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?
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.
For sure, I think they care. I just think they somehow have no idea what it takes to win in the NBA. Which is crazy to think of considering they're the decision makers at the head of the most prominent department of a large, global organization.
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.
Everything needed to be said about this season (and maybe last season) and Bulls leadership is encapsulated in the last paragraph of the comment above. I sometimes find myself put off by the pessimism/negativity on this site but even I have to admit this is spot on.
League execs and insiders have been talking about "NBA Hell" since at least the late '90s but this is the first time I've seen a team ASPIRE to it.
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?
Right. What is their approach to building a team? What do they do if a roster isn't performing? What is their draft strategy? Free agent strategy? Why aren't they in NBA-transaction conversations at all? The answers to all these questions is quite depressing.
I think this roster actually isn't a bad jumping off point. Some real assets, true or somewhat imagined. Really in-demand players like Caruso. A few young guys that might just turn into something. But they aren't willing to try to get better, or even start over. Sad.
Oh god I wondered how long it would be until someone started trying to rehab GarPax's reputation. After 2016-17 and the disaster of Wade-Butler-Rondo their effort, which was anaemic at the best of times, truly bottomed out; and the internal org politics of locker room snitches, phone checks and a malignantly toxic workplace became the real story.
Let's not pretend that after that point they were anything short of a disaster, plan or no. I will take AKME/Donovan over that GarPax/Boylen bullshit any day.
I am, by no means, trying to rehab GarPax’s reputation. I would agree that the Hoiberg and Boylen years were the worst since before the championship 90s.
What I am trying to say is that we at least understood what GarPax was doing most of the time. It typically lacked vision, but we knew that established college players would be drafted, and middling FAs would be signed. That gave us some modestly successful seasons as often as it gave us hopeless ones. And of course, it was nowhere close to being good enough.
AKME on the other hand started out hot. The group they assembled with Lavine, Derozan, Vuc, Caruso, and Lonzo looked special. But then Lonzo got hurt. And then Pat never took the next step. And then Ayo regressed. And then Lavine and Derozan never showed that they could play without a true point guard.
AKME took one really good shot, and have bumbled in every way possible since. I’m not excusing GarPax so much as I am noting that they had a plan, as faulty as it may have been. Ever since AKME was punched in the face and had to change course, they’ve proven that they have no plan.
I’m frustrated that we are entering a 3rd season where we really haven’t addressed the Lonzo sized hole on the roster. Carter is good, but best served as a back up.
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.
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.
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
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?
I'm including the lack of support staff and whatever other stupidity JR puts on them as "restrictions". I'm not limiting it to the tax issue.
I'm curious if anyone has any outside the box ideas.
I've imagined running some sort of GM simulator online competition and hiring the top couple of participants to replace AKME, with some sort of scaled pay based on how well the team does under JR's restrictions (and how much extra money JR makes from the playoffs).
If they want to operate like a small time loser franchise, the least they can do is start actually valuing cost-controlled talent, like draft picks, G League guys, rookie scale guys, etc. The way they fling around draft picks is counterproductive if they want to be competitive and cheap. Now they're not really competitive or cheap. I just think it's gonna have to get worse before it gets better, but clearly Reinsdorf likes long, drawn-out bandaid pulls.
I agree with you in theory. But don't you think Reinsdorf wants splashy stuff that will draw eyeballs, without spending the money to do it well? Running with cost controlled talent will make it much harder to do that.
Do you have a suggestion of who has the talent to do that (and willingness to work for JR) or how to find someone who does? I don't care how stupid the idea is. It's not going to be any more stupid than staying with AKME.
Depends on your definition of "splashy" but if we're talking about committing significant team resources to chasing big name players, I can think of maybe 3 instances of this happening in the entire history of the Reinsdorf Bulls (one of them being the overreach for Vucevic). Like seriously, the splashiest Bulls moves are the 1 offseason out of every 5 where they actually pay solid starter money for someone.
