This is genuinely the most "meh" I've been to the start of a season. I'm not that angry, I'm certainly not happy, I'm not excited about the young guys, I'm pretty much done with the vets. The 93 championship was the first championship i understood "not my earliest bulls memory, but the one where I was finally old enough to understand what was being celebrated).... That was 30 years ago! In three years we will be 30 years away from the bulls last championship...and undoubtedly no closer than we are now.... Hell we might be further. I'll tune in when the games start. Maybe pat finally grows a spine, maybe lavine gets traded for harden and picks, maybe Derozan hits a fadeaway on father time. Maybe Vuc hits a 3....but I already know where this season ends....
LaVine for Harden would at least make the team interesting. I have no idea if it would be better, but it would be interesting. Then trade DeRozan and you can start ove... oh wait, they'll still be on the hook for Vucevic.
Maybe harden will be good, maybe he'll suck. What is that a +-5 game, 10...who cares! Like if you get a few picks that coincide with the year embiid leaves the 76ers high and dry, that could be something slightly above mediocre to look forward to
And harden sort of solves our pg problem, if u squint... Not that any of that matters. So yea it would be national media worthy for a minute and maybe public embarrassment will help reinsdorf want to sell the team or something....
This is my thinking too. Everyone seems to be so against a Harden trade and I disagree.
Don't get me wrong, I DO NOT like Harden. I've never liked his game and I certainly don't like his whining and constantly forcing his way out of situations he's gotten himself into.
With that being said, Harden fits with DeRozan (and probably Vooch) better than Zach does. He fills the point guard spot, shoots lots of threes, gets to the free throw line and is a good passer. All of those are things this team needs.
A backcourt of Harden, AC and DeMar actually doesn't sound that bad. Ultimately I don't think Harden makes the team significantly better than Zach, but I don't really care about that. Billy will let Harden and DeMar play hero ball and put up great numbers while losing and then the Bulls can trade both at the trade deadline to whoever thinks they're a "star" away from contending.
The whole point of a Harden for Lavine trade to me is to give this team direction. I'm so sick of this "we'll just keep running it back and see if something magically clicks and this team takes a huge step" attitude. That's not going to happen. You need to do something.
This trade does that. The only big contact they'd have on the books going into next summer would be Vooch's. Despite everyone's disdain on here for how much the Bulls paid him (I'm one is those people too), his contract is certainly tradeable.
The Bulls would have a clean slate and hopefully some draft picks and young guys with upside. I'm not exactly excited for a rebuild, but I don't really see any other way out of this mess.
I’d rather be uninteresting than trade Zach for Harden. Since when are dunks less interesting than kicking a defender while chucking a 3-pointer? You could argue Denver was an uninteresting team last year…
The Nuggets were super interesting, winning a bunch of games and having a great offense and all. The Bulls are mediocre and boring. The Nuggets are the best team in the NBA; the Bulls are like the 21st. There’s a world of difference.
Well, if interesting = winning, we shouldn’t trade Zach for Harden. If interesting = great offense, then we need a new head coach. We have the players for a great offense but not the system or the coaching leadership to achieve player buy-in for the necessary changes.
Saying “we shouldn’t trade Zach for Harden is silly” because they’re not winning, they’re not interesting right now.
I think you’re getting stuck in the minutiae of every discussion rather than seeing the big picture of the point. The Bulls are boring and uninteresting right now. A major shake up is needed. One way, as you suggested, would be to get a new coach. That would certainly be interesting.
Your other suggestion of keeping the team as-is doesn’t work. Being good is interesting. Being mediocre or bad (with little outlook for major improvement) is not interesting, even if it’s better than a worse option. A team has to reach a certain level to be interesting.
Adding Harden would be interesting for several reasons. One, the drama! Who knows what will happen? All hell could break loose!!!
But you’d also get a player - nothing special and some future pick. Maybe you can convince Harden that this team needs a PG desperately, and he can parlay that into playing for a good team at the trade deadline. The Bulls could end up getting young players and picks on both ends of this.
Finally, and I know you won’t agree, but there’s plenty of analysis out there that shows that Harden is still a great offensive player and is actually better than LaVine. Maybe a combo of he and White actually works out. Harden White Caruso and Carter is a much more interesting group in the way it can work together and complement each other than the current set up.
