i'm somewhat surprised they're having practice today. They will see it as the perfect time to...rest up and get healthy. BIG GAME in fucking Charlotte lol
It's so ridiculous that we have Dr. Donovan giving these day-to-day updates, I have no clue who will be back by Friday. If I'm guessing, Tre Jones, and that's it? Smith, Huerter, and Okoro all have soft tissue injuries that usually take weeks (but they won't say that, except with Huerter)
>Per Donovan, today was a non-contact practice. Jalen Smith (hamstring), Isaac Okoro (back) and Tre Jones (ankle) went through everything. Ayo Dosunmu went to the doctor after last night’s game, was bothered by his thumb. He and Kevin Huerter (hamstring) did not practice today.
and then we get a Dr. Donovan quote on Okoro:
“He is running and shooting and doing all that kind of stuff. The issue has been when he arches his back. He said he feels much better, but I think until he gets out there and has some contact with moving and cutting, that’ll be a telltale.”
More than likely Bulls management will stay in hiding. But I could see some statement 'leaked' to KC Johnson as part of a Friday afternoon news dump while the team (and dwindling amount of reporters covering them) is in Charlotte
This is probably the worst 10 game stretch of the past five years that I can remember. We need to go back to 2018-9 season when they lost 10 straight and 14 of 15. This season’s stretch might be worse when you consider the quality of their opponents though.
After Peter Patton was fired, I believe I made a comment about how all Reinsdorf employees are undone by their hubris eventually and AK’s time could (finally) be coming.
I think we might be reaching that point. This is getting ugly. Vuc doesn’t want to be here. The role players can’t stay healthy. Coby and Giddey aren’t playing well together. Noa is out for the year and weighs as much as I did in middle school. Billy is giving weird comments about the team not caring enough about helping each other. Giddey is giving insane comments about how teams have figured out how to beat them by simply boxing out and getting back on defense.
It’s a disaster. And AK will eventually be shown the door. But what’s maddening is that it won’t happen this season, because his cheapskate bosses just signed him to an extension.
The greatest hope for this team is a draft pick so good that even AK can’t screw it up.
To be fair, the cap table cleans out a ton next year and almost empties out the year following, except for PWills albatross contract. Either the house cleaning is coming this season or at the end almost by necessity.
I mean, AK can't intend to resign even half of Ayo, Vuc, Collins, Coby, Huerter, Terry, and Carter? Even if they only keep two of Coby, Vuc and Ayo the team would be in defacto rebuilding mode.
I'm more concerned about a GM that can't even tank properly, gave up a valuable draft pick last year, and next year will likely pick yet another 6'9" raw prospect with so so shooting.
We will have $70 million of cap room this summer. It's not the plan to use it all on our own guys. YfBb doesn't like to acknowledge that because it makes it seem like AK has an actual plan.
I said he will have intention to sign other guys. But he will fail. Like your idea that they're going to pursue Jalen Duren, that's not even a failure they just won't bother (because he's restricted and expensive)
Duren is playing like he's going to get a max contract, so that's a tough one. I would still offer it, but Detroit will likely match. Getting Williams or Kessler is more likely, I'd say.
But I hope we make a big offer to get a center. I would rather pay $30-40 million to get a good player, than pay the same amount to take on a stiff just to get a draft pick.
For some reason they've morphed to SOLELY drive and kick whereas early there was some semblance of motion, weave, handoff, drive. Earlier Ayo and Tre especially were using that to get to the rim. Now Giddey, Matas and sad enough PW are trying to break down defenders 1:1 and EVERY time they get turned and the ball dug out or they get off their feet and need a bail out. Not sure what changed. It's effin UGLY and may just be that with a little bit of tape they were easily solved by the league offensively. Defensively it's clear everyone just goes to the rim against them (Vuc), bigs and littles alike. You would think Coby on offense and Collins on defense would help but man this team is just *beat*.
This team is a total disgrace. They refuse to actual start over and pay top dollar to bring in the sharpest minds possible at GM or coaching. Eventually AK will get fired but it feels like it's gonna be a wash/rinse/repeat cycle with some other clown college graduates in to run the show. It's an ownership problem hands down.
Real ones saw this coming and the pollyannas did their typical wishcasting. I know the site catches flak for being "negative" but how can you not be knowing a legacy franchise is ran like a banana stand?
It feels worth keeping in mind that Krause resigned and Pax fired himself. Gar was fired, but if I remember correctly, he wasn’t even really running the show at that point.
