2015-2016 NBA Thread

[Kyyle23]

Good job. Good effort

[whitesoxfan99]

A loss tomorrow and the Bulls probably have to win out just to have a chance at the 8th seed.

[pettie4sox]

Good job. Good effort

 

sarcasm?

[Kyyle23]

sarcasm?

 

Moi?

[pettie4sox]

Moi?

 

[Panerista]

A loss tomorrow and the Bulls probably have to win out just to have a chance at the 8th seed.

I hate to pull for a loss, but a draft pick is more valuable than a first round exit.

[DBAHO]

I hate to pull for a loss, but a draft pick is more valuable than a first round exit.

Meant to be a pretty weak draft after the top 4-5 from what I've read though.

[Panerista]

Meant to be a pretty weak draft after the top 4-5 from what I've read though.

Understood, but crazy stuff happens in the lottery.

[BigHurt3515]

This off-season should be interesting

[GGajewski18]

This off-season should be interesting

 

If you mean resigning Gasol for 20 million a year, then sure.

[ChiSoxFanMike]

I hope that Gasol doesn’t come back. He’s a solid player, but the Bulls need to get younger and build for the future.

[Kyyle23]

I hope that Gasol doesn’t come back. He’s a solid player, but the Bulls need to get younger and build for the future.

 

Yea this is a nice thought. I wish Gar had it when he could have traded Gasol and Snell to the Kings at the Deadline for McLemore and Koufos and a lower draft protection. You know, to get younger and build for the future

[Dick Allen]

Yea this is a nice thought. I wish Gar had it when he could have traded Gasol and Snell to the Kings at the Deadline for McLemore and Koufos and a lower draft protection. You know, to get younger and build for the future

And break up a championship caliber roster? No way.

 

 

That could and should be used against him if they are determining whether to keep him around. Personally I think Pax and Gar should go. Way too many mistakes, and even if they are all Gar's doing, Pax was there to put his stamp of approval on them. But at least Gar has to go. Status quo in the front office would show IMO, the Bulls aren't really serious about winning championships. Just being good enough to sell all their tickets.

 

The NBA isn't like the other sports where if you have a good team, you can win a championship. In the NBA there are only 3 or 4 teams a year, if that, that can legitimately win a title. In the playoffs, the best team wins seires a lot more often in the NBA than any other sport.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Dick Allen

[southsider2k5]

And break up a championship caliber roster? No way.

 

 

That could and should be used against him if they are determining whether to keep him around. Personally I think Pax and Gar should go. Way too many mistakes, and even if they are all Gar's doing, Pax was there to put his stamp of approval on them. But at least Gar has to go. Status quo in the front office would show IMO, the Bulls aren't really serious about winning championships. Just being good enough to sell all their tickets.

 

This roster should have been WAY better than it was. At some point, the players should answer for this season.

[Dick Allen]

This roster should have been WAY better than it was. At some point, the players should answer for this season.

It was basically the same roster. It should have been better, but it certainly wasn't good enough to win a title. And problems were exposed. A CSN beat reporter even said they don't like playing with each other. How can he see this and the FO can't?

 

 

Gar hiring his buddy really did Hoiberg no favors other than to his bank account. He's left looking like a fool.

[illinilaw08]

It was basically the same roster. It should have been better, but it certainly wasn't good enough to win a title. And problems were exposed. A CSN beat reporter even said they don't like playing with each other. How can he see this and the FO can't?

 

 

Gar hiring his buddy really did Hoiberg no favors other than to his bank account. He's left looking like a fool.

 

You said it yourself in an earlier post though. 3 or 4 teams have a chance to win the title every year. The Bulls looked like they were going to have a long window starting with the Rose MVP year, but without Rose, that window effectively closed.

 

A lot needed to go right for this to be a championship caliber roster. Rose needed to return to 85-90% of his MVP form. Noah needed to be the guy he was two seasons ago when he was in the MVP voting conversation. Butler needed to continue his rise to elite status. And the problems with chemistry last year needed to be because of Thibs. Add to that Mirotic continuing to improve and not regressing horribly and some decent contributions from Snell and/or McDermott and this could have been a championship caliber roster. There are a lot of unknowns there, but the point is that is a more reasonable road to contention than blowing it up and starting over.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, things almost definitely wouldn't have been worse with Thibs this year. But Noah still wouldn't be right. And the chemistry issues wouldn't have gone away.

 

The question now is, are we at the end of the Bulls' window or, with a couple tweaks to the roster, can they get competitive again quickly...

[Dick Allen]

You said it yourself in an earlier post though. 3 or 4 teams have a chance to win the title every year. The Bulls looked like they were going to have a long window starting with the Rose MVP year, but without Rose, that window effectively closed.

 

A lot needed to go right for this to be a championship caliber roster. Rose needed to return to 85-90% of his MVP form. Noah needed to be the guy he was two seasons ago when he was in the MVP voting conversation. Butler needed to continue his rise to elite status. And the problems with chemistry last year needed to be because of Thibs. Add to that Mirotic continuing to improve and not regressing horribly and some decent contributions from Snell and/or McDermott and this could have been a championship caliber roster. There are a lot of unknowns there, but the point is that is a more reasonable road to contention than blowing it up and starting over.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, things almost definitely wouldn't have been worse with Thibs this year. But Noah still wouldn't be right. And the chemistry issues wouldn't have gone away.