Yeah I disagree. There will be a much better Zach trade down the road. Harden is an old train wreck, right up there with Mr flat earther in the to 5 players to avoid at all costs.
If AKME were running a fantasy team, he'd be the guy who showed up for the draft but then still picked everyone by the system's default rankings.
They suck. I'm not a fan of the Reinsdorfs, but AKME are taking them to the cleaners. Pretty sure they could feed their basic parameters into ChatGPT and get the same or better results for a lot less.
They could sell a heck of a lot more merch. They could sell tickets for more. They are seriously underperforming from a business standpoint and if I were part of the owning group I would be raising hell about it.
I figure they are because I just don't think they have any impact on season ticket sales. Like, the Bulls would sell 10k season tickets with AKME and 10k season tickets if they hired a guy at $20/hr twice a year to sleepwalk through a couple interviews and read the ChatGPT provided script.
This city needs a second team. I'm not a huge capitalist supporter because I believe unchecked.... blah blah blah, but I'm a huge HUGE believer in competition bringing out the best in everyone. It's one of the biggest reasons I love sports. The Bulls have no competition, and they suck. There are 30 teams. Bring in a 31 and 32, one in Chicago and one in Vegas, and make this competitive. It's just a grift at this point.
I was just saying the same thing. It's always high attendance but a poor product. Get another team in here and at least we can distract ourselves by choosing which team we belong to.
I think we'll know pretty quickly how the season will go. It all comes down to how Coby & Carter handle PG duties. If one of them can become even serviceable at running the offense, then this team could be fun (thought not a real contender).
If not, then this is going to be a long, miserable season.
Would it be a disaster though? Bulls get out of Zach's contract, plus they hopefully get a draft pick or some young guys. They also don't have to worry about Harden after this year since his contract will be up.
A bad season basically seals this team's fate and forces management into a rebuild. That means there's no chance of AK extending DeMar for three more years at $35-40 million a year. They also probably trade Vooch.
A rebuild is coming. There's no way around it. The Bulls have an aging core and practically no financial flexibility. The only option is a rebuild. That can either start next summer or it can start a few summers later. I'd prefer it be the former.
The Bulls do not have an aging core; the have vets on reasonable deals in supporting roles. At this point, if there is a rebuild coming, it should be around Zach, Pat and Coby...the young players the Bulls are counting on to take the next step if they are hoping to remain competitive this season.
I guess we'll just disagree on that. DeMar and Vooch are both on the wrong side of 30. Zach is getting close, and his game is completely reliant on his athleticism. He doesn't have a game like DeMar that should age gracefully.
DeMar's current contract is reasonable. If we extend him, it will be the same situation as we have with Vooch. Is Vooch worth $20 million a year to the right team? Yeah, possibly. Would DeMar be worth $35-40 million a year to the right team? Probably. Not the Bulls though.
Our big 3 combined for the most minutes played together of any three-man unit in the league last year and they were a net negative. That's not good. Like really not good. Your three best players should be considerably better than their opponents.
So yes, in a vacuum, Vooch's contract isn't that bad and DeMar's extension may not be that bad, but if you're paying your big 3 over $100 million a year to be a net negative when playing together, you've got a big problem.
I don't have a problem with holding onto Zach and hoping Pat and Coby both take significant steps. I'm also okay with trading Zach if it means management finally decides to move on from DeMar and Vooch.
it's striking to me that the Raptors are getting pushback for holding on to Pascal Siakam, yet the Bulls should pivot to building around LaVine, when LaVine is only a year younger than Siakam.
To be fair, the Raptors have proven to be a competent organization over the past several years. I think people may have slightly higher expectations for them than they do for the Bulls... haha
Siakam is on an expiring contract and can walk away for nothing after this season; LaVine is signed to a reasonable deal for at least three more seasons with the Bulls.
I think we actually agree on the margins; this Bulls team as constructed is not good enough. They may find their way into the playoffs again, but not likely the Top 4 in the East.
