Chicago Bulls Thread

[Matthew]

You try coaching those nutcases.

[air gordon]

Damn it airgordy, you're no noob. Learn to quote properly.

pardon my laziness. i didnt want the post to be long

I think Paxson would want to have a more experienced coach next year

i'd like to see Pip get a little experience under his belt before giving a go at as a NBA coach

[---]

Aaron Gray has been murdering the Knicks today, and I'm loving every minute of it!

The dude is a tree once he get's his feet set. Go over the screen at your own risk Nate.

Just as a I say this, offensive foul on Gray and two Knicks go flying.

[J@3]

Aaron Gray has been murdering the Knicks today, and I'm loving every minute of it!

What lol? He's got 8 points, 3 boards and 3 fouls.

[dan_suth]

And the Bulls lose to the Knicks... only the 2nd team to lose a home game to New York so far this season.

[---]

Aaron Gray has been murdering the Knicks today, and I'm loving every minute of it!

What lol? He's got 8 points, 3 boards and 3 fouls.

If you saw the stretch of play he had that in, he was the best player on the floor. He was scoring off some crazy hook shots and jumpers (crazy for Aaron Gray), setting some huge picks, making great passes and overall just dominating. He plays just under 10 minutes and had 12 points and 3 offensive boards, one leading to a big put back jam on Eddy Curry.

And the Bulls lose to the Knicks... only the 2nd team to lose a home game to New York so far this season.

Yep, tough loss. As usual, the Bulls let it slip away in the fourth. The Knicks got lucky with a few offensive rebounds on the last possesion and a long board out to Marbury which ended the game with a big three pointer. Tyrus turning the ball over (bad call) was a tough break, but it's encouraging seeing Tyrus out there allowed to make mistakes and play through them.

[Andrew]

Andrew- i was specifically referencing Gordon's performances since Boylan has taken over. there were a lot of iso's for him and you can't complain when he's making the shots... i'm just hoping for high percentage shots

i don't see any alienation between Gm & Gor-Deng. Both players turned down the offers and at this point, looks like the players made the mistake. ..the Bulls still have the right to match any offer this offseason

My mistake. I haven't seen any games in the Boylan era as yet. I believe there's one on here next week though, against the Heat.

You're right, it's hardly too late at this point. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see, as I've said before they've generally seemed to have good character but that can easily go out the window if they're angling for a huge payday.

There we have it. Sorry, Scotty. You don't have the support of Andrew to become coach of the Bulls. You should of known better.

Obviously my opinion doesn't mean anything to Scottie Pippen or anyone within the Bulls since they won't read it, nor would it affect anything even if they did. But since shadowgrin brought it up I felt like commenting on the possibility. I can't say for sure that he'd be a bad coach, we all know he was a fantastic player so it's not as though he's clueless about the game but if nothing else he is inexperienced and I'm not sure that's ideal for this Bulls team. I could be way off the mark.

If he does join them in some capacity, either as an assistant or a head coach then I'm not about to rush out and burn all my Bulls memorabilia and I obviously hope he'd succeed and the situation would be mutually beneficial. Maybe it could work; I wouldn't be heartbroken if it did, and in which case shame on me for doubting him. But given his inexperience in coaching I have my doubts that he'd be more suitable than a veteran of the sidelines. That's all.

That's a fair call on Avery Johnson, he inherited a strong team from Don Nelson so he's hardly building a winning team from scratch and his key players were already pretty much established (or perhaps in Howard's case, already making great strides). He was also being groomed for the job during his final playing days in Dallas so he wasn't exactly thrown in the deep end. All the same, it would seem to be a role that suits him so perhaps he does have the disposition to make the transition from floor leader to top coach whereas other players may not, even if they were outstanding players in their day.

It's good to see Aaron Gray continuing to do some good things in the limited amount of PT he's getting. I'm not to suggest something as dramatic as starting him ahead of Wallace but if he can produce more of the same while seeing more time out on the floor, so much the better seeing as though the expectations were fairly low (if not non-existent).

[air gordon]

Yep, tough loss. As usual, the Bulls let it slip away in the fourth. The Knicks got lucky with a few offensive rebounds on the last possesion and a long board out to Marbury which ended the game with a big three pointer. Tyrus turning the ball over (bad call) was a tough break, but it's encouraging seeing Tyrus out there allowed to make mistakes and play through them.

this was probably Bulls first loss due to Boylan's coaching

this was the game where he should have sat Wallace late in the 4th qtr. there were many instances where he had the opportunity to do at the least an offense/defense substitution.

early in the game we saw Wallace be aggressive when he got the ball around the basket. and it seemed like it would carry on throughout the game, especially since he was coming off that Sacto game where he made the game winning free throw

but in the 4th- you saw the old ben wallace- not even looking at the basket when he got the ball in good position to score. maybe he was scared? who knows? and what compounded the problem was Boylan was using him with Gordon to run pick and rolls late in the game. NYK knew very well wallace wasn't even a threat to even look at the basket so they were trapping Gordon and Gordon was rendered useless/resorted to bad shots. and it didn't help that Hinrich and Joe Smith were the only shooters on the floor late in the 4th

should have run the pick n roll with Joe Smith, who has been playing out of his mind as of late... or even Aaron Gray, aka best white guy evah

Crawford and Curry as usual hurt the bulls. Crawford embarrassed Hinirch with that behind the back-pro hop step. that has to make the top 10 on NBA tv. even Curry came up with a huge block on Thomas late in the game and he was the one who found Marbs for the wide open 3.

