The Bulls have some bracket history. From Fansided:
>>The next major change in playoff formatting came in 1967 when the NBA expanded eligible playoff teams to eight.This change wasn’t without its blemishes as a total of five below .500 teams made the NBA playoffs including the 33-win Chicago Bulls.
>>The “first round” makes its debut in 1975 as the NBA expands their number of playoff teams from eight to 10. The new first round included the fourth and fifth-seeded teams from each conference in a best-of-three. The top three seeds received a bye and would wait for the winner of each first round matchup in the semifinals.
In the 1976/77 season the Bulls lost to the Western Conference Portland Trailblazers 2-1 in the 'first round.'
it does screw over the lowest seed, but they should be getting screwed. We wouldn't get a scenario like last year where the Heat make this magical run, which was fine and fun but had a dark side where AK thinks it could've been the Bulls if only for the last 5 minutes of the play-in game
I love Miami's overall strategy compared to the more talked about tank and then mortgage your future to make a run at a championship. They have consistently good teams that can catch fire and/or get lucky to be a serious contender for a championship. Their floor is just below .500, but that only happens when things go wrong. So even in bad years, they still play competitive basketball.
AKME, on the other hand, has set the Bulls up to have to have everything go right just to be competitive and their *ceiling* is about .500. Catching fire and being incredibly lucky would mean they manage to make the actual playoffs before injuries and exhaustion take their toll.
Good ol' Vooch getting owned by a non-guaranteed guy who is only playing because the Rockets' two best centers are injured and the one that started was in foul trouble the whole game. $20 million a year, folks.
Dumb foul on DeMar. He was struggling with his shot and the refs weren't bailing him out the way they usually do and he put his frustration ahead of the team. I don't expect DeMar to be perfect but he made some poor choices tonight.
The only silver lining for this team is their young guards on great contracts. Burn everything down and build around them, AK. (Yes, I know that will never happen.)
I hate watching Vuc play so much at this point. Maybe 3 out of every 10 games he'll have a game where he does enough on offense and the boards to overcome the profound drawbacks of his sieve-like D. The rest of time he's just out there pissing me off. How did AKME think it was necessary to give this guy 3 years for $60 million?!? How is that not a fireable offense?
The worst part isn't even an effort thing. It's watching him trying to cover mobile centers and winding up two or three steps behind (out of, you know, like five steps total). He can't physically do it and never could, but now there are more and more centers who can and that is a permanent and unfixable situation. Essentially this is a flaw that nearly any team with a .500+ record can exploit whenever they want to for easy points.
Yeah his lack of mobility is an absolute killer for your team defense. I think that's partly why they hang onto Caruso like he was made of diamonds. If the perimeter D wasn't solid they'd be giving up 135 ppg.
I'm actually curious to see him play. I've been under the assumption that he never got back to his old self after his mid-season surgery. He obviously wasn't a starting caliber player, but he was easily good enough to be a bench player on a lot of teams.
The fact that he was relegated to the G-League leads me to believe he probably lost a lot of his athleticism after his surgery. Guess we're about to find out.
I read a book about Michael Jordan's time in Washington DC, pretty good read back then (one of the first to treat Jordan like a human being rather than a logo). It was written by someone who was not a sports journalist so there were a lot of quirky human interest bits.
Part of it is that Javonte Green and players like him have a hell of a time sticking to a roster. Even when they outplay the supposed competition, GMs are more inclined to sign worse but younger player with a higher pedigree. Their careers sometimes end suddenly, without any drop in play. I think the player cited in particular was Tyrone Nesby, who was actually a pretty close analog of Javonte Green (small school initially, undrafted, defense/hustle guy, etc.)
Very interesting and it does make sense. At the same time, guys like him can sometimes bounce around playoff teams because those teams usually are less interested in developing young players and also more strapped for cash. They just need someone cheap who can do the small things to make a difference.
Anyway, I am genuinely interested to see how Javonte does. He's a hard guy not to like, so I'd love to see him look like the Javonte from a couple seasons ago.
