No excuses indeed. This is a team that should be fine tuning for the playoffs, not runnimg half assed and looking discombobulated.
Besides poor shooting, including FTs, the Bulls got outworked. Oh well. I've argued against the "the playoffs are all that matter" crowd for decades. I'm with them now. If the Bulls enter the playoffs healthy, they're the most talented Bulls team on paper since the dynasty. Yeah, no excuses.
I don't know anyone who thinks the playoffs are all that matter. It is a different animal when it comes to strategy, and the players have to step up and win or go home. But the greatest coach in history played his superstars 40 minutes a night in order to win 60+ games, 69 games, and 72 games. In the regular season. How they played in the regular season prepared them to win in the playoffs.
The Bulls go through the motions and barely show up against a sub-.500 team. Story of the season, unfortunately. Lots of bad shooting, bad ball-handling, bad rebounding, bad defense, bad effort, and bad coaching to go around last night. In spite of it all, if they just simply hit their free throws, they win. Gasol (4/7), Dunleavy (4/7), Brooks (1/3) and Snell (1/3) all came into the game above 80% from the line. If they even shoot 75%, the Bulls win.
No doubt, PJax was a great rider. As for the playoffs, I was more referring to how easily some media/fans dismiss regular season accomplishments as having no meaning. And they're right. The noise that matters is the noise you make in the postseason.
Well, yeah. If the goal isn't just to make the playoffs as it has been all along. You can only go so far without taking some risk. I don't see our management as willing to take much risk. From The Chairman's past quotes, he's highly risk averse. Doesn't want to make some big mistake.
I'm not putting anything on ThiB's in particular and injuries have hurt cohesiveness. That being said the team isn't playing like it's ready for the playoffs.
Well, if you like risk, you had to love the Tyrus Thomas pick. Damn, that was a balls-out move. Outbidding the world for Ben Wallace was pretty risky too. I also thought that letting Ben Gordon walk and trading Kirk Hinrich, both just to increase cap space, was kinda ballsy. I think it's really more that management doesn't take the risks you would like them to take than that they don't take risks. I don't think you could work in this front office and I'm pretty sure that if you were put in charge of the Bulls' FO, there would be a housecleaning that'd set records for ferocity.
Ballsy? They did those things to save money and increase profit. Even the #2 for #4 trade of LMA for Tyrus saved them money (difference in salaries for those picks). Anyhow, those aren't the kinds of risks I'm talking about. A bold move to increase our championship chances, not one to be able to hype and fool people into thinking there's increased chance. Like failing to trade Lu for Gasol back when, because The Chairman didn't want to pay to surround him with capable players.
Do you actually believe some of the shit you say or do you just say it for shock value? Like I said, you want them to take your risk. I think I made clear that I get that. Just don't pretend that you own the patent on risky decisions. The ones I mentioned all fit the definition.
Do you ignore interviews with The Chairman? It's not "my" risk, it's "paying for a champion." The risk is they pay LT and not win, so they hurt profits. The upside is championship, the downside is a hit to the P&L. They choose to avoid the hit to the P&L.
Since we're talking about risk, we should probably ask for one example that worked out for the team and one that blew up in their faces.
