AKME are clearly bad negotiators, but keeping the team just mediocre enough to be (sometimes) fun to watch so that their customers keep on buying overpriced seats and paying for overpriced concessions may be exactly what the Reinsdorfs hired them to do. I don’t think you were being cynical.
like today Drew Stevens had a lazy 'well attendance is high, and the Reinsdorfs pay attention to that' post
to me, the lesson there is you can have absolutely horrible management and STILL get good attendance. Why not replace them, you keep the attendance and maybe don't piss off everyone else?
Nets are doing what they telegraphed ever since trading Durant and Kyrie. And you can't use mental powers to force people to give you amazing draft capital, so they're taking what they think they can get rather than holding on until the off-season when they have even less leverage.
I can understand if people think there's a better way to do it. The Bulls are not taking an alternative route, though. They're not taking any route. They've added no picks. They've cleared no cap room. Their roster is the equivalent of a heavily mortgaged split level that floods every time it rains — they still owe a first for DeRozan and 2 seconds for Julian Phillips of all things.
Bulls are multiple steps behind. They haven't even made their star-clearing trade yet. DFS was part of the Kyrie return, not great in isolation but it was obviously something they could flip. AKME can't even do moves in isolation let alone in sequence
Have AKME ever even flipped a player for assets? Like do they even realize they can take a player they don't necessarily want and then trade that player at a later date?
Similar to the Wizards stuff, take the L and move on. Acceptance. The org isn't getting NOW fair trade value, but books are clear. Trinkets are received. This isn't failure, it's moving on.
Throughout my lifetime (( except for Jerry Krause! I apologize if the rest of this doesn't make sense as the 15 year old me just punched me in the face )) this front office has always been the bad fantasy manager. The one who puts the worst dudes on the trade block. You might like these guys!
I like the guys who understand the constraints and then squeeze everything they can. The worst are the guys who don't understand the constraints. I think that's AKME - and by proxy sadly Calvin Booth. If your owner is unwilling to spend money to get out of bad choices, you need to act accordingly. These dudes, sigh
Sundance Channel is having some kind of RAMBO marathon. This game was on during First Blood, and you don't mean to watch it, but they just keep teasing that Jerry Goldsmith "Rambo Theme" and you're just like FUCK YEAH
Every time I flip back another Charlotte player who looks like he should be selling funny t-shirts on the street in Wrigleyville is pulling them within 1 possession. It took me like 3 times to notice it wasn't even the same guy. They have a whole team of those guys. And they're playing the Bulls to a standstill. It's competitive!
Some guy who looks like he's got one of those plumber's licenses that spells "COOK COUNTY" wrong tries a game tying 3 and misses... The Bulls have the ball with 6 seconds to go and a 3 point lead so I'm back to watching Rambo at this point cuz he's coming for that fat fuck sheriff now, and now you're telling me this game went into overtime?
this broke CHGO post-game. They've been humping the tank all year but now are realizing that not only are there 'too many wins' but the wins are on the backs of veterans and not young player development.
they prior would couch things with "well the front office is trying to balance many things, it's risky but we'll see" to now saying "they failed at everything"
This was something else, man. People often say you can only beat the team in front of you but that wasn't just a bad team's B team, but it was a bad team's B team playing like a bad team's B team. If their big men were as good as Stacy kept implying, they probably would have won by 15 because the Bulls are now both incapable but also uninterested in stopping anyone in the paint. As it is the brittle Mark Williams and Nick Richards shot 10/11 from the field in 44 minutes, barely a 1/3rd of what Miles Bridges put up in 36.
I still don't understand how the Bulls can be a professional team and have so many key young players with such erratic shooting form. On half of his possessions (but not on the other half), Patrick Williams will catch the ball at his chest and then lower it to or just below his waist. I'm watching this and I'm thinking, I'm an idiot and I can see the effect of this, not just in that insane DeAndre Hunter block vs Atlanta where a guy actually rotated over and threw his shot in his face in the time it took Patrick to get the shot off, but leaves him passing out of pretty good shot attempts because he's afraid he's not going to get it up. I used to wonder why he was hesitating. It's not hesitation. He's dropping his hands really low for no good reason, but only some of the time. It's a tick and other teams have figured it out. Why haven't the Bulls?
Pretty sure I've repeatedly drawn attention to Giddey's ever-changing shooting form. Actually this very post mentions "so many key young players with an erratic shooting form."
It's probably also more valid on a night when he got off more attempts than usual, rather than to pretend he fixed anything.
Hornets game also broke the Trib reporter (though I doubt it's in the game story and only on The Everything App)
@byjuliapoe
It’s getting boring to talk about but I’m not sure what the Bulls get out of a win like that. Not a ton of developmental time for Matas, Julian or even Dalen. Just another win that wedges them more firmly into play-in position — but they’re clearly not a playoff team.
