Chicago Bulls Thread

[benji]

I don't think a third guard is what the Bulls need. Hopefully they can luck into someone like Kevin Love, who for whatever reason has slipped to 13th with them.

[Andrew]

NBADraft.net projected the Bulls as picking a guard last year as well. With or without Gordon, a 6'4" guard doesn't seem an ideal pick.

EDIT: Ridiculous win over the Bucks, 151-135. 32 points from Deng on 15/20 FG, 22 points from Duhon on 8/9 FG and 29 from Gordon on 10/18, the Bulls scoring over 30 in each quarter. Seems like the proverbial video game-style contest.

[GoHornets]

It looked like a NBA live game played by someone who palys really good.

[Lamrock]

Or on Easy with 12 minute quarters.

[Andrew]

And the defensive sliders at a minimum.

Wins feel a bit hollow at this point but at this point of the year, they're not moving up or down in the Draft so they might as well give it their all and finish the season on a somewhat positive note. It doesn't salvage much respectability and it's far too little, far too late, but if they win 33 games they'd have won 40% of their games. Nothing special but perhaps the players who will be back next year can take something away from it, narrowly avoiding the embarrassment of 50 losses in a season where they seemingly had a chance to win around 50.

[Dan's Brain]

An All-Star game minus the all-stars.

Any particular reason why Kirk only played 17 minutes? Or was it just because Duhon and Gordon were going berserk, and the game was pointless anyway.

[Andrew]

He had five fouls in those 17 minutes, so I'd say that kept him on the bench.

[Dan's Brain]

Ah. That would do it. I would have also accepted general crapness.


Safe to say that my Kirk Hinrich love affair has come to a close.

[Andrew]

Out of Gordon, Deng and Hinrich, Hinrich is still the player I'd prefer them to trade. If he can be used to acquire someone who could help them, I'd like to see them take their chances with lineups that feature a de facto point guard.

[Dan's Brain]

I'd rather it be Duhon starting, even though he's almost definitely gone this off-season.

Maybe they can use Hinrich to trade up in the draft if they dont manage a very unlikely top 3 pick.

[benji]

Who would want Kirk Hinrich for a top eight pick?

[Dan's Brain]

You also throw in the Bulls lottery pick. Thats worth it.

[benji]

It's worth it to take on a big contract for an average at best point guard just for the right to move down in the draft?

[Dan's Brain]

Wouldnt be the first time it's happened.

[Ashman23]

Absolutely, let's speculate on whom we could get.

[Andrew]

Who would want Kirk Hinrich for a top eight pick?

Therein lies the problem. Maybe if the Bulls won a top three pick it would be feasible, though it might be wiser to keep the pick and moving Hinrich would still be easier said than done. No scenarios come immediately to mind.

DraftExpress has the Bulls picking Anthony Randolph. I'm not familiar with him but reading the scouting report, for all his good points he doesn't sound like he's going to do much for strengthening their post presence.

[Andrew]

Chicago Bulls fire interim coach Jim Boylan

Not exactly fair that Boylan is the one to take the fall, though even if the Bulls had managed to scrape their way into the Playoffs as the eighth seed he probably wasn't about to have the interim tag removed and remain the head coach through next season. The names of possible replacements are starting to get thrown out there, this article even naming Avery Johnson (which I doubt would even be an option, even if the Mavericks do lose in the first round) and Rick Carlisle being named in this one.

Those of us who have been hanging around the thread most of the year have already done a pretty thorough job of eulogising the 2007/08 season but if I had to sum it up, I'd say there were a few games that were fun to watch but good moments were few and far between. No doubt changes are forthcoming, there are shortcomings to be addressed and there were some lofty goals for the team given their personnel. All the same, I still think they could have done much better than they did, at least around about the same level as last year give or take a few wins. All in all, a thoroughly disappointing season.

[Dan's Brain]

I dont think of any us really expected the Bulls' freefall of '08. I suppose looking back, the uncertainty of the off-season with the Gordon and Deng non-extensions and the Kobe Bryant ponderings may have had a larger effect than was anticipated. But hindsight is 20-20.

And then the slow start that just seemed to decimate the morale of the young team, and they couldnt recover from it.

The Wallace trade was necessary, and they probably couldnt have got a better deal out of it by that point. Gooden was a solid pickup coming through, Hughes is expensive, too expensive. And his presence limited Thabo's time to a degree.

Positives:
The season was over by the time that Joakim Noah really started to come on strong, but there is a hell of a lot to like about him. He plays with more heart than anyone on the team not named Andres Nocioni, and he seemed to take the losing harder than anyone else. He's a great character guy and a great potential leader of the team.

Aaron Gray's flashes of talent. Some decent performances in pointless games. I'd like to see him return next season, after some workouts.

Pre-Larry Hughes Thabo: There seems to be a touch of the Doug Christie about him and while he will likely be a part of any blockbuster deal that the Bulls make, i would be disappointed to lose him.

