Off topic, but Jake Fischer is reporting that Zach wants to stay in Chicago beyond the trade deadline. Wondering if progress was being made towards a trade to a team Zach doesn't want to go to and this is his way of saying he doesn't want to go there.
On topic, I totally agree about Billy. Not that I think he'd be some incredible GM, but I think he'd at least be decent. And being decent is a serious upgrade over what the Bulls have had in the 21st century.
Lol, I tried to click on that Trib link. I read 2 paragraphs at which point a pop-up told me I had to stop because I had exceeded my free article limit (I haven't read a line in the Trib in years). And then two more pop-ups eclipsed that one and each other to advertise incomprehensible products in an even more incomprehensible presentation.
yfBB is suggesting he become the President of Basketball Operations which is what AK is, and you can give whatever title you. There’s been a title inflation (across all corporations but it’s clear to us in sports), that what used to be the General Manager is now something “more” in title though not in what they do. The GM is not what a GM was 15+ years ago. Think about Carter Hawkins being the GM of the Cubs, but it’s Hoyer acting like what we expect a GM to do.
The NFL isn’t fully there yet, but they’re doing the same thing with Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren. Poles was the head and lead decision maker on all moves concerning the playing of the team, and they bring in Warren to oversee building a new stadium, and all of a sudden he’s sitting in on contract extensions and coaching searches.
I am using GM to mean 'lead basketball decision-maker'. Eversley has not distinguished himself in the rare times he's talked either so he can bounce with AK
BD has lost the team and with his roster style has never really had a grasp on using it anyway. The PW he's pulling back from now has mostly been the starter the last four years! He's be a terrible GM too, though a nice youth coach and a welcome guest for dinner. A lot of his sticking around has been to get his son hist first job, admirable parenting but also full company man vibes. Baby Reinsdorf doesn't have balls to hire an psycho aggressive GM like Danny Ainge or a tough, sociopath (but winning) coach like Mr. Udoka down in Houston. The stink and pitifulness on this org runs top to bottom, I'm very sad to say.
Around the end of the 1st half, I was thinking we were facing a team that was basically Steph and 4 guys who are probably not starting on too many other teams in the league.
By the 3rd quarter I was astounded at how much better their "young players" are than Chicago's young players.
By the 4th quarter, as Adam began going through the litany of young Warriors benchwarmers having career nights, I remembered that the Warriors' young players have an advantage over the Chicago Bulls, in that the Warriors' young players get to play against the Chicago Bulls defense. I'd start a list of the G-League players who have set career highs in the last few weeks against Chicago, but honestly I can't even remember their names anymore.
I think the worst thing about this season has been Billy during pressers. He can't sit there and say "We have to shoot about 50% from 3 because we can't defend anybody. We only shot 37%, so that's why we lost." Instead he gives these clinics on the fundamentals of contesting long rebounds. Like man, we were RIGHT/THERE with Golden State in the first half, but then we couldn't collect the long rebounds.
"the Bulls have only drawn 5 charges all season as they play their 45th game tonight. The Bulls were 9th in the NBA last season, when they had 39. (Alex Caruso drew 12). The Bulls were 6th the year before with 52."
This doesn't even account for pace, so it's even worse drop-off.
DB would’ve been fired long ago by every other team in the league. What reasonable goal has he accomplished since he’s been here? I guess dealing with the barely-there media so AKME doesn’t have to is enough? Even if his AKME goal is to be the 10th seed every year, shouldn’t we want a coach (or future GM) with tiny bit higher aspirations? He actually hasn’t lost the team; he’s phoning it in and the players are following his lead-by-example.
Given the players he's had to work with, I have a really hard time saying the Bulls have been poorly coached by their record. Donovan has gotten a lottery team into the playin.
I don't think a coach can have higher aspirations than the GM. Or the players he has to work with.
Right!? BD's a weird high-floor coach. The assumption - or at least mine at the time he was hired at OKC - was that by coming out of a wildly successful college career that he'd develop young talent. He has worked with the youth! This was dumb.
Moon had a thing about how no one understands anything about player development and it's kind of a black box where we can cast our own ideas onto the players that hit and the players that miss and all of that. In this era, I think - epicly moreso now - college coaches don't do much of anything in regards to real player development. They are in perpetual win now mode.
BD's skill as a coach isn't player development, it's just kind of Thibs-lite. I think he has a program and genuinely treats dudes well and - for the most part - keeps stuff in house.
