NBA Thread 2013-2014

[Jordan4life_2007]

Good stuff Keep tanking.

 

They're not tanking. They're just a bad team.

[MexSoxFan#1]

Must be nice to have super stars that get every f***ing call. Lebron literally pushing guys off of him with one arm and it's a defensive foul. No one will beat the Heat 8 on 5.

 

Oh, and it's f***ing Joey Crawford. God I can't wait until he retires.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice this. Bron bulls his way into the lane, pushes off with his off hand to create space for a pass or an easy attempt at the rim. NEVER gets called for an obvious offensive foul.

LeBron is an all time great but he gets more star calls than Shaq, Timmy D, MJ, Magic and Larry Legend combined.

 

 

[Jordan4life_2007]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice this. Bron bulls his way into the lane, pushes off with his off hand to create space for a pass or an easy attempt at the rim. NEVER gets called for an obvious offensive foul.

LeBron is an all time great but he gets more star calls than Shaq, Timmy D, MJ, Magic and Larry Legend combined.

 

And if LeBron had decided to take his talents to Chicago instead of Miami (like everybody here prayed for and steve guaranteed), you'd be complaining that LeBron doesn't get enough calls, as he averages right around 7.5 ft attempts per game. Bulls fans today sound like knicks, pacers and jazz fans in the 90's and it's pathetic. Jordan got more calls than any player EVER. Magic, Bird, Reggie, hell, any player of that era testifies to this.

[Steve9347]

And if LeBron had decided to take his talents to Chicago instead of Miami (like everybody here prayed for and steve guaranteed), you'd be complaining that LeBron doesn't get enough calls, as he averages right around 7.5 ft attempts per game. Bulls fans today sound like knicks, pacers and jazz fans in the 90's and it's pathetic. Jordan got more calls than any player EVER. Magic, Bird, Reggie, hell, any player of that era testifies to this.

I never guaranteed LeBron would come to Chicago. Had I been betting, it's have been on staying in Cleveland first, Knicks second.

 

I guaranteed he wouldn't go be Wade 's sidekick in Miami where no one gives a s***.

 

It was a long, long time ago. So long ago that LeBron has completely matured and there's no reason to hate on him. I've avoided making fun of your declaration that the Nets were Heat killers this year, I'd think you could let that one go.

[southsider2k5]

The Bulls and Deng are apparently $5-$6M apart per year in contract talks according to Cowley.

 

What in the hell is he demanding?

 

Good, now they have justification TO TRADE HIM!

[southsider2k5]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice this. Bron bulls his way into the lane, pushes off with his off hand to create space for a pass or an easy attempt at the rim. NEVER gets called for an obvious offensive foul.

LeBron is an all time great but he gets more star calls than Shaq, Timmy D, MJ, Magic and Larry Legend combined.

 

And both him and Wade b****ed after every single possession.

[Rowand44]

The Bulls and Deng are apparently $5-$6M apart per year in contract talks according to Cowley.

 

What in the hell is he demanding?

Whatever, he's allowed to ask for the world, we just need to trade him.

[Rowand44]

And both him and Wade b****ed after every single possession.

98 percent of star players do. Basketball players are just whiny in general.

[Steve9347]

Point guards more valuable than Derrick Rose.

 

Chris Paul

Steph Curry

Damian Lillard

John Wall

 

The list is growing by the day. Sad face.

[southsider2k5]

Point guards more valuable than Derrick Rose.

 

Chris Paul

Steph Curry

Damian Lillard

John Wall

 

The list is growing by the day. Sad face.

 

Today any PG is more valuable than Rose.

[Kyyle23]

Today any PG is more valuable than Rose.

 

except Teague

[Steve9347]

Today any PG is more valuable than Rose.

I'm talking about future value moving forward. This season is done anyway. I'd rather have Rose next year than say a Mike Conley, Dwyane Wade, Eric Bledsoe, Jrue Holiday, Michael Carter-Williams.

 

But sadly, like I said, the list is growing.

[RockRaines]

except Teague

yes, he needs to get out of the NBA quickly.

[southsider2k5]

yes, he needs to get out of the NBA quickly.

 

He will.

[whitesoxfan99]

yes, he needs to get out of the NBA quickly.

 

He needs to be playing 35 mpg for the Bulls this year...and then they can get rid of him.

