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Agree, because if some how yall win the East and go to the Finals you really want homecourt over the Lakers.
We both have 20 losses
Official Chicago Bulls Offseason Thread
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by antbanks81,
- Start date
Agree, because if some how yall win the East and go to the Finals you really want homecourt over the Lakers.
We both have 20 losses
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Hes obviously referring to the fact that at least Boston isnt a game closer than they were this morning. You really dont get that???
I personally just want Ws. We had the game within our grasp tonight (especially after that big lead they had) but just failed to take advantage of opportunities when the D caused stops. Boston losing tonight as well soothes the sting slightly but I wish we were able to increase the lead.
Good game Philly.
I do ..... but that is wat i was trying to explain .. I wouldn't be content because Boston loss I would feel the way u do .. having an opportunity to increase the lead
and missed out
What are you doing here move that way ---->
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Oh well, even the 95-96 Bulls lost to the Raptors
Too much to overcome tonight.
-Boozer and Noah playing like *!%%
-Rose's TO's
On to the next one
Too much to overcome tonight.
-Boozer and Noah playing like *!%%
-Rose's TO's
On to the next one
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What are you doing here move that way ---->
No
move that way ? the $@!$
Bend_The_Knee
formerly gotholesinmysocks
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not cool with the loss
lets atleast go 7 - 2 in the final 9 games
lets atleast go 7 - 2 in the final 9 games
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Wanted the W cuz i'm holding out hope the spurs or lakers lose a few. I'm worrying about home court in those finals ya dig?
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The bulls need home court in case they play the douchebags.
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$260 well saved......now its bordeaux money
we will bounce back from this one
NO WORRIES
we will bounce back from this one
NO WORRIES
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I Feel a little bit better now
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That all but assured us the #1 seed.
2 games ahead of Boston, they're playing like !!$% and have a harder schedule than us.
3 games ahead of Miami in the Loss column, plus we have the tie breaker.
2 games ahead of Boston, they're playing like !!$% and have a harder schedule than us.
3 games ahead of Miami in the Loss column, plus we have the tie breaker.
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For those of you that pay Hollinger attention....
Updated: March 29, 2011, 12:55 PM ET
[h1]Is Chicago the favorite to win the title?[/h1][h3]The Bulls are an Eastern Conference-leading 53-20 (PER Diem: March 29, 2011)[/h3]
By John Hollinger
ESPN.com
Archive
Jonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesAfter squeaking into the playoffs in 2009-10, Chicago has its eye on the top spot in the East.
As always, lots of questions loom as we head to the postseason. But from this chair, the biggest one is this: What do we make of the Chicago Bulls?
Crashing the Miami-Boston party in the East as an uninvited guest, Chicago is surprisingly atop the Eastern Conference standings. Despite Monday night's stumble against Philly, the Bulls retained an 85.8 percent chance of claiming the conference's top seed, according to the Playoff Odds.
It's hard to dispute the quality of their résumé. Chicago is No. 1 in the Power Rankings, opening up a sizable wedge over the Nuggets and Lakers the past few weeks, and the Bulls appear to be gaining steam as the year goes on. They began the season 9-8, but are 44-12 since. They're also 15-4 since the All-Star break, despite their best player having his worst shooting stretch of the season.
So based on all that, we should make the Bulls the favorites to win the championship?
Right?
Anyone?
Hello?
Ask if the Bulls are now the favorites to win the title and you'll get a lot of hemming and hawing. In fact, ask if they're the favorites in the East and you still won't get a decisive "Yes" from most folks.
There are a few reasons for that, some of which have more merit than others. For starters, there's that Chicago wasn't tipped as a contender to start the season, at least on this exalted level. Many will subconsciously hold that surprise-team status against them, and there's a good reason: Teams don't commonly come out of nowhere to win the title.
Here's a fact I'm blatantly cribbing from J.A. Adande: Only two teams in the past 30 years have won the title without winning at least one playoff round the year before.
Moreover, both of those teams came with giant asterisks. The 2008 Celtics were one, but all three key players on that team had been to a conference finals with another team. The 1982 Lakers were the others, and they had won the title two years earlier before suffering a fluke first-round playoff loss to Houston in 1981. (That series is also the reason the league no longer plays a best-of-three in the first round.)
These Bulls, in contrast, are mostly foreign to the concept of playing meaningful games in May. Omer Asik and C.J. Watson have never been in a playoff game. Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah haven't been out of the first round. Luol Deng, Keith Bogans and Kyle Korver haven't been past the second. The only Bulls with deep playoff experience are Carlos Boozer, Ronnie Brewer and Kurt Thomas, and in Brewer's case it was mostly while waving a towel at the end of the bench. He played only 41 minutes in Utah's 2007 conference finals run.