[Matthew]

There we have it. Sorry, Scotty. You don't have the support of Andrew to become coach of the Bulls. You should of known better.

Obviously my opinion doesn't mean anything to Scottie Pippen or anyone within the Bulls since they won't read it, nor would it affect anything even if they did. But since shadowgrin brought it up I felt like commenting on the possibility. I can't say for sure that he'd be a bad coach, we all know he was a fantastic player so it's not as though he's clueless about the game but if nothing else he is inexperienced and I'm not sure that's ideal for this Bulls team. I could be way off the mark.

If he does join them in some capacity, either as an assistant or a head coach then I'm not about to rush out and burn all my Bulls memorabilia and I obviously hope he'd succeed and the situation would be mutually beneficial. Maybe it could work; I wouldn't be heartbroken if it did, and in which case shame on me for doubting him. But given his inexperience in coaching I have my doubts that he'd be more suitable than a veteran of the sidelines. That's all.

That's a fair call on Avery Johnson, he inherited a strong team from Don Nelson so he's hardly building a winning team from scratch and his key players were already pretty much established (or perhaps in Howard's case, already making great strides). He was also being groomed for the job during his final playing days in Dallas so he wasn't exactly thrown in the deep end. All the same, it would seem to be a role that suits him so perhaps he does have the disposition to make the transition from floor leader to top coach whereas other players may not, even if they were outstanding players in their day.

So why say "I'm not sure about Pippen being the Bulls' coach after his recent remarks. He didn't exactly endear himself to anyone on the team. Pip is one of my all-time favourites and unquestionably one of the greats, but you don't really want someone coming in with that attitude. With all due respect to his accomplishments, his comments came off as pretty egotistical and bringing up the whole "Michael Jordan never won a championship without (him)" stuff is ridiculous; at the end of the day, Pippen never won a championship with Jordan either. They both owe part of their success to each other - certainly the six championships - and both created opportunities for one another and contributed to the Bulls' dominance in the 90s."

You're right, it's hardly too late at this point. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see, as I've said before they've generally seemed to have good character but that can easily go out the window if they're angling for a huge payday.

So them trying to get the best possible deal = not good character?

[---]

this was probably Bulls first loss due to Boylan's coaching

Yep, I've been really happy with his coaching so far. First off he was just trying to get a few wins under his belt and now he's figuring out how to get the young guys involved too. It was nice seeing Joakim, Aaron and Tyrus all on the floor at once, even if Tyrus was playing out of position (by the way, one of my only anti Jim thoughts - He keeps telling Tyrus to play down low, yet continue's to play him at SF?), they had some obvious chemistry.

My only other anti Jim thought was the play he decided to run at the end of the Sacramento game, but I can't complain about how it ended.

Aaron Gray, aka best white guy evah

You mean Big Sexy?



By the way, do you remember who it was that said it during the halftime show? I wasnt watching and just heard it because I was going to get some food, man it cracked me up. I think it was Norm Van Lier, but I can't be sure. I don't remember what the voice sounded like - to busy laughing.

Crawford embarrassed Hinirch with that behind the back-pro hop step. that has to make the top 10 on NBA tv. even Curry came up with a huge block on Thomas late in the game and he was the one who found Marbs for the wide open 3.

Yep, that move was sick. He also broke off Thabo (I think it was Thabo) later in the game as well.

Anyway, that loss was unlucky (But seriously, the Bulls need to stop letting teams back into games, finish it in the third). I wasn't worried about a loss at all until Marbury drained that three to be honest.

[shadowgrin]

Big Sexy.

[SVG18]

Why are the Bulls so bad this season

before the season they were among favorites to win the East and now they aren't even a .500 team

[Andrew]

To anyone who saw the game, was there any reason Gordon only played 15 minutes against the Magic? At first it seemed that Boylan was still going to use him effectively despite bringing him off the bench but if that's his new approach then Gordon is pretty much being wasted. It certainly didn't help against Orlando.

The Heat game is going to be shown here tomorrow along with the Warriors game on Saturday so I'll be getting my first glimpse of the post-Skiles Bulls in action. Supposedly Shaq will be in action but hopefully it'll be an easier game to watch than the three in December.

