Great post and I agree. Winning and developing talent are compliments not substitutes. Another way to look at it would be to look at contenders and see how many of them have valuable players on below market contracts. Ie the Spurs and Kawhi Leonard, the Warrios with Draymond Gree, Harrison Barnes and Stephen Curry (radically underpaid). The Thunder made it to the finals with Russell Westbrook and James Harden on rookie contracts. To have the financial structure to afford the quality of players necessary to be a championship contender usually requires some of your guys being radically underpaid and the most straightforward way to do that is to acquire those guys through the draft. It's much more difficult to do in free agency. So having a portion of your roster alotted to young guys that you're willing to devote resources to develop into rotation players is usually necessary for being a good team.
Paxson isn't capable of doing such complicated things. A Paxson run organization won't ever be the Spurs. 13 years in and this is a far, far cry from the Spurs. Yes, ideally, what you are saying above would be a great way to do things. Its hard, and few teams pull it off. I'll take what the Cavs did, given that the Bulls won't be the Spurs until a lot of people get fired. I really don't have the stomach to sit through another season of reading about how Doug McDermott isn't being developed properly during a season when the Bulls could actually do something meaningful. I know it will be less since Thibs is gone and that was an easy way to get shots in on him, but still, getting some seemingly average player up to NBA speed is very much on my back burner in terms of Bulls fanitude. The core of Butler / Mirotic / McDermott / Portis is within sight. Just everyone hang in there, you'll get to see it. Let's try to win a ring first.
Is that what you'd do? Trade every player over 27 for whatever they'll bring in younger players and draft choices? Tank the season in the hopes of getting a higher draft choice? You'd do this to the team that the oddsmakers have as #2 in the Eastern Conference? If you were in charge, which teams would you not blow up? While it's true that almost no one believes that the Bulls will win the title this coming season, they're a Lebron James injury away from having a great chance at being one of the two teams playing in the Finals. It's not an ideal situation, but you need to play the hand.
I think the expectations for this core should be championship, if the expectations for last years playoff roster was championship. I still think the window is open. If Mirotic is really as good as many thought and was being held back by the head coach and McDermott is really as good as many thought and was held back by the bead coach and the offense and rotations will be much improved, then folks should be more confident, IMO. The team should be fresher come playoff time now due to not being minutes overloaded anymore, right? IMO, if Gasol plays every game against the Cavs last season the Bulls are seemingly in the NBA Finals. If the refs notice a Dave Blatt timeout call, the Bulls are likely in the NBA Finals. That's how close they were. If the coach was a problem holding the team back last year and that situation has been improved, one would think folks would be more confident. Personally, I would like to see these guys take another run at it. Of course, I'm also a fan that isn't upset when guys like McDermott are not getting 20+ minutes a night during "win now" seasons. Based on the Dunleavy signing, it seems like the Bulls are going to try and "go for it." This isn't a management team hell bent on winning a NBA championship though, IMO. They are content to make the playoffs and hit their numbers.
I've been saying it forever...the guy does a great job of pacing and conditioning himself, but with all the mileage and wear and tear...he's almost due for season affecting injury. No one should hope for it, goodness no, but the season is so long and unsure that you have to play it out.
It is a championship. One cannot ignore the context of the league around the Bulls. I and others feel our intra-conference opponents will be stronger. Thus, one cannot focus only on the Bulls, talk about how they did last season, and set expectations solely based on that without considering the conference in which they will compete. I ask you K4E -- is the conference better, the same, or worse? That's why it may seem that, as you noted, folks are not "more confident." Also, I don't like to think that "the coach was a problem holding the team back last year." I think he was replaced so he wouldn't hold back this years team. In other words, I no longer think it's fair to blame him for where the Bulls ended their season in the playoffs.
The Cavs should be better than they were last season. Of course, if Lebron does take a step back, as you seem to think may happen, perhaps not. That's really the only team that matters. I ask you, will Lebron be worse this season due to the minutes load or just age in general? All the more unforgivable that Bulls management decided to spend their time and energy smearing and undermining the head coach during a season when the Bulls had an actual title contender and the Cavs were ripe for the picking.
I think he'll be the same, and the team around him to better. I expect him to play out the season and enter the playoffs in good health. I think ignoring/dismissing Milwaukee, Miami and Washington is a potentially perilous route to go.
Those teams might be better than the Bulls, but likely not the Cavs. Interesting that when push comes to shove, the minutes load doesn't really matter to you, re: Lebron.
Milwaukee, Miami and Washington should all be good teams, but that's not what has me doubting the Bulls. Lebron James pretty much single-handedly sent the Bulls home in last season's playoffs. I didn't think he could do it, but he did it and he did pretty easily. He's far and away the best there is even if he's not the best there ever was. _GB suggests that James is due for an injury. I suspect fans of the dynasty Bulls thought the same about Jordan...it never happened.
You've spent a lot of time posting the thoughts of other re: fatigue and minute loads over time. Interesting that you think a heavy minutes played player like Lebron will be the same this season and enter the playoffs in good health. Do you think all those minutes will catch up with him? Evidently not this season. These two statements don't seem to line up.
They line up just fine (in my mind). LeBrons a freak of nature. A lesser player would have or would be about to break under these conditions (thus the he's "almost due for season affecting injury" statement. I don't count on it happening.
