Official 2008-2009 NBA Thread

[RockRaines]

I HATED the Noah pick when it went down. I didnt think he looked good in college and I had no idea how people thought he would improve upon his crappy game in the NBA.

[Steve9347]

Noah was basically going to be a poor man's Anderson Varejao, and nothing has changed there it seems.

I'd take Varejao right now, but poor man's varejao is uuuugly.

[DBAHO]

I'd take Varejao right now, but poor man's varejao is uuuugly.

I still think if the Bulls could trade for Brad Miller, they would probably make the playoffs.

 

I wonder if the Kings would be interested in Noah at all?

[Brian]

I still think if the Bulls could trade for Brad Miller, they would probably make the playoffs.

 

I wonder if the Kings would be interested in Noah at all?

Worth a shot. Jason Thompson is playing well for them, possibly making Miller expendable.

Edited December 17, 2008 by Brian

[ZoomSlowik]

I wasn't as pissed about the Noah pick because it was later in the draft and my expectations were a bit lower. Yes, I preferred Hawes, but figured that Noah's D would off-set a lot of his scoring ability. Oops.

 

The Thomas pick is another story though. If I weren't an admin on TalkBulls I might have been suspended after the draft.

[DBAHO]

I think TT is the type of player who can take the Bulls to the next level, and with his play over the past couple of games, I think Del Negro has realized that now, even with their issues so far.

[ZoomSlowik]

I think TT is the type of player who can take the Bulls to the next level, and with his play over the past couple of games, I think Del Negro has realized that now, even with their issues so far.

 

Considering his inconsistent nature and the fact that they still lost to an awful team last night I have a hard time buying that.

[lostfan]

TT is just wildly inconsistent. When he's on, he's as explosive as anybody in the league. When he's off, he f***ing sucks, unfortunately his ratio of great to s***ty games is about 1:2 at best.

[DBAHO]

Considering his inconsistent nature and the fact that they still lost to an awful team last night I have a hard time buying that.

I think long - term, the Bulls either need to trade him, or start him at the 4, and have a center who can actually play in the low post.

 

Drew Gooden's not going to get the job done there.

[ZoomSlowik]

I think long - term, the Bulls either need to trade him, or start him at the 4, and have a center who can actually play in the low post.

 

Drew Gooden's not going to get the job done there.

 

Having an actual center that can bang with real post players would certainly help, he's still a horribly flawed player though. He's a great athlete, but he has virtually no offensive abilities. He's a poor shooter (thus far only Ryan Westbrook has hit a lower percentage of 2-point jumpers on the season, and he was still comfortably below average last year) and yet he still insists on shooting from the FT area/top of the key fairly often, and he also struggles to finish around the basket when he doesn't have an uncontested dunk (he's also among the worst in the league in FG% in the basket area). Typically when he does have one of his good games he gets 3 or 4 dunks and/or hits a couple of jumpers, both of which happened last night.

He can be useful as a defensive oriented player if he cuts the low percentage jumpers significantly and focus on getting more attempts at the rim (maybe he can draw more fouls even if he doesn't finish), but even that will take some work, and the chances of him becoming a good offensive are slim since it would require exponential improvement. Unfortunately the team didn't move him when he still had a high value, supposedly he's been on the block for a while and the Bulls have received little interest.

[Steve9347]

I think TT is the type of player who can take the Bulls to the next level, and with his play over the past couple of games, I think Del Negro has realized that now, even with their issues so far.

Excellent point. Sure, they lost to a roster that should win no more than 20 games that played WITHOUT it's best player, but you're right, when Tyrus plays like that, we go to the next level.

 

Reality check: WTF are you talking about?

[rangercal]

Excellent point. Sure, they lost to a roster that should win no more than 20 games that played WITHOUT it's best player, but you're right, when Tyrus plays like that, we go to the next level.

 

Reality check: WTF are you talking about?

 

Dbaho is right. If Tyrus played like that every night, it would take the Bulls to the next level. (he won't) We lost because Rose got schooled by Augustine and the refs were bobcat fans.

[Steve9347]

Dbaho is right. If Tyrus played like that every night, it would take the Bulls to the next level. (he won't) We lost because Rose got schooled by Augustine and the refs were bobcat fans.

The refs being "bobcat fans" or not shouldn't have had any effect. We lost to an NBA D League team that was missing it's best player.

[Balta1701]

Dbaho is right. If Tyrus played like that every night, it would take the Bulls to the next level. (he won't) We lost because Rose got schooled by Augustine and the refs were bobcat fans.

No one plays "like that" every night. Espeically kids, but everyone has an off night.

 

I still contend a big part of the problem is that when a normal player has an off night, they may lose a few minutes, but they still play.

 

When Tyrus has an off night, he's on the bench for the next 2 weeks.

 

On the other hand, when say, Nocioni has an off night, he's rewarded with twice as many minutes in the next game.