So much of all of this stuff is Bulls sadness, like this Daigneault thing is probably shit that every head coach says, but when you look at the results, yeah.
“We try to have things that can serve both the team and the individual, and then it’s easier for the guy to commit to them,” head coach Mark Daigneault says. “And if that happens, then you can have an environment. And that can be pretty powerful.”
I could imagine a world where someone with real talent and fun ideas and passion fixes this. I just don't think the Bulls - in this configuration - could ever hire or attract said person / persons. It's a fucking void
TLDR, BD isn't a bad coach and he's probably an okay front office guy. Can we do better? Bargaining phase?
Don't say that Donovan is a fine coach when we have lost so many games from him holding back players that can score and has improved their game for more minutes. You have Patrick Williams playing 25-30 minutes a game and won't even get you 10 points and what's with Terry getting more mins than Tuck? Meanwhile you stick Carter in the game for 6 mins late in the 4th and he scores 9 points.
Here is your starters assuming that Ball, Vooch and Zach are gone: Jevon Carter at the 1 Coby 2 Ayo 3 Matas 4 and Smith 5. Swap Carter with Tucker in some games to see which works best. Swap Sonogo with Matas in some games to find the chemistry but we want fast pace and accurate 3 pointers and Free Throws. Get coach Brown right away! We might not make the playoffs with this line up but we make get a good pick.
It's obvious that whoever the GM is, they have a pair of handcuffs put on them by management. yfBB argues that even with these handcuffs, you can do a lot that the current bozos in chief do not. That is true, but I'm not sure how much more.
We're in the midst of a second fucked-up rebuild/reload because they are turning away assets they don't want to pay for. It just inconceivable for me to imagine them losing their revenue share even if it means getting back a great asset or, say, Ben Simmons' $40 million expiring, which would solve problems for the next two or three years. Reinsdorf's view is he's not going to have problems the next two or three years anyway, so why lose this year?
Like these are things that every bad team has to think about doing and they're just inconceivable here.
People often point to Reinsdorf's splurge during the dynasty as evidence he'll pay for a proven winner, but that was before even the luxury tax existed.
Think that Donovan is trying to play too many players. It is counterproductive to play more than about a 9 player rotation. When all are healthy, Donovan is playing White, Dosunmu, Giddey, LaVine, Ball, THT, Williams, Terry, Buzelis, Phillips, Vucevic and Smith. Donovan should decide to play either Buzelis or Phillips but not both. Out of the six players White, Dosunmu, LaVine, Giddey, Ball and THT, Donovan should not try to play all six. Wish that the Bulls had never made the Giddey Caruso trade but oh well.
Bulls biggest problem is not having tall athletic players on the front line. Hindsight is 20/20 but wish that the Bulls had traded down in the first round and drafted Yves Messi (Pelicans) not Buzelis.
K Ware was there, should’ve picked him. Just let Buz pay through his sucking so we can keep our pick! It’s not like the other guys are playing winning basketball…
like I said above, the Buzelis part is where there's some inconsistency from Donovan. Unless he is essentially saying other young guys who make a ton of mistakes and get hunted on defense (Josh Giddey) are absolved because they have NBA experience.
also, look at how long this fucking answer is. likely correlates with how much of it is bullshit
As far as Pat Williams, he stinks, is getting worse, and Donovan is cutting his minutes.
I don't think he's right in his reasons - Pat doesn't need to be more aggressive, he needs to be more athletic+coordinated - but that may just be his 'defending' Pat (while, again, cutting his minutes)
I wonder if Torrey Craig was healthy would he be the starting power forward. Maybe just start Jalen Smith...Pat should be backup center, a short ground-bound stretch five is all he can conceivably contribute as in this current state
All they had to do was take Harrison Barnes, who makes exactly the same as what they gave Pat, and a pick swap from a team that's made the playoffs like once since someone who just got their learner's permit has been alive. Problem completely, utterly, totally solved, and his contract expires after next year.
Barring that... I think Craig would start before Smith. Adam made a big deal about it when Donovan put Smith and Vucevic on the floor at the same time vs. either the Warriors or Blazers. I don't know why that is. I would assume he'd start Craig, since there are fewer ramifications to yanking him back out of the line-up. The funny part about it being that Jalen Smith and Torrey Craig were traded for each other 3 years ago.
