ZoomSlowik

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 6, 2013 -> 02:49 PM) They're unbalanced (I'm just seeing now that Calderon signed with the Mavs). But this is the east. 1:Miami 2:Chicago/Indiana or Indiana/Chicago 3: Knicks 4: Nets and just crap after that. Teams will be tanking left and right for the upcoming 2014 class. Which Detroit probably should have done given their NBDL caliber backcourt. If nothing else, sign an actual wing that can shoot a little.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Jul 6, 2013 -> 02:29 PM) Josh Smith to the Pistons. 4/56. The Pistons now have the most athletic front-court in basketball (and that's not even including the freak of nature that is Tony Mitchell). And they're still going to blow because none of them can hit a jumper and their PG is Brandon Knight.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 6, 2013 -> 01:26 PM) That poison pill in Asik's contract still matters I think, right? That could prevent the Bulls from bringing Mirotic over next season if it was there. I'm not 100% sure, but I think if he's traded you get hit with the 5-5-15 numbers instead of the 8-8-8 that Houston got. That definitely hurts the cause of a bunch of teams that might want him.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 6, 2013 -> 01:02 PM) So with Omer wanting out. Any chance the Bulls can swap Gibson for him and then trade Noah for Aldridge? Oh wait, this is the Bulls front office, they aren't creative. I kinda doubt Houston would be interested, Gibson is an $8 million non-shooter that's not really an impact player. Josh Smith or Ryan Anderson make a ton more sense. Maybe if both of those fall through. Gibson/Dwight would be pretty damn good defensively, though that'll hurt the spacing. Edit- Just read on rotoworld that Anderson/Asik isn't happening according to Marc Stein, so maybe slightly more possible. Kind of funny how things have switched after one year. I definitely would have taken Gibson at this time last year, but Asik had a solid year.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 5, 2013 -> 10:40 PM) Millsap to Atlanta 2/19M Kind of weird to me that he didn't get more given that bad big men often get similar contracts.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Jul 5, 2013 -> 09:01 PM) Sportscenter is a real twitter lol BUT, it is based on this man: @Chris_Broussard: Source: D12 has landed in LA & told Lakers it's 50-50 btwn them and the Rockets. He's having 2nd thoughts about leaving $30 mill on table So, tifwiw Especially funny since the main reason it's an extra $30 million is because it's 5 years instead of 4. The difference in the first 4 years is like $3 million. Unless he's REALLY worried about his back, it's not going to make a huge difference. Funny how he's gone from a clear top-5 player to a fringe All-Star (at least last year) and a massive headache.

Asik for Ryan Anderson is the new rumor. I like it for both teams. Anderson was beastly spacing the floor with Howard and Asik/Davis would be crazy-good defensively. Edit- Looks like NO is trying to do that, with Houston more focused on J-Smoov.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Jul 4, 2013 -> 11:32 AM) Thanks. I don't know how far under they would be after those moves but I think they would be far enough under to offer Timofey Mosgov a contract. He's a guy I really wanna see what Thibs can do with. I think he still has loads of potential but has never been in the right situation. Taj and LMA would get the starters minutes with Mosgov being the primary big off the bench. They wouldn't be under the cap, they'd be under the luxury tax. That means vet minimum only since they used their MLE on Dunleavy.

QUOTE (2nd_city_saint787 @ Jul 4, 2013 -> 11:05 AM) I asked this earlier in the thread and got no answer. If the Bulls got under the cap, the Deng/Noah for LMA/Matthews trade and amnesty of Boozer would do it, could the Bulls then use their full MLE to sign a big? Or since they already used they mini MLE on Dunleavy can they no longer use it? Portland fans are suggesting that they would play Batum at the sg position. (Don't shoot the messenger, I know Batum is 6'8" and probably shouldn't be considered a SG) No, you can't have the tax-payer MLE and the regular MLE. That's basically what happened last year, they originally offered Hinrich the mini and gave him the full after Asik left.

You're losing a lot of the advantage to adding Aldridge if Noah goes in the deal. Then you're still stuck with Boozer or hoping you can get enough from Mirotic/Gibson at the power forward spot. It's not exactly easy to find a D and rebounding center on a budget. I'd rather have Aldridge, but the gap isn't nearly big enough to make a huge difference. Then when you talk about adding Butler too, that's too much. We're not talking about prime KG with this deal. The other issue is I don't see why they'd want Deng since they already have Batum on the roster. It'd be one thing if the Bulls are sending a bunch of young guys and picks and just need Deng to match salaries, but that's not the case in most deals I've seen.