To find a precedent, we have to go all the way back to 1977 and the Portland Trail Blazers, who won the title in their first playoff appearance as a franchise, despite having virtually no playoff experience at all on the roster -- a combined six rounds of ABA playoff action for Dave Twardzik and Maurice Lucas and 12 games by backup guard Herm Gilliam.
So Chicago fans can cling to the fact that teams with an outspoken, long-haired center who won a championship in college seem to be an exception to the rule.
The even better news is that the experience angle makes things look worse than they really are. With so many repeat champions in recent years, we're left with fewer possibilities for out-of-nowhere stories.
I don't dismiss the idea that experience may matter, but don't write off the Bulls' chances because of it is hobgoblins-and-unicorns stuff -- teams have won without playoff experience before and they will again. The reason it's rare is because it's equally rare to go from 40 wins to 60 in a single shot. Improvement to championship caliber usually comes over a period of years.
However, two more relevant factors work against the Bulls. The first one isn't measurable in any way, but it is important to consider nonetheless. Has the team placed too much emphasis on overachieving in the regular season, as opposed to the measured pace of the Lakers, Spurs and Celtics?
From a straight wear-and-tear perspective, Deng is third in the league in minutes and Rose is ninth, even though Chicago has had several blowout wins that didn't require their services late in the game. They're young enough that they can probably handle it, especially Rose. But file that one away.
From a psychological perspective, this team has had the dial turned up to 11 pretty much all season. (Monday night's first half being a glaring exception.) I'm not a believer in "flipping the switch" per se, but I do believe there's a need for title contenders to pace themselves through the season. I'm not sure the Bulls are doing that. Given how young they are, it may not matter, but again it's something to consider.
Perhaps the biggest worry: Chicago's biggest rival in the East is most likely Miami, and in the playoffs Chicago's biggest advantage and Miami's biggest disadvantage -- the bench -- is greatly diminished.
The Bulls' bench has been lights out this year, especially on defense. According to basketballvalue.com, Brewer has the top adjusted plus-minus in the league on defense this year; Asik's is even better but he hasn't played enough minutes. Take a look at the Bulls' most commonly used lineups, and it becomes clear that when Brewer, Asik and Gibson are on the court together the other team just doesn't score. That is partly because they're going against other teams' benches, yes, but even adjusting for opponent quality it's incredibly impressive.
In contrast, as I noted Monday, Miami's spectacularly bad bench will mostly be seated during the playoffs, as starters' minutes tend to increase dramatically in the postseason.
Chicago, of course, can make some tweaks, too. It can up Brewer's minutes at the expense of Bogans, for instance. Additionally, the Bulls are likely to rarely play all five bench players together in the postseason, which will work to their advantage. Without a Rose, Boozer or Deng to play through, that unit is so bad offensively that it offsets its defensive might.
Add them up, and all those potential negatives provide considerable food for thought, which is why reasonable people can disagree about whether the Bulls should be favorites, despite their impressive season thus far.
However, all that food still seems digestible by the other arguments in Chicago's favor. Miami will be better in the playoffs than it was in the regular season, but Tom Thibodeau's scheme is a near-perfect antidote for iso-heavy offenses such as the Heat's. What screws the Bulls up, as I've written before, is the Toronto-Phoenix, drive-and-kick, Euro stuff.
That could trip them up against Orlando, or against San Antonio, Dallas or Denver, if one of those teams were to make the Finals. But against the two teams that present the greatest threat -- Miami and L.A. -- they could not have a more perfect defensive system in place.
That doesn't mean the Bulls are going to win the championship. Even the best teams need some luck along the way, and the top of the board is still competitive enough that the Playoff Odds assign Chicago just a 26.7 percent shot of winning it all. There's a historical basis for questioning their inevitability as champions too -- only once in the past seven years has the top seed made it out of the Eastern Conference bracket alive.
Nonetheless, those are still better odds than anyone else's, especially if Chicago can earn home-court advantage for a potential Finals pairing with the Lakers. The Bulls playing better than anyone in the league right now, and assuming Rose's stroke recovers at some point they'll be even better. And while the playoff format won't favor them as much as the regular season did, they have enough advantages between home-court and favorable opponents to largely offset the negatives.
Enough to offset my misgivings about whether they're regular-season overachievers and whether they can make it out of a sneaky-difficult second-round pairing against Orlando and whether their bench advantage will vanish in the playoffs.
I'd still favor "the field" over any single team in it. And I still reserve the right shift my allegiance over these final nine games. But if you held a gun to my head right now and made me pick ... yes, I'd say the Bulls are the favorites to win it all.
