Well, somebody noticed.

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 29, 2007 10:46 PM CDT in News

SI.com knows how to get traffic. It's the ass-awful days of the offseason so what better time to give 'grades' and have whiny bloggers like me rant about them. I wish I was a stronger man to where I'd realize they're silly.

But I'm not. At least Marty Burns realizes the upgrade that Joe Smith is over PJ Brown (offensively anyway, Brown was statistically abysmal), and remembers that the Bulls are adding a top-10 'NBA-ready' pick in Jo Noah, even calling him an 'elite prospect'.

Besides that and the Gainsville-biased David Thorpe, there hasn't been much buzz over Noah since his wacky draft suit. Sitting out the summer league didn't help, but amid rumblings over what little has been done at the top of the East over the offseason, he's a reminder that the Bulls are at the top of the East and they have done some things.

No, there was no KG deal (and I won't bother reminding Burns or Winderman how near-impossible that would've been this offseason) but the Bulls will need Noah to contribute and all indications are that he's ready. There shouldn't be as much blowhard hype over these lottery guys as there was around draft time, but some of that excitement was for a reason, and the long summer since shouldn't dilute it towards somewhere forgotten.

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I found it

pretty fair writing from Burns though I agree the KG bit was off-base... ..there were absolutely no indications that Paxson aggressively sought KG after last summer. It's not like he offered 6 all-stars and a season pass to the "Micheal Sweetney All-World Buffet". So, it's tough to say that we 'lost' to the Celtics w/o more evidence that we were competing with them.
As for Noah, it is alarming that his shoulder might require surgery. Though we can not expect him to play major minutes, Noah certainly could contribute valuable play throughout the season. Not having him for even half of the season would be a blow.
As for evaluating the off-season moves, it's tough to grade the Bulls. Their two biggest moves have yet to be made. If Paxson manages to wrap up Luol and Ben to long-term deals, I would find it hard to give them a grade less than A-. So, maybe Marty can come back to this subject in a month's time and reevaluate.
I am pleased that somebody rated the Nocioni move highly. This is a move that was largely panned on our own blog. I agree that we overpaid but am hopeful that Du and Noc can play a part in a package deal sometime during the season.

by CookDing on Aug 30, 2007 7:49 AM CDT 0 recs

who says it might require surgery?

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 30, 2007 8:00 AM CDT up 0 recs

Burns did

"There's speculation......"

Which is just speculation based on pre-draft things. I think if the Bulls medical men and women thought he'd needed surgery after they examined him, he'd have had it and he'd be re-habbing from the surgery, just not from the tear.

The Bulls.com stuff showed him shooting, and if his shoulder wasn't healed, he wouldn't be doing that. That's why they kept him out of summer league.

by KT on Aug 30, 2007 8:36 AM CDT up 0 recs

Shoulder tears

I have a slight shoulder tear now. My doctor said that he could go in and operate and sew it up, or I could just let it heal. The downside of the latter is that it takes forever for shoulder injuries to heal. But in Noah's case, if resting and rehabbing are an option, its still preferable to going under the knife, where the rehab is alot more intense.

Score. Or do not score. There is no clutch until tomorrow.

by preverbal on Aug 30, 2007 11:37 AM CDT up 0 recs

Maybe

Noah's shoulder will hurt every time he shoots his wacky-formed jump shot, so he'll have to change it :)

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 30, 2007 1:04 PM CDT up 0 recs

Granny method?

It's more natural anyway.