Can someone explain why the Bulls are trying to get in on the Butler/Beal sweepstakes? And not the obvious "AK is an idiot" answer. Like is there a legit reason taking on Beal's terrible contract would make sense? I don't feel like Phoenix's crappy picks are worth taking on Beal's contract. And where would LaVine be sent? I can't see the Heat wanting him.
I was curious where this was coming from but now see it was just slopped out there by Windhorst.
"The bottom line is that the Bulls and the Suns have talked and the concept of Bradley Beal ending up in Chicago has been discussed. I’m not saying it’s going to happen. I’m not saying it’s close or whatever. Obviously, Beal has a no-trade clause"
Might be wishful thinking by other GMs thinking the bulls are even interested in arbitrage transactions like that
Yeah, I was specifically referencing Windhorst's report. I don't follow him closely, but I know at one point he was taken fairly seriously. I just can't figure out how a three team trade would work.
I know at one point the Bucks were rumored to be interested in LaVine and I think the natural conclusion was them maybe turning this whole situation into a four team trade. But even then, I think that would result in the Heat taking Middleton and probably Portis or Connaughton and I just don't see Miami wanting those guys.
I don't see them wanting to either. But when you have one of the best players in the league and he's pressuring you to add another high level scorer (don't know if he is or not, but he should be), you might do it even if you don't want to.
Milwaukee is a fairly small market team. If they don't do what Giannis wants and he asks to be traded, they can't just go out and add another star in free agency. If Giannis wants out, so will Dame. Then the Bucks have to completely start over.
Maybe they'd rather do that, but my guess is they probably don't.
Maybe they just want someone not controlled by the team to report that they're in talks involving Zach. Even though this is a dumb trade by our standards, they can point to it and say, "See, Klutch? We're trying." In this scenario, they're not seriously considering the trade.
I don't know the specifics of the picks anyone would have to give, but obviously if I were AKME, I'd want a million picks to take back Beal. And good ones.
Mechanically, maybe it's not Lavine.
Bulls get Beal.
Heat get Lonzo and Vuc.
Suns get Butler.
Bonus trade #2. Bulls get Nurkic, Suns get Pat. (Note this works because Pat Makes $18M and Nurkic makes $18.1). Bulls get out from under Pat's deal, and losing his 5/$90 maybe makes Beal's contract somewhat less awful coming back?
If I understand correctly, the Suns got 25, 27, and 29 picks, but those are the least favorable of Cavs/TWolves/Jazz. So likely they'll be in the 20s every year. That's pretty lame. It's hilarious that the Bulls passed on Barnes and the swap rights to a good '31 pick just a few months ago, but will consider taking back the worst contract in the league so they can get a few middling ones.
I assume they'd follow this up by trading Zach. Feel like the Pistons would be a reasonable fit for him.
I guess I just assumed Zach would also be involved in the deal, but I do think a separate trade like you're mentioning would make the most sense. But yeah, my biggest problem is the picks the Suns just got are all pretty crappy and I'm not sure getting all of them is worth taking Beal's terrible contract for two more seasons.
and as much as we don't value these particular picks from the Suns, AK has shown to value all picks even less. He also probably wouldn't be interested in a 2031 unprotected first, because he is only thinking if he would be around to draft a player in 2031
Like the Portland non-pick, these could also allow him to begin cashing in the next round of Chicago's own picks, like he did last time they had any lol
If I were Beal I'd need assurances that the Bulls would trade him in the offseason. And I don't know how he could ever feel assured the Bulls would do anything (unless Billy is new GM)
Bulls got a dead-cat-bounce win over the full-strength Nuggets at home. Bulls hit a shitton of threes (including rare LaVine clutch makes) and the Nuggets missed a ton (shot a lot less too) and messed around too much around the rim and not converting fast breaks.
So not that it means much (nothing does this season!), but it was interesting to see Billy doing a rotation change. Pat out for the 4-guard lineup, and Buzelis first off the bench. Both played decently, obviously this doesn't 'unlock' Pat because what's locked is his ability to move.
Anyway, it may not last because LaVine is out for a couple games for paternity leave and Coby may or may not be back himself. And then the trade deadline. So we won't really know how Billy would treat the full strength Bulls (unless they do no trades again, possible!), except hold on too long to this point.
I'm thinking Vooch gets moved but Zach doesn't. Can't wait to see Billy run out a starting five of Giddey, Zach, Coby, Lonzo, and Ayo. Five guard lineup, baby!!