[bmags]

He needs to be playing 35 mpg for the Bulls this year...and then they can get rid of him.

 

I mean, it is remarkable to be outplayed so badly by a journeyman point guard that your coach doesn't even want to SUB that guy out. If I was said journeyman PG though, I'd sign to play for thibs in a heartbeat.

[MexSoxFan#1]

I'm talking about future value moving forward. This season is done anyway. I'd rather have Rose next year than say a Mike Conley, Dwyane Wade, Eric Bledsoe, Jrue Holiday, Michael Carter-Williams.

 

But sadly, like I said, the list is growing.

I would trade Rose for DWade straight up right now, I write this with a heavy heart. DWade is old and injury prone but he can still give you performances like yesterday (maybe another solid two seasons), OTOH, DRose playing like MVP Rose is looking like that may never happen again.

 

Might be overreacting but I'm frustrated as hell.

Edited December 19, 2013 by MexSoxFan#1

[Waygodai]

 

Not sure about the general Soxtalk feeling, but as some who’s around a lot of Pro-tanker buddies and assorted out-of-town Bulls haters…. it always brings a big smile to my face hearing them gloat and wax on.

 

Respectfully, the Pro-tankers just **don’t get it**. They clearly think they do, but they don’t.

 

Simply put:

 

1) gleefully rooting against your own team, is a pretty perverse proposition in and of itself.

 

2) with how weak the East promises to be, if Bulls are in the lottery, it will have meant Bulls scouting & player-development struck out on Butler, Snell, Taj, Noah, even Deng. Just rooting against the White Sox in 2014 to get a higher pick, would mean Abreu, Garcia, Eaton, Davidson, Quintana, Eric Johnson, Nate Jones, Sale, et al failed big-time. Which has

 

3) might force Nicola Mratic (sp?) think twice before tying his future with the organization.

 

4) oh yeah and then there is this minor thang: Bull are NOT getting Parker or Wiggins. Or even 2nd tier talent, and there is NO guarantee of stardom for them. Stern is NOT fixing the lottery, again.

 

5) While internet poseurs have made it fashionable to think otherwise, invoking the Legend of Aaron Rowand for like 554th time…..“grinder” or “grit” is NOT a dirty word. It’s a sexy word, actually. The "Midwest" work-ethic. It makes the world go round. Human civilization and society couldn’t function without it. In virtually any human endeavor, incl. pro sports. Neuro-science 101, hell just crack open a Malcolm Gladwell soft-cover, lol. Does it replace the need for Derrick’s meniscus fully healing? No. Do Bulls still need to amnesty Boozer and somehow work in another borderline All-Star scorer into the cap? Yes. But the much-maligned Paxson/Thibodeau grinder factor is actually pretty big ASSET for the Bulls going forward. It will allow the team to maximize the upside, to be more efficient, to come ahead in the game of ‘informational-advantage’

 

If nothing else, it makes it easier to be a Bulls fan and look oneself in the mirror. You can keep your thugz, no thank you. Btw, Lebron? Works incredibly hard, by all accounts. In the gym, in the film room, computer modeling; sports psychologist, the works- looking for any and all edge. Lotsa grit & grind there.

 

I know seeing Bulls at the nadir point, with literally everything momentarily going against them, the Tanker-orgy seems to be in full swing. It will again end in tears, trust me.

 

I am not naïve thinking team as is, can dethrone Bron-Bron. Wade’s knee will do that, anyway. Not exactly breaking new ground here, but I always thought Bulls should have gone after another star to help keep Derrick in one piece even b4 the whole disgraceful collusion-charade thing in Miami. B4 the ACL. Whether we’re talking Dwight Howard 2 years ago or Aldridge recently. Derrick’s refusal to recruit Lebron/Wade or Dwight Howard really hurt, though to be fair, there is no guarantee it would have worked if collusion rumours are true. Derrick is a player, this is where real FO leadership was needed to overrule him and force him to lobby for another star. Players play, management manages, not Reggie Rose. So it’s a big strike against GarPax lack of cohones.

 

 

Look, when Thib or Skiles team shoots 25-30%, it will always look terrible. Esp. these WestCoast trips. You can tell the team morale was absolutely crushed by what happened in Portland. Right now they’re missing not just wide-open jump-shots, but uncontested lay-ups & finger-rolls. Forget effective scheming: Thibs doesn’t even know who will be starting any given game at this point. That’s NOT gonna last forever, Luol is not gonna miss game-tying uncontested lay-ups like the Orlando one forever. Bulls will get rolling; last year should have told you that, hahaha.

