Chicago Bulls Thread

[Oskar]

Glad to see a poor decade end with a W.

[George7]

Bulls can have a good playoff run the following weeks
I read that they had the 2nd toughest schedule with opponents having a win % around .540 and the at 2010 their opponents average will be around 450% ,the 3rd worst in the league
Maybe they will do sth good

[Andrew]

Given the way the lower seeds in the East have dropped off after a decent start and the Bulls are currently seventh in the conference, making the Playoffs this year certainly isn't out of the question.

[air gordon]

Bulls can have a good playoff run the following weeks
I read that they had the 2nd toughest schedule with opponents having a win % around .540 and the at 2010 their opponents average will be around 450% ,the 3rd worst in the league
Maybe they will do sth good

yeh maybe it's starting to come around now. 3 wins against lesser teams but who cares. just as long as their guys are playing well enough to raise their trade value

Tyrus Thomas. only 3 games but he's proving his worth to the team. man i wish the team could get rid of Hinrich for expirings and have a chance to resign Thomas

haha Mussleman will be the nail in the coffin to sign either Lebron, Wade, or Bosh. looking at Musselman's resume will cause even the lower tiered FA's to take less $ to play for him

[Andrew]

just as long as their guys are playing well enough to raise their trade value

Here's hoping Deng and Hinrich have some monster games.

[George7]

Bulls won again!
Orlando this time
With the return of Thomas ,Bulls seem better , Rose got 30 pts
It seems ho found the right tempo

[Andrew]

Good stuff. Of course, the VDN saga continues to be an embarrassment. Is he saving his job at the moment? Is he being given a chance to win a vote of confidence from the front office or are they still waiting for the next loss to pull the trigger on firing him? Who knows what Forman is thinking, he probably has no idea himself. Anyway, good to see them put together a winning streak(!) and have some respectable moments amongst the disarray.

[Oskar]

Hopefully Rose will be playing like this for the rest of the season, he's definitely getting it right now. Getting to the line at will and all. Btw, I swear to god that every first possession of the ball game by the Bulls goes to Taj Gibson on the left wing, and he'll post up. That's always this way, literally always, lol. Rose by the way, averaging something like 25/5/6 in his last 7 or so games, quite a statline. 22~ points in the last 20, not bad, not bad at all.

[air gordon]

Hopefully Rose will be playing like this for the rest of the season, he's definitely getting it right now. Getting to the line at will and all. Btw, I swear to god that every first possession of the ball game by the Bulls goes to Taj Gibson on the left wing, and he'll post up. That's always this way, literally always, lol. Rose by the way, averaging something like 25/5/6 in his last 7 or so games, quite a statline. 22~ points in the last 20, not bad, not bad at all.

haha so true!

and even late in the 4th, in crunchtime- coming out of a timeout... VDN calls for a pick n roll with Rose and ... drum roll....TGibson! so of course the Magic trap Rose and he passes to a wide open Gibson who proceeds to brick his shot

why not try a pick n roll with a player with the best midrange game- Deng??!!

as far as the VDN situation- i hope that management already found his replacement BUT the Bulls keep on winning so they can't fire VDN. seriously- does GAr/Pax have the balls to fire him if the bulls are playing .500 ball?

but yeh- Rose has been picking it up. when he's burying the outside shot like last nite- he's a tough guard

[Andrew]

seriously- does GAr/Pax have the balls to fire him if the bulls are playing .500 ball?

I honestly believe they've got the balls to do whatever the magic eight ball/horoscopes tell them to do.

[George7]

To me VDN seems like a good young coach ,but with no experience and that's why he's doing so many mistakes.
But i agree that if the Bulls want to do sth good in the playoffs , they got to find a more experienced one

[Andrew]

He's done OK in his first season and almost a half, it's not his fault the roster isn't anywhere close to being an elite squad. But long term, I don't think he's the coach they need. In the meantime, they need to either support him at least through the end of the year instead of leaving him hanging or pull the trigger now and wish him well on his future endeavours.

[Andrew]

Bulls got outscored 32-14 during the third quarter. Admittedly the Thunder are doing alright this season but that's still a sorry effort on your home floor. I wonder if this is it for Del Negro.

[air gordon]

haha once again it's Gibson who ends up taking the first shot. why Vinnie? why?!

i don't think one loss will get VDN canned but that would be a classic GarPaxman move. come to think of it, any unconventional move should be expected. yep- it's still pretty sad there's still no fake vote of confidence coming from those 2

[George7]

Cool night for all.
Just seen the Box Score ,rose was the high point man in the Bulls with 19 pts
And now it was clearly seen that Bulls need a good SG ,like Joe Johnshon , who can shoot from everywhere ,score 3pts cause Bulls don't have that player,who can also help D-Rose.
As last year with BG.He was the scorer ,he drew defensive attention ,so Rose was more free to do his thing.