 

The question now is, are we at the end of the Bulls' window or, with a couple tweaks to the roster, can they get competitive again quickly...

If the guys don't like playing with each other, I see no reason not to make some major changes. Not blow it up Sixers style and be horrible for years, but I would hope the Reinsdorfs would be willing to bring someone in to make changes who isn't attached to any of these players. Something big is going to have to happen for the Bulls to really have a championship quality roster.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Dick Allen

[GGajewski18]

Without Thibs (arguably a top 3 coach in the NBA), GarPax is now under 500 with the Bulls.

[Jenksismyhero]

You said it yourself in an earlier post though. 3 or 4 teams have a chance to win the title every year. The Bulls looked like they were going to have a long window starting with the Rose MVP year, but without Rose, that window effectively closed.

 

A lot needed to go right for this to be a championship caliber roster. Rose needed to return to 85-90% of his MVP form. Noah needed to be the guy he was two seasons ago when he was in the MVP voting conversation. Butler needed to continue his rise to elite status. And the problems with chemistry last year needed to be because of Thibs. Add to that Mirotic continuing to improve and not regressing horribly and some decent contributions from Snell and/or McDermott and this could have been a championship caliber roster. There are a lot of unknowns there, but the point is that is a more reasonable road to contention than blowing it up and starting over.

 

With the benefit of hindsight, things almost definitely wouldn't have been worse with Thibs this year. But Noah still wouldn't be right. And the chemistry issues wouldn't have gone away.

 

The question now is, are we at the end of the Bulls' window or, with a couple tweaks to the roster, can they get competitive again quickly...

 

It's the close of a window. With Rose and Butler alone they're good enough to be in basketball purgatory at least another year, but there's no one else to sign to make them contenders. The FA list sucks next year. The draft isn't very deep. So it's at least another season before anything can be done.

 

Next year maybe you bring back Noah on a home town discount. Get rid of Gasol. Pray that Rose/Butler can learn to play together. Pray that Niko and Doug learn to play defense. And that Portis develops.

 

The only other option is to start trading pieces to a team with a FA that's got a year left but is going to walk. I'm not sure who's on that list, if anyone.

[Jenksismyhero]

Without Thibs (arguably a top 3 coach in the NBA), GarPax is now under 500 with the Bulls.

 

No. Thibs has become so overrated it's hysterical.

[GGajewski18]

No. Thibs has become so overrated it's hysterical.

 

You're opinion, but he could win with s*** for a roster.

[Jenksismyhero]

You're opinion, but he could win with s*** for a roster.

 

He won lots of games against a s***ty Eastern Conference. I'm not trying to argue that he's not a good coach. He's a very good coach. But the guy had his own issues. He wasn't perfect. And he's certainly not a top 3 coach. Off the top of my head I'd take Pop, Carlisle, Budenholzer, Stevens, Doc, and Kerr before him. Thibs is arguably behind Vogel and Spoelstra too.

[southsider2k5]

It was basically the same roster. It should have been better, but it certainly wasn't good enough to win a title. And problems were exposed. A CSN beat reporter even said they don't like playing with each other. How can he see this and the FO can't?

 

 

Gar hiring his buddy really did Hoiberg no favors other than to his bank account. He's left looking like a fool.

 

 

Apparently Chemistry only matters for the Bulls.

[Dick Allen]

Apparently Chemistry only matters for the Bulls.

Wasn't firing Thibs supposed to fix the chemistry? Oops. Chemistry is just something people point to when people win. Teams that loved each other have sucked, teams that hated each other have been great, and vice versa. But if basketball players don't like playing with each other, and players can hate a guy but like playing on his team, team performance is going to take a hit. I think there are a lot more guys who would have liked to play with Michael Jordan than who wanted to hang out with him after a game. A beat guy noticed this when they were 10 over .500. This core quit. Many mentioned when the Bulls quit against Cleveland in the playoffs. Why was that a coaching issue and not a player or front office issue?

 

The problems with this team were misdiagnosed by those in postion to attempt to fix them. Moving forward, IMO, someone else should be making the diagnosis.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Dick Allen

[southsider2k5]

Wasn't firing Thibs supposed to fix the chemistry? Oops. Chemistry is just something people point to when people win. Teams that loved each other have sucked, teams that hated each other have been great, and vice versa. But if basketball players don't like playing with each other, and players can hate a guy but like playing on his team, team performance is going to take a hit. I think there are a lot more guys who would have liked to play with Michael Jordan than who wanted to hang out with him after a game. A beat guy noticed this when they were 10 over .500. This core quit. Many mentioned when the Bulls quit against Cleveland in the playoffs. Why was that a coaching issue and not a player or front office issue?

 

The problems with this team were misdiagnosed by those in postion to attempt to fix them. Moving forward, IMO, someone else should be making the diagnosis.

 

Which is a long way of saying, it is everybody's fault, except the guys who have actually quit.