ZoomSlowik

Man, I got a few... Best for games I was at: 1) Northwestern vs Michigan game in 2000, when NU won 54-51. That was just such an awesome game the whole way, and then NU came up with the late fumble and touchdown for the win. 2) Illinois vs Arizona in the 2005 Elite 8. I think that's about all I really have to type. Would probably be #1 if my loyalties didn't lie with NU. 3) Back to the 2000 NU team, when they won 47-44 over Wisconsin on the road in overtime. Another insane game the whole way with Damien Anderson and Michael Bennett both running crazy. Nothing else really comes close to those three. Best for games I wasn't at: 1) Game 2 of the 2005 World Series. Between Paulie's grand slam and Pods' homer, that was pretty awesome. 2) Basically any other game in the 2005 playoffs. 3) Michael's shot to beat Utah in 98. 4) Purely for comedic value, game 6 of the 2003 NCLS. I was watching the game with several drunk Cubs' fans that were ready to celebrate a trip to the World Series, and then seeing their reactions during that collapse. It was absolutely priceless, and I was just sitting there laughing the whole time. I'm surprised I didn't get the s*** kicked out of me. Worst, games I was at: When NU blew a 35 point lead against Michigan State last season. That had to be the most disgusting feeling I've ever had after a sporting event. I could probably put the Duke game this past season as 1B, but that's a little heavy on the NU stuff. Those are really the only ones that stick out, though there have been a few Sox blowouts that were pretty bad. Worst I wasn't at: 1) Randy Walker's death. That one just shocked me and a whole bunch of people I know. 2) The Sox collapse in 2003 (or whatever you want to call it). That was pretty painful, as I felt that team might do something.

Actually, if anyone needs another keeper-worthy player I'd definitely be interested in giving you two guys for one stud hitter. Some of the guys that I could do that with (obviously some are more interesting than others): Teixeira Markakis Granderson Martin Chris Young (the outfielder) Delmon Young Nathan Vazquez Cain

Well, thanks Knightni, but Yahoo does have this thing called a fantasy profile now that lets you look at your past performaces and rosters. I can still tell you who was on all my public league rosters in 2001. Anyways, now that you bumped this, we might as well start posting keepers, or at least start thinking about it. Remember our rules: You MUST keep two hitters and two pitchers, and you get one additional wildcard player. Zoom's keepers: Hanley Ramirez Chase Utley Mark Teixeira Jake Peavy Joe Nathan

That deal borders on highway robbery in terms of talent. Sure, Noah hurts a bit and you'd rather keep him, but if a rookie bench player that's basically a younger Anderson Varejao is the piece you're most worried about losing in a deal for an All-Star caliber big man, that's pretty damn good. The only possible way that deal can come back to bite us in the ass is if Tyrus turns into a star, and we haven't seen a whole lot of signs of that recently. There's one major problem though: that deal isn't even CLOSE to working financially. Cardinal's nasty little deal (what kind of retard signed that?!) means we'd be bringing in an awful lot of salary. It doesn't help that Nocioni is a base year compensation player. The Bulls would need to add over $7 mil to make it work financially. Even if you add Duhon, Khryapa, and Curry you still come up short, which means they'd either have to dump Wallace and try to get an expiring contract (there's zero chance Memphis would take it) or see if PJ Brown would still do a sign and trade to help them out.

It looks like it'd be worth it just to get rid of Wallace's contract right now, even if you have to eat a nasty one in Radmanovic (6 mil a year through 2011). Give Noah most of those minutes, and if you can't include Brown's contract in a deal to get someone like Gasol you can play him 15 a game or so as a backup center (Tyrus can't really play there, Gray probably shouldn't play 20-ish a game), then maybe try to sign someone useful in free agency (though unfortunately it's more likely they'd just roll the money into Deng and/or Gordon's extension).

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 21, 2008 -> 11:33 AM) Because it's impossible for a team to win and play its young guys at the same time. Totally impossible. If you want to win, you have to play your vets. Playing young guys is a recipe for disaster. (Casually pulls a gun, begins gunning down fans of Portland). Yawn, another comparison to two far better young players on Portland. Wake me up when one of the Bulls' young guys can even do what Roy and Aldridge did during their rookie seasons with any kind of consistency. Thabo and Noah are playing better now and should get more minutes (which they have been of late), but lets not pretend that they're (and throw Tyrus in there as well) the key to being a competitive team right now, or even next year for that matter. Any immediate team success is going to depend on the play of the "older" guys. I put that in quotes because Deng and Gordon are 22 and 24 respectively, and even Kirk and Noc are only 27 and 28.