[SoxFan1]

No one plays "like that" every night. Espeically kids, but everyone has an off night.

 

I still contend a big part of the problem is that when a normal player has an off night, they may lose a few minutes, but they still play.

 

When Tyrus has an off night, he's on the bench for the next 2 weeks.

 

On the other hand, when say, Nocioni has an off night, he's rewarded with twice as many minutes in the next game.

Yeah, thats definitely true, judging by Nocioni's 22.4 mpg and Tyrus' 21.6. Give it a flippin rest Balta. Your play the kids crap has gone beyond buzz kill. Tyrus has played single digit minutes only 5 times this season.

[RockRaines]

Yeah, thats definitely true, judging by Nocioni's 22.4 mpg and Tyrus' 21.6. Give it a flippin rest Balta. Your play the kids crap has gone beyond buzz kill. Tyrus has played single digit minutes only 5 times this season.

Snap!

[Balta1701]

So, to make my point about Tyrus's totally inconsistent minutes regardless of his play, just look at the raw numbers for minutes pulled per game. They're ridiculously all over the map.

 

Starting at Nov. 1:

35

24

7

5

22

32

25

8

23

5

17

22

31

6

34

21

23

26

15

17

26

 

 

More than a few times in there, he has a decent game, then sees his minutes drop the next game. And aside from 1 game, low minutes really don't correlate with foul trouble, he's never gotten more than 4 fouls in a game this season.

 

Meanwhile, same numbers for Nocioni:

 

23

19

15

22

27

12

28

11

9

19

21

23

26

23

31

29

31

38

18

26

26

29

 

 

Nocioni has had less than 10 minutes 1 time this season. He averages the same number of minutes as TT, but his are vastly less "All over the map" despite still being on the bench. There is also ridiculously little correlation with his performance. He'll play 15 minutes, shoot below 30%, we'll lose, and his minutes won't go down the next game. He has a cold shooting period, like the one called "December" and his minutes don't change. And there is very, very little of the 5 minutes 1 game, 40 minutes the next game that you see for Tyrus. No matter what, the small lineup is assured of 10 minutes+ per game.

[Brian]

Funk overusing his "Oh Mys"

[Brian]

This Hawks/Celtics game is sloppy.

[whitesoxfan101]

I don't know about consistent minutes and who is playing more minutes, but Aaron Gray should NEVER EVER be on the floor. As long as he is playing, somebody is losing out on minutes, and that's a shame. I know this is a tiny team and he's one of the few guys with any size, but he's still terrible. The white panther can't play, and he should not be on the floor, I don't care how big he is.

Edited December 18, 2008 by whitesoxfan101

[ThunderBolt]

I don't know about consistent minutes and who is playing more minutes, but Aaron Gray should NEVER EVER be on the floor. As long as he is playing, somebody is losing out on minutes, and that's a shame. I know this is a tiny team and he's one of the few guys with any size, but he's still terrible. The white panther can't play, and he should not be on the floor, I don't care how big he is.

I listening to the Clippers broadcast, and they love him too. I'm like, "have you seen him play??"

[lostfan]

Yeah, seriously, Aaron Gray f***ing blows. Sweet Jesus is he bad.

 

By the way, someone tell me why I was looking at the Clippers' lineup, and sitting here wondering where Kobe was? I am retarded.

[whitesoxfan101]

As of now, Gray is a -13 tonight, nobody else is worse than a -4. That sounds about right. I might take a week off from watching the Bulls if they lose a back to back to two of the worst teams in the NBA.

Edited December 18, 2008 by whitesoxfan101

[SoxFan1]

I don't know how you can all rip Gray so much. He's a fabulous passer out of the center position and he is the only player on our roster who can get us some easy buckets down low. No, he's not athletically gifted, but if he can get us some easy buckets with a few minutes a game, I don't see why he wouldn't be a valuable piece to the team. He's not very good defensively, but name me one person on the Bulls who is. He's essentially the tall, white version of Michael Sweetney, and I'm perfectly fine with that, as long as he isn't play 30 minutes a game.

[whitesoxfan101]

I don't know how you can all rip Gray so much. He's a fabulous passer out of the center position and he is the only player on our roster who can get us some easy buckets down low. No, he's not athletically gifted, but if he can get us some easy buckets with a few minutes a game, I don't see why he wouldn't be a valuable piece to the team. He's not very good defensively, but name me one person on the Bulls who is. He's essentially the tall, white version of Michael Sweetney, and I'm perfectly fine with that, as long as he isn't play 30 minutes a game.

 

I don't know where the Gray is a fabolous passer idea comes from. If I had to guess, I just think it's more a product of he's an adequate passer, something that can't really be said for any of the Bulls other bigs. Sweets also had a better scoring game then Gray does. He could knock down the 12 to 15 foot jumper, and Aaron just can't do that.

Edited December 18, 2008 by whitesoxfan101