[Andrew]

Yesterday's game was easily the most enjoyable to watch of all the ones shown on Foxtel this year. Deng and Smith were great at the offensive end and Gordon was used quite effectively off the bench, as was Noce. Great to see Thabo having a fine game as well, the lineups they were using seemed to work out quite well. The fact that such a lopsided win came against the Heat perhaps makes it a less spectacular effort but given their struggles and the fact Shaq was looking spry before he fouled out it's a game they could have easily lost if the shots weren't falling and the offense was stagnant and sloppy, as it has been in previous games.

During the game it was mentioned that the Bulls are expected to make a deal before the season is done. If that the case and one of the core players is on the way out, I think I might even be comfortable with Hinrich being the one to go. I know, everyone has struggled so it's a bit unfair to single him out and he's their starting point guard and all but if it means bringing in a post player, I think they could make it work with Duhon and players like Gordon and Thabo filling in as de facto point guards when necessary. Having a point forward would be even better.

Of course, being a BYC player Hinrich is difficult to trade. Since his name has come up again, I've used the trade checker over at RealGM to have a few attempts at working out what kind of offer they could make for Gasol that involves Hinrich and a combination of various players (excluding Deng and Gordon) and haven't had any luck so far. Even if there such a deal that would work under the salary cap, whether or not the Grizzlies would have any interest in any deal that didn't involve Deng and/or Gordon or one of them along with Hinrich...or indeed whether they have any interest in trading Gasol at all.

[Matthew]

Yesterday's game was easily the most enjoyable to watch of all the ones shown on Foxtel this year.

You have got to be kidding, it was a blowout. Looks like someone else blew something though.

The Bulls are idiots. They are totally against trading Deng, but they wont pay him max money. If he's untouchable, why not secure him and sign him to the max? If they don't, why not trade him.

[Andrew]

You have got to be kidding, it was a blowout. Looks like someone else blew something though.

My mistake there, I should have been more specific. For me, it was the most enjoyable Bulls game shown so far this season as the previous four were, as a Bulls fan, brutal to watch because of the way they were playing and the manner in which they were defeated. I would not deem it the best game shown on Foxtel or the most enjoyable for all viewers but as far as the Bulls games that have been shown here, I enjoyed it the most. I should have made myself clearer there.

I found the game against the Warriors somewhat less enjoyable as they threw that one away late in the fourth, though the Warriors caught fire in the third and Baron Davis was spectacular so to say it was on all the Bulls would be to take away from a huge second half by Golden State. Then they go and beat one of the top teams in the league by double digits. It's been that kind of season.

[Andrew]

Bulls Discuss Nocioni Trade With Nets

While the Bulls have aggressively been working the phones with several teams, league sources tell the Bergen Record that they have discussed a trade with the Nets that would send Andres Nocioni and Thabo Sefolosha to New Jersey for Bostjan Nachbar, Marcus Williams, Antoine Wright and Jamaal Magloire.

The Bulls' first choice for a trade still appears to be Pau Gasol.

Interesting proposal there, I tried it out on RealGM's trade checker and it looks like other players would need to be added for it to work under the cap. There's potential in that group and if Magloire could give them any kind of worthwhile production in the post then it's a decent trade, albeit an unspectacular one. It'd be a shame to lose Noce and Thabo as well.

Elsewhere, bad news as Deng has been sidelined indefinitely, which I guess rules him out of any trade talks. They didn't seem to miss him (or Gordon) against the Pacers, only a game back from the eighth spot now.

[benji]

I think that's a terrible deal. I see no reason the Bulls would ever do it, Nocioni has basically been their only consistent long-term player this season. Why would they trade him for a bunch of near worthless players?

Which means they are probably going to do it, right?

[Andrew]

Quite possibly. It might turn out to be like the potential Gasol deals last year, a whole lot of speculation and then nothing by the deadline.

[Indy]

That Bulls Pacers game was very sad. Not just because the Pacers played revolving door defense and allowed the Bulls to score at will, but because the losing has really hit Bulls fans hard. I was not heckled, yelled at, I had nothing thrown at me, I was not even told to shut up. Not one word to me was said all night except for a very soft "Pacers Suck" as I was leaving.

I had a lot more fun at Bulls/Pacers games when the Bulls were better.

[Andrew]

Sadly, that's been about the only Bulls highlight from the past week or so, with both Deng and Gordon ailing.

[Andrew]

67 points against the worst team in the league and another game without Gordon and Deng. Remarkably, they're only a game out of eighth place in the East.

[puttincomputers]

yeah its weird only 5 or so teams above 500 in the east and 9 in the west! is it possible to go .550 and miss the playoffs?

[Andrew]

Sure, if there's eight teams with a better record than yours.

[shadowgrin]

^
It's been a long time since I saw Andrew zing someone.