Basically, the Bulls have never actually fired their lead decision maker while Jerry’s owned the team.
Reality is this Bulls Team a mess still even if Giddy good enough to be a starter on playoff Team. They keep losing due to lack of actual talent; which depth of average players with low ceilings was never a real solution to fix.
Like someone said unless you draft perfectly you need to stockpile picks to give you more chances. Or you need to spend $. Bulls trade badly and are cheap so really had no path to success this year based on the past recent years of poor team building and asset management
The funny thing about AK is if he traded all of our current roster for salary + draft picks, he'd still have all his favorite excuses... but with draft picks. However you were gonna spin "competitiveness" out of a 36-win season is still gonna be available if you only win 29.
Never admitting you're wrong is just The American Way all over again. If it can get you to be the President of the United States, the Secretary of Killing, and Director of the FBI, why would a basketball administrator ever admit to it?
Of course the Bulls were figured out. They're running a "system" or a "gimmick" offense with non-elite players. At least for the past 10 years - and probably even longer - the only offenses that are good year-in, year-out or those led by superstars or multiple stars. Think Boston, Denver, Golden State in their Dynasty, even Dallas when Luka is healthy. But anyone else who had were good offenses led by really good players and a good system, couldn't sustain it. Cleveland last year to this year. Utah of a few years back. Sacramento when they had their breakout. The Hawks one year.
When you're gunning for a system to make the team successful, it rarely works year-on-year. This is the NBA (NFL is the same, too - think Jayden Daniels or CJ Stroud in their sophomore seasons), and they have the greatest basketball minds in the world working on stopping these things. You can get away with it for a year, in a regular season, but when teams have an off-season to evaluate the league and gameplan for every team, they'll find holes. And the only way to beat it is to have superior players year-in and year-out.
Well, sure. To win a championship you need a superstar. There are only 7 or 8 players in the NBA now that can say they were the best player on a championship team, and the worst of those guys is Tatum. So we're not going to be at that level. But you can get to the conference finals without one of those guys.
I think I agree our offense is getting too gimmicky. But I don't think playing faster with a deeper rotation is the problem. A lot of teams are doing that now. Wih the increase in injuries over the last few years I think you need to have more players to rely on.
I don't think that's true, and that's not the point. If we think we need to get a top 7-8 player, we don't have many options. Either trade for Giannis (good luck with that) or tank hard for the next few years and see if we can hit on a draft pick. I doubt we can get Giannis and I am not excited about waiting five years to see if we can hit on and develop a superstar.
Nobody said we need to get à Too 7-8 player. That’s a misreading of what I was saying. I was saying if you’re going to rely on a system that stays the same from year-to-year, then you need to have a Top player for it to be continually good.
The alternative to that, of course, is to not be staid and rely on a single system. It’s to be creative, innovative, and play to your players’ strengths. You also need to have good 2-way players and a strong defense. You need to continually churn the team over trying to exploit any advantage, and continually innovate your systems.
So no, no one said we need to have a Top 7-8 player to compete, that is, unless, you think the team should stay with their “system” and philosophy. Then they do.
Okay, I get what you are saying, and I agree with all that. Yes, we are light on talent so we need to innovate. Yes, we need more 2-way players and yes we need better defense. And yes, we need to be constantly improving and adjusting because the league will adjust too.
The tough part for the Bulls now is figuring out what adjustments to make. I think the plan going in to the season made sense. We thought we had a deeper roster than most, and could push the pace and go 10 deep to offset our lack of stars at the top. We also seemed to want to rely on fundamentals: we didn't foul much and we got the most defensive rebounds. We were also disciplined in our shooting: we took the most shots at the rim, the least long twos, and the most threes.
Early in the season that worked. We seemed to tire out our opponents and played well late. Recently that turned around on us obviously. One part of it is that going 10 deep is not the same when you have injuries, and your 10 now includes guys like Terry, Phillips, Olbrich and Carter. Also our rebounding has regressed, and although we are shooting the most shots at the rim of any team, we also have the 2nd worst FG% on those shots. A downside of our "soft" defense is that we are allowing a lot of open threes.
On top of that, Vuc hasn't had a good game since he called out the team after our last win. Teams have neutralized Giddey the last few games by swarming his drives. And Coby is still hurt and may be for a while yet.