Yes over the weeks said bone bruise in the ankle, but then Monday night they sounded more optimistic to return in a couple of games from now. Seems dubious but they've never led us astray before!
Because in a season where wins and losses really don't matter (since they're basically stuck where they are in the standings), rushing a player back from injury makes total sense.
Coby likely returning, just reported he participated in shootaround
Interested to learn (not really) how guard-lovin Billy does starting lineup with no LaVine and the Celtics having two jumbo wings. (though Tatum is GTD)
he's so...well, 'active' sounds too positive. spastic?
even still! He moves like it's a video game, and not a hyper-realistic modern one but, like, NBA Jam. Just turbo button out of bounds and violently changing direction
I'm all for this. Whatever advantage BD brings, it's clearly not on the court. Let him use his strong relationships to build rosters and make trades.
Off topic, but Jake Fischer is reporting that Zach wants to stay in Chicago beyond the trade deadline. Wondering if progress was being made towards a trade to a team Zach doesn't want to go to and this is his way of saying he doesn't want to go there.
On topic, I totally agree about Billy. Not that I think he'd be some incredible GM, but I think he'd at least be decent. And being decent is a serious upgrade over what the Bulls have had in the 21st century.
I'm hoping it's Zach doing the Bulls a solid not undercutting their leverage by demanding out.
That or he's the 'losing player' content with losing that people say he is
Lol, I tried to click on that Trib link. I read 2 paragraphs at which point a pop-up told me I had to stop because I had exceeded my free article limit (I haven't read a line in the Trib in years). And then two more pop-ups eclipsed that one and each other to advertise incomprehensible products in an even more incomprehensible presentation.
Yeah it makes my computer start to smoke and melt
I should've pulled a quote but that was laziness not any stance. I still won't link to Twitter.
Really nice article BaB. Pointed at arguments against Donovan but pretty fair to him as well.
He doesn't play the youngsters enough but also doesn't trust them for valid reasons.
Funny question - what position does he take? We kind ignore the fact that there's an actual GM on this team.
Sorry meant to say we talk about him replacing AK but technically he'd replace ME, the current GM
yfBB is suggesting he become the President of Basketball Operations which is what AK is, and you can give whatever title you. There’s been a title inflation (across all corporations but it’s clear to us in sports), that what used to be the General Manager is now something “more” in title though not in what they do. The GM is not what a GM was 15+ years ago. Think about Carter Hawkins being the GM of the Cubs, but it’s Hoyer acting like what we expect a GM to do.
The NFL isn’t fully there yet, but they’re doing the same thing with Ryan Poles and Kevin Warren. Poles was the head and lead decision maker on all moves concerning the playing of the team, and they bring in Warren to oversee building a new stadium, and all of a sudden he’s sitting in on contract extensions and coaching searches.
AK will obviously never be hired again. ME once a hot name is now guilty by association
ME is gonna cut out the middle man and just work directly for Rich Paul
I am using GM to mean 'lead basketball decision-maker'. Eversley has not distinguished himself in the rare times he's talked either so he can bounce with AK
BD has lost the team and with his roster style has never really had a grasp on using it anyway. The PW he's pulling back from now has mostly been the starter the last four years! He's be a terrible GM too, though a nice youth coach and a welcome guest for dinner. A lot of his sticking around has been to get his son hist first job, admirable parenting but also full company man vibes. Baby Reinsdorf doesn't have balls to hire an psycho aggressive GM like Danny Ainge or a tough, sociopath (but winning) coach like Mr. Udoka down in Houston. The stink and pitifulness on this org runs top to bottom, I'm very sad to say.
Around the end of the 1st half, I was thinking we were facing a team that was basically Steph and 4 guys who are probably not starting on too many other teams in the league.
By the 3rd quarter I was astounded at how much better their "young players" are than Chicago's young players.
By the 4th quarter, as Adam began going through the litany of young Warriors benchwarmers having career nights, I remembered that the Warriors' young players have an advantage over the Chicago Bulls, in that the Warriors' young players get to play against the Chicago Bulls defense. I'd start a list of the G-League players who have set career highs in the last few weeks against Chicago, but honestly I can't even remember their names anymore.