Negatives:
Everyone else, save Noc and Gooden. If the Bulls had had the season a lot of us were expecting, it would have been easy to see either Deng or Gordon as All-Stars.

Outlook:
A return to .500 basketball is improbable without bringing in that low-post presence that we've all wanted since we saw the wrong end of the Elton Brand trade.

[Andrew]

The thing is, as young as the team may be the core group still has a few seasons and playoff appearances under their belts. There were distractions with the Kobe rumours, extension talks and early losses but they should be mentally tougher by now. It's understandable that the losses would hurt their morale but at some point you got to get mad about losing in the sense that your competitive fires are stoked, you cut through all the nonsense and step up your efforts. That never happened, despite the key players frequently acknowleding the distractions and talking about putting them aside and bouncing back.

That said, the Bulls need to be careful about breaking up the team. Maybe they will be set back a couple of seasons as they try to reshape the team but that doesn't mean a Jerry Krause style wrecking ball approach. If Gordon goes, there should be a good scorer coming the other way and if they can get any first round picks in deals they make, so much the better.

If they can get a good post scorer without giving up Gordon though, I think they should onto him for the meantime. I'm interested to see how (or indeed, if) his performance will improve if he's got someone drawing a double team in the post. I'd like them to hold onto Gooden but he's not enough of a threat not to look at bringing someone else in.

Charles Barkley recently criticised the Bulls for not making a trade for a star player when they could and while that's a fair enough assessment in some respects, I think it does oversimplify their failure to do so. It assumes that they were really close to acquiring Kobe or KG, which is doubtful. They might have been able to trade for Gasol but as I said back in February when he was traded, the Grizzlies were reportedly asking the Bulls for at least two of their best players last season whereas they practically gave him away in the trade with the Lakers.

I guess it remains to be seen if the Bulls move up in the lottery or if they're stuck at nine. If they land a top three pick, maybe that will open up some trade options if not presenting them with an opportunity to get a player who could help address their weaknesses through the Draft itself.

[The X]

a big problem for Bulls with the missed trades was just bad timing....when the Bulls had the pieces & had the expiring contract of PJ Brown, the teams out West weren't ready to deal....then all of a sudden, teams like Minnesota & Memphis decided this was the season....but by then, PJ Brown was gone, & they seemed to miss the boat....I'm sure they could've got Gasol though, but ahh well, such is life....

[Andrew]

If the Grizzlies were truly interested in trading Gasol for Noah and Thabo, that's another opportunity they missed out on. It could have been a risk longterm but I wouldn't have minded if they'd taken the chance. Supposedly the Bulls insisted Thomas be involved instead of Noah which killed the deal and ultimately led to the Lakers winning the Gasol sweepstakes.

[shadowgrin]

You reminded me, now I remember.
I think it's also in this same thread that I bragged then got a beatdown from you when the Sixers were gone.

It was, so frankly I'd be disappointed if you don't return the favour.

Time to start the obligatory mocking.

I laugh at you and your Bulls Andrew.

I suggest that you stop posting in this thread for awhile about the Bulls future and just enjoy watching the playoffs for now.
I also suggest watching the Pistons-Sixers series for which the Sixers are up 2-1.

End mocking.

[benji]

I dont think of any us really expected the Bulls' freefall of '08. I suppose looking back, the uncertainty of the off-season with the Gordon and Deng non-extensions and the Kobe Bryant ponderings may have had a larger effect than was anticipated. But hindsight is 20-20.

Or...there might be another more obvious explanation?

If these guys have peaked and are dependent on shooting percentage fluctuations, the Bulls are in a terrible position.
...
I don't know if this team can recover, especially with the Gordon/Deng contract crap.

The problem is that the Bulls young guys are not improving in terms of changing their game to become great players, this season they are all hitting their likely peak in shooting percentage, otherwise they are the same players they were two years ago for the most part.
...
If those shooting percentages revert to career averages (51% Deng, 53% Gordon, 51% Hinrich) then the players have barely improved anywhere else offensively.
...
If these guys aren't developing into stars and their big "third-year jump" was the shooting percentage (and it's not just a random change as shooting percentage flux often is) then this team will definately not be good enough to win while Wallace is still useful.

It really wasn't hard to foresee. Nobody improved (yet again), Hinrich fell into a hole, and Wallace became unplayable. We could foresee the first based on the previous years, and the last one was well known to be coming at some point in the near future. We also knew Hinrich was going to slip back, what we didn't know is that he'd slip that much.

[Andrew]

I also suggest watching the Pistons-Sixers series for which the Sixers are up 2-1.

Ah, if only ESPN Australia was providing that kind of variety.

[Ashman23]

OK - Now onto the coach. D'Antoni or Avery Johnson? I'd take Avery every time. He seems to be a players coach and a hard-ass as needed. D'Antoni has unfortunately shown that 'up tempo' B/Ball is dead or at least dying.

Read a rumour about Gordon off to the sixers, too.