Is Chicago Dead? Surely not!

[Yougi]

Hello everyone! I decided to blow the dust from my old NBA Live 2004 (the latest I have, shame on me) to create yet a new dynasty using the latest roster patch. With the action at the trade deadline, I decided to shake up the Bulls.

Starting Roster:
PG- Kirk Hinrich/Chris Duhon/JamesOn Curry
SG- Larry Hughes/Ben Gordon/Adrian Griffin
SF- Andres Nocioni/Luol Deng
PF- Drew Gooden/Tyrus Thomas
C- Joakim Noah/Aaron Gray

Pretty bad team right there, with some incredible holes. Good thing though is that I hold the next Knicks' pick. So, with all that in mind, my needs are:

-Unloading Larry Hughes
-Getting a big man that can score
-Getting someone that can create for himself
-Getting a lockdown defender
-Getting a shotblocking presence
-Getting one or two veterans
-Getting rid of Deng (I hate playing with him)

So here is what happened:

Day 1:

I am scratching my head as to how I can get rid of Hughes, who showed to be even worse than we thought he would be. That is when I first called the HEAT, to offer Hughes and Thomas for Shawn Marion. They, of course, rejected that offer, sayin they wouldn't take Hughes' contract, ever. They said they were interested in Nocioni though, and I kept that info in mind, telling them, however, that I would wait for Hughes to go before dealing Nocioni.

I then called Detroit, to see if the loss of Ben Wallace would make it easier for them to part ways with one of their guys, offering Hughes and Gray for Rip Hamilton. I only heard someone laugh, and then nothing... I took that as a no.

I got a call from the Clippers. They were really interested in Hughes, and offered me Tim Thomas and Mobley for him. I was pretty pissed after the previous calls, and told them things I'd like not to repeat.

At the end of the day, Orlando signed Jalen Rose and the Suns got Robert "Tractor" Traylor, making Phoenix the heaviest team in the league, despite being the fastest paced one.

Day 2:

I called back LA. I was feelign guilty about the words I said yesterday, and it payed up; they offered me to take Corey Maggette and Aaron Williams for Hughes and Adrian Griffin. That would make me unload two bad contracts, and get a high-flyer who's only paid 6M a year (a bargain considering his level) and an expiring contract.

That made me call back Miami. Nocioni they wanted, Nocioni they'd get. I sent Nocioni and Aaron Gray (another real bad contract) to the Heat for Haslem and Marcus Banks. I also got the right to swap 1st round picks with them next year. I hope Miami will not explode with Wade, Marion and Andres. WAM. That's a cool nickname.

I also interviewed a few veterans for a back-up spot at the 2. Brent Barry seems the most likely candidate, and I will most likely ink him tomorrow.

Day 3:

A pretty fast day. I officially signed Brent Barry, and started calling GMs to gauge interest in Luol. So far the leading team is New York, who would be willing to give David Lee, Fred Jones and Jared Jeffries, plus a 1st round pick, for Luol and Tyrus. Tyrus is the only thing that makes me unsure. He seems like a pretty damned talented guy, and I will most likely need more big bodies than I currently have.

Day 4:

Another boring day. Today I got a call from Portland. They would give Frye for Luol. I'm interested, but I think I can get more... I'm looking into that.

I also got a few calls for Gooden and Noah. Sacramento, Atlanta and New Jersey all called to get a big man from us. No interesting offer, so no needs to tell you both are still Bulls.

Day 5:

Got a call from Portland this morning; they were asking who, outside of Roy and Oden, I'd like to get for them to put their hands on Deng. I said it would belp to get Aldridge to strengthen my frontcourt, and they accepted. Duhon had to be included for salaries to match.

My last deal as of now, Atlanta called back. They said they were ready to get rid of Childress to get Gooden. This is not the kind of offers you get everyday, and I welcomed JC in Chicago. That gives me 3 super talented wing players (Gordon, Maggette, Childress) who do not mind coming off the bench. I will of course use that to my advantage as much as I can.

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Therefore, as of now, my roster is the following:
PG- Kirk Hinrich/Marcus Banks/JamesOn Curry
SG- Ben Gordon/Brent Barry
SF- Corey Maggette/Josh Childress
PF- Udonis Haslem/Tyrus Thomas/LaMarcus Aldridge
C- Channing Frye/Joakim Noah

And that will be my team for now.

[Lamrock]

I like how in-depth this is, but I feel that your team was way better before. Also, Adrian Griffin was dealt in the Big Ben/Hughes trade.

Also, you traded Luol, the best player on the Bulls.

[Skills]

I'm liking this. I think LaMarcus Aldridge should start though.
He's proven to be much better than Tyrus Thomas.
It was really bad to trade Luol. He's too damn good
But I can't wait to see how this turns out.

