Hard to take anything away from a game like that. The Bulls didn't finish well and didn't match Detroit's energy the entire game. That's going to happen during the long NBA season. I'm just happy it's another victory.
You know what'd be nice, if everyone who argued how the bulls were cheap or making a huge mistake by not resigning BG would apologize. BG has disappeared to the extent that he isn't even an afterthought.
It doesn't work that way. Just because he isn't succeeding with the Pistons doesn't mean he wouldn't have been a key performer with the Bulls. All it means is that BG is having a horrific season with the Pistons and there are many, many reasons for that. Another parallel would be James Johnson. I know the Bulls got a first round draft pick out of trading him, but you can't say the Bulls succeeded by making the move. James Johnson could had the talent to be a key contributor with the Bulls. And the fact that he never became one is failure on the part of the Bulls -- even if every other team would have also failed to turn him into a contributor.
Or you could look at it like management was smart enough to recognize a mistake and not make it worse.... Seems like the facts bear that out. Twice.
So the front office is genius because the offered ~50M for 5 years all summer long and then pulled the offer at the deadline? Sorry, FO looks like bush league the way they handled it. I personally won't beat them up any more because of it (unless it gets brought up) but it's not going to go down as a line-item for why GorPaxDorf deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.
If Ands and Buts were candy and nuts every day would be Christmas. You can speculate all you want on who would have been key if not traded but its all best case scenario speculation without any real basis. The Bulls have made savvy moves that haven't always been popular but more often than not the moves turn out to be the right ones. Eddy Curry? More a walking sack of Fluffenutter than an NBA player. Jalen Rose never really lit it up after he left. Wallace did a bit but with his lockerroom cancer he was addition by subtraction for the team. Tyson did ok for a year or so with Chris Paul and the Hornets but overall he hasn't sustained breakout status. James Johnson is better at martial arts than basketball and Ben Gordon has morphed into a player who used to pantomime carrying his big balls to sucking big balls. Sure there are multiple reasons players succeed or fail on a team but the team we have now isn't the team BG had when he excelled.
Trading Curry and letting Gordon walk were both smart moves IMO. However, though I believe that the Bulls' FO has done a very good job, they were prepared to offer Curry a long-term deal if he took and passed that genetic test and only avoided signing Gordon long term based on timing. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
I have zero doubt we'd much much much better off with Gordon at SG than anyone currently on the roster. 20ppg scorers and 3pt threats aren't so easy to find, as Management has proven. I think we might score 110 ppg with him and still hold opponents well under 100, we'd have won even more games, and we wouldn't struggle as much as we do - we do have to come back from deficits a lot, we give up leads, and we really have a tough time when Rose has slow starts. Maybe Watson is the only other guy on the team who can create his own shot. What I say of Gordon is true of Joe Johnson and a few other guards. I'd be quite happy if we at least tried out Mayo...
My point is broader. The best teams are able to take players who have failed in other situations and turn them into building blocks. Lakers and Artest, Spurs and Jefferson, McDyess, come to mind.
Hard to consider Artest a "failure" at Indiana, or McDyess at Detroit or Jefferson and NJ? They were good players who got off track and got put back on track, somewhat, anyway. Your point is too broad
You and I have talked about this on board and off. I agree with you. We kept Hinrich, let Ben walk. With Gordon we scored 102 but allowed 102. Still a nice team, almost beat Boston in 7 games! Deng can now create a little, but he is not very good at it. He is better at slashing and being his with the pass, than putting the ball on the floor and doing something with it! I am all for giving Mayo a look! FO wanted to trade for him.
I like Mayo but the asking price was too high. Memphis turned down a package that included Hansborough at the deadline, and he's likely to be one a borderline all-star big for the rest of his career. I don't see that as fair value.
was that before they accepted the offer with McRoberts that was vacated because the league said it was completed after the deadline?
