Chicago Bulls vs Milwaukee Bucks 7:00 PM, CSN

Regarding Tyrus-

The bulls are just shooting themselves in the foot here. I know Doug mentioned cap implications may affect a potential trade, but sitting him on the bench and then no re-signing him at the end of the year makes that draft a complete waste. Now he's been sent home with the "flu"...if you are just going to bench him, at least trade him for a draft pick down the line or something!

Agreed....sitting Tyrus hurts us in every possible way. At least he's being productive when he plays.

Someone seriously just needs to sit him down and say, if you want to make money in this league, stop shooting 18 foot jumpers, drive the damn ball to the hoop, and seriously improve your defense. You've got to WANT to get better on defense first.

Side note, the Bulls need to win this game. The Bulls absolutely beasted their front court in preseason, but Andrew Bogut is back, so it will be interesting to see what a difference that makes. The Bucks don't have much in the way of scorers if the Bulls stay home with everyone.

There's really no excuse to lose this one as we're a superior team and playing at home.

Doug-

I guess what I meant was he will have a much longer career as one of those guys that does the dirty work.

He's not going to be a 20 pt a night guy. He's just not. But you are 100% right about who gets paid..

And it appears that when I put the "flu" in quotes above it was accurate. Its being reported he was not actually sick and their was a confrontation involving Lindsay Hunter at practice.

Not sure why Hunter would confront anyone, but I guess he's a veteran....Im glad someone's getting in Tyrus' face

The Tyrus debacle is getting really old. Either play his ass or trade him. At this point they've blown both. I was initially against the Thomas / STAT trade last year, but that was based on him actually getting some playing time. Looking back, I'd have preferred to at least try out STAT (not like it was a 100% chance of actually happening but still).

I don't tend to be on the "Vinny is a dolt" bandwagon, but its times like these when I can't help but wonder why we cant just give Thomas his chance in his contract year. He's worked hard, he wants it, let him get his chance. Playing Gibson over him isn't helping the team so all its accomplishing is diminishing Thomas' trade value while simultaneously pissing him off. Both he and Noah finally got playing time last year and starting coming up big. Tyrus as the more inconsistent of the two, but as its going now, he doesn't even get an opportunity to play.

I'm about to the conclusion that Vinny is a stubborn ass, and he's content at starting Gibson to spite Thomas if anything. I like Gibson, but he's not better than Thomas, and by years played that should give Thomas the benefit of the doubt. Before the season started it was thought it would be a non issue just because there was nobody to replace him, that he'd get a lot of playing time by default....sigh.

Further, I think not seeing 1 second of James Johnson this season yet is getting old too. If your going to play the rookies some, fine, give them both a shot. Playing Pargo should be banned. Id rather have Johnson learn the point that suffer watching pargo jack horrible shots repeatedly. Wasn't he supposed to be a 3rd option poin on the BENCH?

Apparently Vinny's fallen in love with Gibson already so its too late. Nothing short of a Reinsdorf / Paxon public scolding is going to change anything at this point.
/RANT

Wow, not good to walk in and turn the game in and see this. Bulls down 11 to 4. Urgh.

Wow, Bulls are threatening to get blown out early.

My god the offense looks terrible. It's simply disgusting. I mean you can miss shots at time, but they aren't even able to get an even somewhat credible shot off.

Haha, Neil Funk with the classic "unloads a 3" when Jennings was a good 4-5 feet inside the 3 point arc.

Well that was one Ug-ly quarter. Hopefully the 2nd quarter brings something else. Looks like the Bulls were intent on proving me right when I said their offense is screwed.

They're a team that's going to need to massively out hustle their opponents every night, and they aren't doing it.

I think the bulls got a lot of butterfinges trick or treatin

Hinrich misses Rose on an easy lob; didn't even see it
We should run more lob plays (if they call it tht) with athletes like Rose nd Tyrus. Also for Deng and Noah

Any fears of Taj Gibson proving that Tyrus shouldn't play over him should be thrown out the window.

Miller is throwing (passing, if you ask him) the ball into non-existent lanes and is lucky on quite a few occasions not to get turnovers

Everyone has been a train wreck tonight on offense. Lost in this is that the defense has played well.

This is one of the worst offensive performances I've ever seen.

Doug,

This is UGLY!!!

How do they fix this? They are 7/33 Shooting the ball.

Paxson and/or Forman may need to SHAKE things up, somehow. Can they make a trade this early in the season?

HALFTIME (THANK GOD!!!): BUCKS 43 BULLS 29

The Bulls are 10/37 (0/3 from the arc) in the 1st Half.

Rose ought to be EMBARRASSED, right now.

