Thé best part of this trade deadline is that they are going to be bad, and they simultaneously helped a team behind them. It also means they won’t have mediocre floor raisers in Vuc, White, Dosunmu, and Heurter on the team next year nor are likely to re-sign them as some on here ::ahem:: alluded that they should have done.
As a tank-humper, I’m glad they’ll be bad. But also, I do think being terrible 2 or 3 years in a row will force a change in AKME.
For those who think “no” progress happened, I think you underestimate that a team that kept those aforementioned floor raisers has a better chance of keeping AKME around than the path they’ve chosen.
A) Heurter was sort of a throw-in, and he kinda stunk.
B) they thought/think Vucevic was a star, and he was merely mediocre
C) they got Ball and DeRozan on the basis of being a good team, and they won’t have that again.
D) they drafted White ans Dosunmu, and they had half a decade to get both of them to be mediocre.
They were right about Caruso.
I agree that they will probably try to get floor raisers, but I don’t think they’ll have ear the success they had before because I think they sick at talent evaluation.
Why do you think they’ll be able to properly evaluate talent and be able to recruit them to the Bulls? I think they suck. Dont you?
Anyway I think we want the same thing (AKME fired) and recognize they will get there by accident (being bad), I'm not 'happy' about that but it may be the best of bad options
I think this underestimates that ownership sets the direction of the franchise. Ownership (probably mostly Michael Reinsdorf at this point) hired AKME. If he fires AKME, he's going to hire their replacements.
I think they're going to be so bad that they're going to need a 2-3 year rebuild to get out from under their 2-3 year rebuild.
But I also don't think they have the patience to do anything. This regime started with a commitment to building their young base and that lasted about 3 months before they blew it up and traded for Vuc.
They halfway committed to being a veteran team, but then never did anything to fill in once Lonzo got hurt.
Then they committed to the Giddey version of things for about 6 months before they decided to shitcan everything.
What's going to happen is they're going to suck for a year or two and then trade for the next Vuc.
Whether they replace AKME along the way is totally irrelevant.
they are not going to be patient. I don't know why anyone thinks they are, or that they're 'tanking', when AK said multiple times 'young players with experience' again after another transaction cycle where he got more of those
dipshit keeps saying "not skipping steps" and "no shortcut" when this strategy IS A SHORTCUT
If Donovan can somehow get the new players to play well together, making the play in games is still possible. I think that Simons, Ivey, Sexton, Richards, Miller and GY are more talented than the players the Bulls gave up.
Yabu's gotten really fat. I would be, too, if you gave me millions and set me loose in NYC. Last year in Philly he had big ups and was flying around. Last night he looked like Unc hooping with the kids.
I liked when Cowley asked him "you used to hate second round picks and now you have 100. what gives?" and AK said "you need them to make trades." Very true, but WTF HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS?! Is this something you just learned? I had the press conference on for 5 minutes and had to turn it off because it was too stupid.
Cowley was mad, he fell for it again (AK telling him there was a plan) and called AK out on it in this press conference. But again he's to stupid to pin down as you accurately described above. He even re-used the word 'currency' when not answering the question just because Cowley said that word
I'm fascinated by that Cowley exchange, because in that press conference and then on his own podcast (https://www.youtube.com/live/hQvBMUrY8-I) and on Twitter he is airing out that his source for rumors was...AK himself
>@JCowleyHoops
>AK last week ... Wanted Bulls to get bigger positionally. They now resemble the Lollipop Guild.
>Felt like 2nd round picks were useless. Has acquired every 2nd round pick that can be made.
>Saying "tanking" was a sin. Is becoming a sinner ... a year too late
Great breakdown of how the Bulls picked the worst of all worlds here. The part about coveting experince over upside really explains why they grabbed Simons and Sexton instead of taking on bad contracts for better picks. I actualy saw something similar at a restructuring where they kept safe managers instead of gambling on younger talent. Cap space sounds smart until you remmeber AKME can't evaluate talent anyway.
at least simons is a real actual elite nba shooter with some handle. he's far better than coby or ayo if you're insisting on playing this 40 threes a game stuff
Coby and Ayo are both better than him. Simons is a career 38% 3 point shooter, Coby is 37% but he can get to the line too. Neither are great shakes but let's not dare act like Simons is any sort of upgrade. He won't be on the team next year either
hm, thought i read simons was shooting 44% while reading what was most likely way too much about this stuff. oh well so much for that. he looked good at least in this game while coby had looked like a total mess this year, but yeah perhaps just a fungible situation. which means they'll pay simons probably haha
Trading a bunch of expiring contracts for a bunch of expiring contracts just seems, well, totally pointless. Couldn't they have kept basically the same flexibility they would have had this summer anyway?