I don't know who I'd bring in to the FO because I don't follow the league that closely, but I think you can build a good team under Reinsdorf's constraints. We've seen it happen. I think the things that are currently wrong with this team are on AK: not valuing shooting, not valuing cheap talent, using up a roster spot on Marko Simonovic, staying the course with a mid three that depends on Lonzo Ball to operate.
Is Reinsdorf in AK's ear telling him whatever moves he makes better maintain the bottom line? Almost certainly. But I don't think Reinsdorf gives two shits if that's done by having guys like DeRozan and Vucevic on the roster, or if it's by selling the promise of super hyped draft prospects. Unfortunately AK chose the path with the most pressure to win now and the least amount of future upside.
I don't think Reinsdorf wants to draw eyeballs, he just wants to avoid embarrassment
I think a better executive, if they felt a teardown was necessary, would be able to execute and sell that to Reinsdorf. "not embarrassing" means that the season ticket base money is still coming in
but in reality the 3rd biggest market shouldn't ever need to rebuild with some multi-year self sabotage. I think AK sold his vision on that much. He just isn't good at the job so it failed.
I think another executive who's shown competence with another organization could do it better. I do think Reinsdorf would prohibit the poaching of an actually-successful one, it'd have to be someone new to it, like AK
I think the problem is AKME are too good at not rocking the boat. Reinsdorf hates firing people, takes him ages to get around to it. Keep pushing until you're fired 5 years down the road.
On a related note, are the Paxon brothers still lingering around the org in their "advisory consultant" roles?
Yes. Though they weren't mentioned by Eversley as part of this shared front office vision. He did being up Brian Hagen as actively involved, that's Gar Forman's old Iowa State bagman
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.
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???
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
If KC Johnson were a fan calling in to a Bulls radio show, they'd cut him off after 10 seconds for bringing zero value to the conversation. If he were a Blogabull commenter, everyone would ignore him. But those are absurd hypotheticals, because everyone knows KC hates basketball so he'd never call in to a show or comment on a sports blog in the first place
Can you imagine going to work every day, and not only telling your boss you hate your job, not only telling your customers you hate your job, but also telling them you don't like the entire career field either. Then not only keeping your job after, but being promoted to the head guy at the company
You're the producer of the highest funded Bulls podcast in town, in the 3rd largest NBA media market. You create a show idea called "Bulls Season Record Predictions". Your setup man Tony Gill starts off, bringing the energy and connecting with the fans emotions, trying to stir the pot with a troll ESPN rankings article. He then hands it off to Senior Beat Bulls Writer, foremost Bulls expert in town KC Johnson who yhen tells the fans... "I don't really like talking about the Bulls. If you see me at (insert pretentious musical festival here that hasn't been cool in 10 years), don't talk to me about Bulls even though you only know me because of the Bulls. I don't have any record prediction, because record predictions are stupid. This is all so meaningless, what is the point of predictions, what is the point of sports, is there any point to anything at all!?" Thank you, KC Johnson for that remarkable bit of opinion to entertain the podcast listener trying to get through his work week
OK, you made me go and listen. It was not nearly as bad as you described lol
Even you said the prediction by ESPN was a troll job, so why take it seriously? I suppose 'because you are on a Bulls podcast and your producer wants to talk about it' is a good answer. I think CHGO did an episode as well that as described may be more up your alley with meatball fan take. I don't expect that from KC
Who pissed in your Cheerios, Jilm? This rant is gold!
Anyway, I did listen to that podcast a couple days ago. To me, KC was saying he has other hobbies outside of basketball he'd prefer to talk about since he covers basketball so much already for work.
I guess I don't really see the problem with this. I actually feel like I see other online personalities say this quite often.