We fundamentally disagree on the roles of Vuc and Demar in this framework; I think they are part of the supporting cast, with DeMar on an expiring contract and likely to be moved at the deadline. Vuc was extended, in large part because they need an NBA quality starting center, but to a reasonable deal that could be traded when the time is to blow this thing up...
I simply think when they are ready to start the rebuild, they should hold onto Pat, Coby and Zach - two of whom are on reasonable contracts and the third likely to receive a market value extension next summer. That is the core to me and they are not aging by NBA standards - one is in his prime while the two others are approaching theirs...
We definitely agree on the margins. I'm not sure I can say Coby and Pat are part of the Bulls core though. I'd say they are part of management's desired future core, but they're certainly not part of the current core.
I struggle to believe AK will trade DeMar at the deadline if this team is basically trending the same as last year or maybe a game or two higher. A lot of people thought that's what they should have done with Vooch and they didn't. Instead they gave him a contract that was probably higher than it needed to be to keep him in Chicago.
If they did that with their third best player, what makes you think they wouldn't do that with their best player? Especially since it sounds like AK loves DeMar, at least according to K.C. Johnson.
My big problem is it seems like AK is stubborn and unwilling to admit he made a mistake. He keeps preaching continuity, but I think he's secretly hoping Coby and Pat take huge steps forward and their progression makes up for his blunders. Honestly, I'd be okay with that. I'd love to see Coby and Pat look like legit NBA players this year and for their improvements to make this team a 4-6 seed. I'm just not going to sit here and hope for that, and AK shouldn't be doing that either.
AK took a shot with his big signings in 2021 and I don't have a problem with that at all. The problem was his plan hinged on an injury-prone point guard and he didn't have a back up plan. Then when it all went to shit, he refused to acknowledge it and now we're here. He needs to move on.
I disagree on how Zach’s game will age. He’s a very good 3 point shooter and could end his career as a great catch and shoot guy. He’s a long way from that point now, though. And I’m light of the recent deals given out under the new CBA his deal isn’t close to terrible. I don’t see “getting out from under Zach’s contract” as a good goal. If there’s a way to improve the team now by trading him, the Bulls should do that but dumping him for Harden makes no sense to me.
I get that point of view. Maybe I shouldn't say Zach's game will age poorly. I'll describe it this way. When DeMar is in his mid-to-upper 30s, I think he will likely still be able to produce at 85-90% of the level he was at when he was in his prime.
Zach will still be a great three point shooter in his mid-to-upper 30s, but he won't have the athleticism anymore. Maybe he learns to work around that, in much the same way D. Rose did. I just wouldn't bet money on that, personally. So I'm not trying to say Zach will be unplayable past 35. Just that I think his impact will be more limited than someone like DeMar.
I agree that I don't think Zach's contract is terrible, and I also get wanting to get a good return for him. My argument is more about the Bulls picking a lane (rebuild) instead of playing this waiting game where AK believes this team is magically going to get better if they keep running it back.
So yes, if all we care about is getting a maximum return for Zach, trading for Harden isn't the answer. That's not the point of a Harden trade though. A Harden trade is solely focused on this team clearing the books and starting fresh next summer.
You think Philly would give us Harden + picks for Lavine? Darryl Morey would like to have a word with you :)
I'm all for a rebuild. I'd like to keep Zach as part of it, but wouldn't cry if he was shipped out. I like Harden, even now, as a player. But he wouldn't be happy here so why sign up for that pain?
"You think Philly would give us Harden + picks for Lavine? Darryl Morey would like to have a word with you :)"
Except I didn't say that. I said "hopefully a pick or some young guys". Zach's contract is larger than Harden's which means a straight up trade won't work. Philly would need to either include picks or more players - most likely more players.
If you're all for a rebuild, what do you think is the best plan of action to get there?
Right now, AK still seems completely set on continuing this core for the foreseeable future. Maybe if the season goes off the rails, that'll change. But if this team finishes somewhere close to where they finished last year, I'm pretty sure we'll see the core return next year with DeMar now being on a fairly hefty extension.
The Clippers should be all but banned from national TV until they start acting like a real team. Give them 2 national TV games. One in March and one in early April. See if they can handle that. Distribute their other 10 games to the Cavs, Pistons, Magic and Rockets. Silly season is over.
