Chicago Bulls Season Thread 35-33 -- vs kings 3.21/3.23 vs knicks/3.24 knicks

Bulls vs. Bucks (8 ET, NBA TV)

We Meet Again


Chicago and Milwaukee matchup for the second time this week after the Bulls controlled the Bucks for a 117-106 win last Tuesday. Jimmy Butler led the charge for Chicago to give the Bulls their seventh win over the last eight regular season matchups with the Bucks. Their lone loss came last April in Milwaukee when Michael Carter-Williams tallied 21 points and 10 rebounds in the 95-91 victory. The Bucks will need another performance like that from Carter-Williams tonight if they hope to push the Bulls to a 6-9 record away from the United Center. The last time the Bulls were in Milwaukee, they beat the Bucks by 54 points to close out their first-round playoff series. Will the outcome be different tonight as the Bucks play on their new, alternate court?



Old Stomping Grounds


Jimmy Butler returns to Milwaukee where he played college ball at Marquette University. The all-around shooting guard has tallied 30-plus points in five games this season with three of those games coming on the road. A fourth was dropped on the Bucks last week when he went 11-for-21 from the field for 32 points to go along with a career-high 10 assists. Expect another big night from Butler as he plays on his old college court and looks to help the Bulls avoid a third consecutive loss.



Starting To Sizzle


After a slow stretch to start the season, Khris Middleton has turned it on for the Bucks over his last 11 games with averages of 23.3 points on 52.9 percent from the field, 49.1 percent from 3-point range, 4.9 assists, and 3.4 rebounds in 36.6 minutes. He scored 26 points on 5-for-10 from 3-point in the Bucks' loss to Chicago last Tuesday. Expect the Bulls to be focused tonight on slowing Middleton, who is the only 3-point threat in the Bucks' starting lineup.



Great Gasol


Pau Gasol has dominated the Bucks since joining the Bulls last season. In five games against Milwaukee as a Bull, Gasol is averaging 24.6 points on 57.7 percent shooting and 12.8 rebounds. This includes a career-best night last January when he tallied a career-high 46 points on 17-for-30 shooting, 18 rebounds and three assists in the Bulls' win. Gasol was held to just 14 points in the Bucks' lone regular season win against Chicago since last season. The Bulls will look for a big night from Gasol as they look to bounce back from last night's 114-100 defeat in Washington.
 
Derrick Rose and Damian Lillard want to retire as Bulls, Blazers


Derrick Rose has not had a good season for the Chicago Bulls in 2015-16. There have been a few good games here and there, and he has improved since losing the facemask he wore following an orbital bone fracture suffered in the first practice of his team’s season back in the first week of October, but by and large he’s been a millstone offensively and a very poor defender. He’s not the sole reason the Bulls are inconsistent, myriad factors go into that, but he’s certainly been rough to watch.

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This was supposed to be the breakout year, the one that came after an up and down 2014-15 campaign – the first time he finished a season with the Bulls since his MVP year in 2011. With his downfall so swift, and with the remainder of this year’s $20 million deal and next season’s $21.1 million deal still on Chicago’s books, many have wondered why the Bulls haven’t tried to trade Rose to another team.

Well, two teams have to tango. Not a lot of front offices are out to grab a guy that needs 15.3 shots to score 14.9 points, with that poor defense, with 2.9 free throws per game, averaging fewer than five assists for the second straight season. To say nothing of the tens of millions he’s owed.

Rose wants to grind it out in Chicago. He discussed his hopes in an interview with Nick Friedell at ESPN Chicago:


Friedell: You want to retire here still.


Rose: For sure, for sure.


[…]


Friedell: What do you think is the biggest misconception about you now?


Rose: I really don't know right now. Every week it changes probably. I'm serious. I don't know -- it's probably -- in the beginning of the year it was, did I want to stay here and did I want to win? But my whole life, I mean from the beginning, I said I wanted to stay here and play here and my whole life I've been a winner, so that's not going to change.