It seems like some kind of post-modern, breaking the 4th wall type sports journalism where the media personality attempts to find some clever line between ostensibly covering sports, while also giving a nod towards "we can all agree sports are meaningless, right?!?" Dan Bernstein is probably the first guy in Chicago I can attribute this attitude towards, and Jason Goff will do it to from time to time, but at least they try to typically do it in a cheaky fashion. KC Johnson makes no attempts towards masking his seeming disinterest in the Bulls, basketball, and possibly sports in general, and even his job. He typically loves to put in the least amount of time possible on a podcast, encouraging the lead guy to wrap it up asap. With the exception of when he gets to talk about something else he's interested in, which the audience in general doesn't care about. You're the lead Bulls media member in town, show some professionalism.... Ricky and Jason don't enjoy the fact the Bulls suck, but they're going to give you heavy enthusiasm and in depth thoughts on every episode. They understand that sure, sports are not super serious, but what exactly is? Politics? Please. Cash Considerations does an entire episode every year projecting every Bulls game in their predictions. Does it mean much? No! And they don't pretend it does! They think it's fun, and it's meant for entertainment. Those of us Bulls nerds that like that content tune in and consume the entertainment; I listen to it while flipping houses because it's a great casual listen to pass the time, like barber shop talk. NBA athletes don't get paid millions because basketball is serious; they get paid thaty because people find it entertaining and they like that fun distraction from everyday life. KC Johnson has never been fun, entertaining, interesting, or shown much enthusiasm towards the sport he covers, which is a shame considering there's so many guys who could do better waiting in the wings who won't get that shot. I can't for the life of me figure out how such a mediocre forgettable beat guy like KC Johnson rose to the top of the beloved Bulls, and why it's not talked about more. We can all agree to dunk on guys like Marc Eversley for giving canned unoriginal answers and lacking passion and connection with the fans, but for some reason KC Johnson skates by unscathed every year, just mailing it in. I dunno, I guess I feel like someone needs to say something, and sure I'll be that guy
KC Johnson will tell you he hates his job during the season because it's such a grind, as an excuse to mail it in. And then he'll tell you in the off-season that he hates his job because there's nothing of substance to talk about, as an excuse to mail it in. Really makes you wonder... I would bet KC wouldn't like his job even if they won a title
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!
Pretty sure what I provided is what to expect. They're looking to do one more playoff run before blowing it up unless they strike into some luck, in which case they'll try for the playoffs again for another year.
As laid out above, it doesn't cost them much to try for the playoffs vs doing a firesale last summer, the past trade deadline, or this summer.
Trading Vuc would have netted 2nds last year. That's not accelerating your rebuild. Trading LaVine last year and next summer is generally going to be the same result: a max of a protected 1st and a young player, plus salary filler.
DDR is also likely going to fetch a pretty similar price between trading him last year and trading him at the deadline. And if he leaves for nothing for whatever reason, that's not going to make that big a difference with the rebuild.
The downsides of going for the playoffs is pretty low. So this whole "They should be rebuilding now!" a segment of the fanbase seems to feel is immediately necessary kind of confuses me. Yeah, they aren't a championship contender but no one should be looking forward to multi-year rebuild when there are reasons to think the playoffs are not unrealistic.
idk I mean my thing with Vuc is at least we would have gotten something for him maybe for someone who was willing to take a flier or needed money off the books. Now we've got an old center on a contract no one else was offering nor wants, so if we want to get rid of it we will probably be the ones paying to get rid of it. which is the opposite of what you want when you're trying to rebuild...
Thanks for catching on. But they not only have weak goals, they are not good at what they are attempting. Are you saying that poor execution should be expected as well?
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 !
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.
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?
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.
For sure, I think they care. I just think they somehow have no idea what it takes to win in the NBA. Which is crazy to think of considering they're the decision makers at the head of the most prominent department of a large, global organization.
A 41-41 record is "success." Talk about burying the lede...
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.
Everything needed to be said about this season (and maybe last season) and Bulls leadership is encapsulated in the last paragraph of the comment above. I sometimes find myself put off by the pessimism/negativity on this site but even I have to admit this is spot on.
League execs and insiders have been talking about "NBA Hell" since at least the late '90s but this is the first time I've seen a team ASPIRE to it.
I'll cite this praise when NBCSportsChicago sues me for unauthorized use of photos. SBNation had the Getty and USAToday photo archive.
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?
Right. What is their approach to building a team? What do they do if a roster isn't performing? What is their draft strategy? Free agent strategy? Why aren't they in NBA-transaction conversations at all? The answers to all these questions is quite depressing.