I saw they have the highest number of 3-games-in-4-nights stretches. I wonder how many of those include a national TV game. Though wasn't there some at least informal understanding that they wouldn't rest in the national games?
Let me piggy back on this and lament the death of the regular season. RIP.
Remember when we ended the Heat's win streak on the back of pure Hinrich inspired grit? It was a freakin' event.
Folks, I am here to tell you that most sports have these things called 'good victories' that happen 3-4 times a year where circumstances align, a regular season game gains significance and then your team freakin' wins it (or even ties it).
The NBA is so far from this, it is pathetic. Maybe it is the 'rings' mentality or maybe just the sheer number of games, but most teams are topping out at maybe 3-4 significant strings of possessions a year and the Bulls may actually manage 0. We are an irrelevant franchise playing exclusively in an irrelevant regular season. And it definitely does not need to be this way.
Seems like the new collective bargaining agreement will change tanking/rebuilding. Teams need to spend more now. Might work to our advantage with some tank team wanting to take Ball’s dead money for people who can actually log minutes? Would DET or ORL want to tank harder by trading Bojan Bogdanovic or Jon Isaac? Do Clips/MIA want to get off the extra year on DRob or Powell’s contract (next summer?)? I don’t think you can understate the crappiness of Lonzo’s contract spoiling this team’s chances.
I think Luxury tax refund this year will be 20+M coming from 9 teams. That’s a lot of free cheese and I don’t blame the owners for not wanting to miss out on it. Both NY teams, big markets Dallas/Houston, and even Lakers are not in the tax. The risk/reward if paying the tax is bad right now. Lonzo’s production for the $ is the worst contract in the league.
This is genuinely the most "meh" I've been to the start of a season. I'm not that angry, I'm certainly not happy, I'm not excited about the young guys, I'm pretty much done with the vets. The 93 championship was the first championship i understood "not my earliest bulls memory, but the one where I was finally old enough to understand what was being celebrated).... That was 30 years ago! In three years we will be 30 years away from the bulls last championship...and undoubtedly no closer than we are now.... Hell we might be further. I'll tune in when the games start. Maybe pat finally grows a spine, maybe lavine gets traded for harden and picks, maybe Derozan hits a fadeaway on father time. Maybe Vuc hits a 3....but I already know where this season ends....
LaVine for Harden would at least make the team interesting. I have no idea if it would be better, but it would be interesting. Then trade DeRozan and you can start ove... oh wait, they'll still be on the hook for Vucevic.
Literally how I thought about it.
Maybe harden will be good, maybe he'll suck. What is that a +-5 game, 10...who cares! Like if you get a few picks that coincide with the year embiid leaves the 76ers high and dry, that could be something slightly above mediocre to look forward to
And harden sort of solves our pg problem, if u squint... Not that any of that matters. So yea it would be national media worthy for a minute and maybe public embarrassment will help reinsdorf want to sell the team or something....
This is my thinking too. Everyone seems to be so against a Harden trade and I disagree.
Don't get me wrong, I DO NOT like Harden. I've never liked his game and I certainly don't like his whining and constantly forcing his way out of situations he's gotten himself into.
With that being said, Harden fits with DeRozan (and probably Vooch) better than Zach does. He fills the point guard spot, shoots lots of threes, gets to the free throw line and is a good passer. All of those are things this team needs.
A backcourt of Harden, AC and DeMar actually doesn't sound that bad. Ultimately I don't think Harden makes the team significantly better than Zach, but I don't really care about that. Billy will let Harden and DeMar play hero ball and put up great numbers while losing and then the Bulls can trade both at the trade deadline to whoever thinks they're a "star" away from contending.
The whole point of a Harden for Lavine trade to me is to give this team direction. I'm so sick of this "we'll just keep running it back and see if something magically clicks and this team takes a huge step" attitude. That's not going to happen. You need to do something.
This trade does that. The only big contact they'd have on the books going into next summer would be Vooch's. Despite everyone's disdain on here for how much the Bulls paid him (I'm one is those people too), his contract is certainly tradeable.
The Bulls would have a clean slate and hopefully some draft picks and young guys with upside. I'm not exactly excited for a rebuild, but I don't really see any other way out of this mess.
