Chicago Bulls Thread

Looking back on the Bulls' first game, ahead of their 50th NBA season: The one that started it all

It was doubt and a lack of respect from the beginning, though it only would fuel the motivation that always has driven the Bulls franchise at it enters its 50th season in 2015-16. It’s a franchise perhaps appropriately named, stubborn in its tenacity and determination, bullish, if you will.

And so it was even that first day, Oct. 15, 1966, when the original baby Bulls took the floor in the NBA for the first time. It was in St. Louis, and Hawks player/coach Richie Guerin, a perennial All-Star with the New York Knickerbockers, predicted this Bulls bunch of expansion rejects would be fortunate to win 10 games.

It wouldn’t take long for win No. 1, though, 104-97 Bulls in Kiel Auditorium on opening night, October 15, as point guard Guy Rodgers triggered the upset with 37 points.

And of course, they finished 33-48, the best record for an NBA expansion club, and became the first expansion team to make the Playoffs in their first year. Six titles in six appearances over an eight year span, the 72 win season 20 years ago (feeling old yet?), the feeling through most of the 90s that winning was a given...I know we should look forward and not spend too much time in the past, but it hasn't been too bad being a Bulls fan. When times have been tough, at least we've had some good times to reminisce about!

Hopefully it is just boredom over it being the pre-season, a sense of "I just want to get to the games that count", but...yeah, for someone pegged to be a possible franchise or at least cornerstone player, you want to see that competitiveness and focus no matter what. That sense of "Sure, I'm only playing 24 minutes in a pre-season game, but for those 24 minutes, I'm going to compete and be the best player I can be", rather than going through motions.

Haha I wouldn't give the rose treatment just yet. It is the preseason and the entire team is still learning the offense. I was at the pelican game on Monday and you could see some of the players just sitting there since the other players can't remember how to run the plays

Honestly the Bulls aren't really a storied franchise. Some of us are lucky enough to be around for the glory years of the 90's. I feel as though we were spoiled and now this Rose business is karma for the 2 three-peats.

I can't imagine what it would be like to start on the Bulls wagon after the 90's

Compared to the Celtics and Lakers, they definitely aren't...then again, no one else in the NBA really is. The Spurs arguably are getting up there with all their 50+ win seasons and championships dotted throughout the last decade plus. Still, the Bulls have the sixth most 50+ win seasons in league history, the only repeat three-peat to date, and dominated a decade. They've done pretty well for themselves.

You are right though, the 90s are something of an anomaly. They had modest success before that, and respectable success after it, but nowhere near the same relevance or dominance. I'm just saying, there was a really, really good time to be a Bulls fan, and there's been some other respectable accomplishments as well. The 90s were definitely a treat. The downside is, it probably spoiled us, and conditioned us to expect more.

Speaking of Rose, I heard that he's considering wearing a mask for the rest of his career. It seemed to work for Richard Hamilton, so if that allows him to attack the rim fearlessly and keep his focus, by all means do what he has to do.

I get what you're saying. Not every team can be like those lakers and Celtics. Being around when the Bulls were so successful at a young age, I didn't realize how hard it is for a team to win just one title. It had to be great for someone like Sauru to have seen the Celtics win the title again post Bird era.

To some degree I should appreciate how the team has fared. We did have to endure those dark times when Krause was trying to rebuild the team with high schoolers, the Jayson Williams career ending injury, striking out on the big FA's, kornel David, etc

In a sense you could say the Bulls ironically now are like those cavs who could not get past Jordan.

Now I want to go and look up Kornel David highlights on YouTube, just to see if that exists. I'm pretty sure I found a Dickey Simpkins mix once, so anything's possible.

I think you're right, and it's funny how the script has been flipped with the Bulls and the Cavs. Now the Bulls are the foils, and the Cavs have their own once-in-a-generation player. The Bulls, unfortunately, do not. As I said, we were probably spoiled with Jordan, Pippen, Jackson and company in the 90s. I guess you could say, we took it for granted that they'd end up in Grant Park.

Post a link!

http://bballbreakdown.com/2015/10/15/th ... odern-nba/
Coach nick who previously said the Bulls current cast may not be a good fit updates his take here. A lot of misses on the video but there are some opens shots there
Good breakdown nonetheless

Encouraging, despite the misses. Seems good in theory.

Also, Kornel David:

phpBB [video]

Dickey Simpkins:

phpBB [video]

Lol part of the reels is a pass too high for Kornel and Simkins hitting a free throw

Waiting for the Gordon roster invite

It's the best we're gonna get out of YouTube in that regard.

phpBB [video]

Promising stat line for Noah though I can still say that Taj has the better chance of being a contributor on this system. Finally Butler's out of slump but he's still having trouble sometimes creating whenever they give him ISO plays... They're playing terrible defense, especially guarding the perimeter, in the 4th for the past games but I'm not worried since I know Snell is favored over McBuckets to close out games.