[deihatein]

Hughes might be a trash in Live but he is playing good ball lately with Chicago, but that stupid too many contested shot make him a must think player. I think that Gordon must bench so that you will get a good experience from the bench

[Martti.]

Too bad you traded Deng, the best player in the Bulls, like Lamrock already pointed out.

But Maggette and Aldridge are nice pick-ups. I'm glad you didn't deal Tyrus.

Haslem also. He's a great defender and brings energy alongside Thomas on the floor.

Good luck!

[GoHornets]

Too bad you traded deng and nocioni
All your PF are very good, its a waste of talent

[Yougi]

@Lamrock: For Adrian Griffin... Oopsie! I took the latest 04 roster I got, and apparently it was wrong... guess it will stay that way though. But thanks for the info! And as of Luol, I tried playing with him, and he just frankly sucks in this roster, only thing he can do is really rebound, and I have alreayd loads of rebounding players.

@Skillmatic: Aldridge will most probably start in front of Frye along with Haslem. I might also try to trade one of those bigs later in the season, as of now I'm only experiencing the ones I prefer.

@deidei: Well since I play Live and he sucks in Live, I traded him. Plus, Maggette is better and is paid less. I win on both sides. And for Gordon, I don't know who between him, Maggette and Childress will come off the bench, but for the first game it will be Gordon, since I play the Hawks (I always give more PT to guys who play their former team, it's kind of a tradition). But for the future, nothing's sure, for now I take it one game at a time.

@km: See @Lamrock for Deng. In fact, I thought for the first few trades that T. Thomas was for Tim Thomas, until I realised Tim plays for LA. And I also am pretty happy of keeping him, he is well suited to my fast paced offense, and also the best shotblocker I have. And Maggette and Aldridge are indeed steals. Let's just see how they turn out as Bulls.

@GoHornets: As I said to Skillmatic, most probably one of the bigs will go. Thing is I like them all a lot, but eventually, after playing a bit, Frye will most probably be the one to leave. Maybe it will be a 2-for-1 big trade. Anyways, you can never have too many bigs.

And to all of you; big thanks for replying to this post, it is very encouraging. First game should be up later tonight. It's versus Atlanta, and I might sign an extra swingman before it. Stay tuned for HAWKS vs BULLS.

[Yougi]

Transactions prior to game:
Clippers sign Jackson Vroman
SuperSonics sign Dee Brown
Bulls sign Penny Hardaway

Maggette, Hinrich save the day

In a pretty bizarre game "Where Incredible Happened", the Bulls beat the Hawks 83-74, despite a comeback from the Hawks in the final minutes that gave them the ball with 35.2 seconds to go, with only a 3 point deficit.

In a game where every Bull scored, only Hinrich (14), Maggette (13) and Haslem (10) scored in double digits. For the Hawks, Bibby (16) and his back-up Acie Law (13) scored the most.

Maybe during the game Atlanta's bigs made the difference (totalling 31 board, 9 blocks and 32 points, compared to 10 boards, 5 blocks and 25 points [if you consider Josh Smith a big man]), but in the end, it was Maggette who ended up closing the games with a powerful jam with 17.1 ticks left that gave the Bulls a 7 points lead.

Drew Gooden and Josh Childress, traded for one another a few days ago, scored respectively 2 and 6 points, but both of them made their presence felt on the other side of the ball. Penny Hardaway, the Bulls' late pick-up, played pretty insane defense, totalling 2 blocks and disrupting a lot of Joe Johnson's shots, and scored 6 points, all of that in only 4 minutes of play.

Box scores: ATL / CHI

So this is it. Feel free to ask for questions, give out your opinions, but badly I cannot take pictures since the roster I got has no cyberfaces. This will, hopefully, be arranged soon.

[homicide1550]

Put some in-game pictures to make your presentation livelier. Anyways, you really shook up the roster by trading away Deng. hopefully this benefits your team in the long run.

[Yougi]

I would like to, but:

but badly I cannot take pictures since the roster I got has no cyberfaces. This will, hopefully, be arranged soon.

Next game later tonight

[Lamrock]

Put some in-game pictures to make your presentation livelier.

You could always read the text instead, rather than acting like an illiterate brat. I guess we have Cocobee to blame for these forums getting so out of hand that we have to spend hours setting up pictures and making Photoshop layouts for all 82 games in a dynasty just for people to read it and not go, "omfg add some pics, and maybe i'll read this. good luck"

Granted, you should post your lineup, roster moves, and some kind of write-up to tell us what is going on with the dynasty, and I have nothing against people like Chaser and the like having these extravagant dynasties, which I admire and enjoy. But these days, this section has gotten out of hand, and if anything should be a subforum in the GFX area. Its no wonder dynasties these days have an amazingly short lifespan.