Ouch, 2-14 for Manu after the crap-fest of a year he had? And another $9 mil a year for Splitter? And we rip on the Bulls for overpaying their guys. It's even worse in this case because the Spurs had cap space...

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 03:55 PM) Guess. I can't because I don't know how someone can be "100% certain" that something "probably" didn't happen. Apparently your opinion is that Gar Foreman spends all day looking at porn. I'm not going to kill him over not completing a deal when they didn't have the assets to do it.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 03:52 PM) but I can say with 100% certainty bulls probably never called What does this even mean?

I'm not as worried about finding a 2-guard since Butler looks like he'll be at least serviceable. He showed some ability to get to the line and hit a solid % of 3's this year (albiet on limited attempts). I'm not putting him in the All-Star game, but if he can get to the low-teens (which I think he can), that'll help a lot.

QUOTE (bmags @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 03:05 PM) I'm fairly certain Taj was expiring at the time. You also have Mirotic who would be attractive because he is not on the books, and the bobcats draft pick. Would that have been enough? I don't know, but perhaps you could have traded deng for the warriors pick to really sweeten the deal. Rose-Butler/Harden-Boozer-Noah is formidable to say the least. Taj Gibson wasn't an "expiring contract", he was a guy still on a rookie deal that was due an extension. He offered zero value for clearing money off your ledger since his salary was still only $2.15 million. He doesn't really count as "cheap talent" either since he was due an extension that was signed/announced 3 days after the Harden trade. Mirotic and the 'Cats pick are both pieces that are a fair amount down the road, and there's no guarantee that Mirotic would even sign with OKC. It also would have been problematic for them since they'd have to stay under the tax in order to bring him over. Neither of those pieces would be available to the Thunder until at least 2014/15. That doesn't have as much value as a 2012 lottery pick that was already on your roster and a 2013 lottery pick. Neither of us have any idea as to whether or not the Deng Warriors deal was even on the table. I seriously doubt it was, though I can't prove it.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 03:00 PM) You're right guys, there is no one in the NBA that could make the Bulls better. And clearly there's no difference between figuring out who those guys are and actually acquiring them. The Bulls front office can't just waive a wand and make it happen because you said "make it work". The Thunder wanted an expiring contract and/or cheap, productive talent. The Bulls had neither. That seems like a pretty important factor to consider. I'm not even commenting on other deals, just this particular one that you seem to think could/should have happened.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 02:47 PM) Exactly. Like I said, i'm sure the cap gurus could have figured out how to make the numbers work. And it's not like OKC got a ton in return. The got a decent Martin (role player) for one season, Lamb (a project) a #11 and a couple other worthless picks. They weren't looking to replace Harden NOW. They were looking to keep the team at the same level while working towards the future. How was the #12 pick in this draft "worthless"? Two lottery picks is pretty good, though the Toronto pick ended up lower than they thought. They were looking for both immediate and future help. Kevin Martin was a huge part of that deal because he was an EXPIRING CONTRACT and replaced a lot of Harden's scoring off the bench. The Bulls did not have an expiring contract, so they couldn't just "make it work". If they had to take back someone like Taj or Deng that still had years left on the deal, they might as well just keep Harden. If they were going to move Harden (which I wouldn't have), the only way you could have beat it was with a proven producer on a rookie contract like Klay Thompson. The Bulls didn't have that either.

Personally, I think it's more about throwing guys out there for large minutes when they're already nursing injuries. A lot of star players play huge minutes. Even Steph Curry played 78 games at 38 a night this year plus playoffs, and his ankles are held together with duct tape. The Bulls don't seem to pull back a bit when guys get banged up though. Derrick was banged up for most of 2012 and was still playing 35+ when he got back (some of them in the regular season), Deng's been playing through his wrist for a couple of years and they seem to keep playing Noah until he can't walk. I have no idea if those injuries occur because they play too many minutes. However, I don't think it's a good idea to have guys play through it with so much regularity and with so high of a work load. I don't think it would hurt for them to give their key players a game or two off occasionally when they're banged up, and just maybe they avoid one or two injuries that knock guys out for several weeks.

