At the beginning of the season I predicted 45 wins for the Bulls if they could stay entirely healthy. I noted that even one injury could have fairly disastrous effects on the team, and we've seen two injuries dismantle it entirely. That prediction was based on a few premsies.
Derrick Rose would improve considerably. Joakim Noah/Tyrus Thomas would improve incrementally. Everyone else would stay roughly the same. We'd get something out of Luol Deng. Well, apparently, those weren't very good premises.
First and most importantly, Derrick Rose has regressed on the court rather than improving significantly. This is the guy we've pinned our hopes to, and so far he hasn't taken the kind of step forward that you'd like to see out of a "future superstar". He's basically the same player he was a year ago. It's far too early in his career to write him off, but I've noticed his teflon shield has worn away. I've long been a Rose realist, and even I'm put off by the way the fan base has swung against this guy at times.
I have several concerns with Rose at this point. First, his ball handling simply doesn't seem to be at a high enough level to become that crazy elite penetrating guard we want him to be. When he blows by guys, it's all on athleticism, and you simply can't do that every night, because it's too easy for the help defense to get in and stop a guy moving in a straight line. We've also seen hm get Gordonitis quite a few times recently and just lose control of his dribble from mild/no pressure or dribble off his foot.
Next, for a guy who's known to have dominant strength and athleticism, he doesn't play remotely physically enough. His rebound rate is a paltry 3.1. Ben Gordon in all his shortness rebounds better than Derrick Rose. Nor does he play physical defense or pressure offensive players, and when he drives, he leaps to avoid contact instead of generating it, finishing through it, and getting the and1s that would turn him into a superstar offensive player.
Finally, he's too passive on the court. He's passive on both ends of it. He rarely attempts to pressure the man he's defending nor does he fight particularly hard through screens. On offense, he'll frequently coast through games, and he's not forcing the ball to the hoop in transition like he could. To his credit, his shot attempts are up recently, and he's taking more attempts at the hoop rather than jumpers over the past few weeks.
Rose not stepping up to the plate and looking like a future star is the biggest story of the Bulls season. It's not one that's been explicitly written about much, and my guess is there's a lot of media protection for Rose who's very accomodating with the press [even if he's not that great a quoter at this point in his career]. I think everyone covering him genuinely loves the guy. This isn't to say Rose is a lost cause, not remotely. However, we haven't seen the signs we'd hope for if he were going to become the alpha dog to lead the franchise. We should see those signs this year if we're going to see them.
Beyond Rose starting off the season slowly, John Salmons has thus far looked like a one year wonder. I was in the "Salmons can do this again camp" rather than the "Salmons is a huge fluke" camp. Partially because I had no illusions about what Salmons did. He's more or less a one on one, isolation, ball stopping type scorer. I thought he'd still do that effectively this year, but he hasn't been able to replicate the magic. Now, he's a one on one, isolation, ball stopper who doesn't score efficiently.
I was concerned that Brad Miller would show age overnight, but I thought he'd still be solid. His game never required much athleticism anyway. However, he just completely fell in the tank as well. It is worth noting that for whatever reason, Brad's played really well at home, but has just been abysmal on the road.
Kirk Hinrich, who came back so strong at the end of last season, has played his way back into being untradeable again. He may only be a solid month or two away from rebuilding that trade value given how much of the season he's missed, but he's given the team absolutely nothing to date. If a team ever offers up an expiring for him, take it. Take it fast. Take it before they change their mind.
And there you have it. The four main cogs of this machine that haven't done what we'd hoped they would. They've offset Luol Deng and Joakim Noah who've probably had better seasons than most expected they would to this point.
So where does teh team stand? The bulls are presently in line for the 7th pick in the NBA draft on pace to win 29.5 games. I'm pretty sure somewhere in this blog I pulled a Charles Robinson and said I'd eat some unedible object if the Bulls didn't win 30. The sad thing about their record is that it grossly exceeds how well they've played this season. Using point differential algorithms the Bulls aren't anywhere near that good.
The schedule has been hard, and I've pointed that out over and over, still, average teams don't get blown out every time they play a good team, and that's what's happened to the Bulls. The good news is, the Bulls have played a disproportionately large number of their "unwinnable" games. There's still some on the schedule, but if they can get things together, they can still mount a comeback.
The only problem is that it's impossible to imagine them getting it together at this point. Even at their best, they were playing some of the worst offense in the NBA. Fans of the team are already debating the merits of tanking, shipping of Deng/Hinrich for expiring deals and opening up more cap space. It's gotten ugly fast.
