So Wade and Jimmy are 5-23 for 10 points and 6 turnovers through 3 quarters. They must not care about winning enough.

 

Rondo having a good game lol. 13 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds

Burn this garbage down.

Westbrook is going to average a triple double and finish 2nd in the MVP race. Fun stuff.

Who is pumped for the Sixers-Bucks 2nd rd matchup in a few years for the right to play LeBron in the ECF?

 

Don't forget the Celtics. If they draft Fultz? Game over.

Don't forget the Celtics. If they draft Fultz? Game over.

I didn't, just making a comment on how much I like the Sixers and Bucks. It'll be an interesting dynamic with IT if the C's get Fultz or Ball.

Steph went nuclear on the Clipps. Had them down by 50 at one point. LeBron can throw as many tantrums as he wants. Ain't a thing Cleveland is going to be able to add to close the gap between them and the Warriors.

Whether it's been Durant or maybe he just hasn't been completely healthy but I've missed the Steph show this year. Most entertaining thing in sports to me.

Edited January 29, 20179 yr by Rowand44

Whether it's been Durant or maybe he just hasn't been completely healthy but I've missed the Steph show this year. Most entertaining thing in sports to me.

 

I think it's been mostly integrating KD into the mix. You don't add a piece of that caliber without having to make some big time adjustments. The two look very comfortable together now.

Paul Zipser looks like he can play. He isn't a defensive sieve and he looks like he's got some stones for a rookie. Hit some huge shots late, including a nice drive. Looks the opposite of Niko and Doug, who tend to be defensive sieves that make a lot of "negative" plays.

 

What the hell is the real story with Denzel Valentine. Something has to be going on that is driving him to get such little playing time? The inability to develop Portis, Valentine, Niko, and Doug are so damning. While I don't expect any of those guys to be great, they all have enough talent to be solid rotational guys, imo. We aren't seeing it at all though. I feel part of that is how jacked around some of them get (Niko being the exception...I feel he gets too long of a leash at times, but I just can't bear with how little progress we've seen).

Paul Zipser looks like he can play. He isn't a defensive sieve and he looks like he's got some stones for a rookie. Hit some huge shots late, including a nice drive. Looks the opposite of Niko and Doug, who tend to be defensive sieves that make a lot of "negative" plays.

 

What the hell is the real story with Denzel Valentine. Something has to be going on that is driving him to get such little playing time? The inability to develop Portis, Valentine, Niko, and Doug are so damning. While I don't expect any of those guys to be great, they all have enough talent to be solid rotational guys, imo. We aren't seeing it at all though. I feel part of that is how jacked around some of them get (Niko being the exception...I feel he gets too long of a leash at times, but I just can't bear with how little progress we've seen).

 

Jerked around a lot in positions too. But all were tweeners.

Jerked around a lot in positions too. But all were tweeners.

Zipers has been switched onto bigger guys, fast guards, and seems to hold his own. I expect our coaching staff to fix that flaw and teach him to be a lousy defender

 

Niko isn't really a tweener. He does have horrible bball IQ though. Stacey King routinely makes anti coaching staff comments on the telecast (if you read between the lines). Or at least that is how I interpret them.

I really really like Taj. Thought this was a really good read, a lot of it stating the obvious, but this road trip is going to be really interesting. Who knows, maybe it will actually help. Last nights game was more of the same, moments where we play sharp, good basketball, and moments where we stagnate and play lousy. Rondo was fantastic though and has been fantastic off of the bench (where he has had spacing).

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/colum...128-column.html

Paul Zipser looks like he can play. He isn't a defensive sieve and he looks like he's got some stones for a rookie. Hit some huge shots late, including a nice drive. Looks the opposite of Niko and Doug, who tend to be defensive sieves that make a lot of "negative" plays.

 

What the hell is the real story with Denzel Valentine. Something has to be going on that is driving him to get such little playing time? The inability to develop Portis, Valentine, Niko, and Doug are so damning. While I don't expect any of those guys to be great, they all have enough talent to be solid rotational guys, imo. We aren't seeing it at all though. I feel part of that is how jacked around some of them get (Niko being the exception...I feel he gets too long of a leash at times, but I just can't bear with how little progress we've seen).

 

Going off on a bit of tangent here, the FO got credit for drafting well when we got great value from Butler, Taj, and to some extent Noah. But those guys were drafted over half a decade ago.

 

Portis, Valentine, Niko, Doug, Snell, and Teague have all been disappointments, the last draftee to really exceed expectation was Jimmy. When you don't draft well, you couldn't sign free agents, and you don't capitalize via trades, it's easy to see why we're in a predicament with one star and a deteriorating core.

 

Yep, this FO blows.

Going off on a bit of tangent here, the FO got credit for drafting well when we got great value from Butler, Taj, and to some extent Noah. But those guys were drafted over half a decade ago.

 

Portis, Valentine, Niko, Doug, Snell, and Teague have all been disappointments, the last draftee to really exceed expectation was Jimmy. When you don't draft well, you couldn't sign free agents, and you don't capitalize via trades, it's easy to see why we're in a predicament with one star and a deteriorating core.

 

Yep, this FO blows.

http://www.blogabull.com/2015/5/18/8610703...-matt-lloyd-and

http://www.blogabull.com/2015/5/18/8610703...-matt-lloyd-and

Yep. It is also worth nothing that the Bulls, under Paxson long term tenure as the president / GM have been widely regarded as the best, if not the second best drafting team in the NBA. That is under various measures, including an analytical measure which kind of takes win shares per say assumed by where you pick a player, so when you get Rose and he goes MVP, it isn't really that much of a plus because, hey, that is expected. Jimmy Butler, Taj, Niko, etc really help in those scenarios (and when you envision Niko as being drafted where he was, I'd say he was a success...obviously not what we expected and the Bulls could have traded him early in his career for some serious talent or an early lotto pick, but didn't.