I’d rather be uninteresting than trade Zach for Harden. Since when are dunks less interesting than kicking a defender while chucking a 3-pointer? You could argue Denver was an uninteresting team last year…
The Nuggets were super interesting, winning a bunch of games and having a great offense and all. The Bulls are mediocre and boring. The Nuggets are the best team in the NBA; the Bulls are like the 21st. There’s a world of difference.
Well, if interesting = winning, we shouldn’t trade Zach for Harden. If interesting = great offense, then we need a new head coach. We have the players for a great offense but not the system or the coaching leadership to achieve player buy-in for the necessary changes.
Saying “we shouldn’t trade Zach for Harden is silly” because they’re not winning, they’re not interesting right now.
I think you’re getting stuck in the minutiae of every discussion rather than seeing the big picture of the point. The Bulls are boring and uninteresting right now. A major shake up is needed. One way, as you suggested, would be to get a new coach. That would certainly be interesting.
Your other suggestion of keeping the team as-is doesn’t work. Being good is interesting. Being mediocre or bad (with little outlook for major improvement) is not interesting, even if it’s better than a worse option. A team has to reach a certain level to be interesting.
Adding Harden would be interesting for several reasons. One, the drama! Who knows what will happen? All hell could break loose!!!
But you’d also get a player - nothing special and some future pick. Maybe you can convince Harden that this team needs a PG desperately, and he can parlay that into playing for a good team at the trade deadline. The Bulls could end up getting young players and picks on both ends of this.
Finally, and I know you won’t agree, but there’s plenty of analysis out there that shows that Harden is still a great offensive player and is actually better than LaVine. Maybe a combo of he and White actually works out. Harden White Caruso and Carter is a much more interesting group in the way it can work together and complement each other than the current set up.
Yeah I disagree. There will be a much better Zach trade down the road. Harden is an old train wreck, right up there with Mr flat earther in the to 5 players to avoid at all costs.
If AKME were running a fantasy team, he'd be the guy who showed up for the draft but then still picked everyone by the system's default rankings.
They suck. I'm not a fan of the Reinsdorfs, but AKME are taking them to the cleaners. Pretty sure they could feed their basic parameters into ChatGPT and get the same or better results for a lot less.
Are AKME taking them to the cleaners, though? What are the season ticket sales looking like?
Probably OK. And they will always sell merch
They have totally dropped out of the national conversation, but I think the 'dorfs prefer that. Wouldn't mind dropping from local conversation either.
They could sell a heck of a lot more merch. They could sell tickets for more. They are seriously underperforming from a business standpoint and if I were part of the owning group I would be raising hell about it.
I figure they are because I just don't think they have any impact on season ticket sales. Like, the Bulls would sell 10k season tickets with AKME and 10k season tickets if they hired a guy at $20/hr twice a year to sleepwalk through a couple interviews and read the ChatGPT provided script.
Fair enough.
This city needs a second team. I'm not a huge capitalist supporter because I believe unchecked.... blah blah blah, but I'm a huge HUGE believer in competition bringing out the best in everyone. It's one of the biggest reasons I love sports. The Bulls have no competition, and they suck. There are 30 teams. Bring in a 31 and 32, one in Chicago and one in Vegas, and make this competitive. It's just a grift at this point.
I was just saying the same thing. It's always high attendance but a poor product. Get another team in here and at least we can distract ourselves by choosing which team we belong to.
I think we'll know pretty quickly how the season will go. It all comes down to how Coby & Carter handle PG duties. If one of them can become even serviceable at running the offense, then this team could be fun (thought not a real contender).
If not, then this is going to be a long, miserable season.
Headline lifted from The Onion? Both BaB and onions make me cry.
If Harden were into it, I'd be into it. I don't think he'd be into it=disaster. There are better ways to tear this thing down than that.
Would it be a disaster though? Bulls get out of Zach's contract, plus they hopefully get a draft pick or some young guys. They also don't have to worry about Harden after this year since his contract will be up.
A bad season basically seals this team's fate and forces management into a rebuild. That means there's no chance of AK extending DeMar for three more years at $35-40 million a year. They also probably trade Vooch.