Stupid sportswriter questions, aren't they. Just trying to get sound bites to support old dumb narratives. He did answer the question but nobody wanted to hear it.
Did the guy not know we got picks for DeRozan? It wouldn't surprise me. Most of those guys there probably didn't know we got Essengue from the Lavine trade. Or that we used part of the trade exception from that deal to pick up the two 2nds in the Saric trade.
the DeRozan trade, they didn't get back the best asset, that was the 2031 1st pick swap that went to San Antonio. Because they didn't want to commit to multiple years of Harrison Barnes. So they did not do well.
I watched AK’s press conference. I can’t believe he’s still so bad at public speaking.
The wildest part of the press conference was when he said (multiple times) that he doesn’t want to be a team in the middle that’s constantly in the play-in tournament. He might as well have been wearing a hot dog suit so he could’ve claimed that he’s trying to find the guy who built the last version of the team.
Whatever. I’m just going to enjoy watching Ivey, Simons, and Matas without thinking about the fact that the future of this team is still in the hands of a complete fraud.
Also, I think Yabusele might have made a bigger impact tonight than Dalen did in any of his games here lol.
I'm so pissed at the way this deadline turned out (and the ridiculous directionless roster we're left with). I was roped in by some interesting moves earlier in the week that seemed to indicate some level of competence and strategic vision, only for things to devolve further and further into madness with each passing hour. I'm someone who defends moves I see as good as much as I criticize those I don't like. But while I was impressed by what we got for Huerter and glad we bit the philosophical bullet and moved on from Vuc, I don't know what anything else was supposed to accomplish. Piling up 2nds with no firsts? A team that could still maybe compete for the 10th spot but won't have great lottery odds no matter what?
I'm fine with tanking and I'm fine with taking risks to try and be good. But this...what is this??? I suppose it has the makings of a "soft tank" but who are we trusting to manage the tank, and why do we think that AKME running their version of a "process" is going to succeed?
Honestly I'm done with the Bulls for the moment, and done here for awhile (no offense to you fine folks). I just can't invest any more energy into this team, even just out of morbid curiosity to watch what happens when Simons and Ivey and Sexton and Giddey and Jones try to share the ball, and whether Stacey King scolds them for not feeding Guershon Yabusele in the post -- it's a simple game, as we all know. I don't care if there are ever gonna be "five Rob Dillinghams out there." It's just not worth it.
I tend to agree with a lot of what you write, and I agree with almost all of what you wrote here, except I'm not pissed. And I guess I'm not pissed mostly because I'm not surprised.
AKME most likely made moves because they were being pressured to. So AKME made moves. Did they make good moves? Eh, I guess so. The early moves that were more on the margins actually weren't bad. But then they proceeded to make a lot of bad moves because they're genuinely not good at their jobs.
This deadline went about as I'd expect it to go for a front office that is genuinely bad at what they do. The only sliver of hope now is that this team is definitely worse than they were before. They don't have their floor raisers anymore. I don't expect an accidental tank to magically produce a superstar, but maybe it'll result in a new front office?
I know blogabull has always been a place of hate, but I'm sort of surprised by the feelings here. This roster isn't directionless. There's a clear direction. It's down. Finally. I don't think Ive watched more than like 10 games since the chi-slamma-jamma year. They've been so bad and boring that I couldn't stomach it. Past time to clear the slate and start over.
Vuc off the team is a massive win. They got a couple of real assets, and created some maneuverability. Coby and Ayo were cool, but paying those two guys big money is a path to not much.
Rest of the year is all lottery balls and hoping maybe Ivey or Dillingham looks like a dude with a bigger load.
I'd rather AKME be gone too, but if they replaced them this is more or less what I'd hope they'd do.
See, I just think paying Coby or Ayo is kind of irrelevant. You aren't going to have to pay that guy enough to matter because the market for them isn't good. If you want to tank strategically, a guy like that isn't going to stop you. Hell, Coby had the built in excuse of a lingering injury.
They could easily have done what the Wizards are doing with Tre Young and sit him (and Giddey once he tweaked his hamstring) and tank. Collect a high pick, maybe luck into Peterson or Boozer, and then have a real set of options going into next season.
The guys we replaced them with, well... Dillingham is going to cost about 50% of what Ayo or Coby or Simons will cost next year but is going to give us about 5% of the production. If Ivey looks good, he's going to cost 100% of what Ayo or Coby or Simons cost. Or more, because he's got the high draft pick "potential".