My thoughts? You always want to make the playoffs, but if you can get expiring deals for Hinrich/Deng then go for it. This core around Derrick isn't working right now, and the Bulls are going to need to rebuild the roster around him quickly. It's time to blow this team up.
It's not working, and this roster doesn't fit together. There's no way you'll get a good offense out of this group which has no floor spacing, and there's no way you'll get consistent defense out of this group which has no size/strength for defensive rebounding.
The first steps are to unload our two long term contracts of Deng/Hinrich if possible. They're good guys. They've given me good memories. I like them both. Neither fits with Derrick Rose. Neither is worth what they're being paid. The Bulls are better off shipping out both for future flexibility.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tags: Brad Miller, chicago bulls, derrick rose, john salmons, kirk hinrich, Luol Deng, nba, what went wrong
Doug,
You said this in your opening statements.
"I noted that even one injury could have fairly disastrous effects on the team, and we've seen two injuries dismantle it entirely."
I'm not sure the injuries to Thomas, Hinrich or even Rose have dismantled the team. I blame their lack of EFFORT and/or HEART and their piss-poor FG SHOOTING, mainly from Salmons, Pargo and Hinrich.
Aren't those guys still shooting under 40%?
you forgot LEADERSHIP!!
haha
Blowing up the team. What exactly does that mean? Get rid of everyone other then Rose?
1) I don't think Luol Deng's out years of $12, $13, and $14 Mil are going anywhere anytime soon.
2) Joakim has shown enough to me that if he can add some more bulk he could be at least an acceptable center. Admittedly he got abused defensively in the post on that western road trip, but he's certainly shown enough rebounding and defensively to be viable if he can add another 15-20 pounds of muscle. With all the pieces we need to change realistically we better try to develop one that has shown some promise.
3)And just who's in charge of doing the detonation? Not the guy who signed Deng at any price. Even if Luol were a very good player and not just a decent player, you never break your budget/team salary structure to get/keep them. It' kills your flexibility, and sends the wrong message to the rest of the players to have some fiscal responsibility it takes to assemble a winning team.
There's no way John Paxson should be kept on to do this rebuild. Is Pax the shadow G.M. while Gar Forman projects the G.M. image as a cloaking device to draw media away from John? It nees to be decided if Forman is the right Hire as New G.M.
Reinsdorf has enjoyed so much unquestioned power financially from fans basically giving him huge rewards despite a decade of largely sub par management for the goal of a winning/contending ballclub.
Bulls fans you want to know who's your biggest obstacle in having a winning team? IMO It's all the corporate structured souless fans and sap yuppies filling the U.C. and Jerry's pockets for a feel good time night of "entertainment" at the U.C.
I can't really even blame Reinsdorf for falling into this insulting way he's neglected and mismanaged the team. Who would not turn into a disrespectful, lazy slob if they were spoiled beyond belief with no incentive to change. Basically until these things change and Reinsdorf's pockets are squeezed, hoping for a healthy atmosphere surrounding the Bulls, including a winning effort by management is like living with a spoiled, rich kid, and hoping he'll quit trashing his penthouse and pissing off all the neighbors. I'm tired of the focus being so much on assessing coaches and players when a huge part of the problem really lies with the fans and the unhealthy compliant atmosphere that reeks/persists throughout the Bulls organization. Everybody wake the f--k up!
Usually, I would have waited longer to use the term 'blow it up'. However, this year I think it's 100% accurate. The Bulls are quite frankly getting crushed. They've got no offense, no defense, no intensity and as stated several times, their roster construction is just crapalicious.
You can easily find an expiring for Luol Deng at the february deadline, assuming he's still healthy. I even think you could squeeze out a 2nd rounder on top of it. For a veteran team that have plenty of shooters, Deng would fit in like a glove.
Hinrich is the problem. He's just playing so badly that the only thing we can get for him these days is a similar contract with as many years remaining.
So what do you do with Kirk? I have a suggestion, but I'm afraid Jerry Reinsdorf's ears will begin to bleed if I post it.
Buy-out Kirk Hinrich, and pay the full amount of the buy-out immediately. Meaning, negotiate a buy-out for the remaining two years of his contract ($17 million total), hope he settles for something like $14 million or less, and pay Kirk that full amount, so the buy-out won't affect our cap in 2010.