I think this roster actually isn't a bad jumping off point. Some real assets, true or somewhat imagined. Really in-demand players like Caruso. A few young guys that might just turn into something. But they aren't willing to try to get better, or even start over. Sad.
Oh god I wondered how long it would be until someone started trying to rehab GarPax's reputation. After 2016-17 and the disaster of Wade-Butler-Rondo their effort, which was anaemic at the best of times, truly bottomed out; and the internal org politics of locker room snitches, phone checks and a malignantly toxic workplace became the real story.
Let's not pretend that after that point they were anything short of a disaster, plan or no. I will take AKME/Donovan over that GarPax/Boylen bullshit any day.
I am, by no means, trying to rehab GarPax’s reputation. I would agree that the Hoiberg and Boylen years were the worst since before the championship 90s.
What I am trying to say is that we at least understood what GarPax was doing most of the time. It typically lacked vision, but we knew that established college players would be drafted, and middling FAs would be signed. That gave us some modestly successful seasons as often as it gave us hopeless ones. And of course, it was nowhere close to being good enough.
AKME on the other hand started out hot. The group they assembled with Lavine, Derozan, Vuc, Caruso, and Lonzo looked special. But then Lonzo got hurt. And then Pat never took the next step. And then Ayo regressed. And then Lavine and Derozan never showed that they could play without a true point guard.
AKME took one really good shot, and have bumbled in every way possible since. I’m not excusing GarPax so much as I am noting that they had a plan, as faulty as it may have been. Ever since AKME was punched in the face and had to change course, they’ve proven that they have no plan.
I’m frustrated that we are entering a 3rd season where we really haven’t addressed the Lonzo sized hole on the roster. Carter is good, but best served as a back up.
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.
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.
Ha hours later and Hahn has been fired
See, keep hope alive. AKME only have 8 years left, max.
😂😂😭😭
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
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?
a lot of teams operate this way, pledging only to go into the tax 'for a contender'
I don't think that's why they have a shallow pool of possible replacements
now, not paying the executives or beefing up the support staff may make other candidates stay away
I'm including the lack of support staff and whatever other stupidity JR puts on them as "restrictions". I'm not limiting it to the tax issue.
I'm curious if anyone has any outside the box ideas.
I've imagined running some sort of GM simulator online competition and hiring the top couple of participants to replace AKME, with some sort of scaled pay based on how well the team does under JR's restrictions (and how much extra money JR makes from the playoffs).
If they want to operate like a small time loser franchise, the least they can do is start actually valuing cost-controlled talent, like draft picks, G League guys, rookie scale guys, etc. The way they fling around draft picks is counterproductive if they want to be competitive and cheap. Now they're not really competitive or cheap. I just think it's gonna have to get worse before it gets better, but clearly Reinsdorf likes long, drawn-out bandaid pulls.
I agree with you in theory. But don't you think Reinsdorf wants splashy stuff that will draw eyeballs, without spending the money to do it well? Running with cost controlled talent will make it much harder to do that.
Do you have a suggestion of who has the talent to do that (and willingness to work for JR) or how to find someone who does? I don't care how stupid the idea is. It's not going to be any more stupid than staying with AKME.
Depends on your definition of "splashy" but if we're talking about committing significant team resources to chasing big name players, I can think of maybe 3 instances of this happening in the entire history of the Reinsdorf Bulls (one of them being the overreach for Vucevic). Like seriously, the splashiest Bulls moves are the 1 offseason out of every 5 where they actually pay solid starter money for someone.
I don't know who I'd bring in to the FO because I don't follow the league that closely, but I think you can build a good team under Reinsdorf's constraints. We've seen it happen. I think the things that are currently wrong with this team are on AK: not valuing shooting, not valuing cheap talent, using up a roster spot on Marko Simonovic, staying the course with a mid three that depends on Lonzo Ball to operate.
Is Reinsdorf in AK's ear telling him whatever moves he makes better maintain the bottom line? Almost certainly. But I don't think Reinsdorf gives two shits if that's done by having guys like DeRozan and Vucevic on the roster, or if it's by selling the promise of super hyped draft prospects. Unfortunately AK chose the path with the most pressure to win now and the least amount of future upside.
