No, that team cannot compete with the Heat. Unless Wade slides a lot due to age. We need a 2nd guy who's nearly as good as Rose. Like Wade is to LeBron (both in MVP discussion). Ideally at SF or SG who can handle the ball and create (like they talk about Marco above). Honestly? I think Butler is our long term solution at SF. So why not put him there starting right away next season? That would let us trade Deng, an all-star, for either some depth or an all-star type guy in return to play SG. I like one of the scenarios talked about at trade deadline time. How about Deng to Sacramento (where he'd start over Salmons!) for a resigned and traded Tyreke Evans (their SG who'd be replaced by Marcus Thornton) and Jason Thompson. I think Evans could sign for $8M or even $9M and the deal would work under the CBA. Evans is 23, Thompson is 26.
OK, so we make that deal I suggested. Rose, Evans at G Noah at C Butler, Boozer at F Taj, Thompson, Kirk on the bench. Between these 3, you cover backup of all 5 positions, since Evans can play a few minutes at SF to give Butler some rest. More intriguing would be the possibility of using the amnesty clause on Boozer. Granted, we'd be losing a very capable and mostly reliable scorer and rebounder. But in theory, we'd have more PT freed up for Taj and Thompson. We'd get barely under the cap, but maybe enough so to pay Nate or Marco to remain. My choice would be Nate, FWIW. Now the lineup looks like: Rose, Evans Noah Butler, Taj Thompson backs up PF and C. You bring in Nate for instant offense, Hinrich if you need a body who can dribble a lot or to tackle LeBron on the fast break. We have a draft pick coming this summer, too. Nazr's not horrible at the end of the bench. Hopefully we get some progress out of Teague, too. That's 11 of the required 12 spots. The rest of the spots are paid for and we're under the LT. So maybe the basketball fans will be happy with this roster as well as those who root for The Chairman's wallet.
We had the best record in basketball twice I think. That team has a different bench, but has proven they can play. Just not extended minutes. I think if we had Deng, and Hinrich and Rose, the series would be tied at 2 at this point. I think Wade will slip. His knees are about gone now.
I think with a healthy Rose, Deng, etc., we won the first game against the Heat, then got swept 4 straight. Best record and all. If Evans isn't the answer, at least we actually tried really hard to find the answer. And I don't mean Iverson.
This team with its current core can give the Heat a run for their money for the next 3-4 years, but will never be favorites to win it all unless injuries tilt the deck in our favor. But we'll always be in the mix. The Bulls to me have a classic "Local Maximum" problem. We're perched atop our own little hill which has us situated to consistently be among the league's best, but not enough elite talent to consistently go the distance with teams like OKC and Miami who have 2 tier 1 players instead of one. The tricky part is it's damn hard to get off our hill without performing surgery to what we already have and risk being a lot worse to get on another hill that might be higher. So the optimal strategy probably depends on your values as a fan. I like this team a lot as its presently constructed and am satisfied with playing our hand, making strategic moves as they come along, and wait for our chances to grab a title or two. For others that won't suffice. I think a core of Rose/Noah with one other secondary "star" and a good bench can probably get you 7-8 years of 50+ win basketball and 2-3 trips to the Finals. Dwayne Wade looks like he's falling off a ledge pretty fast. His desire to play fell off a cliff a while ago to boot. The Heat this year look surprisingly beatable to me. I'd reckon that if our present team was healthy (including Rose), then we'd be a 40% chance to take the series. We'd be the favorites to beat a Westbrook-less Thunder. We're clearly better than any other team in the league.
The Bulls to me have a win in the regular season, not built for playoffs problem. The heat play us regular season and don't want or need to go all out to win a piddly regular season game. Meanwhile, we have to play way above our heads to stay in the game. When playoffs come, they realize they have to play hard to beat us and do. They study the film, get to know our players and plays. They can take the time to adjust because they're not playing Atlanta tomorrow night on the 2nd of a back to back. It's beat us or go home. War. Win at all costs. And when it really comes down to it, superior talent ultimately wins if the coach is good at preparing the team. I have no idea how the Nets could lose to us, except their coach blows.
The "problem" you talk about is we don't have the same amount of A1 talent as Miami and OKC. I don't think that's a problem of "build", per se. Being well coached and playing hard is always an asset, regardless of the time of season.
Right. If you have Jordan and Pippen playing pressure defense it's way better than having Kirk and Linton Johnson III. But that's no excuse to play Kirk and LJIII and try to sell us all we're going to win in the playoffs with that sort of roster.
Smith's probably right about what the roster will look like next season. I wouldn't worry about the "built for the regular season" thing. Thibodeau's three-legged stool is defense, rebounding and ball security. This works fine in all seasons. Agree with Rosenthal that a basically "stand pat" Bulls team vs the Heat would be an underdog with a chance situation. For this reason, the Bulls shouldn't force a trade of Boozer, Deng, the rights to Mirotic or the Bobcats pick. However, if a young top-10 player can be had for any of these assets, do it. I know that some folks get into the speculative trading game, but I'm not one of them. As for Tyreke Evans, he hasn't played in more than 65 games in any of his last 3 seasons. I think the Bulls already have enough key players with bad feet.