If that is technically not possible (and I fear that it may not be), then I simply don't know a way to unload him.
Finally, John Salmons. Move him. Get him off this roster somehow. His player option will get picked up if he continues this kind of play. Use Tyrus Thomas as leverage. Offer a team John Salmons and Tyrus Thomas for a large (or several small) expiring contract(s).
In essence:
Deng - Expiring + 2nd rounder
Hinrich - Hopefully an expiring
Salmons - Expiring
Go into 2010 with tremendously large cap space and get the best players possible. That's basically the only plan right now.
Minnesota might take Deng. They are strong at PG, PF and Center. They could use a Small Forward.
To T-Wolves: Luol Deng
To Bulls: Brian Cardinal and Damien Wilkins (or Corey Brewer or Ryan Gomes).
Spot on. Same thoughts as I in terms of the talent and their production this year.
The schedule has been tough, but there are losses and then there are all out capitulations, which we've seen quite often as of late against good teams.
And then you have home losses to the Nets. :)
Don't spare VDN either. He's generally clueless out there. Of course, its hard to really hammer him. He's never been a coach before last year.
The Bulls spend pretty much up to the tax number every year, yes? This year they are at a nearly 70 million dollar payroll I believe.
But what is it being spent on?
12.25 million on Brad Miller
10.4 million on Luol Deng
9.5 million on Kirk Hinrich
That's one guy in Deng who is playing OK but is overpaid and two guys in Miller and Hinrich who are outright stealing money. Of course, who decided to put these guys on the payroll at those amounts?
Plenty of blame to go around.
To me it seems like complete organizational failure and lack of focus/vision from top to bottom.
One would think you could produce something close to a winner with a 70 million dollar payroll.
As long as blake griffin is out, I don't think Camby is going anywhere. But if Griffin comes back and dominates like the #1 pick he may be on the block. We need to trade tyrus, salmons, and jerome james for Camby, Sebastian telfair, and Rasuel Butler. All expiring contracts, wait...well i think telfair has a player option but it's about 2 mil i think. Then Afterwards we should swap Deng for Kevin Martin when he comes back. Maybe Deng can rebound slightly better but we'll just leave all that up to noah and camby. Still after all of this i still think we should have cap space for one of the top players this summer....
Buy out Kirk Hinrich Mort? seriously? Jerry still cries himself to sleep at night over the fact that he had to payout Eddie Robinson and Scott Skiles. As for a trade do you think Toronto would do a Marcus Banks and some garbage for Kirk? they could really use some defense. As for Deng would Washington another struggling team want to do say a Butler and Mike James type of deal?
Hey Doug,
You consistently mention that the current players don't fit well with Rose. I'm sure you've covered it in a prior post, but what type of players (or who specifically) do you think would fit well with Rose's game? I'd like to get an idea of what type of players around Rose would help his game blossom and the Bulls as a team. If you detailed this in another post(s), feel free to repost the links so I can check them out.
My second question is it realistic for the Bulls to go after some of the following players at this time: Tracy McGrady, Nate Robinson and / or Carlos Boozer? They'll all be FAs at the end of the season so conventional wisdom says they will go all out since their playing for a new contract. We've already seen that Boozer is having a great year. But Lil Nate has fallen out of favor with D'Antoni even though he's a crowd favorite at MSG. And the Rockets are avoiding playing McGrady long enough to trade him. There are other potential trades we can inquire about but these three happened to be on my mind. (Are they still holding out for Bosh before the trade deadline?)
Of course, getting the deals done would take considerable effort and an extra team or two. I was thinking we could make a go at Nate and Boozer or McGrady (all three would be impossible). Nate's contract is the easiest to handle at $4M, though the Knicks would want to through some extra garbage in any deal. Boozer's contract would require a couple players to match his $12,657,233 prorated. Of course, the Bulls balked at unloading Tyrus and Kirk when Portland was involved this summer. Smart move in hindsight (*rolls eyes*). But, of course, T-Mac's contract is the albatross as the highest paid player in the league at $23,239,561. Any thoughts?
I've been thinking about going after Tmac for the last couple of weeks as well. I think it would be interesting (and informative) to see how Rose plays next to him. Bur primarily, i'd like to get him to get out of the Deng, hinrich, and/or salmons contracts.
What do we have to lose? (im not sure what kind of a locker room guy h is)
just did salmon,hinrich,and james for tmac in the espn trade machine, went through. I know its a lot and far fetched but I think a deal similar to that could work for both parties.
