Game Thread Playoffs - First Round Game 02 - Bucks @ Bulls

He wasn't the only asshole, but he was making the game thread unbearable and for no good reason, as well as just about every other thread he posted in.

Look at his avatar, too.

He was effectively defacing the site, deliberately.

I think he was a troll, period. He's been banned from every other forum that we can tell he's been at. That he lasted here this long is a tribute to how liberal we are.

He's one of maybe a dozen people ever banned here (that wasn't an outright robot type spammer). He's in not so great company. That's a dozen since 2007.

transplant and I don't agree often, but he is a gentleman. So is k4e. So is SST. That's about all the sides of the points of view here. We all can coexist without a page filled with smileys meant to do nothing more than annoy.

I checked out his blog. He gets ZERO comments on his blog posts. I think he's been here just to get a link from S2 to his site (which I removed). The link is worth a lot simply because our domain name is 9 years old and the serious traffic we do. It's well known that such links improve your page rank on google searches.

I'm not going to insult the guy at this point. He's gone and I'd prefer to move on. I also asked K4E to remove his last post in response to bullsville's final tirade.

 

I don't care if you cuss and swear. We've never been about hassling people for getting excited or having a bad day once in a while. What we won't tolerate is every day being a bad day.

Just don't call anyone a "fan."

 

Why have you been trying to get banned? LOL

 

I hope not

 

Yes. It is very hard to get banned. We dont like to do that, we want posters. Bulls posters.

 

Seems to make sense. On the other hand, when I put myself in his shoes, 5 years / 80 million locked in seems pretty good. One knee injury away from nothing on the 1 year deal. Its a gamble.

 

Agreed. But I'd also probably have signed the Bulls' offer before this season. That would have been enough to provide for generational wealth, if you managed your money. Butler seems to have a higher tolerance for risk than most people.

 

In the end, yah, a lot of it is a risk tolerance thing.

And, studies have found that happiness comes a large part to where you stand relative to your peers.

Generational wealth = awesome! The guy in the locker next to you and on the team across making way more than you despite not being as good a player = not awesome. Especially around hyper competitive 20something men.

But.... who knows how Jimmy is wired.

 

I like K4E's take on this.

I remember reading that Jordan didn't want to just make money, he wanted to be paid more than any other player. He was so competitive that he wanted to win in terms of salary, too.

 

13 turnovers in a playoff game is actually good for this Bulls team, especially against the Bucks. They're averaging 14 turnovers per game on the season. I agree with your point about identity. That's why, I think, these games are so strange to watch. FWIW, Charles Barkley seems to think that this versatility to the point of lacking identity is a strength, not a weakness. I think he mentioned something along the lines of, you don't need to get points from Derrick Rose anymore. This team has enough weapons for someone different to step up almost every game. I thought that was an interesting counterpoint to our worries that this team doesn't have an established pecking order and playing style.

I don't buy the money angle. With the upcoming increases in the salary cap, Gibson's contract is an out-and-out bargain, if it isn't right now. The front office going to be able to move him for assets. I will say this though: If Thibs benches Gibson for Mirotic, I don't see how Gibson has any place on this roster next season, regardless of the coaching staff. Thibs would basically be signing his trade papers.

 

Unless Taj is physically unable to play up to snuff.

He's not playing Kirk either, and I don't think that's signing Kirk's trade papers.

 

BTW, not playing Taj would hurt his trade value. It's better to trade a player from your playoff rotation than one who fell out of it. Teams might consider him past his prime, lost a step, etc.

 

I was more thinking it was crazy to see only 4 turnovers from the Bucks, who were one of the high turnover teams in the NBA.

What if Noah takes another step back in effectiveness next season or misses lots of time? Is it realistic to expect Gasol to have another year like this one? Stretch 4 can work with dirty work / rim protecting guy at the 5. If you don't have that though... ulp.

 

Your hypothetical would certainly not be ideal. But the question is not, what could happen next year? It's, what do you expect to happen this off season? I think there's a very good chance that the front office approaches next year with the assumption that Noah and or Gasol will be able to contribute in the playoffs, and instead look for help at point guard or a more seasoned three.

 

The last I heard, granted it was from Joe Cowley, is that the front office was reluctant to trade Taj Gibson due to uncertainty about what Noah can contribute consistently going forward. Also, they like the guy. That's why they are paying him what they are paying him.

Also, its reasonable to expect dropoff from Gasol from year to year. This season was nothing short of miraculous. And he doesn't seem like a good pairing with Mirotic to being with.

In the end, the front office builds the roster. They created this logjam. If they want to fire one of the top coaches in the league over it not going the way they want, that's up to them (i have not heard much in the way of front office rumors regarding the playing of gibson over mirotic though). Or they can choose to have depth and insurance at the 4/5 at the expense of individual statistic generation for all parties, thinking the team will be better off that way.

 

There had to be a reason to not trade Taj to give the team the best chance/lineup possible to win the playoff games.

I was on record right up to (and since) the trade deadline that Mirotic is sufficiently good enough, even if a step down from Taj, to give us a solid 3-man rotation of Noah, Gasol, and Niko. That's 3 guys for 96 minutes of PT at PF/C, or about 32 minutes each if equally divided. We have Nazr (guh) as a backup just in case, and maybe he would have played a dozen or two regular season games. Or we could have signed a higher quality backup big, even a D-Leaguer, for that role.

But given that we didn't trade Taj, Thibs would be an idiot to not play him.