If anything you should be bitching about management dumping a young Artest and Miller to get an overrated, overpayed scorer in Rose just to sell tickets. That was a move that wasn't made to get to a championship.
Everything they do is to sell tickets. Not to win. Why would Jalen Rose be any different? The whole concept is to get guys like you to buy into the hype. Curry and Chandler are the cornerstones of the franchise. Just you wait. You'll see how they'll lead us to championships! After those two, it was Hinrich and Deng and Gordon. Then it was Ben Wallace. Then Tyrus Thomas. Now it's Rose and Boozer. They had all that cap space to burn and Boozer was willing so why not? This is the first year in the last 10 that I can remember the team not having some really overpaid stiff on it (like Wallace, Brown, Tim Thomas, Antonio Davis, Jerome James). They're still going to be under the cap or close to it, and nowhere near the LT. The difference between the cap and LT is $15M in additional profits for Reinsdorf. And the team still has all that cap flexibility by signing everyone but Boozer to short term contracts. I'm happy to have guys like Brewer on the team for a change, though I liked Salmons better. But he'll be gone and someone like Lindsey Hunter or Chris Richard will be taking his place when it comes time to pay Rose and Noah. I'd bet on it.
This is the first year they haven't had any dead weight contracts because two years ago they didn't sign BG to a dead weight contract.....
It has nothing to do with Gordon and whatever contract they should have signed him to. If they paid the LT for one season, we'd have been under the cap enough to sign Boozer, and we could have kept Gordon and Hinrich and Rose as a pretty solid guard rotation, and Deng to play SF alongside Boozer, too. Instead, we have cheaper guys who aren't as good.
I always look at the Bulls since the Jordan era and the first thing I ask myself is, "Why did they ever trade Elton Brand?" I mean, I know he's washed up now. But when you look back at all the turmoil that team went through, wouldn't it have been nice to have held on to a 23 PER power forward? Even if Chandler had reached his upside, was he ever really going to be a better player than Brand? Brand, Artest, Jalen Rose, Brad Miller....man, just get a couple of guards and you would've been set. Maybe not a championship team, but a Finals team in the East at that time. And with Brand at the core, maybe you actually succeed in luring a good free agent or too. You build on that success, and when Brand breaks down you have other pieces in place. Sorry--I'm coming in as an outsider and don't really appreciate the intricacies of the team. But I look at the Elton Brand trade like I do the Cavs giving away Boozer for nothing. An absolutely enormous blunder that will echo through the franchise for a decade. (Think LeBron would've left Cleveland if he'd had a 20/10 PF helping him to a title?) Ironically, after all these years the Chicago Big Free Agent Acquisition of 2010 is....the 2001 version of Elton Brand, but nine years older and without the defense.
Nope, a sign and trade would have been the only way to get Boozer if they had kept Hinrich and Gordon. And then they would have had to give up pieces to get Boozer. The only thing the bulls don't have today that Hiinrich or Gordon could do better is somebody to run the team. Korver is a better shooter, Rose is a better scorer. Brewer's size might actually make him a better defender. And Rose needs to learn how to run the team if he is going to keep growing as a player and really become dominant. So in that respect moving Hinrich was a no brainer. Plus the bulls are more flexible if the right trade comes along. So I really don't see any downside.
First, Bulls traded Miller and Artest for Rose so they couldn't be on the same team. Second, Brand, Miller and Artest are not the core of a Eastern Conference Finalist. The PGs are that team were godaweful but that core won 15 games.