Hanley is obviously a gimme at that price. I'd also go with Lincecum at the un-drafted, that's pretty solid value and he should put up pretty solid numbers. After that I'd take one of the position players. Pitchers are just too inconsistent and get hurt too often to use two of your keepers on them, unless you have an absurd value-pick like Beckett in the 10th. You could make a case for losing your first and taking Utley given his production and position scarcity. In fact, if you really want Utley I'd do that, I personally have a hard time imagining that he'll slip to #7. About the latest you could realistically expect him to go is #10 in a non-keeper, and I have to imagine at least a couple of the guys that would go ahead of him will be retained. I think I'd personally take Markakis or Hart though, whichever guy you feel more comfortable with (I think you could make a strong case either way, Markakis is a bit better but Hart has better value). That way you get a guaranteed solid producer from a later round and you can still snag an elite talent in the first, even if it isn't Utley.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 07:20 PM) Too bad McCants can't hit free throws. He's the Eddy Curry of guards. He's shooting 75.7% from the line this year, albiet on few attempts.

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 06:43 PM) Hey hey don't forget Rashad McCants :-). You and your damn Tar Heels. Yeah, alright, McCants is averaging 15 a game on a little under 13 shots, that's fairly good. I have a hard time seeing him as more than a 3rd, maybe 4th option on a good team though. And after him it drops off precipitously to guys like Craig Smith and Ryan Gomes, and then even farther to Sebastian Telfair, Antoine Walker and Marco Jaric.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jan 13, 2008 -> 09:57 AM) Dude, Andrew Bynum is not a "mini Shaq just like Dwight." Dwight Howard I don't even compare to Shaq because his athleticism is world's above. Bynum would need to add about 75 lbs of muscle to be considered on Dwight's level. Bynum is nice, but I'm not taking him over Al Jefferson still. He's one of the better young centers in the NBA, but our comparison was value vs. Chris Paul, who is a top 5 talent in the league and arguably top 3. I agree on the Paul point, and it's not really that close. Even if Bynum does become the next Howard, Paul has a bigger impact. 20 points/10 rebound guys are hard to find, but 20 points/10 assists guys are HARDER to find. It's only been done in a season 6 times since 89-90, and so far Paul is doing it in his 3rd year. However, Bynum is listed at 7'0" 275. I seriously doubt he needs to add 75 pounds of muscle for anything. Also, until he improves his defense, Bynum is going to have a good chance to be a better player than Jefferson, and you know how much I like Big Al. Right now he's basically a better version of Zach Randolph: a guy that puts up great numbers as the only offensive threat on a bad team but doesn't help your win total a whole lot.

NU is so incredibly terrible inside.

Bumped. We are nearing the off-season and will be looking for new players again. I'm not entirely sure what teams will be available yet (I have to talk with the rest of the "Veterans" to figure that out), but I guarantee there will be openings. Owning OOTP 6.0 or 6.5 is preferred, but not required. Just fill out an application on the league message board. I will update team availability when it is finalized. Edited to re-post links: Message board page Standings/Team Info Page

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jan 3, 2008 -> 10:57 AM) Michael Thompson on Northwestern is a hell of a player. With the way NU continues to improve recruiting, they could be respectable by the time "Juice" is an upperclassmen. Thompson is a definite player and it's scary that he's only a freshmen, but they just don't have a single Big Ten caliber big man, which makes things exceedingly difficult against better competition. Just look at last night as an example, Claxton and Cornley combined for 40 points and 22 boards, and neither is exactly huge. This is actually probably the best backcourt they've had since I started following them with Thompson just being an all-around stud and Moore and Okrzesik shooting well and handling the ball pretty well too, but between Baran and Ryan inside they just get man-handled. Combine that with the massive gaps for 3's that they allow and they have trouble stopping real teams. Coble getting back on track will help a bit, but he's still more of a SF. Unless Baran takes a major step forward one of these years or Shurna can contribute early that's still going to hold them back against better teams, though a trio of Thompson/Coble/Fruendt for 2 years will probably beat some people.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jan 3, 2008 -> 08:15 AM) I agree, this is getting ridiculous. Tyrus is about to = Marcus Fizer. I wouldn't go THAT far. Even if he rides the bench/sucks for the rest of this year and next someone will take him because he is a good athlete and they'll just think he needs another chance. If teams still wanted Kwame Brown and Darko Milicic after 4 years, you can still unload Tyrus on someone. The value will be reduced, but not totally gone. He's a much better athlete than Fizer, and there were some injury problems that took him from a reasonably productive 12-6 type player to a D-League player as well (started with an ACL, pretty sure there were other more minor ones).

