61 Comments

I would say this FO is pathetic but at this point it feels like they're actually trolling. What fan will be happy with a GM who publicly declares that their ambition is to go .500?

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Aug 22·edited Aug 22

How would you define success in the upcoming 2023-24 season?

"Winning more games than we did last year..."

Ladies and gents, here's the new Chicago Bulls slogan. Jesus, they really don't give a fuck, do they? Maybe Eversley shouldn't be allowed to talk anymore.

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A 41-41 record is "success." Talk about burying the lede...

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Aug 22Liked by your friendly BullsBlogger

Yfbb killing it with these article thumbnails! And two articles in a week during the dead of summer!

Anyhoo, after listening to Eversley's interview on the Bulls Talk podcast, I do at least like listening to him more than AK. I guess that's how low the bar is now. I did actually like that he sort of called Pat out. He basically gave an ultimatum that Pat needs to step up this year, which I found surprising.

I've been more of a Pat defender than many on here and I will still defend that this front office screwed him over by drafting him as a project and then doing a 180 a year in and deciding they were in win-now mode and expecting Pat to magically be a starting-level player. With that being said, he's entering year four. He needs to prove he's got what it takes or he'll be signing somewhere else next offseason. Nice to see Eversley sort of put Pat's feet to the fire.

It's incredibly depressing that the expectation going into last season was to win a playoff series, and now the expectation is to win 41 games despite supposedly getting better this offseason. Your goal should never be to win 41 games. Either you're tanking for picks or you're trying to make the playoffs/win championships. If your goal is to win 41 games, you should be fired immediately.

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Aug 22Liked by your friendly BullsBlogger

I remember a time when we all thought that these two were progressive thinking, ambitious, and ready to build a new look Bulls. GarPax were the most uninspiring, company men in ill-fitting taupe suits. I always hated their team building approach, but can at least appreciate that they had an approach at all.

They saw prospects who had success in college as worth going after. Plain and simple. This led to Valentines and McDermott types, sure, but it also led to Noah and Deng and Hinrich. They weren't inventive, and rarely "went for it," but I at least felt like they could stumble into a guy like Butler once in a while.

Honest question - what does AKME believe in? Half hearted attempts at finding an international gem? Highly athletic profiles who need development, but no plan for actualizing it?

I legitimately am bored and frustrated and concerned that these guys are simply apathetic. Is there a franchise in the NBA trying less?

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The Dorfs aspire to Bulls becoming the opponent to the Harlem Globetrotters. Buy your six game pack to see all the nba stars (not on our team)! I did that in LA to see Jordan, Barkley. Ewing, etc. Clippers went 0-6 but Billy Crystal was in the house!!! It was quality entertainment for the price.

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I think of Rick Hahn sitting secure in his job as the architect of 2 seasons above .500 in his 11-year tenure. He's a big one for rejecting objective assessments of his team, too. This is just how Reinsdorf organizations work.

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This city needs another NBA team. (I know I just said that). The White Sox are letting it leak out that they might leave Chicago or the state as a whole, all for leverage purposes, at the same time that Reinsdorf has an iron grip on the city of Chicago for the profits for the Bulls. I would honestly love for Chicago to get another franchise just to press down the value of the Bulls to screw over Reinsdorf

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founding

Everyone agrees this FO is failing, but it's at least in part due to the restrictions that Reinsdorf puts on them.

Since AKME can't do much with those restrictions, who do you think could? Or how could the Bulls find lesser known replacements that could excel under JR's restrictions?

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If they think they can develop players, it would be nice if they could scoop up TyTy Washington. Or even Garuba, since this team doesn't have much size.

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I still think this team can win 50 games, but it’s lame Acne is not setting real goals. Getting 2 legit 3&D quasi-starters for a combined $8M was nice work. Giving Vuc and Zach whatever they wanted was more for the agents and the rest of the league - we’ll show you the money if you come to Chitown! I’m going to be optimistic for at least the first 20 games…I saw a trade proposal of Siakam for PWill, Terry, Lonzo and picks. Good for both sides???

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founding

KC Johnson is so milquetoast, uninspiring of any entertainment value whatsoever, and overly-hedged on every Bulls take you can possibly conceive, I'd swear he's an AI programmed robot Jerry built to save money on in house media. Except for KC will bend over backwards enthusiastically projecting to anyone who will listen (who ironically are only there to hear Bulls takes) that he's an avid hiker and music consumer. This guy, ostensibly the top Bulls media personality we have, completely mails it in every week with an almost open disdain for his job. Any person entering sports as a career is generally expected to at minimum have a passion for the game they're involved with; literally what other reason is there as an adult to be interested in sports? It's for entertainment. KC acts like he's got a gun to his head forcing him to cover the team. He'll swear to you that he's a "Bulls historian" type reporter in the vein of Sam Smith, but even Smith became famous because of Jordan Rules, a tell all behind the scenes book of the drama of the early 90s Jordan Bulls. Sam was a historian but he understood you still have to actually be interesting, enthusiastic, and engage your audience with takes they couldn't discern without your input. Given we have one of the worst ownership groups in all pro sports, KC is perhaps appropriate for lead reporter of this epoch. Rob Schaefer should count his blessings every day he's spent away from that beat reporter tutelage

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I don't know what we would expect at this point. They are trying for the playoffs one more time before going full rebuild. It doesn't cost them that much to do that. They could have blown things up and MAYBE gotten a few more assets than when they rebuild next year. Was that going to make a material difference?

Scenario #1: This team sucks or is mediocre, they'll trade DDR and Caruso at the deadline. LaVine next summer. Protected 1sts very rarely accelerate a 5-7 year rebuild.

Scenario #2: If this team is a 6th seed, they'll go into the playoffs and if they lose in the 1st round, they'll rebuild. DDR leaves "for nothing" but trading him just to get a pick requires salary filler. They could use the salary space instead for development. Caruso is probably going to fetch a similar value next June than he would in February. Then they'll trade LaVine next summer. Not much of a difference. Still a 5-7 year rebuild.

Scenario#3: If they are better than a 6th seed and win a round, maybe two (East is pretty open - Bucks are older, Celtics are gambling, Philly could blow up, Heat lost players), then they'll probably look to stay a playoff team for another year or two. Maybe bring back DDR for probably 3 years and hope Lonzo comes back. Or maybe draft Bronny and see if LeBron will play for the Bulls!

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Aug 29Liked by your friendly BullsBlogger

Saw this on the Bulls subreddit, and was surprised how many people on there agreed with it. Jerry sure knows how to pick 'em.

https://sports.yahoo.com/the-danny-ainge-system-using-sabermetrics-to-rate-every-nba-teams-top-executive-222824265.html

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how bout carlik Jones in these fiba games.... against all my intentions, seeing him got me excited for this bulls season. maybe we have a quality pg at least !

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Bad loss for Team USA this morning. Germany played their own game and made USA match them, which they couldn't.

JJJ may be making a case for worst athletic big man rebounder over Pat. I mean, at least Pat occasionally grabs a nice board. Every time a shot went up, JJJ would completely stop moving and just let his man run in and grab rebound after rebound.

I think Team USA's second unit is genuinely better than their starting unit. Haliburton, Reaves and Paolo are all great players. Ingram hasn't been great this summer, but I think the second unit missed him today.

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