Last season's playoffs should be irrelevant. They weren't winning anything of meaning with last season's team, Deng or not. Deng's a nice player. He's not a Bull anymore. I'm done with him.
So folks are dancing this same dance again? We could still have Deng instead of Gasol and the picks we got for Deng. I'll take Gasol and the picks 100 times out of 100 for this team.
Right, but we're obviously not getting HOF (maybe) level Pau Gasol, we're getting 34, 35, 36 year old Pau Gasol. And we already have a good 4 and a good 5 on the roster. He's the #3 big man (just like Asik would have been the #3 big man) Here's hoping that rookie Mirotic, rookie Dougie and 34 year old Pau can really deliver the goods this year and the Bulls can at least come out of the East. (heck, let's just hope Mirotic can get some decent minutes, given the logjam at 4/5) Is that what you think is realistic with this roster? Bulls will be in the finals this season? What's your timetable with this roster to be in the NBA Finals? ----------------------- This does seem to be the year to strike in the East. The Cavs might take a season to really beef up. George went down. If there was ever a time for the Bulls to be in "win now" mode, its for this season. Rose should be in his prime. Gibson is in his prime. Noah is in his prime. Butler is close. Those are "win now" guys. Let's hope that 34 year old Gasol, rookie Dougie and rookie Mirotic can be "win now" impact players and the Bulls finally do something of note. Those are more "win yesterday" and "win later" guys, unless there is a fountain of youth or the rookies really break out. In his prime, 2 time all-star Deng is obviously a "win now" player.
As of last season, Gasol was still much better than Deng. Pau Gasol - 31.4 min, 17.4 pts, 9.7 reb, 3.4 ast, 1.5 blk, 0.5 stl, 19.3 PER, .522 TS% Luol Deng - 35.1 min, 16.0 pts, 5.7 reb, 2.9 ast, 0.1 blk, 1.0 stl, 15.2 PER, .517 TS% And Deng's stats were much, much worse after he left the Bulls. Much, much worse. In reality, the Bulls were a much, much better team after they traded Deng, but I'm not sure reality has any place in this discussion.
For us, Lu: 37.4 min, 19.0 Pts, 6.9 reb, 3.7 ast, 0.2 blk, 1.0 stl, 17.0 PER, .536 TS% By your measures, Lu outperformed Gasol at every single statistic except for rebounds and blocked shots and PER. Lu also started at SF for us, Gasol might be a bench player for us. Our SF position being solid is no sure thing.
The question becomes: Is Taj+Dunleavy+Gasol an upgrade over Taj+Lu+Boozer+Dunleavy I think not so much.
I haven't seen the chemistry of the new group yet, so I can't say 100% for sure. The chemistry of the old guys got us to the ECF. We'd be adding Mirotic and McBuckets this time around.
