the analysis was a bunch of random thoughts

The Bulls have a weird front office dynamic, with John Paxson still in the picture and owner Jerry Reinsdorf meddling as he sees fit, so it’s tough to tell where one person’s influence ends and another’s begins.

!!!!!!!

I thought Chi’s ranking a little low, but whatever.

The front office dynamic sucks…should have gotten rid of Kirk sooner, signed a less crappy contract for Luol ya I get it, but cmon, one step above the Hornets? Behind the front office that let LBJ walk all over them and then leave them in a pretty big mess? Not a chance in hell!

reading, it was about to put me to sleep.

I’d certainly have it/them ahead of Grunfeld and Otis Smith. I don’t know about Ferry; he got such a raw deal with the horrible meddling owner who forced him to coddle LeBron so much. It’s hard to really rate that front office. GarPaxDorf is almost definitely not as awesome as 1-14, though, all of whom are really very solid.

I think I agree with the rankings for the most part, with a huge exception on Donnie Nelson (who I think has been darn near terrible)….

They have an owner who is more than willing to spend whatever he can and do whatever he can for a winner and pays for all the amenities and will be the face of the franchise to answer any issues or criticize the officials etc.

He inherited Dirk Nowitzki…….

I know Cuban ultimately let Nash go, not him. But Nelsons’ the guy who overpaid for let’s see:

Shawn Marion
Josh Howard (had injury issues and even worse didn’t suddenly become a locker room issue overnight)
Wasted the 5th pick essentially (Devin Harris) by trading him for Kidd for equal ability—this isn’t and wasn’t younger Kidd. Overpaid to extend Kidd.
Signed LaFrenz, even worse signed Dampier (that may have been early Cuban too), but they finally got over Dampier—Eric’s the reason they never won, and now they dramatically overpaid for Brendan Haywood, I mean dramatically overpaid for him. he’s decent, but he’s not much better than a mid level guy….and he’ll look worse in years 4/5—the rest of Dirk’s “prime”.

Nelson’s had one of the top 10 players the last 10 years, had a willing to do anything, maverick owner (who owns the mavericks :)), had allt he nice facilities, the big guy that I am sure plenty of players would love to play with (PG’s have to love Dirk, defensive bigs would love him too as they make too much money), the facilities are nice, etc……

I’d put Nelson (No 10 really with all that) towards the bottom, maybe mid 20’s (23-25) without going fully through it.

I think Gar/Pax were in the low 20’s but improved a bit on paper it seems with a to me very successful summer this year even without the colluded big 3, we seem to have done great. But I think 19 is about right if this pans out it could move to 16-17, unless this is a dynasty which I don’t think so. Bulls have had a lot of years and a lot of mistakes.

I think early on John Hammond (Bucks) has been amazing. It’s early, but he’s making a team that nobody cared about for years and one in a city that nobody with the kind of money these teams have would want to come to, be very good. He might be in the Skiles heydey, but he’s getting undervalued guys for somewhat decent, fit the puzzle piece dollars, and doing what the young Dumars did (except without a bum #2 pick in the draft class of the last 20 yrs on the resume). We’ll see it’s early and it’s good that even with it being so early he’s already near top 10….but him behind Donnie Nelson? Really?

I do think I need a bit more See it to believe it on Morey, he wasn’t exactly given a nothing to make it a something, he did have 2 superstars and found ways to make them .500 compettitive when they both went dowdn to injury. But the Rockets were not able to make the big splashy trade they’ve wanted to and needed to do so yet, and it’s not like he took a team that seemed poised to be the worst in the division (int he lowly East no less—Bucks) and make them a top 5 team with some shrewd trades, a now seemingly low offer on Bogut, and some smaller, fit the bill pieces of relatively low annual salary players (I don’t smell a Posey on that team, and while _rew kind of sucks, I think Drew next to Bogut with a good passing PG (Value pick Jennings) and the defenders/system guys Skiles employs is good value for 5th starter/guy off the bench.

It was great to see the under discussed O’Connor up there with the limited flexibility he’s ever had because his teams always are in the playoffs…..he’s made them at least 2nd round fodder forever it seems. I know he overpaid for Kirilenko, but that’s due to both an injury (which happens) and moreso because Kirilenko’s game doesn’t fit as well with DWill and with the valued PF’s they’ve always plucked.

Oh well, fun article.

And instead had to go with Brandon Rush or Jarryd Bayless Or Jason Thompson or Brooke Lopez, which would have been the luckiest thing ever.

I’d be happy with a front court of Lopez, Noah and Deng (SIZE!!!), but I have no idea what the rest of the team would look like.

Bulls got uber-lucky. That’s why they are right where they should be.

The Deng contract was probably a mistake, because he wasn’t worth $72 million even when it was signed.