Updated: March 29, 2011, 12:55 PM ET
[h1]Is Chicago the favorite to win the title?[/h1][h3]The Bulls are an Eastern Conference-leading 53-20 (PER Diem: March 29, 2011)[/h3]
By John HollingerESPN.com
Archive
As always, lots of questions loom as we head to the postseason. But from this chair, the biggest one is this: What do we make of the Chicago Bulls?
Crashing the Miami-Boston party in the East as an uninvited guest, Chicago is surprisingly atop the Eastern Conference standings. Despite Monday night's stumble against Philly, the Bulls retained an 85.8 percent chance of claiming the conference's top seed, according to the Playoff Odds.
It's hard to dispute the quality of their résumé. Chicago is No. 1 in the Power Rankings, opening up a sizable wedge over the Nuggets and Lakers the past few weeks, and the Bulls appear to be gaining steam as the year goes on. They began the season 9-8, but are 44-12 since. They're also 15-4 since the All-Star break, despite their best player having his worst shooting stretch of the season.
So based on all that, we should make the Bulls the favorites to win the championship?
Right?
Anyone?
Hello?
Ask if the Bulls are now the favorites to win the title and you'll get a lot of hemming and hawing. In fact, ask if they're the favorites in the East and you still won't get a decisive "Yes" from most folks.
There are a few reasons for that, some of which have more merit than others. For starters, there's that Chicago wasn't tipped as a contender to start the season, at least on this exalted level. Many will subconsciously hold that surprise-team status against them, and there's a good reason: Teams don't commonly come out of nowhere to win the title.
Here's a fact I'm blatantly cribbing from J.A. Adande: Only two teams in the past 30 years have won the title without winning at least one playoff round the year before.
Moreover, both of those teams came with giant asterisks. The 2008 Celtics were one, but all three key players on that team had been to a conference finals with another team. The 1982 Lakers were the others, and they had won the title two years earlier before suffering a fluke first-round playoff loss to Houston in 1981. (That series is also the reason the league no longer plays a best-of-three in the first round.)
These Bulls, in contrast, are mostly foreign to the concept of playing meaningful games in May. Omer Asik and C.J. Watson have never been in a playoff game. Derrick Rose, Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah haven't been out of the first round. Luol Deng, Keith Bogans and Kyle Korver haven't been past the second. The only Bulls with deep playoff experience are Carlos Boozer, Ronnie Brewer and Kurt Thomas, and in Brewer's case it was mostly while waving a towel at the end of the bench. He played only 41 minutes in Utah's 2007 conference finals run.
To find a precedent, we have to go all the way back to 1977 and the Portland Trail Blazers, who won the title in their first playoff appearance as a franchise, despite having virtually no playoff experience at all on the roster -- a combined six rounds of ABA playoff action for Dave Twardzik and Maurice Lucas and 12 games by backup guard Herm Gilliam.
So Chicago fans can cling to the fact that teams with an outspoken, long-haired center who won a championship in college seem to be an exception to the rule.
The even better news is that the experience angle makes things look worse than they really are. With so many repeat champions in recent years, we're left with fewer possibilities for out-of-nowhere stories.
I don't dismiss the idea that experience may matter, but don't write off the Bulls' chances because of it is hobgoblins-and-unicorns stuff -- teams have won without playoff experience before and they will again. The reason it's rare is because it's equally rare to go from 40 wins to 60 in a single shot. Improvement to championship caliber usually comes over a period of years.
However, two more relevant factors work against the Bulls. The first one isn't measurable in any way, but it is important to consider nonetheless. Has the team placed too much emphasis on overachieving in the regular season, as opposed to the measured pace of the Lakers, Spurs and Celtics?
From a straight wear-and-tear perspective, Deng is third in the league in minutes and Rose is ninth, even though Chicago has had several blowout wins that didn't require their services late in the game. They're young enough that they can probably handle it, especially Rose. But file that one away.
From a psychological perspective, this team has had the dial turned up to 11 pretty much all season. (Monday night's first half being a glaring exception.) I'm not a believer in "flipping the switch" per se, but I do believe there's a need for title contenders to pace themselves through the season. I'm not sure the Bulls are doing that. Given how young they are, it may not matter, but again it's something to consider.
Perhaps the biggest worry: Chicago's biggest rival in the East is most likely Miami, and in the playoffs Chicago's biggest advantage and Miami's biggest disadvantage -- the bench -- is greatly diminished.