We’ll see how strong Rose’s commitment to Chicago is when, if current trends hold up, they’ll offer him a contract worth a fraction of what he’s currently making when he becomes a free agent in 2017. Assuming they actually offer him one, sadly.

Rose is not a good player right now, and for a team that merely wanted him to return to competent form while building a solid rotation around him, his play has been a major disappointment. His shooting percentages in the paint and in the mid-range have improved to a level around average since the mask went off, but his defensive issues from last season remain, and he still walks the ball up court for a team that hasn’t needed for him to act as a slowed-down, one-on-one machine for the last 45 months.

No, these Bulls need him to push the ball and enter the ball into sets that are supposed to feature ball movement and passing. Worse, too often when he gives up the ball Rose lopes behind the corner three-point line and watches the play (not) develop for the league’s 23rd-ranked offense, with nobody guarding the player who has hit fewer than a quarter of his three-pointers this year.

Of course Derrick Rose wants to stay in Chicago. It’s his hometown, it’s the only town his young son has ever known (which he mentions in the interview), and if he still were a max-level player (as opposed to ranking 54th out of 71 eligible NBA point guards in Player Efficiency Rating this year), the Bulls could pay him more money than any other team when re-signing him.

Being dealt to another team would mean a whole new fan base to answer to, wondering why their group gave up around $20 million in contracts to deal for Rose, wondering why their team put his $21 million on next year’s salary cap along the way. It would likely mean an eventual demotion to the bench, should this sort of play continue. It would mean a change in city. It would mean the realization that the franchise that did nothing but make yearly excuses for Derrick Rose didn’t want him around anymore.

What player – what person – would want to go through something like that? At some point, though, as he watches Jamal Crawford play 15 years after tearing his ACL, or Russell Westbrook dominating after three different meniscus-related surgeries (to Rose’s two), the excuses have to let up.

Play defense. Move without the ball offensively. Play an uglier game and get to the line more often. Don’t give up plays. Don’t walk the ball up on court as if it’s 2010, and Keith Bogans is waiting beyond half-court. As opposed to Jimmy Butler.


A brighter version of the same line Rose is understandably towing came out of Portland last week, when Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard offered this in the wake of a 40-point, 10-assist game:


“It’s always good to be the first one to do something,’’ Lillard said. “Especially being part of an organization I plan on being a part of for my entire career. It’s an honor, but I would have liked for it to be in a winning effort.’’

Lillard’s “first one” comment has to do with the fact that no Blazer has ever dropped 40 points and 10 dimes on the team’s home court, and as he noted Portland did fall to the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the contest on Friday. Still, 40 and 10. Part of a fantastic weekend.

And he wants to stay a Blazer forever.

Wait.

Portland has heard this before, infamously from Bill Walton in the 1970s (who later deduced, correctly, that the team misdiagnosed his stress fractures) and LaMarcus Aldridge. LMA said as much in 2014, prior to what turned out to be his last season with the team, as he understandably jumped less than a year after those comments to a Spurs team that is now running (thanks in large part to LaMarcus) with the best point differential at this point in the season in NBA history.

Lillard was the second member of the 2012 NBA draft class (thanks Billy!) to sign a maximum contract extension, one that doesn’t even start until next season. The five-year, $120 deal is amplified somewhat because of Damian’s Rookie of the Year trophy and All-Star appearances, and it isn’t set to finish until 2021.

Damian will turn 31 the same month he’ll have to decide his free agent future that year, a full year older (nearly to the day) that Aldridge was at the time. The Blazers have done an interesting job keeping him engaged, not bottoming out in the wake of losing four starters during last year’s offseason, but despite Lillard’s brilliance this squad still needs to find its way into grabbing another star.

The franchise has the league’s lowest payroll in 2015-16 and plenty of cap room next year even with Lillard’s pay raise, but plenty of teams will have cap space. The team has what could be cap-eating decisions to make on restricted free agents Meyers Leonard and Moe Harkless – two solid enough players who could be fallback plans for teams that fail to land bigger names – and as currently set the team’s first round pick this June could fall into the teens.