I think the worst thing about this season has been Billy during pressers. He can't sit there and say "We have to shoot about 50% from 3 because we can't defend anybody. We only shot 37%, so that's why we lost." Instead he gives these clinics on the fundamentals of contesting long rebounds. Like man, we were RIGHT/THERE with Golden State in the first half, but then we couldn't collect the long rebounds.
Stolen off X
"the Bulls have only drawn 5 charges all season as they play their 45th game tonight. The Bulls were 9th in the NBA last season, when they had 39. (Alex Caruso drew 12). The Bulls were 6th the year before with 52."
This doesn't even account for pace, so it's even worse drop-off.
In fairness it's pretty hard for Giddey to draw a charge when he's usually standing 3 feet behind his man.
What’s that rank? Obviously lower, just curious.
28th. 24th in deflections.
DB would’ve been fired long ago by every other team in the league. What reasonable goal has he accomplished since he’s been here? I guess dealing with the barely-there media so AKME doesn’t have to is enough? Even if his AKME goal is to be the 10th seed every year, shouldn’t we want a coach (or future GM) with tiny bit higher aspirations? He actually hasn’t lost the team; he’s phoning it in and the players are following his lead-by-example.
Given the players he's had to work with, I have a really hard time saying the Bulls have been poorly coached by their record. Donovan has gotten a lottery team into the playin.
I don't think a coach can have higher aspirations than the GM. Or the players he has to work with.
Right!? BD's a weird high-floor coach. The assumption - or at least mine at the time he was hired at OKC - was that by coming out of a wildly successful college career that he'd develop young talent. He has worked with the youth! This was dumb.
Moon had a thing about how no one understands anything about player development and it's kind of a black box where we can cast our own ideas onto the players that hit and the players that miss and all of that. In this era, I think - epicly moreso now - college coaches don't do much of anything in regards to real player development. They are in perpetual win now mode.
BD's skill as a coach isn't player development, it's just kind of Thibs-lite. I think he has a program and genuinely treats dudes well and - for the most part - keeps stuff in house.
So much of all of this stuff is Bulls sadness, like this Daigneault thing is probably shit that every head coach says, but when you look at the results, yeah.
“We try to have things that can serve both the team and the individual, and then it’s easier for the guy to commit to them,” head coach Mark Daigneault says. “And if that happens, then you can have an environment. And that can be pretty powerful.”
I could imagine a world where someone with real talent and fun ideas and passion fixes this. I just don't think the Bulls - in this configuration - could ever hire or attract said person / persons. It's a fucking void
TLDR, BD isn't a bad coach and he's probably an okay front office guy. Can we do better? Bargaining phase?
Yes please and get Mike Brown or Adrian Griffin. Get rid of Vooch, Lavine, Craig, Terry, Williams, Ball, Giddy the current GM and Reinsdorf.
Don't say that Donovan is a fine coach when we have lost so many games from him holding back players that can score and has improved their game for more minutes. You have Patrick Williams playing 25-30 minutes a game and won't even get you 10 points and what's with Terry getting more mins than Tuck? Meanwhile you stick Carter in the game for 6 mins late in the 4th and he scores 9 points.
Here is your starters assuming that Ball, Vooch and Zach are gone: Jevon Carter at the 1 Coby 2 Ayo 3 Matas 4 and Smith 5. Swap Carter with Tucker in some games to see which works best. Swap Sonogo with Matas in some games to find the chemistry but we want fast pace and accurate 3 pointers and Free Throws. Get coach Brown right away! We might not make the playoffs with this line up but we make get a good pick.
It's obvious that whoever the GM is, they have a pair of handcuffs put on them by management. yfBB argues that even with these handcuffs, you can do a lot that the current bozos in chief do not. That is true, but I'm not sure how much more.
We're in the midst of a second fucked-up rebuild/reload because they are turning away assets they don't want to pay for. It just inconceivable for me to imagine them losing their revenue share even if it means getting back a great asset or, say, Ben Simmons' $40 million expiring, which would solve problems for the next two or three years. Reinsdorf's view is he's not going to have problems the next two or three years anyway, so why lose this year?
Like these are things that every bad team has to think about doing and they're just inconceivable here.
People often point to Reinsdorf's splurge during the dynasty as evidence he'll pay for a proven winner, but that was before even the luxury tax existed.