Sorry for the rant. Good dynasty, though you ruined your team.

[Fitzy]

what roster are you using?

[ChiFan23]

Lamrock93 ,
I agree 100%. I've tried running dynastys/franchises before by trying to include eye-catching graphics, such as logos, icons, banners, player photos, game photos ... but what people are failing to accept is that we have lives and we cannot devote 100% of our time to a project that nets us no future value in our personal lives or professional lives. We play these franchises for fun. We write up these reports because we are excited about how our franchise is going and we want to share our experiences. Reason why so many of these franchise reports are dying out is because we have people like the one you quoted demanding that we put more work into them as if our very lives depended on one reader's opinion of our make-believe franchise report.

If you don't like to read, then don't read. If you want pictures, look elsewhere. I won't fret if you leave because I don't include pictures. I understand it would be nice to have them but I personally do not always have the time nor the energy to sit down and try to spit out beautiful graphics.

Yougi,
Sorry man, didn't mean to hijack thread like that. Good luck with your dynasty. I'm running a Bulls dynasty myself and I always find myself reading dynasty reports that consist of the same team so I can compare/contrast the experiences. I was hurt you traded Deng away. He's become my favorite player on my dynasty along with Tyrus Thomas and Ben Gordon.

[Yougi]

@Fitzy:

I decided to blow the dust from my old NBA Live 2004 (the latest I have, shame on me) to create yet a new dynasty using the latest roster patch.

@Lamrock: Well they are playing pretty good in fact. Still might have a trade or two coming up later but as of now, that team is playing some pretty impressive ball.

@ChiFan: I traded Luol away for the same reason you traded Nocioni... I like him in real life, but can't play with him in Live. I prefer playing with Haslem ( )

REALLY sorry to you all for being 2 days late, but double update for it!

Pre-game transactions
Spurs sign Zeljko Cabraka
Wizards sign Gary Payton
Cavaliers sign PJ Brown and Rodney Rodgers
Hornets sign Samaki Walker

Injured Bucks hand win to Bulls

It was disaster after disaster for the Milwaukee Bucks, who lost 89-79 to the Chicago Bulls yesterday.


Childress finished the game with 14 points on 71.4% shooting, being very agressive with the ball

After a first quarter in which they shot only 5 of 19 from the floor, 0 of 6 from long range and 2 of 6 from the stripe, the Bucks almost lost Desmond Mason at the end of the following quarter. Mason, at that time, was the only Buck to score more than 4 points (he had 12, and finished with 14). Then, in the 3rd, Mo Williams hurt his hand from a hit with Penny. He had 15 points at the time and was the only Buck outside of Mason to have scored in double figures at the time. Redd had to take over, but he was unable to, making only a three in the last quarter.


Maggette makes a powerful jam over Bobby Simmons

On the Bulls' side, Maggette had 16 points on 8-13 shooting and Childress had 14 points (on 5-7 shooting), 6 boards, 3 dimes, 2 blocks and a steal in 14 minutes off the bench. Brent Barry scored 11 in 9 minutes (on 4-5 shooting, including 3-4 from beyond) and Gordon had 12.

Barry outclutches Iverson

In a game that saw 23 lead changes, 7 of them following double digits lead, the identity of the hero was only known at the last second; Brent Barry, the 13-year veteran who signed with the Bulls over the summer, ended up blocking Allen Iverson's final shot to save the day for the Bulls, allowing them to claim a 101-98 victory.


Barry looking like he was 20 again

Brent Barry took over the game when he entered it, scoring 19 of his team's 34 points in quarter number two, in addition of 3 steals and 2 deflections (he will get a third one on AI's shot). He only scored 6 other points, put the damage was done, and the Nuggets, who were the clear favorites to win this game, ended the game at 3 points behind.

Penny Hardaway was the Bulls' second scorer with 15, with Hinrich scoring another 14. Tyrus Thomas and Udonis Haslem each had 12 (Thomas also getting 9 boards).


Diawara exploded for Denver. shooting 9-13 for 19 points, third behind AI and Melo

On the other side, Iverson scored 24 and got 6 dimes and 6 thefts, while Anthony nailed 21 in the losing effort. Diawara also had 19 on 9-13 shooting, and Camby had 10 scores and 5 swats.


Camby really played his heart out, getting 5 blocks, 6 boards and 10 points in only 22 minutes

Childress' elbow got hurt pretty bad in the 4th and he should miss 3 games (against Boston, Minnesota and Seattle).