A rebuild is coming. There's no way around it. The Bulls have an aging core and practically no financial flexibility. The only option is a rebuild. That can either start next summer or it can start a few summers later. I'd prefer it be the former.
The Bulls do not have an aging core; the have vets on reasonable deals in supporting roles. At this point, if there is a rebuild coming, it should be around Zach, Pat and Coby...the young players the Bulls are counting on to take the next step if they are hoping to remain competitive this season.
I guess we'll just disagree on that. DeMar and Vooch are both on the wrong side of 30. Zach is getting close, and his game is completely reliant on his athleticism. He doesn't have a game like DeMar that should age gracefully.
DeMar's current contract is reasonable. If we extend him, it will be the same situation as we have with Vooch. Is Vooch worth $20 million a year to the right team? Yeah, possibly. Would DeMar be worth $35-40 million a year to the right team? Probably. Not the Bulls though.
Our big 3 combined for the most minutes played together of any three-man unit in the league last year and they were a net negative. That's not good. Like really not good. Your three best players should be considerably better than their opponents.
So yes, in a vacuum, Vooch's contract isn't that bad and DeMar's extension may not be that bad, but if you're paying your big 3 over $100 million a year to be a net negative when playing together, you've got a big problem.
I don't have a problem with holding onto Zach and hoping Pat and Coby both take significant steps. I'm also okay with trading Zach if it means management finally decides to move on from DeMar and Vooch.
it's striking to me that the Raptors are getting pushback for holding on to Pascal Siakam, yet the Bulls should pivot to building around LaVine, when LaVine is only a year younger than Siakam.
To be fair, the Raptors have proven to be a competent organization over the past several years. I think people may have slightly higher expectations for them than they do for the Bulls... haha
Siakam is on an expiring contract and can walk away for nothing after this season; LaVine is signed to a reasonable deal for at least three more seasons with the Bulls.
I think we actually agree on the margins; this Bulls team as constructed is not good enough. They may find their way into the playoffs again, but not likely the Top 4 in the East.
We fundamentally disagree on the roles of Vuc and Demar in this framework; I think they are part of the supporting cast, with DeMar on an expiring contract and likely to be moved at the deadline. Vuc was extended, in large part because they need an NBA quality starting center, but to a reasonable deal that could be traded when the time is to blow this thing up...
I simply think when they are ready to start the rebuild, they should hold onto Pat, Coby and Zach - two of whom are on reasonable contracts and the third likely to receive a market value extension next summer. That is the core to me and they are not aging by NBA standards - one is in his prime while the two others are approaching theirs...
We definitely agree on the margins. I'm not sure I can say Coby and Pat are part of the Bulls core though. I'd say they are part of management's desired future core, but they're certainly not part of the current core.
I struggle to believe AK will trade DeMar at the deadline if this team is basically trending the same as last year or maybe a game or two higher. A lot of people thought that's what they should have done with Vooch and they didn't. Instead they gave him a contract that was probably higher than it needed to be to keep him in Chicago.
If they did that with their third best player, what makes you think they wouldn't do that with their best player? Especially since it sounds like AK loves DeMar, at least according to K.C. Johnson.
My big problem is it seems like AK is stubborn and unwilling to admit he made a mistake. He keeps preaching continuity, but I think he's secretly hoping Coby and Pat take huge steps forward and their progression makes up for his blunders. Honestly, I'd be okay with that. I'd love to see Coby and Pat look like legit NBA players this year and for their improvements to make this team a 4-6 seed. I'm just not going to sit here and hope for that, and AK shouldn't be doing that either.
AK took a shot with his big signings in 2021 and I don't have a problem with that at all. The problem was his plan hinged on an injury-prone point guard and he didn't have a back up plan. Then when it all went to shit, he refused to acknowledge it and now we're here. He needs to move on.
I disagree on how Zach’s game will age. He’s a very good 3 point shooter and could end his career as a great catch and shoot guy. He’s a long way from that point now, though. And I’m light of the recent deals given out under the new CBA his deal isn’t close to terrible. I don’t see “getting out from under Zach’s contract” as a good goal. If there’s a way to improve the team now by trading him, the Bulls should do that but dumping him for Harden makes no sense to me.
