Yeah, it was an interesting season, but in the end, only the most delusionally optimistic believed that this Bulls team was going to make any serious noise in the playoffs. While after most failed seasons fans tend to spread to the four winds to explain what went wrong and what is needed, this time it seems like most fans agree on what happened and what the teams needs are. The how to fix it part is where everything comes undone, and my guess is that this is true even within the Berto center brain trust. The Bulls need more scoring. This isn't exactly giving away the family secrets. The tricky part is how much more scoring the Bulls need after Rose returns, and more importantly, what kind of extra offense can they get that is either complimentary to Rose or can be independent of Rose.
With MVP Rose and all the talent the Bulls shed, including Korver, Watson, Asik, Deng, and a healthy Ronnie Brewer, the Bulls were 11th on offense and 23rd in pace. That's with a 17.5/9.6 Boozer at PF. In Korver, Watson, and Deng, you have 3 pretty good offensive players. Lose Boozer and you have to replace him, too (17.5/9.6, better than Taj's per 36 this season). That's just to match that team that wasn't quite talented enough to beat the Heat (who are better now). It remains to be seen if Rose ever regains MVP type form. He may be something like 90% as good, which is really good, but not MVP/LeBron/Carry-the-Team crazy good. You have to make up for that, too. FWIW, DJ and Boozer scored 30 points in a game one time each this season. Deng did it once, too. Lose DJ and Boozer and we have NOBODY (maybe Rose) who can be counted on to score 30 once in a (great even) while. We are talking about scoring, right?
This team is held hostage by Rose, his knee and his contract. We have not seen Rose do battle in the playoffs for 3 seasons now and its unknown how he'll perform going forward. Hard to build around that. Part of me thinks it would not be a bad idea to target Kyle Lowry, if that's even possible. Obviously the Bulls would be smaller at the guard, but THibs was happy rolling with DJ and Kirk down the stretch in most games. And the team does not blow up if Rose goes down again, and the Lowry / Rose combo could work out really well when paired with Jimmy Bounce Pass, Taj and Noah.
Scoring for sure! Scoring in the wing position. And some fire power off of the bench. Defense is important, but it can take you just so far if we can't score. KK4E you are correct that we have been held hostage by Rose and his injuires.
Shouldn't we be equally as worried about underreaction than overreaction? Might not be the worst time to try over again. I think you could reap a superstar haul for Noah and I consider him to be just very good. I mean, I think they're going to try to make a run at Melo and run it back with a similar cast of characters. That'd be great if we enter next season with three marquis players on the franchise. I'm just not sure that's very likely; and I'm also not sure running it back again without major changes is prudent.
Right. All I'm saying is that if you wrote the history about the Gar/Pax regime it would be about not being willing to pull the trigger on the trades needed to get a superstar. In the meanwhile, the Clippers, Lakers, Houston, Celtics and the Nets have been able to acquire superstars through trade.
Noah would be perfect for the Blazers. He'd get way more assists passing to Lillard or Mathews or Batum or Aldridge, instead of Kirk and Jimmy. I love the guys, but you see what happens when we play three and four defense first players. Sure they get points, but even the Bulls defense won't hold Kirk to zero.
Noah would be perfect alongside Aldridge who can shoot from anywhere. Too bad, we could have had that. What do the Blazers have that the Bulls would possibly be interested in? I still think some of those trades I put together with the Thunder made sense, and would have been important moves for both teams. They were something like Noah for Adams/Perkins and Jackson. Thunder win a title this year; Bulls' chances of winning a title in the near future are probably improved. Both teams should have made that deal.
So you believe Noah is "just very good," but believe that he could be traded for a "superstar haul." I agree that Noah is very good, but certainly not a superstar. There are so few superstars. If you're talking about a superstar in his prime or about to enter his prime, I don't see any team that would trade that type of player for Noah. Do you think the TWolves would part with Love for Noah? Noah's my favorite player, but I'd do that deal. Problem is that Minnesota only considers that deal if they're convinced that they a) will be unable to keep Love beyond next season and b) can't make a better deal with another team. We know DeMarcus Cousins is a knucklehead, but is he a superstar? In any event, if you were Sacto, would you trade Cousins for Noah? I wouldn't. I hope that the Bulls strategy this summer is to be prepared to make any changes that are in the team's long-term best interest. What I hope (and believe) their approach isn't is to make major changes out of some sense of frustration with the admittedly disappointing past couple seasons.
When I said superstar haul I was thinking something along the lines of two good prospects and a mediocre pick, or some combination like that. Perhaps the fact that I can only put together a trade with OKC may mean that there aren't too many teams in a position to make that trade. Maybe Dion Waiters and Luol Deng ? It's hard to trade centers now that so many teams have a decent one. I'd trade Noah for Boogie. I think you might even get a pick out of that situation. I know he has a horrible tude and all but he's already dominant and it usually takes a long time for big men to peak. I don't think a Love deal happens. Minnesota needs a scorer to be the headliner for that franchise. I also don't really want Love on the Bulls. If you're committed to Thibodeau, Love is a bad fit.
It appears to me that you set your trade expectations (the haul) based on the assumption that NBA GMs overrate Noah (i.e., they think he's a superstar). You on the other hand properly rate Noah (he's just very good). Since you know the truth, you can easily "pants" the NBA GMs. With respect, few (if any) NBA GMs are going to be swayed by Noah's collection of 2013-14 accolades. They know what kind of player he is and I doubt that there's a whole lot of variance between their ratings. We'll have to agree to disagree on this. You believe that the Kings would trade Cousins AND a pick for Noah. I think Sacto would balk at a straight up trade. The reason I think this is that I firmly believe that pretty much every NBA GM knows (at least) what you and I know, namely that Noah's a very good, but not great NBA player.
You're post relies on the idea that the primary consideration for GMs when executing trades is on court performance. I think there's a lot of other considerations too, especially for smaller market teams and teams that share a city. Noah is now just about the easiest player in the league to use as the centerpiece of a marketing campaign. I think that has more value elsewhere than it does in Chicago, where you have an active fan base regardless of whether the team is any good.
I think on-court performance is certainly the first consideration. I couldn't disagree much more with your assessment that "Noah is now just about the easiest player in the league to use as the centerpiece of a marketing campaign." While it's true that Noah has an extremely engaging personality, his game is inherently only crowd-pleasing in a supporting role...chicks don't dig rebounding and assists all that much.
