Matt at Blog a Bull has his thoughts. I think: Ahh, inertia. I rarely watch the games. I didn't get League Pass this year, and when a game is on down here in Indy, I usually only half watch. Things I watch for: * Does Kirk look like he can maintain the competence he's showed as the starting SG. While I think he's horribly misused, I think he's better than Salmons. * Does James Johnson look like he's developing a clue? Will he have more points or more fouls? * Will Tyrus ever come out with his head on straight, have a ridiculous game, and instantly inspire confidence in himself and his teammates. * Will anyone get hurt in this placeholder of a season. Beyond watching the games: * I want to see what this team really wants to do. I'll be terribly disappointed if we spend maximum money on Joe Johnson. There are so many other options out there that could get us to the same place while preserving more "flexibility". * I want to see how this team closes the deal on getting max cap space. I think they've pretty much committed to it (otherwise letting Gordon walk was a fit of pique and insanity). But Salmons hangs over them like the Sword of Damocles. I'd almost guarantee they make some sort of move to ensure they get max space. I'll be interested to see what that is. * Balancing against the need to make that trade to lose salary, I suspect Bulls management and ownership seriously expects the playoffs, and failing to obtain those additional revenues will be met with serious disapproval. But the easiest way to ensure the playoffs is to take on more salary for next year. Which they can't do without screwing the 2010 plan.
I stopped buying NBALP two seasons ago as a form of protest. I don't want to give Reinsdorf $.01 share of what I'd pay for it. That's after buying it every year since during the championship years. The sorry thing is that the Bulls could trade $18M or whatever in non-expiring contracts for TMac's huge one and go over the LT threshold, but they won't. They won't even gain $2M in cap space by trading TMac - $2M in expiring deals for him. They give no indication that they actually care, frankly. JR made his position known over the summer, and that is to avoid making some sort of mistake (by keeping or trading for or signing talented players). It's only a tad interesting about going after TMac. Under the best of circumstances, he comes in and plays something like Salmons did last year and shows he has some gas left in the tank. It might be a flyer of sorts that he regains his peak form sometime after he somehow resigns with us for some fraction of what we should have paid Gordon; thus replacing Gordon with a better player at less cost - a truly good outcome. If he does regain his form and we clear cap space to sign that MAX FA, then a primetime TMac + FA give us two of the three superstars we need. Not unreasonable to hope for Rose to become the third before the window closes. I mean, if you think Johnson is old, TMac is old and has a lot of wear on him (HS to NBA). While some people talk like Salmons is a problem for us, flexibility wise, I think the opposite is true. Consider last season when he started and played big minutes at SF: 18.3 PPG, 4.3 RPG, .415 3pt%, 37.7 MPG and a 16.0 PER Compared to Deng this season: 17.4 PPG, 7.7 RPG, .400 3pt%, 38.1 MPG, and a 16.6 PER As good or better, IMO, for a fraction of the salary. So I say deal Deng and get the cap space that way. The trade with the Blazers I suggest is mostly acceptable to the Blazers posters here... Deng for Blake, Outlaw (both expiring deals) and Fernandez. Fernandez makes under $2M in salary and actually would play for us and be of great help.
Because i'm a fan and stick by them when they're good or suck. I guess them still having a shot to make the playoffs is keeping me going the most though
I started thinking about how much time I was wasting watching bulls games after Vinny blew the Sacramento game. But I keep watching to see if Rose can start creating shots for guys and become that game controlling PG we are all hoping he can, if Tyrus can figure out how to focus his frustration and turn it into a positive instead of a negative, and mostly because it's a habit and I finally broke down and bought league pass for the first time because I got tired of looking for bootleg streams.
Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah can be fun to watch, as can Tyrus Thomas when he navigates his head out of his arse. But this is one boring Bulls team. It's a shame that the Packers are eliminated from the playoffs already, because that was a fun team to watch.
I've got a problem with the NBA in general, I think. I really love the games that are actually close and hard fought. I'm pretty bored when the game isn't competitive, though at least on the rare occasions when the Bulls are up by a lot, we can watch their young guys get some run and think about the future. The Packers were fun to watch be eliminated.
Same here, Ive been a fan since as long as I can remember, and was always one that had hope during the "Twin Towers" years. But seeing this roster and the potential we have on it makes me continue to watch. If Tyrus learns that if he runs the floor he will get his points and if we learn how to close the door on games then we shouldnt be a bad team. And I like to see JJ get more minutes, because of what I've heard and seen of him at Wake Forest I think he can create some interesting offensive sets. And Denny I do agree that the bulls need to trade our expirings for Tmac's contract, and yes JR wont. Which is one of the reasons why I hate the bulls organization sometimes because JR is committed to being cheap and not going over the luxury to put a winning team out on the floor.