There are some dishy parts too. Michael Wilbon began to complain to their bosses at the Washington Post that the author was going to kill the paper's "access" to Jordan by covering totally legitimate things (like the fact that he was being pursued for service in a paternity lawsuit across the country). And the effect of what happened when you lost that "access" is presented in the form of Sam Smith, jovially asking questions that he knows Jordan will refuse to answer if they come from him. It was a good read though obviously it's more than 20 years old now.
Heard on NoDunks (though they didn't come up with it) the concept of 'mickey mouse march', where NBA teams are either resting or tanking, except for a few middle squads like your Chicago Bulls. Which isn't a problem except Bulls management doesn't think of this context and will spin mickey mouse march as a good data point.
The Bulls actually played really well. They just played really well against a Celtics team resting multiple stars and even though Tatum played, he probably never gave more than 50%.
Yeah they did play well. Well most of the time. Those Ts on Tatum and Terry were both pretty silly though. Amazing when the refs decide to care to call that.
Derrick White walked into a restaurant I was eating at a few months ago lol (well actually we were waiting to be seated). He saw it was too long of a line and left lol. Probably because he was with his family.
Ahahaha. I didn't talk to him. I might have been one of the only people who even recognized him. He was also in and out pretty quickly.
I once saw Rasheed Wallace (when he was on the Celtics) buying an iphone at the Apple store. Dude clearly wanted to be left alone but I did take a photo of him from one of the store iphones and emailed it to myself. 😂 He stood out way more than White since he is HUGE lol. My husband saw him from a distance and was like is that a basketball player? lol.
Oh and I forgot about the time we met Dominique Wilkins at like a Gospel brunch like the one year he played on the Celtics. I didn't even live here at the time, we happened to be visiting Boston and went to that with my dad's friend's family. My sister was freaking out the entire time when she recognized him, and I think it was his brother (but might have just been a friend or something) was laughing the whole time about it and at the end of the brunch they were like "hug someone next to you" or something and so he turned to her and gave her a hug. 😂😂😂😂
Haha yeah it's a great story. I think she was like 15 I was 12? Something like that. Also realizing that his brother also played in the NBA, pretty sure it was him, he matches who I was picturing in my brain. 😂
It will never not be funny that the legend of Scottie Pippen's dickishness still enrages service industry employees all over this city. If you ask anyone who the worst celebrity they've ever had to deal with is, 10-1 it'll be Pip. Valets, waiters, drivers, doormen, bartenders, bouncers... I don't think you can be a respected professional in Chicago and not have a story of Scottie Pippen being an asshole.
Didn't watch, from KCs gamer you get the typical picture: Vuc sucks but you can't blame him
"Luke Kornet dominated his matchup with Nikola Vucevic. He finished with eight points and a season-high 13 rebounds to an uncharacteristic mere two rebounds for Vucevic. Kornet’s activity helped the Celtics enjoy a 23-2 advantage in second-chance points. Coach Billy Donovan said it didn't all fall on Vucevic, who has to be up in coverage or rotating sometimes because of Boston's elite 3-point shooting."
Also I see Caruso played through another injury again, no mention that he needs to play 20 minutes for the game to qualify for his all-defense 'campaign'
The Bulls have some bracket history. From Fansided:
>>The next major change in playoff formatting came in 1967 when the NBA expanded eligible playoff teams to eight.This change wasn’t without its blemishes as a total of five below .500 teams made the NBA playoffs including the 33-win Chicago Bulls.
>>The “first round” makes its debut in 1975 as the NBA expands their number of playoff teams from eight to 10. The new first round included the fourth and fifth-seeded teams from each conference in a best-of-three. The top three seeds received a bye and would wait for the winner of each first round matchup in the semifinals.
In the 1976/77 season the Bulls lost to the Western Conference Portland Trailblazers 2-1 in the 'first round.'