Im glad people are starting to come around on my "John Salmons is simply not good" stance. Been saying it since day 1...
Yea, Deng, Hinrich and Salmons for McGrady and Lowry.
Works perfectly under the cap, sets us up for 2 max free agents next summer, that would be Lebron and the player of his choice as well as the coach of his choice.
Lebron, with Rose, Noah and either Wade of Bosh has to be a contender immediately and a team that you can add pieces to every year as players will want to be part of that group
There is no other plan but the Lebron plan if we want to vault into immediate contention.
You nailed pretty much everything obviously wrong with the team and Rose. The only thing that you missed is the total amateur work of the entire coaching staff. Del Bimbo is completely clueless.
Rose's ballhandling has bothered me since the middle of last season, he seems to have greatly regressed in this area, and he does appear to be channeling Ben Gordon with the careless unforced turnovers. His rebounding has also been regressing since last season. Rebounding is all about effort, which is why the only rebound that Gordon ever got was one that fell in his lap, usually after it hit the floor first.
Why can't Rose rebound like Rondo or Westbrook, it is all a matter of effort and the mind set to never stop moving and seeing where the ball is going and going after it. This is clearly one of the worst aspects of his passiveness. Rose needs a Michael Jordon to lite a fire under his ass, the way that Jordan did for Pippen. Without Jordan driving him, Pippen would have been an absolute nothing in the NBA.
As I have said numerous times before, Rose is a Mama's boy(which is probably a polite way of calling him a pussy), and I don't think that a Mama's boy has ever won, never mind lead a team to a championship.
Derrick Rose is not the problem. Yes if he was playing better we might have 2 more wins but he is not at fault here.
First of all, out of elite PG's, only Chris Paul has had a season close to Rose's first season.
CP3: season 1) 16ppg 7.1apg 5.1rpg
season 2) 17ppg 8.8apg 4.3rpg
season 3) 21.1ppg 11.6apg 4.0rpg
Because CP3 had such a great 1st year his jump in numbers didn't come until his third year. I did not expect Rose to avg. much more than 18 and 8 this year. Next year he should be close to 20/10.
DWilliams season1) 10.8ppg 4.5apg 2.4rpg
season2) 16.2ppg 9.3apg 3.4rpg
season3) 18.8ppg 10.5apg 3.0rpg
Williams did not have as good a rookie year so his biggest improvement came between years 1 and 2.
Most PG's fall into the DWilliams category, not the CP3 and DRose way. The injury has slowed Rose down, but you can see he is going to average 19 or 20 ppg by the end of the season. And if he can get people that know what an open shot is, and would just shoot the ball after DRose has put them in perfect position his assists will go up.
Name any PG's that have more potential than DRose, BJennnings is the only one close. What is all that BS about "true PG's" I've always hated that crap. Rose makes everyone around him better as soon as he steps on the court, IT IS OBVIOUS!!. It just goes to show how much his teammates suck.
In a way I agree with both of the last two comments as funny as that sounds. Rose is not a consistently good passer it's true. But he certainly has shown at times he has talent in that area. If he gets some better players, system, and a real coach I suspect he'll be a pretty good passer in his own right. As for mama's boy, I think to some extent it's true. However I also do see some charisma and competitive fight in him just not consistently at all. With maturing, the right coach etc. I think he may never be a tough guy, but a hellatious competitor, yes. I certainly saw it for much of the Boston series.
The media isnt on Rose because blaming Rose would be like blaming Deng and Noah. The all have their issues, Rose passiveness, Deng same and Noah defense especially lately. But to blame them looks rather silly.
A good point on Noah is that no one blames Noah because we all realize that he is playing next to guys who are absolutely no help. Noah cant do ti all by himself.Even though its in his area where we get absolutely killed every night leading to the 30 pt losses.
It works the exact same for Rose.
Rose is relatively the same...should be considered miraculous considering the uninterrupted eye contact the 5 opposing players have on him.
If you think totally unbiased here for a minute and take a scenario of a pg who played well with tons of spacing, plenty of great shooters.He also showed stretches of unbelievable dominance.
Now take away all his shooters, his spacing, give him worse teammates and give him an injury.
Now..do you think he will have an even better season? Strictly based off the scenario I just gave you?
Well thats whats Rose is faced with.
I dont disagree that Rose is still fighting passiveness, being aggressive all game and is making silly turnovers this year. But he is still going through an adjustment. Call it new scenario...call it sophomore slump..whatever. But the huge leap you mentioned, actually wouldnt make a DENT on how this team is performing. Rose has had career nights and the team still lose by 25.