Which is fine if you manage it strategically, but it's no different at all than if you don't.
they got Coby and Ayo on fantastic contracts and couldn't do shit with the rest of their cap, and then next to nothing in a trade return
I don't get their lack of confidence in being able to do that again. Like you said the market is not trending well for them, and they had emotional leverage over both.
So now they ARE confident they can do it with Jaden Ivey. Even if they do, and Ivey recovers and is on a great long-term deal...to what end?
On top of that, I don't understand the expected use of our cap at all.
Like, if they really really love Ivey and Tari Eason and Walker Kessler, let's imagine you get the 3 of those guys somehow and you're now
1- Giddey?
2- Ivey
3- Matas
4- Eason?
5- Kessler
Does this strike anyone as a roster that's any different than what they've got now? Younger, yes, but also much more expensive and locked in. Not remotely flexible.
Eason and Matas are both too small to guard the bigger/better 4s and not really quick enough to guard most guards and quicker 3s.
Giddey also fits into this category, which puts Ivey in the same position as Coby/Ayo/Simons/Sexton inhabit, where they are the focal point of "weak link" on defense because nobody wants to acknowledge that the root of the issue is that Giddey and Matas aren't a sustainable combination, and even less so with Eason.
^ This isn't to say that any of these guys can't be fine individually, it's just that if you play 3 guys who all have the same defensive role, you're going to have a problem.
The only path to anything truly interesting is mega lottery luck, which is so damning. I guess somehow landing Giannis over the summer while magically retaining enough talent to be competitive is theoretically possible, but I really don't see that happening.
The issue is not that the direction is now clear, it’s that the direction was clear to everyone except them years ago and they literally decided/realized this at the worst possible time. If they had realized this even 3 months ago we would have been immensely better off aka able to tank for this stacked draft.
The next two drafts are garbage and getting a high pick in those drafts is going to net you the next DeAndre Ayton or Markelle Fultz, two huge bust #1 picks.
I can't help but think of the many excuses we will have in the upcoming years. Like "it's not our fault it took 4 years for this group to show they were going nowhere" Indeed it's not your faut, it's your job !
"it's not ours fault we get to pick high in weak drafts". But it's your job to plan several years further than the current season !
The Bulls are meh abd will remain so for several years... how sad...
Chicago has such a great tradition of improv and comedy. The Bulls are taking up that mantle with this roster. I am so here for highlights of Yuki re-enacting White Chocolate's mixtapes and his backcourt mate Mac McClung finally trying to prove he can play a full-faceted 1 instead of trying to yam every time he touches the ball.
Yuki is fan service right? And by fan service I mean the people who only see NBA basketball when their company is entertaining a vendor in luxury box at UC.
Because I cannot believe that a team is putting this dude on the court in real NBA games. On a team with a bunch of other shitty short guards! This is obviously some kind of BS marketing idea by someone in Bulls front office and it's insulting. It's like turning on a Bears game and they have a make a wish kid running WR routes for a few plays because they might be able to sell some t-shirts in that kid's home market. Fuck you Jerry!
I think he's played recently because the Bulls have had so many guards either out with injury or traded and the guards they got back in those trades weren't all available yet. As yfBB said, I don't expect him to play much for the remainder of the season.
You are so right. Embarrassing to watch Yuki out there. A freak show. Thought AK did a great job of being decisive and just clearing the deck and getting what he could for the expiring contracts.
Okay bad choice of words by me. IMO don't believe Yuki is anywhere near an NBA player. Don't believe that the Bulls couldn't have found someone better. Any day now the Bulls will have Giddey, Simons, Ivey, Jones, Sexton and Dillingham to choose from. Actually, this group is better than the group of guards that the Bulls had before the trade deadline.
Yuki is a novelty but that doesn’t mean he can’t play. Is he truly worse than Terry or Phillips or Carter? Or Chris Duarte or Sanogo? I’d argue that he has one elite skill and the people I named have zero. Obviously he has physical limitations which put a low ceiling on what he can achieve but I don’t think that’s any lower than what we had with these other guys. Guys really like playing with him. You could do a lot worse than having Yuki as your 12th guy (especially when your team is bad). Also, I didn’t find his 7 assists to be embarrassing. It was fun.
For as bad a job as AK did in his first couple years here, I think he’s been doing pretty well lately. In the last 2 years he’s added 2 genuine young building blocks (Giddey and Matas) and a few more nice pieces in their early primes (Smith, Jones, Okoro). I wish he’d gotten a 1st Rd pick this week, too, but Ivey and a crap-ton of 2nds ain’t nothing. Don’t look now, but we’re a very young team with some talent, a HOF coach, a decent amount of draft capital, and plenty of cap space. Be dour if you want to, but I enjoy watching Bulls games again and I’m looking forward to seeing where this team goes over the next couple years.