 

I mean really, are things so awful as the fans & media make it sound?

 

Rose – yeah, in a perfect world he doesn’t suffer 2 fluke injuries. Get over it. Post-ACL the dude came back stronger, with a better vertical apparently. So it’s possible. Another good news is that meniscus injury is not a career ender. He’ll be back. Maybe even this year, though obviously Bulls learned their lesson with the expectation game after last year’s debacle, so they are purposefully keeping them low. Smart.

 

Will Derrick have to be a better defender, better shooter, better field-general PG going forward? Yes. But that was gonna have to happen ANYWAY. Even b4 the ACL thing, even being league’s youngest MVP ever, the scary part was that there was plenty room for improvement in virtually every facet of Derrick’s game. The days of Rose doing the Ben Gordon shtick of driving into quadruple coverage regardless what the offensive set called for or the shot clock & throwing up an acrobatic low-percentage shot….badly needed to be OVAH anyway. His upside was only 2nd to LeBron, OK maybe Dwight Howard when he feels like it.

 

Far from ending his career, the several come to Jesus moments that happened to Derrick will only accelerate the much needed maturation as a PG & leader.

 

Thibs – the Man. Nuff said.

 

Amnesty Boozer. That would be a classic addition-by-subtraction boost to the org. Not just freeing up much needed payroll some breathing space, but because Boozer is toxic. Horrible defense & offense-stalling ball-vaccum idiot who ruins everything Thibs and co work so hard for. Talk about A bum-slaying stat-padder who rips easy rebounds out of his team-mates’ hands. Though I gotta say, his dumb facial expressions, the whole vaguely metrosexual tatted up look, his fake-defensive positioning gesturing to the rookies, the “Gimme Dat!” yells as another ball bounces in from a guy he was supposed to be guarding…were a never-ending source of lulz, LMAO! Will miss it.

 

Deng All-Star, defense, quietly developed a post-up game which people have been imploring him to do like 5 years ago. When he plays under control, cuts to the basket without the ball, battles for tip-ins, as well as contains himself to mostly stationary shooting in rhythm & within the offensive set (over 40% on 3pt before tearing that ligament couple years ago, too bad), Deng becames a legitimate 2nd and an excellent 3rd option. As long as Bulls don’t have to rely on him as primary, clock-expiring ball-handler like they unfortunately have had to with Rose injuries...

 

Butler- another scouting/player development coup by GarPax. Basically only 1 full year in the NBA. And even that was without the benefit of having explosive Derrick making things easy next to him. As long as the turf toe is not mismanaged ala Noah’s/Taj Gibson’s plantar-fasciitis in the past… the future is pretty bright for Jimmy pants. Star? Maybe not. James Harden ceiling? Possible; how good was Harden early in his sophomore year? Remember he had Durant,Westbrook to take pressure off of him, so it’s not exactly a fair comparison. At the very least, Butler can be a deadly 2-way player.

 

Taj- low- pick gem. It’s for those who sneer at Bulls two 1st-rounders in upcoming draft. I don’t believe we’ve seen the best of the dude just yet. Wasn’t used perfectly over the years; got seriously set back by multiple foot injuries, and is occasionally prone to get out of control as he lets refs egregious no-calls get to him. On the plus side: in addition to very good D, now has both a jumper and some low-post moves. Can definately be a part of a Championship team off the bench as part of Scott Skiles-ian Killer 2nd Unit (except obviously Skiles never had stars like Derrek, so in 2007 no championship).

 

Snell – I bet the Tankers crowed hard-core when he looked so overmatched against Miami in the season-opener, dincha? Hahaa. Granted, Snell is not a make-or-break player in the greater scheme of things, but as a fan of the concept of Team-Depth in sports in general…. I thiiiiiink there is some hidden Jimmy Butler lite potential there, on both ends of the court. Hell, you can see serious improvement in just 1 or 2 games. Still needs a full year and another off-season’s worth of professional work-out routine, “get stronger, let the game slow down blablabla”.

 

Noah- feel sorry for the guy, losing clearly is getting to him. It’s extended pre-season time for Joakim, the motor, cardio part is not there yet, but once it is, watch out. People were surprised he became an All-Star last year, but iirc before he hurt his foot, he was even better 3 years or so ago.