Think that Donovan is trying to play too many players. It is counterproductive to play more than about a 9 player rotation. When all are healthy, Donovan is playing White, Dosunmu, Giddey, LaVine, Ball, THT, Williams, Terry, Buzelis, Phillips, Vucevic and Smith. Donovan should decide to play either Buzelis or Phillips but not both. Out of the six players White, Dosunmu, LaVine, Giddey, Ball and THT, Donovan should not try to play all six. Wish that the Bulls had never made the Giddey Caruso trade but oh well.
Bulls biggest problem is not having tall athletic players on the front line. Hindsight is 20/20 but wish that the Bulls had traded down in the first round and drafted Yves Messi (Pelicans) not Buzelis.
K Ware was there, should’ve picked him. Just let Buz pay through his sucking so we can keep our pick! It’s not like the other guys are playing winning basketball…
Kleber just broke his foot. How about him, Prosper, Markieff (waive) and their 2025 1st for Coby and Craig?
how does that help their frontcourt depth?
like I said above, the Buzelis part is where there's some inconsistency from Donovan. Unless he is essentially saying other young guys who make a ton of mistakes and get hunted on defense (Josh Giddey) are absolved because they have NBA experience.
also, look at how long this fucking answer is. likely correlates with how much of it is bullshit
https://bsky.app/profile/juliapoe.bsky.social/post/3lgm37vjzjk27
As far as Pat Williams, he stinks, is getting worse, and Donovan is cutting his minutes.
I don't think he's right in his reasons - Pat doesn't need to be more aggressive, he needs to be more athletic+coordinated - but that may just be his 'defending' Pat (while, again, cutting his minutes)
I wonder if Torrey Craig was healthy would he be the starting power forward. Maybe just start Jalen Smith...Pat should be backup center, a short ground-bound stretch five is all he can conceivably contribute as in this current state
All they had to do was take Harrison Barnes, who makes exactly the same as what they gave Pat, and a pick swap from a team that's made the playoffs like once since someone who just got their learner's permit has been alive. Problem completely, utterly, totally solved, and his contract expires after next year.
Barring that... I think Craig would start before Smith. Adam made a big deal about it when Donovan put Smith and Vucevic on the floor at the same time vs. either the Warriors or Blazers. I don't know why that is. I would assume he'd start Craig, since there are fewer ramifications to yanking him back out of the line-up. The funny part about it being that Jalen Smith and Torrey Craig were traded for each other 3 years ago.
Can someone explain why the Bulls are trying to get in on the Butler/Beal sweepstakes? And not the obvious "AK is an idiot" answer. Like is there a legit reason taking on Beal's terrible contract would make sense? I don't feel like Phoenix's crappy picks are worth taking on Beal's contract. And where would LaVine be sent? I can't see the Heat wanting him.
I was curious where this was coming from but now see it was just slopped out there by Windhorst.
"The bottom line is that the Bulls and the Suns have talked and the concept of Bradley Beal ending up in Chicago has been discussed. I’m not saying it’s going to happen. I’m not saying it’s close or whatever. Obviously, Beal has a no-trade clause"
Might be wishful thinking by other GMs thinking the bulls are even interested in arbitrage transactions like that
Yeah, I was specifically referencing Windhorst's report. I don't follow him closely, but I know at one point he was taken fairly seriously. I just can't figure out how a three team trade would work.
I know at one point the Bucks were rumored to be interested in LaVine and I think the natural conclusion was them maybe turning this whole situation into a four team trade. But even then, I think that would result in the Heat taking Middleton and probably Portis or Connaughton and I just don't see Miami wanting those guys.
I don't see the Bucks wanting to pay assets for a LaVine+Lillard $90M backcourt
I don't see them wanting to either. But when you have one of the best players in the league and he's pressuring you to add another high level scorer (don't know if he is or not, but he should be), you might do it even if you don't want to.
Milwaukee is a fairly small market team. If they don't do what Giannis wants and he asks to be traded, they can't just go out and add another star in free agency. If Giannis wants out, so will Dame. Then the Bucks have to completely start over.
Maybe they'd rather do that, but my guess is they probably don't.
Maybe they just want someone not controlled by the team to report that they're in talks involving Zach. Even though this is a dumb trade by our standards, they can point to it and say, "See, Klutch? We're trying." In this scenario, they're not seriously considering the trade.
I don't know the specifics of the picks anyone would have to give, but obviously if I were AKME, I'd want a million picks to take back Beal. And good ones.
Mechanically, maybe it's not Lavine.
Bulls get Beal.