Caught the last six minutes of the fourth quarter on League Pass Broadband. Unfortunately, they finished the game a little flat.

Some encouraging stuff from Noah there, but he took some pretty ugly shots down the stretch, too. Not that he's ever had textbook form or a great shooting touch, of course, but it still seems he's a bit sloppier finishing around the rim than he used to be. If nothing else he's still a good passer, so he's not a complete liability on offense, but I feel he needs to at least be more effective scoring garbage points on the offensive glass. Or, if he can't quite finish like he used to because of the toll that his injuries have taken, he needs to get his free throw percentage back above 70; unorthodox as his form may be, for most of his career he's been a surprisingly good foul shooter. He dropped to 60% last season, and was 8/15 against the Hornets.

It's hard to watch the games vs. Charlotte. They stink

A ot of buzz about the offense when Hoiberg was hired but nothing about the defense huh?

Defense should get worse since the pace increase on offense and long shots being encouraged... and Pau and Niko as their possible starting big men

I think Noah's issues are mental. Even back when the tornado shot was hitting a few years back, he was confident about it on a game to game basis. And make the free-bies! Getting towards deandre Jordan territory lol

Watching the game now (hornets) and yeah there offence looks great in terms of spacing and ball movement but defence needs work.

To be fair tho the Hornets look really good in the preseason

I hope that's the case. Normally it would be wrestling matches when they played the bulls. No one's game is exciting on the hornets. Mkg can't shoot. Jefferson is a plodder. Old boy at the point can't shoot over %40

They did play good defense though so I will give them their credit

The Hornets had a hand on everything and to be fair they made some pretty tough shots in the lane!

Jimmy Butler looked good as did Bobby but I think Pau is the key along with Rose but on the plus side Noah was getting to the line

The Hornets had a hand on everything and to be fair they made some pretty tough shots in the lane!

Mind you, Al Jefferson was missing some really easy ones, too. Left the door open for the Bulls down the stretch, but they couldn't take advantage.

Plus Al was in foul trouble the whole game too!

Watched most of the Pacers game. Offensively, you can definitely see signs of improvement. I like the ball movement, and it seemed like they were getting a lot more open shots. They weren't making all of them, but they got into more of a rhythm as the game went on. The defense wasn't as sharp or stifling as in years past, but when they buckled down a bit in the second half, they made some good stops.

Takes a little use to seeing a Bulls pacers game with a high pace

Paul George looked ready for season to start

Joakim Noah, reportedly, will come off the bench for the Chicago Bulls

After a seven-game exhibition run that saw him barely make more than a quarter of his shots, it appears that Joakim Noah will come off the bench for the Chicago Bulls to start the season. Noah’s heart is in the right place, but it’s a steep drop for a player who is just 17 months removed from finishing fourth in the 2013-14 MVP race.

Second-year forward Nikola Mirotic will slide into the power forward slot occupied last season by Noah, who struggled both at that position and at center, which features Pau Gasol as the current starter.

I like the idea. I do see the merits in bringing Gasol off the bench so you've got some more offense in the second unit, but I think it would be better to have Pau out there in the starting lineup, to give them a post scorer from the opening tip.

All along Gasol's the right man for me though I'm not sold on starting/pairing Pau and Niko since both are not solid defenders... Hoiberg's putting Snell with Butler in the starting line-up at the moment (perhaps to complement the defense that the Gasol-Mirotic duo will risk) so perhaps we will see Taj get the nod to start once MDJ returns.

Pau's not a solid defender? At power forward, he's lost a step, but I think he can get the job done in the middle.

Compared to Jo and Taj, I reckon he's not as an overall defender... He tends to get lost whenever the offense force him out of the paint, can't be relied on the perimeter and switches, also not the toughest in the bunch when defending athletic, bigger or stronger bigmen and sometimes a pushover on rebounds...

A pushover on the boards? He averaged a career high 11.8 per game last season, good for fourth in the league. That's not to say he never gets out-muscled for rebounds, but more often than not, he was in double digits and doing a more than satisfactory job. He's also good for a couple of blocks per game, so he makes his presence felt in the paint, sending back a few shots and altering others. He was also fifth in the league last season in defensive win shares. I'd agree that he has his lapses and deficiencies, but I'd still he's solid, and can probably do a better job if he's guarding more centres than power forwards this year.

Boozer's DWS was 4.3 (which is 13th in the leader boards) in his last season with the Bulls while Gasol got 4.4 last season so if you'll base it on that, Carlos is a solid defender himself... He's an Ilgauskas to me... Team defense makes him look somewhat like he's an elite defender...