Bill Simmons paid attention to the Bulls' preseason
by Jivas on Oct 25, 2008 10:37 PM CDT
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PrintIn his NBA Fantasy Preview, Simmons ranks Derrick Rose as the #47 overall fantasy player, and lists Tyrus Thomas among his "Favorite Semi-Sleepers". His comments on each player are below.
47. Derrick Rose
I never imagined it would happen this soon, but much to everyone's delight in Chicago, the Bulls simply can't keep him off the floor. Did you see him torch Jason Kidd and the Mavs the other night? I'd be infinitely more excited if not for the long and tortured history of rookie fantasy point guards. OK, I'm still excited.
Ty Thomas
Really jumped out at me in the preseason. If he doesn't average 10-plus rebounds a game and two "Here's somethin' for your mama!" dunks per week, then I don't know anything.
While I think we all place a little too much emphasis on whether the team gets it's proper recognition in the national press, it's nice to see that one of the best NBA writers has noticed the things that happened this preseason that have excited us as Bulls fans.
But here's the real question - and I've love to see a discussion about this in the thread - where do you guys think Rose will rank in Simmons' annual ranking of Top 50 most valuable NBA commodoties? And will any other Bulls players make it? Last year, Luol Deng was #32, so offhand he seems like a good bet to fall towards the bottom of the list. My best guesses - without any real research or time put into it - are that Rose will land around #25 while Deng lands around #45.
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It's true. He's really good when it comes to NBA...other sports? Not so much.
When I watch NBA games I often call the fouls before the referees do. Sometimes it’s a gift. Most of the time it's troublesome. - NBA Observer
Yeah
I like Bill Simmons’s often hilarious NBA writing….
Of course I don’t know if he’s technicaly as good as some of the others (Charles Rosen from Foxsports.com lately has really become a personal favorite of mine—though I only started reading his stuff this summer, so I don’t have that much to fall back on)…I am pretty fickle though, but I’ve really enjoyed his writing this summer, and for summer writing at least he’s been my winner.
But on ESPN, I don’t find any other writers less biased, funnier, or more observant than Bill Simmons…
Mark Stein’s a turd who champions the hot story in lieu of actually following the games objectively. Stein’s essentially the Mike Greenberg of ESPN.COM. Except I like Greenberg much more for some reason.
John Hollinger is solid, but often he’ll follow the stats and use those to make it seem he’s watching the teams play, when you can see sometime’s that’s not the case. I like reading his columns, but often I think I find better analysis elsewhere.
It's true
Outside of Kelly Dwyer, Simmons is probably the best NBA writer out there on the mainstream interwebs. He is consistently insightful and funny about the NBA and has a great historical perspective on the league. If you haven’t read it, read his piece on Elgin Baylor. It was excellent.
by fundamentallysound on Oct 26, 2008 5:00 PM CDT up reply actions
Oh yeah.
A historical perspective of Larry Bird’s asshole.
Insightful and funny commentary on the Karate Kid and Entourage.
(Its like ESPN and VH1 baked into a cupcake)
Not to mention pandering inanity and a great, “uh, ain’t I right?” attitude.
Sounds like a fucking genius to me.
He can be inane at times, but for those of us who enjoy humor in our writing
he is really good @ his job, particularly as it comes to the NBA. He does have that “ain’t I right attitude” you mentioned? But when he is subsequently proved wrong and his readers call him out, he isn’t afraid to print those comments. He is self-deprecating at times too. A common refrain is “the lesson as always is, I’m an idiot”.
by fundamentallysound on Oct 27, 2008 7:44 PM CDT up reply actions
He's a good NBA
writer because he cares more about the quality of the league than he does about his own personal allegiances. And he cares about the Celtics A LOT!
"Worker bees can leave.
Even drones can fly away.
The Queen is their slave."
yeah he's definately one of the best
but he has D Howard as his number 5 overall pick in fantasy…that dude will singlehandedly kill you in the FT % category.
Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.
-- Scottie Pippen
by Orlando Woolridge on Oct 27, 2008 12:07 PM CDT up reply actions
Yeah I don't know why people don't realize this
Just because he’s a 20/12 guy doesn’t make him a top 5 pick in fantasy. Might as well draft Al Jefferson with a later pick.