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Jan 2, 2008 -> 11:48 AM) Yeah, and no where NEAR Eric Gordon, lol. Well, yeah, Eric Gordon falls in that top grouping that the Bulls can't touch, behind Michael Beasley, Derek Rose, and DeAndre Jordan and ahead of OJ Mayo and Donte Green. Chase Budinger, Brook Lopez, and Darell Arthur are also probably going to go to high for them to even consider as well, though after that who knows.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Dec 31, 2007 -> 04:59 PM) Dude, the Bulls' draft pick is going to be no where NEAR the lottery let alone high enough to get Gordon. Their pick more than likely will wind up in the 18-22 range. Well, it kind of depends on what stretch you give creedence too, the miserable play for most of the first two months makes them look like they end up in the low lottery, or the last 3 games makes them look like a 4-6 seed in the East. I tend to lean a bit towards the latter given their history, though probably closer to 6. They still need to keep this up for a while to solidify their position, as they're still stuck in the jumbled mess that is the lower half of the Eastern Conference. I do agree though, there's no sense in looking at minimally the top 6 or so prospects in the draft since even if they do miss they're going to be one of the lower teams in the lottery. Even right now they'd be somewhere between 8th and 10th in the lottery, and they're a lot more likely to gain ground than Sacramento or Charlotte.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 29, 2007 -> 05:45 PM) This team needs an offensive presence down low at least to my eyes because the style of ball the team insists on playing requires one. The offense continues to try to play the inside-outside, slow it down, 2 man game type ball, and we have a roster not built to play that way. We have athletes in Deng, Gordon, Tyrus, Noah, Duhon, etc., and guys who can create the break by playing defense and generating turnovers/rebounds in Noah, Wallace, Tyrus, Hinrich, and Deng, but we don't take advantage of it. This team looks by far the best to me when they're moving quickly, moving the ball around, and using its quickness, youth, speed, and defense/rebounding players to generate easy shots. Thats what our roster screams. But we insist on playing slowed down games where the PG brings the ball up and we try to run the ball through the post to generate an open jump shot, which we're just not built to do. It negates our strengths and exacerbates our weaknesses, and it requires a guy like Gray or Smith be given minutes because they have that remarkable ability to stand in the post without moving around much. If we traded our athletes for a guy like Gasol, it could have worked better, but that would still require us keeping our key outside guys like Deng, Gordon, and Hinrich, which seems like it would kill that deal because the Grizz keep asking for those guys. So, if we can't get the personnel to fit the type of offense that the coach wanted, why not change the style of play a bit and try to play to our strengths. You really still need a big man anyways even if you run that kind of attack. It'd really help a ton if you had a big man that you had to respect on the screen and rolls instead of teams being able to over-play the guards. If you have someone like Gasol running them you can burn the other team if they do that, and if they sag on Gasol like they probably should, Kirk, Ben, and Deng have more space to create a shot and more time to find an open man. Depending on the cost, I really think acquiring Gasol is the thing to do. Yeah, Trading Kirk or Ben would hurt quite a bit in the short term, but with Gasol on the roster a major scoring threat at SG isn't as big a deal. You can plug in someone like Ronnie Brewer that'll play some good D and chip in around 10 a game on layups/dunks and open jumpers, or maybe get someone like Jason Kapono that's more of a pure sniper. Ben's ability to create his own shot becomes less crucial with a post guy drawing attention from the perimeter players.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 29, 2007 -> 04:30 PM) I'm personally a big fan of how Tyrus put up 19/12 against the Pistons our first meeting this season, and then got a DNP-CD our next game against them. Or how Noah, for example, has been one of the most effective rookies out there per minute if you believe the stats, but Noah barely sees the court either (DNP-CD for him last night too). And, I also wonder...how much of Roy/Aldridge being effective this year is due to them, you know, playing last year? Guys just don't get better sitting on the bench. I have this feeling that 2 more years are going to go buy, TT is going to walk as a FA having never averaged more than 15 minutes per game for us, and he'll wind up turning into a steal like Jermaine O'Neal was when he first came to the Pacers. Talented guy buried on the bench, doesn't ever get a full committed chance to work through those issues, and winds up doing so on some other team. Oh please. Tyrus doesn't get those kind of consistent minutes because he can't handle them. He might have one good game here and there, but then he has several mediocre to poor ones, and that's when he WAS playing. That's a far cry from Aldridge AVERAGING 18 and 8 right now, and he averaged 15 and 8 in the month of March last year before the heart problem came up. Plus Tyrus got 19 minutes a game after the break last year and averaged 20.8 minutes through the month of November. It's not like he's never had a chance to do anything, if he'd consistently produced during those stretches we wouldn't have this problem. After they realized that Tyrus wasn't ready to be a consistent contributor and their offense went to s*** they started playing Smith more to try to fix it. Face it, the Bulls made their own bed with that pick, they took the raw guy with potential over the more polished big guy that wasn't exactly a slouch athletically despite their obvious need for immediate production. I'm not going to say they should have taken Roy after the fact since they needed a big a lot more than a guard with Hinrich and Gordon playing pretty well, but passing on Aldridge just wasn't very smart. Noah should be getting more time though, I won't argue with that. With the current state of their frontcourt they could use his energy and basketball IQ at the position.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 26, 2007 -> 04:42 PM) They could always move Thabo into the lineup as well. Make him the PG e.g handling the ball, but make him defend against SG's, taking the pressure of Hinrich a bit. And Navarro could be quite the 6th man as well for the Bulls. I think it makes a lot of sense for them, and having a good scoring big who can draw double's, should make it easier for the likes of Deng and Hinrich to penetrate or shoot open jumpers. Man, I REALLY don't want to see Thabo in the lineup, he's not ready for that. He can't score, and he turns it over quite a bit too. It definitely makes sense, they'd just need to beef up the backcourt a bit and find another outside shooter after that.