The too-quick ascension of teams in Phoenix and Milwaukee shouldn’t have Lillard, the Blazers or Blazers fans’ worried. There’s no reason to think Portland will fall into a series of dodgy moves in the wake of unexpected mediocrity. For all the fun that this season has been in Portland, though, it might come at a cost. For now, at least: Portland has five years.

Chicago? Their window probably shut five years ago. There’s a chance this team can move past that blockage, between now and spring, but quite a bit in Derrick Rose’s game needs to change
 
Pau been playing like garbage all game yet Fred continues to roll with the cold hand as opposed to sitting in favor of Noah :smh:
 
Loving the way Niko and Snell has been playing as of late on the offensive end. Pau looks like buns on both ends of the court. I just need our defense to improve.
 
I went to the game.

Thank goodness it was free tickets or I would've paid to see the Bulls lose.

I think Jimmy Butler'so hamstring is acting up. He was limping in the locker room last night and around the 4th quarter tonight, he was limping and showed favoritism towards that right leg.

Pau was terrible. Missed easy bunnies but he was terrible. Bucks were all over the floor. Bulls, they kinda gassed out with no energy or urgency
 
Fred Hoiberg's first year with the Chicago Bulls was always going to be complicated. Whereas most new head coaches are brought in to fix floundering teams, Hoiberg was asked to take over for an admired head coach in Tom Thibodeau, who led the Bulls to five straight playoff berths.

But Bulls management pried the 43-year-old Hoiberg away from Iowa State because they thought he could add some spice to their often-stagnant offense. As part of that effort, Hoiberg has moved Joakim Noah out of the starting lineup.




Noah has played good solider thus far, but according to a report from Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times, the veteran big man is far from pleased with his current role.


A source said on Tuesday morning that Noah remains unhappy with his current standing in the organization, and "still hasn't moved past losing his starting job'' late in training camp. The source went onto say that Noah "hasn't been a distraction by any means, but isn't the biggest [coach Fred] Hoiberg fan these days.''

Not only is Noah now coming off the bench, but he's also playing just 22 minutes per game, his lowest total since his rookie year. His overall output has dropped -- he's hitting just 38 percent of his shots and averaging just 4.3 points to go along with 8.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists -- but the move has failed to boost Chicago's offense, which is no doubt frustrating him. The Bulls are scoring just 101 points per 100 possessions this year, the 10th-worst mark in the league. Last year, with Noah playing in tandem with Pau Gasol up front, they scored 104.7.

Of course, there's still logic to Hoiberg's decision to shift Noah to the bench. Noah is 30 with a lot of mileage on his tires and has already missed nine games this year due to a shoulder injury. (The Bulls went 7-2 in those games, which adds to Hoiberg's case). Also, his jump shot is completely broken and he still has trouble finishing near the rim. The Bulls are 4.1 points per 100 possessions better offensively when Noah sits, per NBA.com, and about even defensively.

But Noah, a two-time All Star and 2014 Defensive Player of the Year who's spent his entire career in Chicago and played a key role in the team's rise, is a competitor. It's understandable and not the least bit surprising that he believes the Bulls are better off with him on the floor.


This is not the first time that this has been brought up this season, with Noah feeling like he would be better served as a starter or at least on the court more often in crunch-time.

Privately, the Bulls have hoped that winning games would cure a lot of Noah's woes, but that hasn't necessarily been the case. It also didn't help that the Bulls went 7-2 without Noah during a recent shoulder injury, and that he's been the subject of trade talk.

The Bulls aren't really winning games, at least at the level they hoped. The Bulls are on a three-game losing streak and have repeatedly been unable to separate themselves from the rest of the crowded East pack. Chicago is in fourth place in the East at 22-15, but are just three-and-a-half games ahead of the ninth-seeded New York Knicks and Boston Celtics.

That's probably why Noah's name has slowly been popping up in trade rumors. The Bulls may think they're better off dealing him for a wing player, as Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski recently suggested. He'll also be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, and the Bulls may prefer to recoup an asset as opposed to just letting him walk for nothing next summer.

