They're at 40-33, with just 8 games remaining. I started a previous thread about this topic and suggested the Bulls might win 45 games. Well, they'd have to go 5-4 to win 45. It's not impossible. The schedule: Thu, Apr 4 Brooklyn Nets @ Brooklyn Fri, Apr 5 Orlando Magic vs Orlando Sun, Apr 7 Detroit Pistons @ Detroit Tue, Apr 9 Toronto Raptors vs Toronto Thu, Apr 11 New York Knicks vs New York Fri, Apr 12 Toronto Raptors @ Toronto Sun, Apr 14 Miami Heat @ Miami Mon, Apr 15 Orlando Magic @ Orlando Wed, Apr 17 Washington Wizards vs Washington In theory, we can beat Washington, Orlando twice, Detroit, and Toronto twice. But you never know with this team. They lose to the Wizards and beat the Heat.
FWIW Vinnie finished 41-41 twice. The first season, Deng and Hinrich missed a considerable number of games. Tyrus Thomas played way too many minutes - he's such a bonehead. Rose was a sieve on defense. In spite of all that, the team took the Champion Celtics to game 7 in the first round of the playoffs. The second season, management dumped a lot of the players for expiring contracts to be in position to sign LeBron. Deng missed 12 games, Noah missed 18, and Hinrich missed 8. transplant would point at the records and say, "see, management put together as good a team the second season." I'd say the first team took the Celtics to game 7, that second team was a joke. And Vinnie turned out to be a decent enough coach.
Vinny got a bad rap here. His teams played hard for him and basically performed as expected. Yes, he was very inexperienced, but then again, he had never coached before! They seem pretty happy with him in Clipper land. I'll say 44 wins. Kind of tough since we have little idea what basketball players are going to be actually suiting up and playing basketball.
I'm kinda pulling for a few more injuries. Things have been much too easy for this team. Then they can get that 41-41 record and all the people who get off on dancing on graves can have their day. I want someone to be happy.
I don't believe a 1st round exit and mediocre draft pick is what is really going to help the team this season. Given Rose's injury, it's been terribly misplayed. Either you go for it anyway (which they didn't), or you tank and go for a lotto pick. We're all Bulls fans. I don't think any of us want to see the team lose. Quite the opposite, I think some of us want to see a championship contender.
If Rose did come back, I was certainly rooting for being the 6th or 7th seed versus being the 5th seed. So some of the recent losses, while I don't like to see them happen, are not so bad.
IMO, tanking's just silly talk. Besides, when you have players like Noah, Deng, Boozer and Gibson signed and a head coach like Thibodeau, do you really think you can get to 50+ losses. I don't. Misplayed? What is it the kids use on texts...smh (or something like that)? Without Rose, this team never had even a remote chance of an extended playoff run. Without both Noah and Gibson, the team can't even play "Thibodeau-Ball" effectively.
With Rose, THIS team never had a chance of an extended playoff run. To tank, you rest Noah 3 weeks or more when his plantar fasciitis flares up instead of playing him 38 minutes. And I think they're tanking right now, just too late
Gritty game by the Bulls so far. Huge comeback. The only reason all 5 starters didn't play 40+ is because Nazr and Kirk had 5 fouls thru end of Q3. It's seriously rough when you have to sub in Radman because Nazr is in foul trouble. Came from way behind anyway.