Getting decent 8th to 10th men isn't something that a good GM should really be hanging their hat especially when they don't have an actual #1 or #2 worth a damn yet.
It's not being dour to think that AKME already shot their shot with the Lonzo/DeMar team and they haven't proved that they should be the ones to head a rebuild. Spend some money and get a more promising GM prospect to do it
You're right. AK did a good job of getting all that is possible for the expiring contracts. Have to be realistic. Personally, I like Donovan. Donovan has coached up the Bulls. Donovan has gotten the Bulls at least into the play-in games with marginally talented rosters. Leading up to the trade deadline, the other 29 teams aren't going to give the Bulls 1st round picks or Missi etc. The Bulls could still make the play-in game with the current roster if Donovan can get the players to play well together with the limited amount of time left in the season.
they are not much more a "very young team" than before, unless you want to count going from Vuc to a 29 year old.
Coby and Ayo were replaced by similar aged Simons and Sexton, and both still in 'early primes' if you're going to give that designation to Smith, Jones, Okoro
Ivey is 24, Dillingham 21, Miller 22 . Will they even get minutes? Because Dalen Terry (23) and Julian Phillips (22) didn't, and those were also young players with experience that they supposedly covet.
You can’t look at these trades in isolation. They need to be viewed as part of AK’s body of work. He got this return because he failed to make trades earlier. So, sure, if looking only at how the trades were handled from Feb 1 to today, this is fine if not great.
interesting that the Bulls played Coby White recovering from a calf injury on a back-to-back last week, and 30 minutes in a game after trading away from their rotation already
and the Hornets are shutting him down until after the all star break
The only logical conclusion is that they threw Coby out there while he was injured because they wanted to prove to interested teams that he was healthy. Basically risking further injury for their own gain.
Don’t worry though, they’re a VERY player friendly organization.
speaking of, it's now been a week since Giddey was held out and Dr. Billy Donovan said Giddey did not suffer a setback and Giddey hasn't played since and is listed as out for tomorrow
>The Bulls and Hornets amended the Coby White trade after a physical showed White had a left calf injury and would have to miss time, league sources tell @theathletic.com. Hornets are now sending two second-rounders (2031 NYK, 2031 DEN) to Chicago instead of three.
Thé best part of this trade deadline is that they are going to be bad, and they simultaneously helped a team behind them. It also means they won’t have mediocre floor raisers in Vuc, White, Dosunmu, and Heurter on the team next year nor are likely to re-sign them as some on here ::ahem:: alluded that they should have done.
As a tank-humper, I’m glad they’ll be bad. But also, I do think being terrible 2 or 3 years in a row will force a change in AKME.
For those who think “no” progress happened, I think you underestimate that a team that kept those aforementioned floor raisers has a better chance of keeping AKME around than the path they’ve chosen.
what makes you think they won't have mediocre floor raisers on the team next year? They always do, and say that's what they want to do.
I too think it's a tank, but the accidental kind. And for not good drafts.
Because they’re bad talent evaluators, duh.
A) Heurter was sort of a throw-in, and he kinda stunk.
B) they thought/think Vucevic was a star, and he was merely mediocre
C) they got Ball and DeRozan on the basis of being a good team, and they won’t have that again.
D) they drafted White ans Dosunmu, and they had half a decade to get both of them to be mediocre.
They were right about Caruso.
I agree that they will probably try to get floor raisers, but I don’t think they’ll have ear the success they had before because I think they sick at talent evaluation.
Why do you think they’ll be able to properly evaluate talent and be able to recruit them to the Bulls? I think they suck. Dont you?
They're bad at findinf impact talent. Fungible innings eaters they can do(any team can), and the Donovan system helps too
Anyway I think we want the same thing (AKME fired) and recognize they will get there by accident (being bad), I'm not 'happy' about that but it may be the best of bad options
I think this underestimates that ownership sets the direction of the franchise. Ownership (probably mostly Michael Reinsdorf at this point) hired AKME. If he fires AKME, he's going to hire their replacements.
I think they're going to be so bad that they're going to need a 2-3 year rebuild to get out from under their 2-3 year rebuild.
But I also don't think they have the patience to do anything. This regime started with a commitment to building their young base and that lasted about 3 months before they blew it up and traded for Vuc.
They halfway committed to being a veteran team, but then never did anything to fill in once Lonzo got hurt.
Then they committed to the Giddey version of things for about 6 months before they decided to shitcan everything.
What's going to happen is they're going to suck for a year or two and then trade for the next Vuc.