Heat get Lonzo and Vuc.
Suns get Butler.
Bonus trade #2. Bulls get Nurkic, Suns get Pat. (Note this works because Pat Makes $18M and Nurkic makes $18.1). Bulls get out from under Pat's deal, and losing his 5/$90 maybe makes Beal's contract somewhat less awful coming back?
If I understand correctly, the Suns got 25, 27, and 29 picks, but those are the least favorable of Cavs/TWolves/Jazz. So likely they'll be in the 20s every year. That's pretty lame. It's hilarious that the Bulls passed on Barnes and the swap rights to a good '31 pick just a few months ago, but will consider taking back the worst contract in the league so they can get a few middling ones.
I assume they'd follow this up by trading Zach. Feel like the Pistons would be a reasonable fit for him.
I guess I just assumed Zach would also be involved in the deal, but I do think a separate trade like you're mentioning would make the most sense. But yeah, my biggest problem is the picks the Suns just got are all pretty crappy and I'm not sure getting all of them is worth taking Beal's terrible contract for two more seasons.
and as much as we don't value these particular picks from the Suns, AK has shown to value all picks even less. He also probably wouldn't be interested in a 2031 unprotected first, because he is only thinking if he would be around to draft a player in 2031
Like the Portland non-pick, these could also allow him to begin cashing in the next round of Chicago's own picks, like he did last time they had any lol
"It's hilarious that the Bulls passed on Barnes and the swap rights to a good '31 pick just a few months ago"
right that's why i consider this a non-starter, same with the idea that the Bulls would carry both LaVine and Beal on their books
Oh, I can totally see them taking on Beal. Consider it Billy Donovan's first GM move.
But I do figure they'd have a trade for Zach lined up.
Ha that's right, Billy was Beals college coach
If I were Beal I'd need assurances that the Bulls would trade him in the offseason. And I don't know how he could ever feel assured the Bulls would do anything (unless Billy is new GM)
my attempt (and a cry for help?)
https://bsky.app/profile/blogabull.bsky.social/post/3lgqyde5xic2h
lmao, there's been no talk from Beal about what he would/wouldn't accept in a trade, always saying waiting until there's a trade with traction
except with the Bulls! Wanted it out there ASAP that he is not interested. Too cold. Oh and they suck.
https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2025/01/suns-bradley-beal-not-interested-in-bulls-trade.html
Haha I saw that too. Thankfully he seems to be saving AK from making a stupid decision.
Bulls got a dead-cat-bounce win over the full-strength Nuggets at home. Bulls hit a shitton of threes (including rare LaVine clutch makes) and the Nuggets missed a ton (shot a lot less too) and messed around too much around the rim and not converting fast breaks.
So not that it means much (nothing does this season!), but it was interesting to see Billy doing a rotation change. Pat out for the 4-guard lineup, and Buzelis first off the bench. Both played decently, obviously this doesn't 'unlock' Pat because what's locked is his ability to move.
Anyway, it may not last because LaVine is out for a couple games for paternity leave and Coby may or may not be back himself. And then the trade deadline. So we won't really know how Billy would treat the full strength Bulls (unless they do no trades again, possible!), except hold on too long to this point.
I'm thinking Vooch gets moved but Zach doesn't. Can't wait to see Billy run out a starting five of Giddey, Zach, Coby, Lonzo, and Ayo. Five guard lineup, baby!!
I read in passing that Coby actually has a bone bruise, which isn't something I expect a quick comeback from
Yes over the weeks said bone bruise in the ankle, but then Monday night they sounded more optimistic to return in a couple of games from now. Seems dubious but they've never led us astray before!
Because in a season where wins and losses really don't matter (since they're basically stuck where they are in the standings), rushing a player back from injury makes total sense.
Coby likely returning, just reported he participated in shootaround
Interested to learn (not really) how guard-lovin Billy does starting lineup with no LaVine and the Celtics having two jumbo wings. (though Tatum is GTD)
The answer is Dalen Terry. The answer is always Dalen Terry.
It's hard to remember that Dalen Terry played 200 minutes in his rookie season. I miss it.
oh I remember. Every minute feels like 200
he's so...well, 'active' sounds too positive. spastic?
even still! He moves like it's a video game, and not a hyper-realistic modern one but, like, NBA Jam. Just turbo button out of bounds and violently changing direction
lol that's it exactly, he's like Uncanny Valley in sneakers.