Whatever the reason, the Bulls are in for an awkward four months. The Bulls were able to overcome the last internal strife involving one of their key players and Hoiberg, but adding a popular player like Noah to that list is only going to make Hoiberg's already difficult job even more complex.
 
I don't see us getting anyone that is a starter or is solid enough unless it is a package of players / picks
 
Once again I'll share some of my bar talk...
I was shooting this over with some friends while drinking and at the time I thought it was pretty decent idea.

Charlotte has two decent SF in Batum and MKG and are lacking bigs...maybe Pau or Noah.
Tricky part is that while Batum, Noah, and Pau are free agents at the end of the season and MKG is still under rookie scale would MJ or Cho need an incentive.

I already expressed my interest in Keef and now that the Suns are spiraling they'll prob give him away. Chicago is close to Detroit and the two brothers can reconnect they're ambilical cords since they wanna be Siamese twins :lol:

I gave up hope on Boogie cause I doubt Gar/Pax have what it takes to make a real move.
 
Once again I'll share some of my bar talk...
I was shooting this over with some friends while drinking and at the time I thought it was pretty decent idea.

Charlotte has two decent SF in Batum and MKG and are lacking bigs...maybe Pau or Noah.
Tricky part is that while Batum, Noah, and Pau are free agents at the end of the season and MKG is still under rookie scale would MJ or Cho need an incentive.

I already expressed my interest in Keef and now that the Suns are spiraling they'll prob give him away. Chicago is close to Detroit and the two brothers can reconnect they're ambilical cords since they wanna be Siamese twins :lol:

I gave up hope on Boogie cause I doubt Gar/Pax have what it takes to make a real move.


I'm warming up to the idea of Keef as well.

Wouldn't mind Batum either regardless of his FA status.
 
I don't know why Keefe got me thinking of Chief Keefe.. Lol

I don't mind Keefe either. He is versatile. 

Bulls organization has always been about getting guys who are passionate about the game and have great attitude along with being a hard worker and not being a diva. 

So it's tough to get any guys here. 

So sad. 
 
Pelicans have a offer on the table to send ryan Anderson to SAC for rudy

why the **** arent they talking to Chicago if that's all it takes for rudy
 
Pelicans have a offer on the table to send ryan Anderson to SAC for rudy

why the **** arent they talking to Chicago if that's all it takes for rudy

Cause we flaw as hell. Seen something Bulls FO is looking to Draft picks not players that'll help immediately
 
Pelicans have a offer on the table to send ryan Anderson to SAC for rudy

why the **** arent they talking to Chicago if that's all it takes for rudy

:smh: that's all it takes to get Rudy, we could easily offer them Snell and their choice of Taj or Pau!

Really don't understand our FO :smh:


Seen something Bulls FO is looking to Draft picks not players that'll help immediately


As if we don't already have 2 picks in this upcoming weak *** draft :smh:
 
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:smh:
Can't believe Gar/Pax wouldn't even attempt to obtain Rudy.
I can mos def see Rudy flourishing with Jimmy and Rose....that's a killer 1-2-3!!
 
pelicans have rejected the offer... the bulls better be on the ******* phone with SAC I swear
 
Sacremento wanted Ryan Anderson, a stretch 4..

Mirotic would be the only answer for the Gay trade. 
 
Nah fam, they wanted someone who doesn't play any D, so Pau's cherry pickin' *** fits the bill perfectly :rofl: :rofl:

:rofl:

Sacremento wanted Ryan Anderson, a stretch 4..

Mirotic would be the only answer for the Gay trade. 

Not necessarily Abe,

Remember that with trades you have to make them match salaries...well relatively.
Pau is making 7.4 this year
Taj is making 8.5 this year
Noah is making 13.4 this year
Niko is making 5.5 this year


Rudy is making 12.4 this is his first year in a 3 year 40M extension.
Trading an expiring contract like Noah/Pau is good for the Kings as it frees them up from the remainder f the contract.
 
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