What I do know is this..
I know what the guy can do with shooters around him and thats all on Bulls mgmt, not on Rose.
Rose, Deng and Noah are the furtherest from the reasons why we get blown out every night.
I agree that it's time to blow the team up, and that the roster does not fit well together. It would be a great to dump Hinrich and possibly Deng for expirings.
But with the love that Reinsdorf has shown those two, do you have confidence in them getting dumped? Do you have confidence in the organization remaking the roster successfully? With all that has happened in the last 2 years or so, I certainly don't.
As crazy as this sounds, if the Bulls could split with LAL and ATL, they would have a decent shot to be 15-15 by the end of the month.
That being said, I wish John Paxson and/or Gar Forman would, at least, TWEEK this roster. I think TWILL, CAMBY and WAFER can all be gotten. Getting those three guys, could change the whole dynamics of this team and the season.
Doug is giving some real critiques about his game, and you're putting words in his mouth. Assists do go up with better teammates, but Doug didn't once mention passing in his article.. Did you even read it? No, you just skimmed, and you turned on manic defensive mode because he's your hometown hero and you've probably been watching him since high school. But the fact that the offense is so dysfunctional makes it hard to argue the point that he's making up for his .487 (25 points below his rookie season). I think Doug's criticisms are pretty sensitive and well-thought, especially for a player who is obviously struggling a bit to anyone who's watching the games. We can blame gordon's absence, we can blame deng, but if he's gonna turn into the player he was projected to be, he should be able to score off the dribble at a better clip.
However, he has been able to take it to the hole lately, and I think he's been missing a lot of relatively easy looking layups. What do you think about his ability to get into the paint? I feel like this is a big deal, and he's been pretty good at it-- it might allow room for a more optimistic projection than his stats might convince us otherwise.
I beg to differ.
TWILL just put up 18 points and 7 rebounds on Atlanta yesterday. The main point is, the Bulls need a SG, whereas the Nets need a SF. I move TWILL in the starting lineup next Rose and have Salmons back up Deng at SF.
That makes sense.
The opportunity is there.
TWILL is unhappy in New Jersey and CDR, along with CLEE are playing good ball for the Nets. True, Johnson was picked after TWILL, but it's only 5 spots. Throw in CASH and/or a 2nd Round pick.
That would be a nice trade for both teams and players.
I don't get your beef with Rose. He'll be fine. Put him around some talented. He's not supposed to be the first option like he is now.
Deng and Hinrich should have been dealt years ago.
When they drafted Derrick Rose they said they were rebuilding around him well thats what they need to do because those pieces don't fit.
What are the expectations for Rose?
My expectations were for him to average 18PPG and 8APG, as well as become more of a LEADER.
Lately, he has had several games were he scored 19 points. However, guys like Pargo, Hinrich and Salmons can't seem to shoot the ball, so his assists are down.
As far as his leadership abilities go, he is still way to quiet on the court. I would love to see him COMMAND THE BALL more and challenge his teammates at times.
Blowing up the team could mean moving Hinrich, Salmons, Thomas and Johnson. All four of those guys are more move-able then Luol Deng.
Hey Doug,
No-Shot Noah has improved but he still is a weakling!Noah is grossly over rated! But he fits in with the Laff-A-Bulls, we all saw his clown suit when he was drafted!
It took Noah three years to get in shape and we can all see that he still does not have the strength to compete against good and strong forwards and centers!
Will it take the lazy Noah 3 or 4 or 6 more years to get strong enough to successfully compete against tough competition?????????????
If and when he does that how many more years will it take No-shot Noah to develop into an offensive threat? 3,4,5 years or more?????????
Rose just doesnt have a high basketball IQ to succeed at a high level in this league. He makes bad decisions on offense and defense, he cant rebound, and his assist numbers are an embarassement. We made him the face of the franchise but on a real good team he is nothing more than a 3rd or 4th option. As for the other girls on the team they just are bench players on other teams. Kirk Hinrich got paid and has stunk it up, John Salmons looks clueless, Brad Miller reminds me so much of Joe Smith when he was with us (horrible yet always happy), Deng is a nice player who shouldnt have been paid more than the full MLE, Tyrus and James Johnson dont seem like the brightest bunch, Taj shouldnt see more than 12-15 min a game. Its all a mess.