Whether they replace AKME along the way is totally irrelevant.
they are not going to be patient. I don't know why anyone thinks they are, or that they're 'tanking', when AK said multiple times 'young players with experience' again after another transaction cycle where he got more of those
dipshit keeps saying "not skipping steps" and "no shortcut" when this strategy IS A SHORTCUT
a shortcut to five more years of AKME !
If Donovan can somehow get the new players to play well together, making the play in games is still possible. I think that Simons, Ivey, Sexton, Richards, Miller and GY are more talented than the players the Bulls gave up.
Matas with a couple bad defensive possessions and a bad three and Billy immediately subs him out for Yabusele. 😂😂
maybe he should take a 15 footer, imagine if he's actually good at them wow
I saw Guerschon "probably better than Vuc" Yabusele had 15 and 11 in 33 minutes #DoubleDoubleMachine
Now I get it. Yabusele removed his player option so AK could sign him to a bigger deal instead!!
I did not say it because I'm french too, but it's an obvious AKME move, after coming empty from FA and RFA this summer
Yabu's gotten really fat. I would be, too, if you gave me millions and set me loose in NYC. Last year in Philly he had big ups and was flying around. Last night he looked like Unc hooping with the kids.
That should improve at least -- Chicago is known for healthy eats.
Oh my, AK still the same I guess (press conference): these next 30 games will be crucial for evaluation (of what?, this I don't know).
I believe it was Drew Stevens who tried to pin AK down on what, exactly, he can learn. AK of course didn't understand and just repeated the usual
correction it was Julia Poe
I liked when Cowley asked him "you used to hate second round picks and now you have 100. what gives?" and AK said "you need them to make trades." Very true, but WTF HAVE YOU BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS?! Is this something you just learned? I had the press conference on for 5 minutes and had to turn it off because it was too stupid.
it's like the dumb is on purpose for some frickin reality show
Krusty, why value second round picks now? Why not five years ago?
Cowley was mad, he fell for it again (AK telling him there was a plan) and called AK out on it in this press conference. But again he's to stupid to pin down as you accurately described above. He even re-used the word 'currency' when not answering the question just because Cowley said that word
AK doesn't owe it to reporters to 'kowtow' to them in press conferences.
reporters are fan representatives. AK does owe it to the fans to communicate his vision and plan
when he fails to do so, it's totally fair game for reporters to ask why and what he's learned
I'm fascinated by that Cowley exchange, because in that press conference and then on his own podcast (https://www.youtube.com/live/hQvBMUrY8-I) and on Twitter he is airing out that his source for rumors was...AK himself
>@JCowleyHoops
>AK last week ... Wanted Bulls to get bigger positionally. They now resemble the Lollipop Guild.
>Felt like 2nd round picks were useless. Has acquired every 2nd round pick that can be made.
>Saying "tanking" was a sin. Is becoming a sinner ... a year too late
I do think AK is still being consistent about not tanking. They're not tanking. They're just going to be bad, far worse than AK thinks they'll be
Tanks but no tanks
it's funny watching mcclung in this game how it looks like he can't even touch the rim out there
Great breakdown of how the Bulls picked the worst of all worlds here. The part about coveting experince over upside really explains why they grabbed Simons and Sexton instead of taking on bad contracts for better picks. I actualy saw something similar at a restructuring where they kept safe managers instead of gambling on younger talent. Cap space sounds smart until you remmeber AKME can't evaluate talent anyway.
at least simons is a real actual elite nba shooter with some handle. he's far better than coby or ayo if you're insisting on playing this 40 threes a game stuff
Coby and Ayo are both better than him. Simons is a career 38% 3 point shooter, Coby is 37% but he can get to the line too. Neither are great shakes but let's not dare act like Simons is any sort of upgrade. He won't be on the team next year either
hm, thought i read simons was shooting 44% while reading what was most likely way too much about this stuff. oh well so much for that. he looked good at least in this game while coby had looked like a total mess this year, but yeah perhaps just a fungible situation. which means they'll pay simons probably haha
Trading a bunch of expiring contracts for a bunch of expiring contracts just seems, well, totally pointless. Couldn't they have kept basically the same flexibility they would have had this summer anyway?
Sure but without the nine extra draft picks. And some of the guys we've got could be keepers, we'll see.
AK when asked why he didn't get draft picks for Caruso and DeRozan: literal shrug
And then they trade down in 2nd round last year
AK today: "I believe you can never have too many draft picks"
Stupid sportswriter questions, aren't they. Just trying to get sound bites to support old dumb narratives. He did answer the question but nobody wanted to hear it.