Jennings looks like a Hall of Famer out there. I know Derrick isn't at full strength, but there is NO EXCUSE for Rose to be this bad or Jennings to be this good.

I don't think the Bulls will make a change any time soon. What they desperately need is to get better shooting from their guys.

I think they really miss Tyrus a lot right now, because he's a far better offensive option than Gibson and generates free throws.

As I said in my season preview, this team is very susceptible to a huge drop off even with a minor injury and you see how much missing Tyrus hurts them.

Still, Tyrus wouldn't solve all (or even most) of the Bulls woes tonight. Tonight they're just a brick factory.

Ironically, they're lucky to even be as close as they are.

Give Luol Deng some credit, for all the crap he's gotten this summer he's clearly been their best offensive player.

Just when the Bulls had a couple nice offensive possessions they have consecutive turnovers.

All Derrick wants to do is pass

Taj Gibson is a train wreck in this game so far.

I hope Vinny calls out Taj for making some of the stupidest rotations ever. Salmons and Taj shouldn't make it back onto the court for the whole game

The Bulls are trying to challenge their NBA record for fewest pts in a game at 49.. I'm officially counting down

This is the perfect time for Pargo. The game is officially screwed. Throw in Pargo and see if he can get on a hot streak and shoot you back in.

The Bulls defense is playing decently. It's often easy to miss that because the offense is so god awful. The defense has held the Bucks to 42% shooting with only 2 3s, and 6 FTs. That should be enough to be up by 10 if your offense is playing even mediocrely.

Damn Brandon Jennings can shoot!

Salmons needs to continue shooting 3s instead of passing them up and taking more diffficult 2s.

Pargo is going to come in and change the game. Sometimes for far worse, sometimes for better, but he's going to make an impact.

Wow, Ridnour got there way before Miller, but he moved one of his feet at the last second for no reason otherwise he would have drawn the charge.

Stacy talking about the Bulls defense and needing to play this way all the time. Earth to Stacy, the Bulls only gave up 43 in the first half, it wasn't the defense.

Well, as ugly as this game has been, the Bulls are going to make it a contest. I'm shocked that Skiles sat Jennings that long.

Nice way to end the quarter.

Ridnour= in way too long for the Bucks

Bulls Bobcats and Nets all have something in common, they struggle to score and they play some ugly ball offensivly.

Am I missing something, didn't the Bucks start with the ball in the 3rd quarter as well?

Pargo carrying us lmao

We cant just keep trading baskets.

NICE COMEBACK!!!

FINALLY, the 3-ball is falling for the Bulls. How about Luol Deng? 19 rebounds is a CAREER HIGH for him.

Luol Deng has been much maligned, but he's been our best player in three of our games, and the other one we lost by 28 points, and I'm not sure if any player qualified as best in that game.

Rose has come alive when needed.

derrick baby.

Rose likes to get other involved early then basically take over in the 4th, but team was doing nothing, but crap for 32 minutes. BTW Salmons worst fit than Gordon next to Rose

Jennings is an NBA player folks, I bet Knicks and are crying right now.

Derrick continues his struggles in the super-clutch while being big in the clutch.

Why do the Bulls have Hinrich throw in the ball and Rose go to get the ball when the Bucks have to foul? Hinrich's the much better free throw shooter.

that air ball shot that derrick took was not blocked was it doug?

Neil Funk with his 2nd "Dumb funk" comment of the day: "The Bucks will be able to run down the clock and use it all!". Neil, the Bucks are down by 2, they don't want to run the clock down. They want to take a quick shot so that if they miss they can foul the Bulls and get another possession.

24 and 20 for Deng. Sickkkkkkkkkkkk.

blockedddddddddddddddddd by Rose.

Interesting that the Bulls had Derrick on Jennings at the end game. Nice to see him get the responsibility, but he'd previously just been torched by Jennings the past two possessions.

Nice job of Derrick to come through and get the block though which makes the decision all the better.

Noah with the double choke on the FTs and Miller only split. If this game goes into OT or the Bulls lose, they're going to really be upset about that.

Somehow VDN has found himself without timeouts again at the end of a close game. Probably won't matter, but if Milwaukee sinks a shot with no time left the bulls will be screwed.

wow what a game to sit through. It was ugly but we got the W.

Deng caps off great game by not bite on pump fake and forcing horrible shot. Does anybody else love how Neil belittles every little bad thing a opponent does

The Bulls ESCAPE with the VICTORY.

In the words of Norm Van Lier, "48 Minutes of Intensity." The Bulls need to listen to him. Until they grasp that concept, they will continue to struggle.

Sometimes you don't have it Mr.Happy. BTW had much of stiffy did you get when Byars signed

Is the fact that Deng has been playing well these games the reason that James Johnson isn't getting any playing time?