I didn't address firing Billy Donovan due to the implausibility. If Bulls even care to attempt a short-term fix, they're not going to get a new coach. Why? He's doing exactly what AK wants, even while telling AK all his players suck AK is like "well you are a Hall of Famer and I *do* suck" and AK appreciates that Billy is there as his shield.
Instead, lean in to Billy's assessment: stop playing 3-4 active players and replace the two-way guys. Limit Vuc's minutes. Look for genuine bigs and physical wings, even if they stink they are at least different.
Then the following guys don't get to play anymore:
Trade Dalen Terry, Julian Phillips, Kevin Huerter
Cut Lachlan Albrich, Emmanuel Miller
Patrick Williams is end of bench DNP, or neg him and say "return to conditioning"
Has AK had a single successful scrap-heap acquisition? I don't think Adama Sanogo never made it because Billy wouldn't play him.
I feel better about my 'Billy is right' take because it goes against what I've seen from the Bulls fan 'content creator' industrial complex
there are multiple YouTube shows out there - I seek them out because I can't get enough Bulls content when they suck - saying Billy and Vuc negging the team is what made them bad
I could make a classic blog post about this but I should maintain discipline that these shows are not really worth considering and responding to. Similar attitude as I have with Joe Cowley.
I don't feel strongly about Billy either way, but to all of the people who want him fired: if some combo of Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, and John Wooden coached this team, how many more wins would they have? Maybe 1? If anything, I say move Billy to the FO and show AKME the door.
The Bulls have a long break off this week because the NBA Cup. Perfect time to totally clean house (they obviously won't)
i'm somewhat surprised they're having practice today. They will see it as the perfect time to...rest up and get healthy. BIG GAME in fucking Charlotte lol
It's so ridiculous that we have Dr. Donovan giving these day-to-day updates, I have no clue who will be back by Friday. If I'm guessing, Tre Jones, and that's it? Smith, Huerter, and Okoro all have soft tissue injuries that usually take weeks (but they won't say that, except with Huerter)
Practice injury update:
@DorseyBullsRTB
>Per Donovan, today was a non-contact practice. Jalen Smith (hamstring), Isaac Okoro (back) and Tre Jones (ankle) went through everything. Ayo Dosunmu went to the doctor after last night’s game, was bothered by his thumb. He and Kevin Huerter (hamstring) did not practice today.
and then we get a Dr. Donovan quote on Okoro:
“He is running and shooting and doing all that kind of stuff. The issue has been when he arches his back. He said he feels much better, but I think until he gets out there and has some contact with moving and cutting, that’ll be a telltale.”
More than likely Bulls management will stay in hiding. But I could see some statement 'leaked' to KC Johnson as part of a Friday afternoon news dump while the team (and dwindling amount of reporters covering them) is in Charlotte
This is probably the worst 10 game stretch of the past five years that I can remember. We need to go back to 2018-9 season when they lost 10 straight and 14 of 15. This season’s stretch might be worse when you consider the quality of their opponents though.
I think it was potentially as bad to start the 2023 season, they were 5-14 and Arturas actually commented on it https://www.chicagotribune.com/2023/11/28/arturas-karniovas-faces-reality-of-chicago-bulls-dismal-5-14-start-im-not-running-from-it-its-my-responsibility/
Weren't they actively tanking in 18-19 though? I'd say this is much worse since this team is actually trying to win.
I think it was one of GarPax’s half assed tanking seasons.
After Peter Patton was fired, I believe I made a comment about how all Reinsdorf employees are undone by their hubris eventually and AK’s time could (finally) be coming.
I think we might be reaching that point. This is getting ugly. Vuc doesn’t want to be here. The role players can’t stay healthy. Coby and Giddey aren’t playing well together. Noa is out for the year and weighs as much as I did in middle school. Billy is giving weird comments about the team not caring enough about helping each other. Giddey is giving insane comments about how teams have figured out how to beat them by simply boxing out and getting back on defense.
It’s a disaster. And AK will eventually be shown the door. But what’s maddening is that it won’t happen this season, because his cheapskate bosses just signed him to an extension.
The greatest hope for this team is a draft pick so good that even AK can’t screw it up.
yep same boat as last year. The top bailout is a top-3 pick. The second best thing that could happen is AK fired.
Either way it won't happen before the deadline, so he will get another one of those to fuck up
To be fair, the cap table cleans out a ton next year and almost empties out the year following, except for PWills albatross contract. Either the house cleaning is coming this season or at the end almost by necessity.