Did the guy not know we got picks for DeRozan? It wouldn't surprise me. Most of those guys there probably didn't know we got Essengue from the Lavine trade. Or that we used part of the trade exception from that deal to pick up the two 2nds in the Saric trade.
Just hacks, mostly.
What you said but complete opposite conclusion
He answered questions like a politician does: a lot of words that don't actually answer the question that was posed.
I wouldn't say he's a politician, they can sell their message better than AK.
What did you think was the most interesting question that he didn't answer well?
I don't know how this was hard to understand
they asked him why the change in philosophy, and if he learned from past mistakes
he would either reply 'no I didn't change' or 'no I didn't make a mistake'
You're right. realistically, the Bulls did well with the DeRozan and LaVine trades.
the LaVine trade, yes
the DeRozan trade, they didn't get back the best asset, that was the 2031 1st pick swap that went to San Antonio. Because they didn't want to commit to multiple years of Harrison Barnes. So they did not do well.
Meet the new team, same as the old team
{Timeline readjusting}
I watched AK’s press conference. I can’t believe he’s still so bad at public speaking.
The wildest part of the press conference was when he said (multiple times) that he doesn’t want to be a team in the middle that’s constantly in the play-in tournament. He might as well have been wearing a hot dog suit so he could’ve claimed that he’s trying to find the guy who built the last version of the team.
Whatever. I’m just going to enjoy watching Ivey, Simons, and Matas without thinking about the fact that the future of this team is still in the hands of a complete fraud.
Also, I think Yabusele might have made a bigger impact tonight than Dalen did in any of his games here lol.
truly insane quote:
"Being in the middle is what we don't want to do. I think *we've seen that for the past four years* and we want to change that."
FOUR YEARS is an eternity in the NBA. And now he says 'this will take time'
according to the Rensdorfian calendar, a year has the length of 3 NBA seasons (playoffs never included).
Happy to help 😁
Sad
I'm so pissed at the way this deadline turned out (and the ridiculous directionless roster we're left with). I was roped in by some interesting moves earlier in the week that seemed to indicate some level of competence and strategic vision, only for things to devolve further and further into madness with each passing hour. I'm someone who defends moves I see as good as much as I criticize those I don't like. But while I was impressed by what we got for Huerter and glad we bit the philosophical bullet and moved on from Vuc, I don't know what anything else was supposed to accomplish. Piling up 2nds with no firsts? A team that could still maybe compete for the 10th spot but won't have great lottery odds no matter what?
I'm fine with tanking and I'm fine with taking risks to try and be good. But this...what is this??? I suppose it has the makings of a "soft tank" but who are we trusting to manage the tank, and why do we think that AKME running their version of a "process" is going to succeed?
Honestly I'm done with the Bulls for the moment, and done here for awhile (no offense to you fine folks). I just can't invest any more energy into this team, even just out of morbid curiosity to watch what happens when Simons and Ivey and Sexton and Giddey and Jones try to share the ball, and whether Stacey King scolds them for not feeding Guershon Yabusele in the post -- it's a simple game, as we all know. I don't care if there are ever gonna be "five Rob Dillinghams out there." It's just not worth it.
I tend to agree with a lot of what you write, and I agree with almost all of what you wrote here, except I'm not pissed. And I guess I'm not pissed mostly because I'm not surprised.
AKME most likely made moves because they were being pressured to. So AKME made moves. Did they make good moves? Eh, I guess so. The early moves that were more on the margins actually weren't bad. But then they proceeded to make a lot of bad moves because they're genuinely not good at their jobs.
This deadline went about as I'd expect it to go for a front office that is genuinely bad at what they do. The only sliver of hope now is that this team is definitely worse than they were before. They don't have their floor raisers anymore. I don't expect an accidental tank to magically produce a superstar, but maybe it'll result in a new front office?
I know blogabull has always been a place of hate, but I'm sort of surprised by the feelings here. This roster isn't directionless. There's a clear direction. It's down. Finally. I don't think Ive watched more than like 10 games since the chi-slamma-jamma year. They've been so bad and boring that I couldn't stomach it. Past time to clear the slate and start over.
Vuc off the team is a massive win. They got a couple of real assets, and created some maneuverability. Coby and Ayo were cool, but paying those two guys big money is a path to not much.
Rest of the year is all lottery balls and hoping maybe Ivey or Dillingham looks like a dude with a bigger load.
I'd rather AKME be gone too, but if they replaced them this is more or less what I'd hope they'd do.
See, I just think paying Coby or Ayo is kind of irrelevant. You aren't going to have to pay that guy enough to matter because the market for them isn't good. If you want to tank strategically, a guy like that isn't going to stop you. Hell, Coby had the built in excuse of a lingering injury.