 

Two 1st Rd'ers with Charlotte’s pick. Self-evident.

 

Nicola Mirotic – the scoring I’ll have no doubt. Good news, if anyone can make him into remotely passable defender, it’s Thibs.

 

Rejuvenated Augustine/Dunleavy leading bench-mob vs. Nate Robinson/Bellineli. Nate-Rob may have been a better bulk-scorer but Augustine is a much better passer, play-maker, and defender (by virtue of not being as horrible as Nate). Dunleavy and Bellinei off-set too, though the former may be a tad better rebounder & obviously more experienced functioning within an NBA offensive set at this point.

 

Hinrich had to expand role his body can’t handle, which tends to make him look like worse player statistically than he actually is. Augustine signing alleviates that, too.

 

 

 

I’ll keep it short & sweet as per usual: in true darkest-b4-dawn fashion, Bulls will win a lot of exciting, close games in the 2nd half of the year, once this group gets healthy & begins to gell, you will see it steamrolling teams at the UC again…..hello playoffs!

 

It will crush the swaggering Tankers. And they will have deserved it, too

 

 

.

[Steve9347]

I would trade Rose for DWade straight up right now, I write this with a heavy heart. DWade is old and injury prone but he can still give you performances like yesterday (maybe another solid two seasons), OTOH, DRose playing like MVP Rose is looking like that may never happen again.

 

Might be overreacting but I'm frustrated as hell.

That would be a really bad move.

[Steve9347]

Respectfully, the Pro-tankers just **don’t get it**.

Yeah, I mean, look at how screwed the teams that wind up with guys like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Damian Lillard, Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Derrick Rose (oh, wait), John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis etc are. It's a good thing none of those teams needed to be in the draft lottery to draft those players.

 

And it's also not like the 2014 draft is supposed to be stock-piled with possible future superstars.

 

Why on Earth would ANYONE be a "pro-tanker" in a season where the Bulls are clearly dogs*** anyway and are without their best player again?

 

Silly, stupid pro-tankers. They don't get it.

[Kyyle23]

Like I have said before, I do not enjoy tanking, this season is not fun for me. But I get it and I want it, I want this team to be better.

 

 

Playoffs this year would be an absolute nightmare situation

[Jordan4life_2007]

I never guaranteed LeBron would come to Chicago. Had I been betting, it's have been on staying in Cleveland first, Knicks second.

 

I guaranteed he wouldn't go be Wade 's sidekick in Miami where no one gives a s***.

 

It was a long, long time ago. So long ago that LeBron has completely matured and there's no reason to hate on him. I've avoided making fun of your declaration that the Nets were Heat killers this year, I'd think you could let that one go.

 

Ha. Go ahead. I said they were ratchet after like 10 games. KG looks finished. Pierce looked finish until they moved him to the bench. Kirelinko has played in like 5 games. Lopez/Williams are out every other game it seems. Their defense sucks and Kidd looks as clueless as I do when I play modern video games. It sucks. I wanted to see the Heat at least challenged. I never bought the Bulls hype, obviously. And the Pacers just don't have enough firepower after George.

[Steve9347]

Like I have said before, I do not enjoy tanking, this season is not fun for me. But I get it and I want it, I want this team to be better.

 

 

Playoffs this year would be an absolute nightmare situation

There is nothing honorable about being a 7 seed in a s***bomb conference. It does not benefit fans. It does not get the team closer to a championship.

 

So the team is stuck with Rose. You have to assume he'll come back and be Rose at some point. So you do what the Spurs did when The Admiral went down and suddenly you have the two stars you need.

 

I'd rather spend this year sucking (since the Bulls DO suck) and ship out a guy like Deng who's only going to give us an extra win or two (and hurt our ping pongs) and walk in FA rightfully next season anyway. Anyone who's nuts to think the Bulls would be best suited in extending Luol Deng at the stupid numbers he's thinking with 10 years of NBA and lots of injuries under his belt just "doesn't get it". The guy's a walking time bomb and paying him big money would be the last straw for this management team for me.

[southsider2k5]

David Schuster

Kobe Bryant has a fracture in his knee....He'll be out another 6 weeks

[Steve9347]

David Schuster

Kobe Bryant has a fracture in his knee....He'll be out another 6 weeks

jayzuz