Hey RPK,
Doug always defends No-Shot Noah the over rated lazy weakling!
Maybe Noah is already worn out, he has never been in shape to play one half a season!
In a preseason game he had to take electrolytes! Does that sound like he was in shape before the prseason started????
I dont understand the love T-Will gets from Mr. Happy. The knock on him during the draft was that he was a mental case ala Ron Artest. He is a troubled kid who loves to cause trouble and NJ already has started to see it with his twitter post. The kid cant shoot but he can defend I will give him that.
He's not like Ron Artest at all. He's probably more like Joakim Noah. He wants to win and play. When neither of those things are going on, he speaks his mind.
This kid would be a GREAT FIT with Rose, unlike James Johnson.
Terrence Williams didn't want to play in New Jersey. He wanted to play in Chicago with Rose or Charlotte, because of MJ.
http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog?post=4213871&name=friedell
John Paxson NEEDS TO WAKE UP and go get this kid. He's available now, do to his unhappiness and the current good play of both Courtney Lee and Chris-Douglas Roberts. As I said, they don't need a SG, they need a SF, which is what Johnson plays.
This is what Terrence Williams had to say about the Chicago Bulls organization, before the draft. Keep in mind, he is a very candid guy. He speaks the truth. He don't BS.
Terrence Williams:
"I would love to play for the Bulls," he told me. "I told them that in the meeting. I told [Vinny] Del Negro that I would love to play for him 'cause I love their style and I love how Derrick Rose distributes the ball as a young point guard. I love Ben Gordon, I love their young players with [Joakim] Noah, [John] Salmons, I love everybody on their team and I love the way they play. It fits my style. I'd love to play there."
How many times can a guy use the word LOVE about one organization?
From Sam Smiths blog
I
Why did Reinsdorf sign Deng to such a big contract if he didn't plan on keeping him for the long haul? I really doubt the Bulls will trade Luol Deng for an expiring(s). Though I pray they do.
Again, IMO, beyond fantasy you're going to have Rose, Deng, and Noah as your core/group remaining. Can they really dump Kirk? I thought last year Minnesota was willing to trade for expiring(s). I think there were a lot of fans wishing Chicago would have taken that deal. Now I just can't see in this lowered cap climate someone saying, oh yeah, let's take on a $8-9 MIl contract and give up cap space.
If you don't resign Thomas(everybody calls him Tyrus while he's injured/grass is always greener when you're without him, but when he returns and disappoints it will be Thomas again) then you're probably still stuck with Salmons who on his current level of play will definitely not be opting out.
So you're realistically carrying
Gibson Noah Deng
Johnson
Hinrich Rose
Salmons
If the Bulls at least take a chance on winning they will dump Del Negro, and put their marbles in with a name coach(and hopefully a competent off./def. mind assistant ala Thibedau/Rivers.
Say the Bulls keep Vin all year, and go on a tank death ride. Then you're talking hopefully top three pick/one of the worst three records in the league. Personally I know it's wrong, but if you're going to do a tank job, you might as well do it right. Do your damndist to dump Deng/Kirk and watch the team plunge hopefully to worst/first. Top three picks should be someone there who's good/can score.
So add J-Wall, Evan Turner, whoever, to Rose, next year hopefully more bulked up Noah, Salmons as a decent to better reserve under the new real coach, Gibson(who I still like), Johnson post Jenny Craig, and not a bad team if you can then land a big 2010 free agent. Maybe Bosh with the name coach, and someone can wrench the soft out of him ala Scottie Pippen/Johnny Bach. A shrewd G.M. just might be able to pull this off, but things like this just don't happen in Chicago...?
The only way to move those guys is to move Paxson first and bring in a new/outside GM who isn't wedded to both Hinrich and Deng.
Mike D'Antoni anybody?
With CDR and CLEE playing very good ball for the Nets, TWILL is expendable now. They really don't need a SG, which is the best position for TWILL, but they could use a bigger SF, like Johnson.
It just makes sense. Remember what you wrote about him when you scouted him? You thought he would be a nice fit next to Rose, as I recall. TWILL would fit in better with the Bulls and Johnson would fit better in with the Nets.
Also, TWILL wanted to play for the Chicago Bulls.
http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog?post=4213871&name=friedell
I think one of the problems is Rose worries he won't get fouled. He even said that in quote that he shooting the floater because he's not getting any foul calls
His absolute brutally? Maybe you should start judging Noah on his actual production not because you don't like the kid