I get that point of view. Maybe I shouldn't say Zach's game will age poorly. I'll describe it this way. When DeMar is in his mid-to-upper 30s, I think he will likely still be able to produce at 85-90% of the level he was at when he was in his prime.
Zach will still be a great three point shooter in his mid-to-upper 30s, but he won't have the athleticism anymore. Maybe he learns to work around that, in much the same way D. Rose did. I just wouldn't bet money on that, personally. So I'm not trying to say Zach will be unplayable past 35. Just that I think his impact will be more limited than someone like DeMar.
I agree that I don't think Zach's contract is terrible, and I also get wanting to get a good return for him. My argument is more about the Bulls picking a lane (rebuild) instead of playing this waiting game where AK believes this team is magically going to get better if they keep running it back.
So yes, if all we care about is getting a maximum return for Zach, trading for Harden isn't the answer. That's not the point of a Harden trade though. A Harden trade is solely focused on this team clearing the books and starting fresh next summer.
you're saying they don't have an aging core because they don't have a core at all?
Their vets on good contracts in supporting roles are… Vucevic and DeRozan?
You think Philly would give us Harden + picks for Lavine? Darryl Morey would like to have a word with you :)
I'm all for a rebuild. I'd like to keep Zach as part of it, but wouldn't cry if he was shipped out. I like Harden, even now, as a player. But he wouldn't be happy here so why sign up for that pain?
"You think Philly would give us Harden + picks for Lavine? Darryl Morey would like to have a word with you :)"
Except I didn't say that. I said "hopefully a pick or some young guys". Zach's contract is larger than Harden's which means a straight up trade won't work. Philly would need to either include picks or more players - most likely more players.
If you're all for a rebuild, what do you think is the best plan of action to get there?
Right now, AK still seems completely set on continuing this core for the foreseeable future. Maybe if the season goes off the rails, that'll change. But if this team finishes somewhere close to where they finished last year, I'm pretty sure we'll see the core return next year with DeMar now being on a fairly hefty extension.
The Clippers should be all but banned from national TV until they start acting like a real team. Give them 2 national TV games. One in March and one in early April. See if they can handle that. Distribute their other 10 games to the Cavs, Pistons, Magic and Rockets. Silly season is over.
I saw they have the highest number of 3-games-in-4-nights stretches. I wonder how many of those include a national TV game. Though wasn't there some at least informal understanding that they wouldn't rest in the national games?
Let me piggy back on this and lament the death of the regular season. RIP.
Remember when we ended the Heat's win streak on the back of pure Hinrich inspired grit? It was a freakin' event.
Folks, I am here to tell you that most sports have these things called 'good victories' that happen 3-4 times a year where circumstances align, a regular season game gains significance and then your team freakin' wins it (or even ties it).
The NBA is so far from this, it is pathetic. Maybe it is the 'rings' mentality or maybe just the sheer number of games, but most teams are topping out at maybe 3-4 significant strings of possessions a year and the Bulls may actually manage 0. We are an irrelevant franchise playing exclusively in an irrelevant regular season. And it definitely does not need to be this way.
Seems like the new collective bargaining agreement will change tanking/rebuilding. Teams need to spend more now. Might work to our advantage with some tank team wanting to take Ball’s dead money for people who can actually log minutes? Would DET or ORL want to tank harder by trading Bojan Bogdanovic or Jon Isaac? Do Clips/MIA want to get off the extra year on DRob or Powell’s contract (next summer?)? I don’t think you can understate the crappiness of Lonzo’s contract spoiling this team’s chances.
you can overstate it. They got the DPE, the chances are spoiled because they won't go into the tax, which is a self-imposed restriction
I don't think any team is below the floor and 'needs' to spend right now. Maybe next offseason when it's only 1 year remaining.
I think Luxury tax refund this year will be 20+M coming from 9 teams. That’s a lot of free cheese and I don’t blame the owners for not wanting to miss out on it. Both NY teams, big markets Dallas/Houston, and even Lakers are not in the tax. The risk/reward if paying the tax is bad right now. Lonzo’s production for the $ is the worst contract in the league.