Evans has had Plantar Fasciitis. Something the Bulls know a bit about. Luol Deng missed 7 games this season, 12 of 66 last season, 12 the year before, 33 the year before, 19 the year before. Joakim Noah missed 16 games this season, 2 last season, 34 the year before, 18 the year before. Evans did play 63 of 66 games last season... As far as speculative trading goes... If you stand pat and don't beat the Heat, do you consider trying something to change that dynamic? I think you have to. As far as trading Deng... I love the guy as a player as much as anyone. His activities outside basketball make it clear he's a very special person. However, if you have two players at the same position who are both quality players, you trade the better of the two because you get more in return.
If they stand pat and don't beat the Heat in 2013-14, the dynamic will change for 2014-15. I'd expect Boozer to be amnestied and Mirotic signed. Deng may or not be back...I'm thinking not. Is this Deng love a recent thing? Anyway, as I said, if the Bulls can get a true stud and they need to trade Deng to get it done, I'm all for it.
I've always liked Deng plenty. I think he has shooting skills of a SF, and ball handling skills of a PF. If you have a really good ball handling SG, he's a great guy to have at SF. If you have a weak rebounding PF or C, he's a great SF, too. The beauty of my trade proposal is that it lets the Bulls amnesty Boozer this summer and get under the LT enough to re-sign Nate and/or Marco. It's like a 2 for 4 trade, so we'll have 2 less D-Leaguers (Thomas, Cook, types) on the roster. That alone would be huge if we have a player or two hurt next year's playoff time. Evans is a true stud, FWIW. The fans love him in Sacto. Like Rose, he was rookie of the year. He's only 23, too, so he could be our starting SG for the better part of a decade. I really like Jason Thompson, too. He's 6'11/250 with good athleticism. He's no Asik, but he's heaps better than Nazr and we'd need a backup PF behind Taj if we amnesty Boozer.
Sorry, but it seems to me that the only times I've heard you speak highly of Deng is when you're proposing to trade him. In your scenario, please describe the contracts offered to Nate and/or Marco.
In the $2.5M range. I think we get $2.5M or so under the cap with this trade and Boozer amnesty. I'm not sure if we get some sort of MLE after using up that cap space to sign one of them - I was guessing the half MLE amount. I'd be all in favor of starting Deng at SF if we had a SG like Evans or Mayo or Iggy or even Marco. My issue with the lineup as constructed, even with Rose, is that we are terrible at running the fast break. We just have too many guys out there who have a hard time dribbling the ball. As far as trading Deng, our management has made it clear the team is a business. It's business that Deng is ideally suited to trade - he's still young, he's an all-star, he's an ironman when healthy, a guy who'll bring a lot to a team's defense. He just has a big contract. Given a choice of trading one of Butler or Deng, the two I see as legit starting options for us at SF, Butler brings less because of his contract size. Unless we're getting a studly player on rookie deal, which is doubtful... I've been a consistent supporter of Boozer, no? And here I am suggesting amnesty. Go figure that one out EDIT: it seems we get full $5M-ish MLE for being under the apron, but only if they amnesty Boozer.
Good answers, Denny. Would you agree that Evans is a better SG than Thornton? By the numbers, he appears to be. Would you do the deal if it was Thornton and Thompson?
I like Evans because he's younger, has PG skills, can play SF to spell Butler, is a viable #1 option, etc. Thornton was so good a season ago that Sacto played Evans nearly full time at SF. Isaiah Thomas is their starting PG. The trade makes sense because they seem to be looking to part ways with Evans, and have a similar good enough replacement in Thornton (to us with Butler and Luol). Thornton is a hell of a player in his own right. A better 3pt threat, and ability to outright score. He's 6'4", too. I'd almost certainly consider your alternate scenario. Tho we would need to find a very solid backup SF to rest Butler.
Butler believes that TV timeouts should be enough rest for any player. I understand what you're saying about Thornton v Evans, but since they essentially shared the position for the Kings last season and coach Smart saw fit to start Evans and play him more minutes, I have to wonder if they've changed their minds on who they most want to keep.
I think they gave Evans every opportunity to lead the team to victories. They didn't. He's toast. Like the Bulls did with Jamal Crawford and BG. One season as the man, and outta here! rotoworld seems to think the Kings' coach, Keith Smart, was very inconsistent in how he used his players and set his rotations. http://www.rotoworld.com/recent/nba/1615/tyreke-evans NBA.com says restricted free agent Tyreke Evans could be the "steal of the summer." It's unusual that a player's best season is his rookie year, but that's exactly what happened to Evans. His value has been deflated by knee/foot issues, a non-improving jumper and a declining role on the Kings. Still, Evans is just 23 years old and has a unique skill set for a guy that goes 6'6/220. We could see someone putting the Kings to the test with an offer sheet. May 10 - 2:35 PM Source: NBA.com --- I think that's all very true. But I also think they've jacked him around a lot, moving him from PG to SG to SF back to SG, and the injuries, and the losing atmosphere... I think he's a medium risk but very high reward kind of move for us. At worst, he's going to be very solid. At best, he's going to be elite. He won ROY in 2009-10. Evans 491 votes Stephan Curry 391 votes Brandon Jennings 204 votes Darren Collison 17 votes Johnny Flynn 2 votes Taj Gibson 2 votes