"I’m gonna rise up, gonna kick a little ass. Gonna kick some ass in the USA. Gonna climb a mountain, gonna sew a flag, gonna fly on an eagle. I’m gonna kick some butt, gonna drive a big truck. I’m gonna rule this world. I’m gonna kick some ass. I’m gonna rise up, gonna kick a little ass. Rock, flag, and eagle!"
by Ozzie Montana on Oct 27, 2008 1:09 PM CDT up reply actions
in my roto league he slipped all the way to Round 3
and I snagged him there…but yeah my FT is gonna be hurtin big time
Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team.
-- Scottie Pippen
by Orlando Woolridge on Oct 27, 2008 1:25 PM CDT up reply actions
in his podcast over the summer
Simmons made a brief mention of how ludicrous the Deng signing was. He’s one of the ‘pay 12 guys in the league and that’s it’ crowd.
management sez: recommend fanposts/fanshots/comments! Click 'reply' when replying to a comment! Flag jerkfaces! Be a 'Nazi' when it comes to thread duplication!
by your friendly BullsBlogger on Oct 26, 2008 2:55 PM CDT up reply actions
beginning to believe
I fear Deng will not justify his contract this year. The small forward position is a role that blogabulls don’t discuss much because Deng is strongly static there. But his recent play as a bull (through the last 1/4 of last season) has been under achieving. Even in this preseason, his numbers were quite poor. Shooting:
5-9
2-9
5-14
5-7
2-7
4-12
DNP
The Bulls will only be successful this season with Deng also being successful.
by chicago-homesick-blues on Oct 27, 2008 9:55 AM CDT up reply actions
Deng's offensive efficiency takes a big hit when he tries to create his own offense
Hopefully with Rose taking over the offense going forward – although there will obviously be some growing pains – Deng can go back to what he was 2 years ago, making open jumpers and cutting to the lane for baskets, basically playing off others in the offense. It’ll limit his scoring to ~18 ppg rather than what you’d expect from a true star, and it might make a $10M+ salary seem high, but it’s the only way I can see his offensive efficiency being better than what we’ve seen in the preseason.
"You ain’t as hot as I is / all of these false prophets is not messiahs /
You don’t know how high the sky is / the square mileage of earth or what pi is." - Nas
Deng won't be bad though....
But I have never seen anything justify those numbers outside of his young age.
Still he’s likely a better player for that kind of money than Wally Sczerbiak or Mike Dunleavy Jr will be (Dunleavy can bounce out of this column, but I’d still pick Deng any day).
I just hope he at least proves worthy of a $10-11M deal for all 6 years, then it’s not too bad, of course I’m not the happiest, because I think we had an adequate Deng on the wings in Noc and another filler for Deng if Deng got hurt in T2, but that’s me….I’d rather us have gone after BG, but that didn’t happen so I move on..
He too has to learn to play with a real PG, since all he’s had has been combo Kirk and Duhon (and no I’m not a New York writer, so I’m not about to suddenly say Duhon will be a great signee for the Knicks for the full midlevel….actually he’s one of the former Bulls I most want to see underperform (well Ben Wallace is first, but that’s a given and I’ve lessened my hate on Big Ben since I just don’t think he has the game he once had in Detroit, but I still want to see him stink).
Something really irked me about deng last year and this preseason
It was something i didnt notice so much when he had his “breakout” year. I think he was effective two years ago due to his ability to cut to the rim and finish, however last year and especially all preseason long, ive seen him do nothing but get the ball, a few head fakes, and then a jumper. Deng was the one guy on our team that didnt rely on a jumper (hence his high fg%) and now all he seems to do is take jumpers. Plus the way he takes them, always with the head fake and the jab step, it sort of annoys me.
On Behalf of Sue, Wjb, Bullshooter, and all the other Hinrich fans...Ill keep the Hinrich Hope coming...There will be light....
by piccolomair on Oct 28, 2008 11:44 AM CDT up reply actions
The real question is:
Will Rose be higher than Durant? I think Durant is TSG’s favorite newcomer to the league. I’m interested to see if his buddy who does the list with him (I think his name is House) talks Durant down and Rose up. Those two should be right next to each other. And both higher than Beasley, who will show that he’s a scorer and not much else this year.
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