ZoomSlowik

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 04:45 PM) What were our other options at the position? That's not really the point, you weren't going to find another Derrick Rose for the MLE in free agency. The point is that there is a very obvious reason why Deng (and Noah, who's only .2 TO per game behind Deng) has an unusually high turnover rate this season, and that the team didn't have to use their full MLE on a guy that everyone knew wasn't anything more than a stopgap.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 04:35 PM) That's one way to look at it. But I don't know how fair it is to just put all the blame on Kirk. We have 3 Pgs on the roster and none of them are what you would call complete players at the position. Infact we've had a severe lack of 'two-way' players on the Bulls for many years. We have either guys who are good on one end or good on the other but not both. Everyone has to step up and evolve their game. Some guys are achieving that better than others. These guys knew they'd have to assume control of the team and do more, it isn't a surprise to them that they would have to play outside their comfort zone this season no matter who the Bulls got at PG. They're smart vets. Personally I'm really impressed with Noah, I think he's the guy who stepped up the most. I hope he keeps taking more shots and working on his offensive game. That'll really help us a lot once Derrick gets back to MVP level form . Because he starts and was given a pretty decent contract to be that guy and he isn't. I suppose you can partially blame Nate too, though it's certainly not Teague's fault when he barely sees the floor.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 03:56 PM) It's true when you say Lu shouldn't have to be doing this stuff, he shouldn't HAVE to try and go iso and dribble into traffic and putting himself in all these bad situations where he hasn't historically succeeded. But neither should any of these guys have to step up their games to make up for the absence of Rose then, it's unfair that one guy gets injured and everyone's role has to change. If you say one guy shouldn't be in this position then you have to apply that for everyone. The fact is that these guys are in this position and they all have to step their games up. Look at Noah. He's never been a consistent scorer with a go-to move in the paint or a jump shot, but he made a concerted effort to try and be that this season. When your best player gets hurt, things are always going to change. If Kirk were anything approaching a competent PG, it wouldn't be an issue. Notice that Deng didn't have turnover issues when Kirk was here before and a decent option. Unfortunately he's not at this point in his career, so guys like Deng and Noah have to try to create more offensively.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 04:03 PM) I said Noah's rebounding is down. and thank you, always such a pleasure to talk with you guys I said I was editing because I can't read, damn it!

Hoopdata has it at 15 games so it's TWO games behind. Noah's rebounding is actually up, though that's more due to minutes. The rate's down but it's still over 10/40. You're REALLY nitpicking if you think that's a major issue, especially while glossing over much bigger issues. PER is a joke, it doesn't factor in defense (except for steal/block rates, which are highly mis-leading) is largely usage based and not good for comparing between different positions. It tends to favor bigs, which is why Noah is 20th at center and Deng is 22nd at SF despite a huge difference in Hollinger's mediocre stat.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 03:37 PM) My problem with Deng is: he turns the ball over too much and his 3pt% has gone way down from previous years. We have to hold Lu to a higher standard than most everyone else because he's our all-star and one of our highest paid players and supposedly our #2 or #3 option. (when Derrick is here anyway, now he needs to act more like a #1) He's got to play better than he has been. This is total crap. A few weeks ago, he was a golden god in your eyes that can do no wrong. Now he's actually playing well and it's not enough, because god forbid the blame gets placed where it belongs. His turnovers are up because their stud PG is out and he has to make do with guys that have no ability to create for others at the position. Deng isn't a shot-creator by nature, but he has to do it because he's the closest thing this clusterf*** of a backcourt has to a shot-creator. He's done pretty damn well given the circumstances, it's a miracle he's not shooting 40%. And his 3-point percentage is down? Seriously? He's a career .336 shooter that's at .314 for the season. WOW, what a huge drop! I seem to remember being called a "bad fan" for criticizing the Bulls and not drinking the Kool-Aid earlier in the year. Now you've finally come around and realized that everything isn't sunshine and rainbows with the Bulls, but unfortunately you're directing it in the wrong place. Deng is one of the few things going right at the moment.

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Dec 6, 2012 -> 03:26 PM) Even Deng kinda sucks right now. Kirk Hinrich sucks. Carlos Boozer sucks. The bench sucks. Luol Deng does not suck. He's averaging 18-7 with a respectable true shooting percentage. If the team had a PG that could break down the defense at all and do something besides wait for guys to come off screens, Deng wouldn't need to try to create shots.

The Bulls suck right now outside of Deng and Noah. The end.

Northwestern will be alright if they play like they did from the 14:26 mark of the first half to the dunk with 10:28 left. If they play like they did the rest of the game, not so much.

How the f*** was that not a travel?

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Dec 4, 2012 -> 10:17 PM) Jesus Northwestern The FT's are a bit obnoxious this year, a lot of guys that could actually hit them last year aren't hitting them this year.

Jesus, NU actually played well to get out to a large lead, now Baylor is going to the line every possession.

A NU player just got a technical for hanging on the rim. So many funny things about that statement.

Obviously it's because they're doing it in a TNT game against the Heat instead of against one of the last three s***-show teams on their schedule.