To combine your last two DBAHO, I don't think that the East is really THAT much better. You essentially have two teams that joined the upper tier in Boston and Orlando that are bumping everyone else down. The other differences are more minor (Atlanta and Miami essentially trading places, Indiana getting off to a decent start while the Cavs and Bulls have started slow). Those new teams at the top do have a little bit of a trickle down effect though. As for trades, Pau Gasol makes a ton of sense. I agree with your general principle on the deal, if Ben or Kirk goes they have to get a guard back, and Navarro was essentially signed to try to keep Gasol happy. That solves probably their biggest problem by adding a post-scorer and gives them the flexibility to try to dump Wallace on someone. My only concern with that from the Bulls' side is that they lose two of their 4 remotely competent scorers from a team that already sucks offensively. Sure, Gasol double teams will make things easier for Deng and Hinrich, that's two big outside threats gone that could have had an impact. I know Navarro is a gunner, but he's not quite as dangerous. McGrady would be another one that's rumored and would be solid depending on the price, maybe if you get lucky something like Gordon/Wallace/Thomas. My only concern with that would be that an already suspect frontcourt would be down to 3 even remotely capable players and lose their highest ceiling option.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Dec 23, 2007 -> 01:34 PM) 3 choices for fired, and only one for giving him more time? I would've chose something along the lines of: KW is mediocre, give him one more year. I agree with that entirely, and that's what I would have picked. I don't think he's great, but I think he's decent and deserves at least this year to see if they make any progress from last year. His team did win it all and for most of this decade he put together competitive teams on paper that fell short on the field (2003 and 2006 especially looked like real contenders but failed to finish the job). 2007 was the first year I really started to have doubts, as the team had clear issues that went unresolved going into the year.

Why not, a gotta redeem myself after a mediocre regular season.

Okafor is a pretty solid player. He's a well above average rebounder and a solid defender. He's also a decent scorer in the post (though not great). He's been good for about 14-10 his whole career with improved shooting percentages the last two seasons. A lot of teams could really use him, if you add him to the Bulls right now they're in much better shape. However, he's not a franchise-level player, so turning down that extension is pretty stupid, especially given his past injury issues.

Another list I found in an old thread: Early top-100 It's important to note that these will change A LOT between now and the draft though, it's really just an early preview to give people an idea on some of the top guys.

Just for fun, Keith Law's top-20 (looks decent from what I can tell other than Alvarez being #5 instead of #1): 1. Isaac Galloway OF, Los Osos HS, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. 2. Aaron Hicks OF, Wilson HS, Long Beach, Calif. 3. Justin Smoak 1B, University of South Carolina 4. Brian Matusz LHP, University of San Diego Anaheim 5. Pedro Alvarez 3B, Vanderbilt 6. Brett Wallace 1B, Arizona State 7. Eric Hosmer 1B, American Heritage HS, Plantation, Fla. 8. Lance Lynn RHP, University of Mississippi 9. Daniel Webb RHP, Heath HS, W. Paducah, Ky. 10. Yonder Alonso 1B, University of Miami (Fla.) 11. Brett DeVall LHP, Rutherford HS, Panama City, Fla. 12. Cody Satterwhite RHP, University of Mississippi 13. Brandon Crawford SS, UCLA 14. Ethan Martin 3B, Stephens County HS, Toccoa, Ga. 15. James Darnell RF/3B, University of South Carolina 16. Jemile Weeks 2B, University of Miami (Fla.) 17. Harold Martinez SS/3B, Braddock HS, Miami, Fla. 18. Tyson Ross RHP, University of California 19. Jacob Thompson RHP, University of Virginia 20. Jordan Danks OF, University of Texas