Get that out of Tyrus' House!!!!

by cubbybear on Aug 30, 2007 6:19 PM CDT up 0 recs

If the tear wasn't healed

he would not be allowed to shoot.

by chgobr on Sep 3, 2007 7:49 AM CDT up 0 recs

Sefolosha

Nobody's mentioned Sefolosha and what he has been doing this summer? Does anyone know?

by hlac on Aug 30, 2007 11:30 PM CDT 0 recs

Training and playing for Switzerland

They routed Ireland last week, and they play Cyprus this saturday, and Romania in a week for a spot in the european A division next year (playing against top teams in Europe like France, Greece, Spain, etc).
Will report next week after the game against Cyprus (swiss TV will show 30 minute highlights of the game on Sat night).
I also already reported on Blogabull earlier this summer the preparation game against France (with a video of a dunk from Thabo on the french center) and the fact that Jim Boylan came back to Vevey (where Thabo lives and where Jim played 20+ years ago and is a legend) to work with Thabo for a full week on his jump shot (among other things).
With the swiss team, Thabo is embracing a leadership role with lots of responsibilities (offensively) and is so far doing very well (albeit against lesser opponents, but he is THE focus of the defense every time around).
Let's hope it translates into a more confident Thabo next year for the BULLS. I saw Thabo play when he was 17/18 y.o, and what I have seen so far this summer is that his Jump shot has improved by heaps since then (it was his BIG weakness as a teenager). And I don't think he has reached his ceiling for this, he will improve more and more (in France and Italy these past 3 or 4 years he was expected to play more as a 3 or even sometimes 4, and maybe they didn't have him work as much as they should have on the jump shot).
We shall see.

The Game chose him !

by Diabolo on Aug 31, 2007 3:38 AM CDT up 0 recs

Thanks so

much for the update on Thabo.

by sue369 on Aug 31, 2007 9:39 AM CDT up 0 recs

Great update!

by chgobr on Sep 3, 2007 7:48 AM CDT up 0 recs

KG and what we missed

The one that hurt me the most is Luis Scola to the Rockets. Could he have been that hard to obtain??!?!? The guy just scored 20 points in 18 minutes against team USA. I know the US won by 15 but it was largely built on the first quarter lead and argentina was missing practically the better half of their team. Scola is like a Nocioni who plays in the interior. Actually he is better than nocioni because he is a good passer. He hits the 15 foot shot all the time. Maybe his defense is weak but whatever, we have plenty of interior help defense. Damn it, he is what we needed.. .

I know we went over this how the spurs needed cap relief but didnt we have sweetney and Duhon, both expiring contracts. Duhon would have been upgrade at point guard for the spurs.

by Sambossanova on Aug 31, 2007 5:54 AM CDT 0 recs

they didn't want people,

they wanted immediate cap relief and Sweetney isn't under contract.

They'd be paying luxury tax if they took Duhon since he'd have them over the cap, they took a player that they could cut immediately without owing him any money.

The Spurs kept turning down offers for Scola the past couple of years - from us (several times), Memphis, Cleveland (and Ferry's their protege).

I think they'll end up regretting the trade eventually, but not this year. Just like Phoenix is going to wake up in a couple of years and wonder if trading all this picks to Portland was really a good idea in the long run.

by KT on Aug 31, 2007 7:25 AM CDT up 0 recs

immediate cap relief

why would they sign vaughn and bonner. They would have saved more money by letting go of vaughn and trading bonner and scola rights for Duhon. or thrown in udrih. Either duhon's value is lower than vaughn or they like bonner a lot. OR the bulls are stupid enough to think that duhon is a great point guard and thought they might have been getting the short end of the stick. Whatever, I guess its all in the past and we'll have to see how scola adapts to NBA. If the bulls get nothing back in return for duhon this mid season, I am going to be a lot more angry than the pj brown no trade scenarios.

by Sambossanova on Aug 31, 2007 11:02 AM CDT up 0 recs

maybe they think Duhon sucks

It's asking a lot for the Spurs to make all these other roster moves just to get Duhon.

If the Bulls get nothing in return for Duhon it's because Duhon has little value. I just hope that they come up with somebody to be the backup pg so he can at least be let go in the offseason (I assume someone will sign him to a decent contract that the Bulls shouldn't match).

Scola did look good last night, but its hard to speculate the Bulls chances in getting him, the Spurs held all the cards.

by your friendly BullsBlogger on Aug 31, 2007 11:12 AM CDT up 0 recs