QUOTE (Boogua @ Nov 29, 2012 -> 12:42 PM) Yes, but he was a 7 footer that could play. You said that was why Zeller would go top 5. I was just showing otherwise. 7 footers with high upside/athleticism along with the ability to play make 7 footers go in the top 5. There are obviously some exceptions (Bogut wasn't that athletic, but he averaged like 20 and 12 his sophomore year and it was a weird draft). I just don't know who I could compare Zeller to that's successful in the NBA. The guy isn't an anchor on defense and I don't know if he'll be able to do as well on the block in the NBA. I would guess not. None of those comparisons are any good. Hibbert is slow and barely gets off the floor. Lopez fell because he's not a good athlete either (that and the 2008 draft was loaded). Drummond is a better athlete but is a complete project with few offensive skills. Leonard is a bit closer, but still wasn't nearly as highly regarded. At least coming out, he's most similar to LaMarcus Aldridge. Both are kinda thin and had questions about being able to bang in the NBA, both are good but not great athletes, but have some moves down low but didn't get a ton of scoring chances because their guards were scoring options too (and for Texas they sucked at getting him the ball). Their numbers will probably end up extremely similar in their sophomore years too. Aldridge turned into a really solid offensive player by developing a pick-and-pop game to compensate for the fact that he can't always post-up effectively (though he's really good down low when he can). Obviously if you take Zeller, you hope he does the same.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Nov 29, 2012 -> 03:04 AM) Any good shooting guards after Shabazz that the Bulls could trade a few seconds, the Bobcats pick, and a future first for in this draft? (And by good I mean "project to be All-Star") Given the general disdain all the experts have for this draft, there might not be anyone that they're comfortable saying projects as an All-Star, including the top few picks.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Nov 28, 2012 -> 11:12 AM) Indiana is definitely better at the moment but Maryland is damn good. They'll be competing for the acc title. REALLY not buying that. They don't have the backcourt to compete with legit teams.

QUOTE (Brian @ Nov 28, 2012 -> 10:41 AM) Vitale got old for me a few years ago. You don't have to talk over the whole game. Becomes distracting sometimes. And his ACC homerism is just so obvious all the time. And damn near every broadcast is exactly the same. Regardless of who is playing, he'll talk about Duke, Kentucky, one or two other top teams, and whomever has elite recruiting classes coming in next year.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 28, 2012 -> 09:31 AM) You'll see NW make them win a 40 point game possibly. However I dont think any of that is going to happen at Assembly Hall, they feed off that crowd too much. I was extremely jealous of that crowd last night, I just wanted to be there. The Buckeye bball fans tend to sit on their hands too much, they should all take a field trip to an IU game. Did you not watch the game last night? Maryland put up 49 in the second half and Indiana is a hell of a lot better. Seriously, you sure you're not a closet NU fan? Even I have my doubts after they struggled through the last few games. As for the other stuff, IU is the best right now because just about every other team with talent is losing. Their offense is awesome, the jury is still out on the D. It's REALLY early to crown Michigan as a legit team, especially considering they let NC State shoot 57% from the floor last night. They're not a great defensive team, they go with one big most of the time, and they're only about 6 deep with quality players, 3 of which are freshman that'll likely have some rough games.

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Nov 27, 2012 -> 10:17 PM) Well Maryland is legit very talented but different year, same crap for NU. Meh, Maryland was around 100 in both offensive and defensive efficiency coming into this game. They can't shoot (they hit like 6 jumpers the whole game, three of which came from the one random dude off the bench that did nothing but shoot 3's) and they turn the ball over a lot (15 per coming in, think they had 11 in the first half). It didn't matter though because they killed NU on the glass and got a ton of easy shots. Couple of thoughts... -NU is going to win like 5 conference games if they keep playing like that. They played decent defense in the first half to keep it close, but it was atrocious in the second half and their offense was brutal. WAY too may ugly jumpers. What's concerning is the offense seems to be a trend, they haven't exactly lit up the scoreboard the last few games either. -Alex Len looked highly ordinary. I'm not totally sure how he put up those numbers against Kentucky or how he's being mentioned as a top-5 pick. He botched a bunch of convertable plays down low and didn't seem to make a big difference on D. He kind of reminds me of B.J. Mullens. Dezmine Wells is the guy that killed them, he got to the rim at will. -Did Maryland steal those shoes from the wicked witch? Good lord, that's a sparkly red.

QUOTE (GoodAsGould @ Nov 24, 2012 -> 10:00 PM) Well hopefully we hear a little less talk about ISU after today Looks like both teams played like s*** offensively and NU barely pulled it out.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Nov 23, 2012 -> 07:08 PM) So Amazon just had a gold box TV deal. I was in in under one second of the deal starting and it was already sold out. That s*** is driving me nuts this year. By the time you look at the product and determine if you want it or not, it's already gone.

Damn it, wasn't paying attention and missed a bunch of good video game deals on amazon yesterday.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 22, 2012 -> 12:24 AM) LOL, whatever, like I said before we are all going to homer the s*** out of this board. Illinois fans are going to rip on refs, IU fans are going to pretend the last 20 years never happened and I am going to tell you how OSU isnt a football school and we arent Johnny come lateleys. The good news is that our conference is so god damn good that we all have a claim to something. And it should feel good for everyone. Michigan, MSU, IU, UI, OSU, and even NW are very good programs that could wins alot of games. Most of us are expecting a deep run in the tourney. Some of us have NPOY candidates. Revel in it boys. It's not always a permanent thing. I am looking forward to the s*** talking that goes on, because we will be watching bball at its highest level. Hey now, let's not go crazy here. I have high hopes given the improved size, athleticism and depth. However, outside of Crawford they're starting an unathletic white guy, a former walk-on, Louisville's 12th best player from last year, and a freshman big that seems to have little clue on defense. NU is very much a work in progress, they have 6 freshmen (two are redshirt) and two transfers on the roster (one of which is hurt right now unfortunately). I'd wait until they beat someone better than Delaware State to put them with the good teams.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 21, 2012 -> 09:38 PM) If he's b****ing about his minutes now, he wouldn't like being our backup C If it went down, I'd imagine he'd be their starting center with Noah starting at PF. Thibs could then stagger their minutes so Noah gets like 15 MPG at center. The rotation would be a bit of a mess because Boozer would absolutely have to be amnestied and Gibson may/may not be involved in the trade.