I agree with the FatMan. Organisations do win champiionships Its just that I am not convinced this organisation knows how to win them What about the 6 we won you say ? Well even the sun shines on a dog's ass some day and it certainly shone on the Bulls drafted Jordan. I applaud the FatMan for having a go in his vision of Curry, Chandler and Crawford - he was prepared to shake things up and have a go , but , he misjudged the free agent market badly - you could argue partly because of his own vanity and his refusal to accept how the rest of the players market felt about him and the Bulls . What he misjudged was that the players market wasn't prepared to think of Chicago in terms of legacy, greatness and world brand . It was about having legit other , comparable talent there so that no one had the burden of carrying it all by themselves And therein lies the crux. Ultimately, with all roads leading back to Jerry Reinsdorf - he's a lawyer who made his money in the rational asset class of Real Estate. The Bulls are an entertainment asset and yes Jerry owns entertainment assets but to own entertainment assets - especially in pro sports , yes a degree of financial rationalisim is required to y'know ..make a buck ....but there is an element of social responsibility that goes to material stakeholders - the fans - whose names won't show up on the share register. These are the bums on seats , jerseys on the backs fans that make your profits and pay your bills if you are an owner. Therefore you need some irrational , man of the people , type style in ownership - the nutters like Dan Gilbert and Mark Cuban ...maybe not exactly , but - you have to be a fan to be an owner . Beause without it you won't have passion . And if you don'thave passion you'll be clinical in your style which ultimately comes down to dollars and sense which shortchanges your most important stakeholders and what they are reasonably entitled to. The best we can hope for now is that the sun has shone on this dog's ass a 2nd time around by being in position to take Derrick Rose and whether we can retain and add the right pieces without being 100% focused on money and allow some irrational passion to come into the fray If we can do that we might just get lucky if Derrick Rose turns out to be a Top 5 player in the league in another 2 seasons ( which I think he can )
The article also fails to mention, that James decided to take less money. He wasn't just bossed around by the organization. The GM has final say over here, if that was an issue Miami wouldn't even have LeBron. Woj is in his little soapbox mode, he forgets to turn that off.
Ouch! He wasn't bossed around, he was led like I lead around my kitten with a string. Yup. I'll give them credit for being better than Danny Ferry and Dan Gilberty. But criticize them for still strangling a Golden Goose for their dinner while it was still capable of laying golden eggs. FJ, have you ever read up on just how Reinsdorf made his fortune? I looked up some stuff and wrote about it in this old thread. In a nutshell, he didn't actually do much besides take advantage of loopholes and getting various governments to build him stuff. The best we can hope for now is that the sun has shone on this dog's ass a 2nd time around by being in position to take Derrick Rose and whether we can retain and add the right pieces without being Pretty much. Yeah, they were too young, poorly coached, and the rest of the team was terrible. Very much gets to just how deluded Krause was about the right ingredients to a team. Even if you have raw talent, it's not enough in many cases.
I'd argue that Brand, Miller, and Artest are the makings of one of the better front lines of the mid 2000's. Assuming Artest doesn't get crazy. When Krause struck out with the FA, everything after that was bailing water on a sinking ship. Krause knew what he was doing, the problem was there was nothing he could do to build a winner because he didn't have the first and most crucial piece anymore. Like I said in another thread, if you didn't have Jordan, Hakeem, Duncan, Shaq, and now Kobe and maybe DWade, you aren't winning a championship. The Pistons are the only team to break that trend, and they only won because Kobe sabotaged a Shaq team.
Only after exploring all other options, like Bosh in Cleveland. Right because in Miami's pitch they also said, take less money or else?
I think the order of LeBron's priorities were: 70% of the evaluation was how much you would kiss either his ass, feed his ego or placate his entourage 20% about winning 10% about the money 0% about this legacy or reputation
Chicago was a nice option, Miami was a better one. I never thought they would all take paycuts, which is why I never considered it. Financially it just didn't fit, just goes to show they put winning above all else. Miami was the best possible place for him to play in a dynasty. His goal isn't to waste his prime, Rose still has to develop to get to All-Star level PER. Boozer is not as good as Bosh, especially long-term. Miami is also attractive for future free agents.
Yeah, I'm kind of out of my depth when it comes to the Bulls. Thanks for clarifying. Still, although it was a 15 win team, it was probably the best 15 win team ever. Brand was only 21, Artest was 21 and Miller was 24. Just a little patience with those guys and a decent guard or two, and that team had potential. It was a hell of a lot more loaded that my Blazers 21 win team (Juan Dixon had the second most minutes on that monster).
Heh, that team also had a rookie Jamal Crawford, so at the beginning of the year (before the Rose trade) they had 4 pretty good players. Just totally, totally unprepared and badly coached ones
Brand and Miller aren't the interior D for a great team. Given what happened, it's easy to think they should have held on but I think the logic to trade Brand for the #2 pick was fine. It was also about preserving cap space. If the Bulls had gotten Gasol and another good player out of that draft, it would be looked at as a very good move.