I don't think Reinsdorf wants to draw eyeballs, he just wants to avoid embarrassment
I think a better executive, if they felt a teardown was necessary, would be able to execute and sell that to Reinsdorf. "not embarrassing" means that the season ticket base money is still coming in
but in reality the 3rd biggest market shouldn't ever need to rebuild with some multi-year self sabotage. I think AK sold his vision on that much. He just isn't good at the job so it failed.
I think another executive who's shown competence with another organization could do it better. I do think Reinsdorf would prohibit the poaching of an actually-successful one, it'd have to be someone new to it, like AK
Sean Marks or Sam Presti
I've gone down this train of thought myself too but it's hard to know without knowing the actual variables involved.
I think the problem is AKME are too good at not rocking the boat. Reinsdorf hates firing people, takes him ages to get around to it. Keep pushing until you're fired 5 years down the road.
On a related note, are the Paxon brothers still lingering around the org in their "advisory consultant" roles?
Yes. Though they weren't mentioned by Eversley as part of this shared front office vision. He did being up Brian Hagen as actively involved, that's Gar Forman's old Iowa State bagman
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.
the roster is full and they are barely under the tax, no bulls fault
No longer under the tax according to Spotrac. They'll have to cut a non-guaranteed contract at some point to squeak under.
That means spotrac is wrong, or they're telegraphing they will cut the NG contacts. Just assume they would not go 200K over the tax for Terry Taylor
Going into the tax for a few hundred K tracks. The only other time they went into the tax was for bum-ass Rip Hamilton's stretched contract wasn't it?
TyTy Washington just got picked up by the Bucks
https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2023/08/bucks-to-sign-tyty-washington-to-two-way-deal.html
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???
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
If KC Johnson were a fan calling in to a Bulls radio show, they'd cut him off after 10 seconds for bringing zero value to the conversation. If he were a Blogabull commenter, everyone would ignore him. But those are absurd hypotheticals, because everyone knows KC hates basketball so he'd never call in to a show or comment on a sports blog in the first place
Can you imagine going to work every day, and not only telling your boss you hate your job, not only telling your customers you hate your job, but also telling them you don't like the entire career field either. Then not only keeping your job after, but being promoted to the head guy at the company
You're the producer of the highest funded Bulls podcast in town, in the 3rd largest NBA media market. You create a show idea called "Bulls Season Record Predictions". Your setup man Tony Gill starts off, bringing the energy and connecting with the fans emotions, trying to stir the pot with a troll ESPN rankings article. He then hands it off to Senior Beat Bulls Writer, foremost Bulls expert in town KC Johnson who yhen tells the fans... "I don't really like talking about the Bulls. If you see me at (insert pretentious musical festival here that hasn't been cool in 10 years), don't talk to me about Bulls even though you only know me because of the Bulls. I don't have any record prediction, because record predictions are stupid. This is all so meaningless, what is the point of predictions, what is the point of sports, is there any point to anything at all!?" Thank you, KC Johnson for that remarkable bit of opinion to entertain the podcast listener trying to get through his work week
OK, you made me go and listen. It was not nearly as bad as you described lol
Even you said the prediction by ESPN was a troll job, so why take it seriously? I suppose 'because you are on a Bulls podcast and your producer wants to talk about it' is a good answer. I think CHGO did an episode as well that as described may be more up your alley with meatball fan take. I don't expect that from KC
So do you or do you not think a guy with the title of Senior Bulls Insider or whatever they're calling him should enjoy talking about basketball?
Who pissed in your Cheerios, Jilm? This rant is gold!
Anyway, I did listen to that podcast a couple days ago. To me, KC was saying he has other hobbies outside of basketball he'd prefer to talk about since he covers basketball so much already for work.
I guess I don't really see the problem with this. I actually feel like I see other online personalities say this quite often.