[Andrew]

i don't think one loss will get VDN canned but that would be a classic GarPaxman move. come to think of it, any unconventional move should be expected. yep- it's still pretty sad there's still no fake vote of confidence coming from those 2

I doubt I'm the first person to say something along these lines, but how's this for a Wizard of Oz parody: we've got Jerry Reinsdorf, who clearly needs a brain. Heading up the front office we've got the two-headed monster of John Paxson and Gar Forman, who clearly need a heart. Derrick Rose certainly needs some courage to get through this (and perhaps we Bulls fans do as well) and having been left hanging, I couldn't fault Vinny Del Negro if all he wanted to do right now was go home.

If they announced tomorrow that Del Negro was fired, it wouldn't surprise me; justified or not. It's "waiting for the right moment to ditch a coach already on his way out" 101, after all.

[air gordon]

haha nice. you can say they are all one big scarecrow. though special mention for Reinsdorf- he is the wizard for making the bulls one of the most profitable businesses.. er i mean teams in the nba

i caught the end of the Bobs game- Hinrich solidified his rep as the worst clutch player. i don't know why Rose is under the bulls basket inbounding the ball late in the game. that's the first mistake. passing to a wide open Hinrich for a gimme 15 fter was the 2nd mistake. of course Hinrich misses. Bobs rebound. Bulls foul. Felton hits 2fts to give them 4pt lead and seal the win

hinrich please just go away. too bad the butler rumors were just that

nice little trip to Milwaukee next. 8th seed on the line here

[Andrew]

Ah of course, the wizard. That would probably be Pax actually, standing behind Forman. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

[George7]

when the game was 111-108 Rose and Salmons shot the last 2 3pts,Hinrich took a rebound after first shot by Rose and gave to Salmons
But i agree about Hinrich,he can handle clutch situations and he proved it other times

[Andrew]

Don't you mean he can't handle clutch situations? That's what AG was saying.

[George7]

Andrew, typing mistake
I agree with airgordon,Hinrich can't handle clutch situations

Can't he be traded?
Maybe he and cash ,or Hinrich and a pick ,or another player with Hinrich for T-Mac?

[Andrew]

No worries, just clarifying.

A couple of trade rumours came up during the offseason but clearly nothing came of them. He's not playing up to a contract that runs through 2012 (ie another two and half seasons). A player in that situation is going to be a difficult enough sell at the best of times, let alone in the final season before a noteworthy free agent crop when a lot of teams are trying to trim their payroll and acquire expiring contracts.

[Oskar]

Rose was unbelieveble late in the fourth, brought us back into the game. The officiating was complete bullshit, though. The charge on Rose where he clearly made an and one which was his 8th or 10th straight point then, would've tied the game + the free throw that could've potentially put us ontop. He didn't even touch the guy falling down, yet an offensive foul. I was really glad to see him showing some emotion to the officials all game long, though, he atleast had a 'WTF' look on his face, not the usual 'I've got a calm demeanor and asian roots' look.

Vinny is horrible, though. At times I like him, he seems to develop the youngs nicely at times, but seriously, your best player is on fkin' fire and you put him to inbound the ball, to freaking Kurt Hinrich!??!??! Seriously.. Okay, it was nicely done, but then.. KIRK, God damnit.. I believe I could make a wide open 12 foot jumper, damn you Kirk.

Rose seemed to be getting to the line at will in the last 6 or so games before the last two losses, and as he couldn't buy a foul (or well, he wasn't just getting calls, despite doing the right things, imo) yesterday or two days ago against Thunder, we lost aswell. It's a shame that unless Rose does something, the other players can't win at all. As of late, though, I've been quite happy with the way Salmons and Hinrich are knocking down threes at times, results in more space for Rose to drive and also if he's getting triple teamed or has a wall built infront of him like last night against the Bobcats, he can kick it out. If he doesn't have anybody to kick out, though, he'll end up with 7 turnovers like last night. Can do nothing, but palm your face when Rose tries to do some fancy dribbling when having a quadruple team on him at the free throw line, kind a funny, yet stupid. Got to limit the turnovers.

Loved it last night, when someone made a play (think it was either Rose or Salmons) for a JJ three in the corner and he didn't shoot it, Noah screamed "Shoot it, damn!" (could've been Rose who said it). The next possession, JJ swished a three from the opposite corner and Noah did his loud loud beast scream like he always does and celebrated like he had just won the game, lol.

[air gordon]

asian roots.. haha. that gave me a good laugh.. yes i agree the officiating has been shoddy the last 2 games. back to the rose inbounds play. i just saw the replay and it looks like the play wasn't even drawn up for Rose so i can't even give VDN the benefit of the doubt here. he passes it to hinrich then just watches...

the bulls could have traded Hinrich to Minnesota for expriring contracts last year. maybe at that time last year it seemed questionable talentwise but this year the bulls would be lucky to give him away for a similar package

[Andrew]

Yeah, I'd be surprised if they move him by the deadline. I saw a snippet the other day that mentioned the Jazz only consider Deron Williams untouchable so maybe they could revisit the Boozer scenarios, but I doubt Utah would show a lot of interest in Hinrich.