I don't think I'm understanding your bracket. Could this not potentially lead to a West play-in team making the East playoffs?
no you have it right, that is a possibility here
it does screw over the lowest seed, but they should be getting screwed. We wouldn't get a scenario like last year where the Heat make this magical run, which was fine and fun but had a dark side where AK thinks it could've been the Bulls if only for the last 5 minutes of the play-in game
I was actually just thinking about that.
I love Miami's overall strategy compared to the more talked about tank and then mortgage your future to make a run at a championship. They have consistently good teams that can catch fire and/or get lucky to be a serious contender for a championship. Their floor is just below .500, but that only happens when things go wrong. So even in bad years, they still play competitive basketball.
AKME, on the other hand, has set the Bulls up to have to have everything go right just to be competitive and their *ceiling* is about .500. Catching fire and being incredibly lucky would mean they manage to make the actual playoffs before injuries and exhaustion take their toll.
That's a whole lot of brain power devoted to deciding which team will get swept by Boston.
they're like the 49ers. give them a chance to choke.
Cloth is hair.
It's just little hairs.
Turned it on just in time to see a fight again lol.
Good ol' Vooch getting owned by a non-guaranteed guy who is only playing because the Rockets' two best centers are injured and the one that started was in foul trouble the whole game. $20 million a year, folks.
Dumb foul on DeMar. He was struggling with his shot and the refs weren't bailing him out the way they usually do and he put his frustration ahead of the team. I don't expect DeMar to be perfect but he made some poor choices tonight.
The only silver lining for this team is their young guards on great contracts. Burn everything down and build around them, AK. (Yes, I know that will never happen.)
I hate watching Vuc play so much at this point. Maybe 3 out of every 10 games he'll have a game where he does enough on offense and the boards to overcome the profound drawbacks of his sieve-like D. The rest of time he's just out there pissing me off. How did AKME think it was necessary to give this guy 3 years for $60 million?!? How is that not a fireable offense?
😏"we think it worked out pretty well for us" 😏
The worst part isn't even an effort thing. It's watching him trying to cover mobile centers and winding up two or three steps behind (out of, you know, like five steps total). He can't physically do it and never could, but now there are more and more centers who can and that is a permanent and unfixable situation. Essentially this is a flaw that nearly any team with a .500+ record can exploit whenever they want to for easy points.
Yeah his lack of mobility is an absolute killer for your team defense. I think that's partly why they hang onto Caruso like he was made of diamonds. If the perimeter D wasn't solid they'd be giving up 135 ppg.
Bulls signed Javonte Green on a 10-day
https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2024/03/bulls-to-sign-javonte-green-to-10-day-deal.html
that is fun
but probably means the worst for Julian Phillips
meh. I don't hate Green but what a boring, uninspired turn of events. But I guess that's par for the course at this point.
Too bad the Grizzlies already signed Scottie Pippen Jr, would have been more obvious.
Does Nocioni have a kid?
I'm actually curious to see him play. I've been under the assumption that he never got back to his old self after his mid-season surgery. He obviously wasn't a starting caliber player, but he was easily good enough to be a bench player on a lot of teams.
The fact that he was relegated to the G-League leads me to believe he probably lost a lot of his athleticism after his surgery. Guess we're about to find out.
I read a book about Michael Jordan's time in Washington DC, pretty good read back then (one of the first to treat Jordan like a human being rather than a logo). It was written by someone who was not a sports journalist so there were a lot of quirky human interest bits.
Part of it is that Javonte Green and players like him have a hell of a time sticking to a roster. Even when they outplay the supposed competition, GMs are more inclined to sign worse but younger player with a higher pedigree. Their careers sometimes end suddenly, without any drop in play. I think the player cited in particular was Tyrone Nesby, who was actually a pretty close analog of Javonte Green (small school initially, undrafted, defense/hustle guy, etc.)
Very interesting and it does make sense. At the same time, guys like him can sometimes bounce around playoff teams because those teams usually are less interested in developing young players and also more strapped for cash. They just need someone cheap who can do the small things to make a difference.