QUOTE (Chi Town Sox @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 08:39 AM) What is Russell Westbrook then? Lower career FG% and AST/TO ratio of under 2 which is horrendous even with a top 2 player in the game on his team. Isn't he considered elite? Jrue is 23 years old and will only get better with more time under his belt Difficult to be efficient when the you are on a team where Thaddeus Young is your second best player. Have we already forgotten the Sixers being a game 7 away from ECF led by Holiday? Now he has Eric Gordon (if not traded) and Ryan Anderson on the wings and some guy named Anthony Davis to practice alley oops with Westbrook generates significantly more offense. He's exponentially better on the drive, which is why he's put up 22-23 a game the last 3 years. He gets to the line a ton, something Jrue doesn't do. His TS% has gotten better over his career (sub-50 his first two years, 53%-plus the last three) while Holiday's has gotten worse (started at 52.5 his first two years, below 50 the last two). Oh, and Westbrook is only about a year and a half older than Holiday. You're also conveniently ignoring that they had Andre Iguodala for his first 3 years. He was the best player on the team when they lucked into the second round after Derrick Rose's injury. They only won at about a 44 game pace that year and only won 34 last year after Iguodala left. On a good team, he's a guy that gets you 14 to 15 points a game on mediocre efficiency. That's not worth Nerlens Noel and another lottery pick. New Orleans is still very likely to be a non-playoff team, their defense is very weak. Anthony Davis is extremely talented, but Ryan Anderson does very little outside of hit 3's and Eric Gordon is always hurt. Plus the West is a lot tougher.

Spurs apparently signing Splitter for 4-36. I thought they were smarter than that...

As for the Clips, I can't put them ahead of the Thunder or Spurs yet (and possibly Houston if they get Howard, would need to see the roster). However, that definitely helps. Not having to rely on Willie Green, Billups' corpse and Lamar Odom should help a lot.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 2, 2013 -> 05:05 PM) Just match up the backcourts and why I think they're deeper shows up (not just in number of bodies) Rose Watson Korver Brewer Bogans Rose Hinrich Butler Dunleavy Snell Teague If it wasn't for Butler in there, yes it would be less deep because one of the guys would be shoved into a starting role. Instead, the bench is shifted back a slot. There are now more than 1 guy who can shoot the 3, and at least 1 guy who can shoot the 3 ball isn't a complete liability on the defensive end. There are a couple defensive guys (hinrich and Butler) but they're better scorers already than the guys on the 2011 squad (and we all know that if he's healthy Hinrich can handle some of the duties at the 2) And to top that off, there's a backup PG wild card thrown in who might be able to develop into more of a slasher/driver/creator than the guys on the 2011 team if he's pushed. They're not really "sliding down a spot", they're still filling the same roles. The difference is with the starting SG spot, not the rest of it. You were talking about the bench, Butler is not a bench player. Also, Bogans shot 38% from 3 that year and Watson shot 39.3%, so there's no real difference in the number of shooters as of yet. Once again, Snell is a complete wildcard and Teague is unlikely to see much playing time, so I fail to see how that's significantly better than having another veteran wing. They may have more quality because of Dunleavy and Hinrich (emphasis on may), but there's less depth and the difference up front is sizeable.

QUOTE (Chi Town Sox @ Jul 2, 2013 -> 05:01 PM) I'm going to go ahead and say that Jrue Holiday is much better than a decent point guard. Guy is 23 years old just off his first all star game, very bright future and still getting better. Now he'll have some more weapons (as sad as that sounds) than he did in Philly He's far from the only young point guard in the league. His true shooting percentage was horrible (.496) and his turnovers were through the roof (3.7 per game). He was 21st among PG's in PER this year. If I'm giving up two lottery picks, I better be getting something close to Russell Westbrook, not a guy that has been horribly inefficient.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 2, 2013 -> 04:15 PM) I feel like this bench is stronger than the 2011 Bulls bench after the signing of Dunleavy honestly...the downgrade is the lack of Asik, but the backcourt is significantly deeper and thanks to this draft there's more than 1 guy who can shoot. The thing that really helps though is that the Bulls don't have to play a backup as their starting guard because of Butler, they can play Butler a good number of minutes and then use their backups as backups. I don't really see their backcourt depth being that great. Right now they have two decent options with Dunleavy and Hinrich, a rookie wing that may or may not be useful, and Teague, who probably won't have much of an impact unless Rose has injury issues again. The 2011 group had three useful veterans with Watson, Korver and Brewer. Given that they had two options at center instead of one, the 2011 group was deeper and more versatile. I do agree that it helps that Butler is starting instead of Bogans. However, they need at least one more useful big and it probably wouldn't hurt to have one more veteran wing in case of emergency. Butler/Deng/Dunleavy can handle pretty much every minute if they're healthy, but Snell probably isn't ready for the load if something happens to one of them.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 2, 2013 -> 03:03 PM) Tyler Hansbrough is now a free agent. I've always liked that idiot for some reason. Which is weird, because you normally don't like terrible players...