They could easily have done what the Wizards are doing with Tre Young and sit him (and Giddey once he tweaked his hamstring) and tank. Collect a high pick, maybe luck into Peterson or Boozer, and then have a real set of options going into next season.
The guys we replaced them with, well... Dillingham is going to cost about 50% of what Ayo or Coby or Simons will cost next year but is going to give us about 5% of the production. If Ivey looks good, he's going to cost 100% of what Ayo or Coby or Simons cost. Or more, because he's got the high draft pick "potential".
Which is fine if you manage it strategically, but it's no different at all than if you don't.
they got Coby and Ayo on fantastic contracts and couldn't do shit with the rest of their cap, and then next to nothing in a trade return
I don't get their lack of confidence in being able to do that again. Like you said the market is not trending well for them, and they had emotional leverage over both.
So now they ARE confident they can do it with Jaden Ivey. Even if they do, and Ivey recovers and is on a great long-term deal...to what end?
On top of that, I don't understand the expected use of our cap at all.
Like, if they really really love Ivey and Tari Eason and Walker Kessler, let's imagine you get the 3 of those guys somehow and you're now
1- Giddey?
2- Ivey
3- Matas
4- Eason?
5- Kessler
Does this strike anyone as a roster that's any different than what they've got now? Younger, yes, but also much more expensive and locked in. Not remotely flexible.
Eason and Matas are both too small to guard the bigger/better 4s and not really quick enough to guard most guards and quicker 3s.
Giddey also fits into this category, which puts Ivey in the same position as Coby/Ayo/Simons/Sexton inhabit, where they are the focal point of "weak link" on defense because nobody wants to acknowledge that the root of the issue is that Giddey and Matas aren't a sustainable combination, and even less so with Eason.
^ This isn't to say that any of these guys can't be fine individually, it's just that if you play 3 guys who all have the same defensive role, you're going to have a problem.
The only path to anything truly interesting is mega lottery luck, which is so damning. I guess somehow landing Giannis over the summer while magically retaining enough talent to be competitive is theoretically possible, but I really don't see that happening.
I think they'd have enough, with bird rights on these guards, to take on Giannis and have a good team (and most importantly you're in the East)
It'd take convincing Giannis though, another skill our FO doesn't have
right even IF this goes to their plan, which it won't, it will mean huge contracts for players of similar caliber to what was on the last team
I do believe they believe simply being younger is enough of a difference
not to mention these three are always hurt, which is the only reason they're even gettable
The issue is not that the direction is now clear, it’s that the direction was clear to everyone except them years ago and they literally decided/realized this at the worst possible time. If they had realized this even 3 months ago we would have been immensely better off aka able to tank for this stacked draft.
The next two drafts are garbage and getting a high pick in those drafts is going to net you the next DeAndre Ayton or Markelle Fultz, two huge bust #1 picks.
I don't know that the direction is clear at all. They could just as easily be planning to load up on FAs in the summer and not tank. WTF knows.
it's as clear as they can be, in that they are not tanking or rebuilding:
they traded for young players with experience
they said they're going to keep trying to acquire those players
nowhere in their actions or words did they say they were prioritizing their own draft pick
I can't help but think of the many excuses we will have in the upcoming years. Like "it's not our fault it took 4 years for this group to show they were going nowhere" Indeed it's not your faut, it's your job !
"it's not ours fault we get to pick high in weak drafts". But it's your job to plan several years further than the current season !
The Bulls are meh abd will remain so for several years... how sad...
"the other team matched our offer sheet, no Bulls fault"
Chicago has such a great tradition of improv and comedy. The Bulls are taking up that mantle with this roster. I am so here for highlights of Yuki re-enacting White Chocolate's mixtapes and his backcourt mate Mac McClung finally trying to prove he can play a full-faceted 1 instead of trying to yam every time he touches the ball.
Yuki is fan service right? And by fan service I mean the people who only see NBA basketball when their company is entertaining a vendor in luxury box at UC.
Because I cannot believe that a team is putting this dude on the court in real NBA games. On a team with a bunch of other shitty short guards! This is obviously some kind of BS marketing idea by someone in Bulls front office and it's insulting. It's like turning on a Bears game and they have a make a wish kid running WR routes for a few plays because they might be able to sell some t-shirts in that kid's home market. Fuck you Jerry!
I don't expect Yuki to play the rest of the season with all the real boys they acquired
I think he's played recently because the Bulls have had so many guards either out with injury or traded and the guards they got back in those trades weren't all available yet. As yfBB said, I don't expect him to play much for the remainder of the season.
so it IS fan service to have Yuki and McClung...but it's fan service for Hoffman Estates.
great use of 2-way spots...