Anyway, I am genuinely interested to see how Javonte does. He's a hard guy not to like, so I'd love to see him look like the Javonte from a couple seasons ago.
What was the Jordan book?
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/316525
There are some dishy parts too. Michael Wilbon began to complain to their bosses at the Washington Post that the author was going to kill the paper's "access" to Jordan by covering totally legitimate things (like the fact that he was being pursued for service in a paternity lawsuit across the country). And the effect of what happened when you lost that "access" is presented in the form of Sam Smith, jovially asking questions that he knows Jordan will refuse to answer if they come from him. It was a good read though obviously it's more than 20 years old now.
Cool, thanks!
Heard on NoDunks (though they didn't come up with it) the concept of 'mickey mouse march', where NBA teams are either resting or tanking, except for a few middle squads like your Chicago Bulls. Which isn't a problem except Bulls management doesn't think of this context and will spin mickey mouse march as a good data point.
Like if they beat the Celtics tonight no mention of 3 starters being out for them
I was wondering why the game was so close when I just turned it on but that explains so much lol
The Bulls actually played really well. They just played really well against a Celtics team resting multiple stars and even though Tatum played, he probably never gave more than 50%.
Yeah they did play well. Well most of the time. Those Ts on Tatum and Terry were both pretty silly though. Amazing when the refs decide to care to call that.
Derrick White walked into a restaurant I was eating at a few months ago lol (well actually we were waiting to be seated). He saw it was too long of a line and left lol. Probably because he was with his family.
If I ever meet an NBA player, I'm going to ask them if they think the Bulls are a serious franchise 😂
Ahahaha. I didn't talk to him. I might have been one of the only people who even recognized him. He was also in and out pretty quickly.
I once saw Rasheed Wallace (when he was on the Celtics) buying an iphone at the Apple store. Dude clearly wanted to be left alone but I did take a photo of him from one of the store iphones and emailed it to myself. 😂 He stood out way more than White since he is HUGE lol. My husband saw him from a distance and was like is that a basketball player? lol.
Haha that sounds about right for Wallace 😂
Oh and I forgot about the time we met Dominique Wilkins at like a Gospel brunch like the one year he played on the Celtics. I didn't even live here at the time, we happened to be visiting Boston and went to that with my dad's friend's family. My sister was freaking out the entire time when she recognized him, and I think it was his brother (but might have just been a friend or something) was laughing the whole time about it and at the end of the brunch they were like "hug someone next to you" or something and so he turned to her and gave her a hug. 😂😂😂😂
She also met Carlos Boozer in Miami once lol
Haha that's actually super sweet!
Haha yeah it's a great story. I think she was like 15 I was 12? Something like that. Also realizing that his brother also played in the NBA, pretty sure it was him, he matches who I was picturing in my brain. 😂
It will never not be funny that the legend of Scottie Pippen's dickishness still enrages service industry employees all over this city. If you ask anyone who the worst celebrity they've ever had to deal with is, 10-1 it'll be Pip. Valets, waiters, drivers, doormen, bartenders, bouncers... I don't think you can be a respected professional in Chicago and not have a story of Scottie Pippen being an asshole.
Didn't watch, from KCs gamer you get the typical picture: Vuc sucks but you can't blame him
"Luke Kornet dominated his matchup with Nikola Vucevic. He finished with eight points and a season-high 13 rebounds to an uncharacteristic mere two rebounds for Vucevic. Kornet’s activity helped the Celtics enjoy a 23-2 advantage in second-chance points. Coach Billy Donovan said it didn't all fall on Vucevic, who has to be up in coverage or rotating sometimes because of Boston's elite 3-point shooting."
Adam and Stacey were talking about how what Boylen saw in Kornet or something during the broadcast. I was like is this real life. 😂😂😂😂😂😂
psh that's not a double-double much less is he a double-double machine. Nikorette > Green Kornet.
Also I see Caruso played through another injury again, no mention that he needs to play 20 minutes for the game to qualify for his all-defense 'campaign'