It seems like some kind of post-modern, breaking the 4th wall type sports journalism where the media personality attempts to find some clever line between ostensibly covering sports, while also giving a nod towards "we can all agree sports are meaningless, right?!?" Dan Bernstein is probably the first guy in Chicago I can attribute this attitude towards, and Jason Goff will do it to from time to time, but at least they try to typically do it in a cheaky fashion. KC Johnson makes no attempts towards masking his seeming disinterest in the Bulls, basketball, and possibly sports in general, and even his job. He typically loves to put in the least amount of time possible on a podcast, encouraging the lead guy to wrap it up asap. With the exception of when he gets to talk about something else he's interested in, which the audience in general doesn't care about. You're the lead Bulls media member in town, show some professionalism.... Ricky and Jason don't enjoy the fact the Bulls suck, but they're going to give you heavy enthusiasm and in depth thoughts on every episode. They understand that sure, sports are not super serious, but what exactly is? Politics? Please. Cash Considerations does an entire episode every year projecting every Bulls game in their predictions. Does it mean much? No! And they don't pretend it does! They think it's fun, and it's meant for entertainment. Those of us Bulls nerds that like that content tune in and consume the entertainment; I listen to it while flipping houses because it's a great casual listen to pass the time, like barber shop talk. NBA athletes don't get paid millions because basketball is serious; they get paid thaty because people find it entertaining and they like that fun distraction from everyday life. KC Johnson has never been fun, entertaining, interesting, or shown much enthusiasm towards the sport he covers, which is a shame considering there's so many guys who could do better waiting in the wings who won't get that shot. I can't for the life of me figure out how such a mediocre forgettable beat guy like KC Johnson rose to the top of the beloved Bulls, and why it's not talked about more. We can all agree to dunk on guys like Marc Eversley for giving canned unoriginal answers and lacking passion and connection with the fans, but for some reason KC Johnson skates by unscathed every year, just mailing it in. I dunno, I guess I feel like someone needs to say something, and sure I'll be that guy
I think he likes talking about basketball fine
He doesn't really like talking about The Discourse, for example ESPN 'panel' predictions, which isn't disqualifying
KC Johnson will tell you he hates his job during the season because it's such a grind, as an excuse to mail it in. And then he'll tell you in the off-season that he hates his job because there's nothing of substance to talk about, as an excuse to mail it in. Really makes you wonder... I would bet KC wouldn't like his job even if they won a title
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!
Yeah I mean idk. I thought if last year sucked they'd trade vuc at the deadline, and they didn't. I have no idea what to expect anymore heh.
Pretty sure what I provided is what to expect. They're looking to do one more playoff run before blowing it up unless they strike into some luck, in which case they'll try for the playoffs again for another year.
As laid out above, it doesn't cost them much to try for the playoffs vs doing a firesale last summer, the past trade deadline, or this summer.
Trading Vuc would have netted 2nds last year. That's not accelerating your rebuild. Trading LaVine last year and next summer is generally going to be the same result: a max of a protected 1st and a young player, plus salary filler.
DDR is also likely going to fetch a pretty similar price between trading him last year and trading him at the deadline. And if he leaves for nothing for whatever reason, that's not going to make that big a difference with the rebuild.
The downsides of going for the playoffs is pretty low. So this whole "They should be rebuilding now!" a segment of the fanbase seems to feel is immediately necessary kind of confuses me. Yeah, they aren't a championship contender but no one should be looking forward to multi-year rebuild when there are reasons to think the playoffs are not unrealistic.
idk I mean my thing with Vuc is at least we would have gotten something for him maybe for someone who was willing to take a flier or needed money off the books. Now we've got an old center on a contract no one else was offering nor wants, so if we want to get rid of it we will probably be the ones paying to get rid of it. which is the opposite of what you want when you're trying to rebuild...
Thanks for catching on. But they not only have weak goals, they are not good at what they are attempting. Are you saying that poor execution should be expected as well?
Poor execution should be expected, yes. Poor execution should not be accepted though.
precisely, I don't know what JimBoylenCardsFan would expect at this point
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
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 !
nice bulls story too since luol Deng has basically funded & assembled the entire south sudan team
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.