I mean, AK can't intend to resign even half of Ayo, Vuc, Collins, Coby, Huerter, Terry, and Carter? Even if they only keep two of Coby, Vuc and Ayo the team would be in defacto rebuilding mode.
I'm more concerned about a GM that can't even tank properly, gave up a valuable draft pick last year, and next year will likely pick yet another 6'9" raw prospect with so so shooting.
they absolutely intend to re-sign everyone. They like their guys!
but really it's that they intend on getting better players, but they won't be able to (and don't even know how), so they will re-sign their guys
Ugh, that second option seems depressingly likely.
We will have $70 million of cap room this summer. It's not the plan to use it all on our own guys. YfBb doesn't like to acknowledge that because it makes it seem like AK has an actual plan.
I said he will have intention to sign other guys. But he will fail. Like your idea that they're going to pursue Jalen Duren, that's not even a failure they just won't bother (because he's restricted and expensive)
Duren is playing like he's going to get a max contract, so that's a tough one. I would still offer it, but Detroit will likely match. Getting Williams or Kessler is more likely, I'd say.
But I hope we make a big offer to get a center. I would rather pay $30-40 million to get a good player, than pay the same amount to take on a stiff just to get a draft pick.
For some reason they've morphed to SOLELY drive and kick whereas early there was some semblance of motion, weave, handoff, drive. Earlier Ayo and Tre especially were using that to get to the rim. Now Giddey, Matas and sad enough PW are trying to break down defenders 1:1 and EVERY time they get turned and the ball dug out or they get off their feet and need a bail out. Not sure what changed. It's effin UGLY and may just be that with a little bit of tape they were easily solved by the league offensively. Defensively it's clear everyone just goes to the rim against them (Vuc), bigs and littles alike. You would think Coby on offense and Collins on defense would help but man this team is just *beat*.
Collins ramped up the physicality, biggest impact was busting Matas's nose
well, Giddey even admitted the Bulls have been figured out!
This team is a total disgrace. They refuse to actual start over and pay top dollar to bring in the sharpest minds possible at GM or coaching. Eventually AK will get fired but it feels like it's gonna be a wash/rinse/repeat cycle with some other clown college graduates in to run the show. It's an ownership problem hands down.
Real ones saw this coming and the pollyannas did their typical wishcasting. I know the site catches flak for being "negative" but how can you not be knowing a legacy franchise is ran like a banana stand?
We need to have another All Star Game at the UC so that fans can chant to fire the GM. It's the only way.
It feels worth keeping in mind that Krause resigned and Pax fired himself. Gar was fired, but if I remember correctly, he wasn’t even really running the show at that point.
Basically, the Bulls have never actually fired their lead decision maker while Jerry’s owned the team.
also, Paxson is still in the building
We can only hope they all get fired and Reinsdorf sells the team Since the owner much like for the White sox is what's been holding them back.
Still having winning record at home!
Reality is this Bulls Team a mess still even if Giddy good enough to be a starter on playoff Team. They keep losing due to lack of actual talent; which depth of average players with low ceilings was never a real solution to fix.
Like someone said unless you draft perfectly you need to stockpile picks to give you more chances. Or you need to spend $. Bulls trade badly and are cheap so really had no path to success this year based on the past recent years of poor team building and asset management
4-14: the four games they won by combined 7 pts.
They better win next two vs Char and NO if they want to contend for 10th haha
"But we started 6-1" is the story of the season. You can go to bed 😁
The funny thing about AK is if he traded all of our current roster for salary + draft picks, he'd still have all his favorite excuses... but with draft picks. However you were gonna spin "competitiveness" out of a 36-win season is still gonna be available if you only win 29.
Never admitting you're wrong is just The American Way all over again. If it can get you to be the President of the United States, the Secretary of Killing, and Director of the FBI, why would a basketball administrator ever admit to it?
Of course the Bulls were figured out. They're running a "system" or a "gimmick" offense with non-elite players. At least for the past 10 years - and probably even longer - the only offenses that are good year-in, year-out or those led by superstars or multiple stars. Think Boston, Denver, Golden State in their Dynasty, even Dallas when Luka is healthy. But anyone else who had were good offenses led by really good players and a good system, couldn't sustain it. Cleveland last year to this year. Utah of a few years back. Sacramento when they had their breakout. The Hawks one year.