 

When people blast Teague, it is kind of hard to ignore he sucked, but we aren't talking about blowing the 3rd overall pick or something like that. The recent consistency of misses is concerning though and by a lot of accounts, it is during the tenure of big misses where Pax had supposedly taken more of a back seat role at the directive of ownership to give Gar more responsibility (and obviously Lloyd left as well, which was a big loss).

Yep. It is also worth nothing that the Bulls, under Paxson long term tenure as the president / GM have been widely regarded as the best, if not the second best drafting team in the NBA. That is under various measures, including an analytical measure which kind of takes win shares per say assumed by where you pick a player, so when you get Rose and he goes MVP, it isn't really that much of a plus because, hey, that is expected. Jimmy Butler, Taj, Niko, etc really help in those scenarios (and when you envision Niko as being drafted where he was, I'd say he was a success...obviously not what we expected and the Bulls could have traded him early in his career for some serious talent or an early lotto pick, but didn't.

 

When people blast Teague, it is kind of hard to ignore he sucked, but we aren't talking about blowing the 3rd overall pick or something like that. The recent consistency of misses is concerning though and by a lot of accounts, it is during the tenure of big misses where Pax had supposedly taken more of a back seat role at the directive of ownership to give Gar more responsibility (and obviously Lloyd left as well, which was a big loss).

 

But it is magnified by the fact that Gar drafted him despite Thibs telling him that Teague wasn't good and that he wanted Draymond Green. That makes the pick that much worse

Waddle and Silvy today played Stephen A. Smith from earlier on Mike and Mike. Smith thinks that Jimmy Butler will get traded (he didn't know when). Nick Friedell thinks that the Bulls aren't a playoff team regardless, and that they will trade Gibson, Mirotic, and Rondo by the deadline. He also predicted that by this time next season, Jimmy Butler will not be in Chicago. He said they went halfway down this road in the offseason and there is a large segment of the FO that wants to rebuild.

Also from Mike & Mike:

 

They were saying on Mike and Mike that one of the reason that the front office didn't like Thibs and Jimmy is that they tried to screw him on his previous contract and told him if he didn't sign his smaller restricted option they would give his minutes to Jimmy Snell and limit his stats so he didn't get a max deal. And that Thibs said no way and played Jimmy anyway. If that's true that is wrong on so many levels and it's no surprise that they never get free agents to come.

 

I got the above third party and will try to verify.

That sounds like a Gar tactic 100 percent. I have read and heard a few stories of his college coaching years, and ethics are not really something he is fond of

That sounds like a Gar tactic 100 percent. I have read and heard a few stories of his college coaching years, and ethics are not really something he is fond of

 

 

Yep. There's an old Paul Shirley piece talking about the snake that Gar Forman really is.

I'm a big proponent of the trade Butler idea. It should be Boston though and I want both of Brooklyn's picks. Not sure what else Bulls would need and how to match salary. I just know this: If they did this, it's likely they'd have a top 3 pick in this year's draft and another top 10 (their own pick). Getting one of these PG's would be essential in a really deep draft. This would also set the Bulls up for 2 more lottery picks next year (Brooklyn's and their own). They could totally f*** it up and draft bad players. But if they draft 2 cornerstone type stars, they could keep them forever in the current NBA. It's not a "great" plan and nobody likes watching 20 win seasons but it's better than patching it around Jimmy and being the 6th seed annually in my opinion.

Yep. There's an old Paul Shirley piece talking about the snake that Gar Forman really is.

 

I want to say Bernstein was talking the other day about his time at New Mexico St, i found this article about him being busted for academic fraud

 

http://www.iowastatedaily.com/article_9cd1...742e02ca2f.html

I'm a big proponent of the trade Butler idea. It should be Boston though and I want both of Brooklyn's picks. Not sure what else Bulls would need and how to match salary. I just know this: If they did this, it's likely they'd have a top 3 pick in this year's draft and another top 10 (their own pick). Getting one of these PG's would be essential in a really deep draft. This would also set the Bulls up for 2 more lottery picks next year (Brooklyn's and their own). They could totally f*** it up and draft bad players. But if they draft 2 cornerstone type stars, they could keep them forever in the current NBA. It's not a "great" plan and nobody likes watching 20 win seasons but it's better than patching it around Jimmy and being the 6th seed annually in my opinion.

Why on Earth would we consider trading Jimmy Butler, a consensus top 15 player at 27 years old, simply to go into mega rebuild mode in the hopes of landing a Jimmy Butler?

Why on Earth would we consider trading Jimmy Butler, a consensus top 15 player at 27 years old, simply to go into mega rebuild mode in the hopes of landing a Jimmy Butler?

 

 

Because there's no feasible plan to win championships building around Jimmy Butler. I'm all ears though. There are 6 banners in that building and 1998 was a long ass time ago. Surprised Bulls fans are as happy as they are to be a "playoff team".

Also from Mike & Mike:

 

They were saying on Mike and Mike that one of the reason that the front office didn't like Thibs and Jimmy is that they tried to screw him on his previous contract and told him if he didn't sign his smaller restricted option they would give his minutes to Jimmy Snell and limit his stats so he didn't get a max deal. And that Thibs said no way and played Jimmy anyway. If that's true that is wrong on so many levels and it's no surprise that they never get free agents to come.

 

I got the above third party and will try to verify.

 

If all this turns out to be true, how does the front office survive a story like this getting out? That's f***ing atrocious.