In latest signal Bulls are looking toward future amid bleak present, hearing Chicago is planning to release vet guard Mike James today https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/412641078819303424 With D-Rose out, Bulls want to ensure their unproven PGs -- Marquis Teague and newly acquired DJ Augustin -- get as much PT as possible https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/412641535050518528
I feel like a lot of the roster rumors we're hearing are serving other agendas. The obvious thing to read into the release of Mike James, contrary to the Stein report, is that the Bulls upgraded at a position of need on the open market. This suggests the Bulls aren't going to try to tank. Mike James was cut because he was bad, not because Thibs wants to spoon feed playing time to unproven players.
I'm with SST on this one. Mike James is a 38 year old never-was who's contribution to the team is unnoticeable. I'm not sure this signals anything other than the fact that he's not a very good NBA basketball player anymore. The Bulls probably decided they liked DJ Augustin better. Who cares?
I like James...well, at least as much as you can like a marginal NBA talent like James. However, Augustin is clearly the better use of the roster spot. Sent from my GT-P1010 using Tapatalk 2
You are right SST!! Augustin played a ton of minutes last night. AND Snell's minutes has been cut back substantially since Butler's return.
I think it signals that there's a reasonable chance that all of the talk we're hearing out of NY and LA is full of shit. Marc Stein, Bill Simmons, Mitch Lawrence . . . there appear to be an echo chamber happening. What have we seen that would lead us to believe management wants to tank? If that was the case they don't go and get a decided upgrade at point guard. Augustin may not be a good player on many teams but he is perfect for what the Bulls run. Being able to allocate playing time to him will probably result in at least a couple additional victories, if only because Mike James and Marquis Teague have struggled so much.
Small sample, but DJ's PER is 7.6. He's shooting .240 from the field. I'm not sure there's any bit of "upgrading" the PG position that went on, particularly. Just that James couldn't play 10 minutes without hurting himself and the Bulls have to carry 13 guys and they need a warm body to put in at PG with Kirk unable to go.
Everything's relative. Teague has been a completely different kind of bad so far this season. If his season ended now, he'd be one of 3 players in NBA history who played 199 or more minutes and posted a negative PER. Link
I hope you won't take this the wrong way, but if you're thinking of becoming a management apologist, you might want to use one of your timeouts.
Never to all three. Realistically? The Bulls are batting a thousand with their mid to late 1st round picks, and even some of their 2nd round picks. The Bulls traded 2nd round pick Sonny Weems, who is an NBA caliber player (now overseas) for Omer, drafted Aaron Gray with 19th pick in the 2nd round, etc. My expectation for Teague is that he will become a rotation player. He's got the physical gifts and basketball skills. He's just very young, not playing much, and called upon to play the most focal position on the team in Rose's absence. It's the quality early picks where the record is sketchy. Chandler is good enough, but never lived up to being 2nd pick in the draft. Curry is long gone. JWill was scary bad for 2nd pick. Trading LMA for Tyrus? Fizer actually was showing signs of being a real player, but isn't in the league anymore. The hits? Deng, Kirk, and Noah. The grand slams? Brand, Gordon, and Rose.