The Bulls' bench has been lights out this year, especially on defense. According to basketballvalue.com, Brewer has the top adjusted plus-minus in the league on defense this year; Asik's is even better but he hasn't played enough minutes. Take a look at the Bulls' most commonly used lineups, and it becomes clear that when Brewer, Asik and Gibson are on the court together the other team just doesn't score. That is partly because they're going against other teams' benches, yes, but even adjusting for opponent quality it's incredibly impressive.
In contrast, as I noted Monday, Miami's spectacularly bad bench will mostly be seated during the playoffs, as starters' minutes tend to increase dramatically in the postseason.
Chicago, of course, can make some tweaks, too. It can up Brewer's minutes at the expense of Bogans, for instance. Additionally, the Bulls are likely to rarely play all five bench players together in the postseason, which will work to their advantage. Without a Rose, Boozer or Deng to play through, that unit is so bad offensively that it offsets its defensive might.
Add them up, and all those potential negatives provide considerable food for thought, which is why reasonable people can disagree about whether the Bulls should be favorites, despite their impressive season thus far.
However, all that food still seems digestible by the other arguments in Chicago's favor. Miami will be better in the playoffs than it was in the regular season, but Tom Thibodeau's scheme is a near-perfect antidote for iso-heavy offenses such as the Heat's. What screws the Bulls up, as I've written before, is the Toronto-Phoenix, drive-and-kick, Euro stuff.
That could trip them up against Orlando, or against San Antonio, Dallas or Denver, if one of those teams were to make the Finals. But against the two teams that present the greatest threat -- Miami and L.A. -- they could not have a more perfect defensive system in place.
That doesn't mean the Bulls are going to win the championship. Even the best teams need some luck along the way, and the top of the board is still competitive enough that the Playoff Odds assign Chicago just a 26.7 percent shot of winning it all. There's a historical basis for questioning their inevitability as champions too -- only once in the past seven years has the top seed made it out of the Eastern Conference bracket alive.
Nonetheless, those are still better odds than anyone else's, especially if Chicago can earn home-court advantage for a potential Finals pairing with the Lakers. The Bulls playing better than anyone in the league right now, and assuming Rose's stroke recovers at some point they'll be even better. And while the playoff format won't favor them as much as the regular season did, they have enough advantages between home-court and favorable opponents to largely offset the negatives.
Enough to offset my misgivings about whether they're regular-season overachievers and whether they can make it out of a sneaky-difficult second-round pairing against Orlando and whether their bench advantage will vanish in the playoffs.
I'd still favor "the field" over any single team in it. And I still reserve the right shift my allegiance over these final nine games. But if you held a gun to my head right now and made me pick ... yes, I'd say the Bulls are the favorites to win it all.
everysingletime
formerly amel223
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Hollinger does have one point. The Bull's biggest strength and Miami's biggest weakness will decrease in the playoffs.
All teams shorten their rotations. And Thibs might be forced to shorten his accordingly.
Less than 9 games left.
And I'm not softening my stance against Hollinger. He's only going for the Bulls because that's what his precious numbers say.
All teams shorten their rotations. And Thibs might be forced to shorten his accordingly.
Less than 9 games left.
And I'm not softening my stance against Hollinger. He's only going for the Bulls because that's what his precious numbers say.
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men lie women lie numbers dont
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^ They might not lie but they can be skewed to fit peoples agendas though.
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Bend_The_Knee
formerly gotholesinmysocks
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goin this week to the nba store or niketown
i need a bulls sweatshirt
i need a bulls sweatshirt
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Exactly what I was going to say.
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The numbers are always there but it doesnt matter. PLayoff games are always a battle. I will take these Bulls against any team in the East in a 7 game series especially with home court advantage.
Booz is bound to get it going and Noah will get his brass balls back when the playoffs hit.
Rose and Deng gunna be playing 45 mins a game tho.
Booz is bound to get it going and Noah will get his brass balls back when the playoffs hit.
Rose and Deng gunna be playing 45 mins a game tho.
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"Tell them to stay tuned," Boozer said. "Tell them to be patient. We're doing fine. Hang in there with us. Tell them I said that."
Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com...e-man.html#ixzz1I5rexeOm
Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com...e-man.html#ixzz1I5rexeOm
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Boozer needs to step it up
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The whole Damn team needs to step up...even Benny! We need to pad that #1 seed cushion. We need to bring it every night from tipoff to the final horn. This comeback !$%% is getting tired quick.
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"I wouldn't compare them because I don't really care about either of them,"
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]- Bill Lambeer on Derrick Rose and MJ [/font]
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[/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/font]
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]- Bill Lambeer on Derrick Rose and MJ [/font]
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[/font]
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[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Double.[/font]