20 mins for Dalen, 10 for Matas, 11 for Julian. Julian was a -21. They're getting opportunities, it's still up to them to capitalize and I still don't believe in free minutes. Kilian Hayes got all the free minutes in the world but he was still Kilian Hayes, and Detroit fans were subjected to Kilian Hayes for 4 years.
The win was ugly for sure but the kids are playing, they just aren't doing anything you'd remember and folks are bellyaching the aesthetics. Bulls are a good 3 point shooting team they just didn't go down... and Giddey took too many.
In the spirit of entering 2025 unencumbered by bad juju, here are some things I was wrong about this season:
1. Lonzo can be, and is, a basketball player again. I was too cynical about this.
2. Vuc. I don't know what the hell he's inhaled to transform him into one of the most skilled shooting big men in the game. I really can't believe his shooting stats are holding up. (They are, in fact, the only thing holding his GAME up at all, but more power to him, he's managed to have a career shooting year at age 34.) I thought this would be the worst season, with another year on the books and aging into irrelevance. I'm not sure if anyone else in the league believes his stats or think they can scale down to a 4th option but that's a separate issue.
3. The Bulls are not the toxic pit of despair I thought they would be but I am not apologizing for this prediction yet because games like this and Charlotte and Atlanta convince me that they can still be so much worse.
AKME are clearly bad negotiators, but keeping the team just mediocre enough to be (sometimes) fun to watch so that their customers keep on buying overpriced seats and paying for overpriced concessions may be exactly what the Reinsdorfs hired them to do. I don’t think you were being cynical.
I mean specifically that they are waiting these next 7 weeks or whatever bc someone will no-show without star attraction like Nikola Vucevic
I do also think it's overly cynical to think AKME are doing what Reinsdorfs ask. They're too incompetent to even get that right
like today Drew Stevens had a lazy 'well attendance is high, and the Reinsdorfs pay attention to that' post
to me, the lesson there is you can have absolutely horrible management and STILL get good attendance. Why not replace them, you keep the attendance and maybe don't piss off everyone else?
Nets are doing what they telegraphed ever since trading Durant and Kyrie. And you can't use mental powers to force people to give you amazing draft capital, so they're taking what they think they can get rather than holding on until the off-season when they have even less leverage.
I can understand if people think there's a better way to do it. The Bulls are not taking an alternative route, though. They're not taking any route. They've added no picks. They've cleared no cap room. Their roster is the equivalent of a heavily mortgaged split level that floods every time it rains — they still owe a first for DeRozan and 2 seconds for Julian Phillips of all things.
Bulls are multiple steps behind. They haven't even made their star-clearing trade yet. DFS was part of the Kyrie return, not great in isolation but it was obviously something they could flip. AKME can't even do moves in isolation let alone in sequence
Have AKME ever even flipped a player for assets? Like do they even realize they can take a player they don't necessarily want and then trade that player at a later date?
Similar to the Wizards stuff, take the L and move on. Acceptance. The org isn't getting NOW fair trade value, but books are clear. Trinkets are received. This isn't failure, it's moving on.
Throughout my lifetime (( except for Jerry Krause! I apologize if the rest of this doesn't make sense as the 15 year old me just punched me in the face )) this front office has always been the bad fantasy manager. The one who puts the worst dudes on the trade block. You might like these guys!
I like the guys who understand the constraints and then squeeze everything they can. The worst are the guys who don't understand the constraints. I think that's AKME - and by proxy sadly Calvin Booth. If your owner is unwilling to spend money to get out of bad choices, you need to act accordingly. These dudes, sigh
Hornets game thread UP: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/ae91cef4-b7f6-4348-9938-6f851f8fae1c
Sundance Channel is having some kind of RAMBO marathon. This game was on during First Blood, and you don't mean to watch it, but they just keep teasing that Jerry Goldsmith "Rambo Theme" and you're just like FUCK YEAH
Every time I flip back another Charlotte player who looks like he should be selling funny t-shirts on the street in Wrigleyville is pulling them within 1 possession. It took me like 3 times to notice it wasn't even the same guy. They have a whole team of those guys. And they're playing the Bulls to a standstill. It's competitive!
Some guy who looks like he's got one of those plumber's licenses that spells "COOK COUNTY" wrong tries a game tying 3 and misses... The Bulls have the ball with 6 seconds to go and a 3 point lead so I'm back to watching Rambo at this point cuz he's coming for that fat fuck sheriff now, and now you're telling me this game went into overtime?