When you're gunning for a system to make the team successful, it rarely works year-on-year. This is the NBA (NFL is the same, too - think Jayden Daniels or CJ Stroud in their sophomore seasons), and they have the greatest basketball minds in the world working on stopping these things. You can get away with it for a year, in a regular season, but when teams have an off-season to evaluate the league and gameplan for every team, they'll find holes. And the only way to beat it is to have superior players year-in and year-out.
Well, sure. To win a championship you need a superstar. There are only 7 or 8 players in the NBA now that can say they were the best player on a championship team, and the worst of those guys is Tatum. So we're not going to be at that level. But you can get to the conference finals without one of those guys.
I think I agree our offense is getting too gimmicky. But I don't think playing faster with a deeper rotation is the problem. A lot of teams are doing that now. Wih the increase in injuries over the last few years I think you need to have more players to rely on.
the Bulls are not doing without a top 7 or 8 player, but without a top 70 or 80 player
I don't think that's true, and that's not the point. If we think we need to get a top 7-8 player, we don't have many options. Either trade for Giannis (good luck with that) or tank hard for the next few years and see if we can hit on a draft pick. I doubt we can get Giannis and I am not excited about waiting five years to see if we can hit on and develop a superstar.
Nobody said we need to get à Too 7-8 player. That’s a misreading of what I was saying. I was saying if you’re going to rely on a system that stays the same from year-to-year, then you need to have a Top player for it to be continually good.
The alternative to that, of course, is to not be staid and rely on a single system. It’s to be creative, innovative, and play to your players’ strengths. You also need to have good 2-way players and a strong defense. You need to continually churn the team over trying to exploit any advantage, and continually innovate your systems.
So no, no one said we need to have a Top 7-8 player to compete, that is, unless, you think the team should stay with their “system” and philosophy. Then they do.
Okay, I get what you are saying, and I agree with all that. Yes, we are light on talent so we need to innovate. Yes, we need more 2-way players and yes we need better defense. And yes, we need to be constantly improving and adjusting because the league will adjust too.
The tough part for the Bulls now is figuring out what adjustments to make. I think the plan going in to the season made sense. We thought we had a deeper roster than most, and could push the pace and go 10 deep to offset our lack of stars at the top. We also seemed to want to rely on fundamentals: we didn't foul much and we got the most defensive rebounds. We were also disciplined in our shooting: we took the most shots at the rim, the least long twos, and the most threes.
Early in the season that worked. We seemed to tire out our opponents and played well late. Recently that turned around on us obviously. One part of it is that going 10 deep is not the same when you have injuries, and your 10 now includes guys like Terry, Phillips, Olbrich and Carter. Also our rebounding has regressed, and although we are shooting the most shots at the rim of any team, we also have the 2nd worst FG% on those shots. A downside of our "soft" defense is that we are allowing a lot of open threes.
On top of that, Vuc hasn't had a good game since he called out the team after our last win. Teams have neutralized Giddey the last few games by swarming his drives. And Coby is still hurt and may be for a while yet.
I didn't address firing Billy Donovan due to the implausibility. If Bulls even care to attempt a short-term fix, they're not going to get a new coach. Why? He's doing exactly what AK wants, even while telling AK all his players suck AK is like "well you are a Hall of Famer and I *do* suck" and AK appreciates that Billy is there as his shield.
Instead, lean in to Billy's assessment: stop playing 3-4 active players and replace the two-way guys. Limit Vuc's minutes. Look for genuine bigs and physical wings, even if they stink they are at least different.
Then the following guys don't get to play anymore:
Trade Dalen Terry, Julian Phillips, Kevin Huerter
Cut Lachlan Albrich, Emmanuel Miller
Patrick Williams is end of bench DNP, or neg him and say "return to conditioning"
Has AK had a single successful scrap-heap acquisition? I don't think Adama Sanogo never made it because Billy wouldn't play him.
I feel better about my 'Billy is right' take because it goes against what I've seen from the Bulls fan 'content creator' industrial complex
there are multiple YouTube shows out there - I seek them out because I can't get enough Bulls content when they suck - saying Billy and Vuc negging the team is what made them bad
I could make a classic blog post about this but I should maintain discipline that these shows are not really worth considering and responding to. Similar attitude as I have with Joe Cowley.
Eisenhower warned about the content creator industrial complex back in the '50s
I don't feel strongly about Billy either way, but to all of the people who want him fired: if some combo of Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, and John Wooden coached this team, how many more wins would they have? Maybe 1? If anything, I say move Billy to the FO and show AKME the door.