wolves are willing to look past Coby and Pat's injuries. Draft assets are basically fucked for a while, cap space is fucked. Re-sign Stanley Johnson. Roll with this:

Lonzo - Zach - DDR - KAT - Vuc

Caruso - Ayo - Javonte - Johnson - Bradley