Killing me bro
this broke CHGO post-game. They've been humping the tank all year but now are realizing that not only are there 'too many wins' but the wins are on the backs of veterans and not young player development.
they prior would couch things with "well the front office is trying to balance many things, it's risky but we'll see" to now saying "they failed at everything"
Oh good I can promote the written word
https://allchgo.com/what-are-the-chicago-bulls-doing/
This was something else, man. People often say you can only beat the team in front of you but that wasn't just a bad team's B team, but it was a bad team's B team playing like a bad team's B team. If their big men were as good as Stacy kept implying, they probably would have won by 15 because the Bulls are now both incapable but also uninterested in stopping anyone in the paint. As it is the brittle Mark Williams and Nick Richards shot 10/11 from the field in 44 minutes, barely a 1/3rd of what Miles Bridges put up in 36.
I still don't understand how the Bulls can be a professional team and have so many key young players with such erratic shooting form. On half of his possessions (but not on the other half), Patrick Williams will catch the ball at his chest and then lower it to or just below his waist. I'm watching this and I'm thinking, I'm an idiot and I can see the effect of this, not just in that insane DeAndre Hunter block vs Atlanta where a guy actually rotated over and threw his shot in his face in the time it took Patrick to get the shot off, but leaves him passing out of pretty good shot attempts because he's afraid he's not going to get it up. I used to wonder why he was hesitating. It's not hesitation. He's dropping his hands really low for no good reason, but only some of the time. It's a tick and other teams have figured it out. Why haven't the Bulls?
Weird night to criticize Pat's form. He took 10 and made 5. I don't disagree but when he does take them, they're usually good shots.
This bothers you more than whatever is going on with Giddey's right leg when he shoots?
Pretty sure I've repeatedly drawn attention to Giddey's ever-changing shooting form. Actually this very post mentions "so many key young players with an erratic shooting form."
It's probably also more valid on a night when he got off more attempts than usual, rather than to pretend he fixed anything.
Hornets game also broke the Trib reporter (though I doubt it's in the game story and only on The Everything App)
@byjuliapoe
It’s getting boring to talk about but I’m not sure what the Bulls get out of a win like that. Not a ton of developmental time for Matas, Julian or even Dalen. Just another win that wedges them more firmly into play-in position — but they’re clearly not a playoff team.
20 mins for Dalen, 10 for Matas, 11 for Julian. Julian was a -21. They're getting opportunities, it's still up to them to capitalize and I still don't believe in free minutes. Kilian Hayes got all the free minutes in the world but he was still Kilian Hayes, and Detroit fans were subjected to Kilian Hayes for 4 years.
The win was ugly for sure but the kids are playing, they just aren't doing anything you'd remember and folks are bellyaching the aesthetics. Bulls are a good 3 point shooting team they just didn't go down... and Giddey took too many.
I do agree the bigger issue is all the young guys stink
Giddy 1-9 getting hot!
Had his big comeback game, triple-double (machine) with quotes about a commitment to defense...then next game he's benched down the stretch again
New Year's Day.
Bulls vs. Wizards.
Seriously are there 5 people willing to watch this.
The wife's in California and I'm a glutton for Bulls punishment, so count me in!
You're our only hope for updates on the Bub Carrington/Dalen Terry maxi turbo THROWDOWN.
I may have to do this one better and watch it on replay if that boxscore is accurate!
I just started the second half. Billy called a timeout 30 seconds in because the Bulls decided they just weren't going to play defense.
Holy shit, I tuned into this game and it looks like some insane SecondLife sim. Jordan Poole had trouble rendering polygons on a drive.
That's just the shitty CHSN feed
Wait for it, bro. The Bulls defense was so bad that it subverted the laws of physics.
In the spirit of entering 2025 unencumbered by bad juju, here are some things I was wrong about this season:
1. Lonzo can be, and is, a basketball player again. I was too cynical about this.
2. Vuc. I don't know what the hell he's inhaled to transform him into one of the most skilled shooting big men in the game. I really can't believe his shooting stats are holding up. (They are, in fact, the only thing holding his GAME up at all, but more power to him, he's managed to have a career shooting year at age 34.) I thought this would be the worst season, with another year on the books and aging into irrelevance. I'm not sure if anyone else in the league believes his stats or think they can scale down to a 4th option but that's a separate issue.
3. The Bulls are not the toxic pit of despair I thought they would be but I am not apologizing for this prediction yet because games like this and Charlotte and Atlanta convince me that they can still be so much worse.
You can feel a shudder here, a precursor to the heat death of the universe on Jordan Poole's drive.
https://streamable.com/66ai2a
Ah yes it's Zach "I'm a good on-ball defender, please write that down without further thought" LaVine
AI prompt: Game action showing the Bulls defense coached by Tim Donaghy.