You are so right. Embarrassing to watch Yuki out there. A freak show. Thought AK did a great job of being decisive and just clearing the deck and getting what he could for the expiring contracts.
AK is the same dumbshit who put Yuki on the roster.
I do honestly believe that "marketing Bulls to Japan" is part of the reasoning.
Clown franchise, I'm glad they aren't on TV at this point.
Freak show feels a little harsh, doesn't it?
Okay bad choice of words by me. IMO don't believe Yuki is anywhere near an NBA player. Don't believe that the Bulls couldn't have found someone better. Any day now the Bulls will have Giddey, Simons, Ivey, Jones, Sexton and Dillingham to choose from. Actually, this group is better than the group of guards that the Bulls had before the trade deadline.
Yuki is a novelty but that doesn’t mean he can’t play. Is he truly worse than Terry or Phillips or Carter? Or Chris Duarte or Sanogo? I’d argue that he has one elite skill and the people I named have zero. Obviously he has physical limitations which put a low ceiling on what he can achieve but I don’t think that’s any lower than what we had with these other guys. Guys really like playing with him. You could do a lot worse than having Yuki as your 12th guy (especially when your team is bad). Also, I didn’t find his 7 assists to be embarrassing. It was fun.
For as bad a job as AK did in his first couple years here, I think he’s been doing pretty well lately. In the last 2 years he’s added 2 genuine young building blocks (Giddey and Matas) and a few more nice pieces in their early primes (Smith, Jones, Okoro). I wish he’d gotten a 1st Rd pick this week, too, but Ivey and a crap-ton of 2nds ain’t nothing. Don’t look now, but we’re a very young team with some talent, a HOF coach, a decent amount of draft capital, and plenty of cap space. Be dour if you want to, but I enjoy watching Bulls games again and I’m looking forward to seeing where this team goes over the next couple years.
Getting decent 8th to 10th men isn't something that a good GM should really be hanging their hat especially when they don't have an actual #1 or #2 worth a damn yet.
It's not being dour to think that AKME already shot their shot with the Lonzo/DeMar team and they haven't proved that they should be the ones to head a rebuild. Spend some money and get a more promising GM prospect to do it
"Don’t look now"
no problem there
You're right. AK did a good job of getting all that is possible for the expiring contracts. Have to be realistic. Personally, I like Donovan. Donovan has coached up the Bulls. Donovan has gotten the Bulls at least into the play-in games with marginally talented rosters. Leading up to the trade deadline, the other 29 teams aren't going to give the Bulls 1st round picks or Missi etc. The Bulls could still make the play-in game with the current roster if Donovan can get the players to play well together with the limited amount of time left in the season.
they are not much more a "very young team" than before, unless you want to count going from Vuc to a 29 year old.
Coby and Ayo were replaced by similar aged Simons and Sexton, and both still in 'early primes' if you're going to give that designation to Smith, Jones, Okoro
Ivey is 24, Dillingham 21, Miller 22 . Will they even get minutes? Because Dalen Terry (23) and Julian Phillips (22) didn't, and those were also young players with experience that they supposedly covet.
You can’t look at these trades in isolation. They need to be viewed as part of AK’s body of work. He got this return because he failed to make trades earlier. So, sure, if looking only at how the trades were handled from Feb 1 to today, this is fine if not great.
interesting that the Bulls played Coby White recovering from a calf injury on a back-to-back last week, and 30 minutes in a game after trading away from their rotation already
and the Hornets are shutting him down until after the all star break
The only logical conclusion is that they threw Coby out there while he was injured because they wanted to prove to interested teams that he was healthy. Basically risking further injury for their own gain.
Don’t worry though, they’re a VERY player friendly organization.
Jaden Ivey is going to work out well
Shot looked alright, but he did not exactly look explosive out there, did he. Looking forward to the inevitable botched spinal tap.
speaking of, it's now been a week since Giddey was held out and Dr. Billy Donovan said Giddey did not suffer a setback and Giddey hasn't played since and is listed as out for tomorrow
Fine by me if they shut him down for the season. The classic Bulls “did we say 6 weeks? we meant 6 months.”
"he was playing at an all star level according to me, the guy who keeps saying Giddey is a future all star"
Oh for fucks sake
>The Bulls and Hornets amended the Coby White trade after a physical showed White had a left calf injury and would have to miss time, league sources tell @theathletic.com. Hornets are now sending two second-rounders (2031 NYK, 2031 DEN) to Chicago instead of three.
Like kissing your sister and missing her lips.
At least the Bulls competed in that game. Oh wait, it was a blowout loss…