Brian Tucker:
I am starting to understand how my thoughts and words have meaning and tend to manifest. From believing we could get Nikola Vucevic when nobody else was really believing to having low expectations for our team down the stretch this season to playing Milwaukee in the first round. I'm not claiming to be any sort of seer or have any deep insights as to why these likely coincidences occur. The only thing I know is that the universe conspires for my happiness and well being. There is a clear path to victory over the defending champs and we can shock the world.
The Bulls can run with the Bucks using speed, ball movement and a scrappy, swarming defense to offset their size and veteran, cohesive team advantages. The Bulls have enough talent to get to the free throw line, make more shots and disrupt their flow just enough to win the series.
Hopefully we see them locked-in and unwavering from Game 1 tip-off. In full belief.
Sam Smith:
Do you recommend stocks? That sounds like the November/December Bulls who were having a Ball, or had one. I've noted the proliferation of injuries elsewhere (Denver, Portland, Philadelphia/Brooklyn) that have conspired against teams, so the Bulls can't complain too loudly. But losing Lonzo Ball was a big blow and not just what he brought to the game with shooting and defense. If we remember way back to last year, the whole offseason priority (and draft) was finding an actual point guard.
DeRozan in many respects fell into the Bulls lap when the Lakers and Knicks misjudged the market. The Bulls were concentrating on point guard with Dosunmu in the draft and then Ball so quick into free agency the NBA got mad. So the Bulls not only lost their offseason priority, but then the coach knit together the Bulls strategy to offset the height impediment by employing harassing tactics and speed.
Without Ball and Alex Caruso limited with injuries, it's been difficult to replicate. Which is not to say it's not possible. Like Nelson Mandela said, it's impossible until it's done. I'm not conflating this series with that undertaking. Someone always has to be the underdog, so the Bulls join seven others this weekend. But the Bulls also have three All-Stars, two from this season, who score as much as any, a center who has been a multiple, All-Star still in his prime, a season of never-give-up games until wearing out at the end, and a recent nice break to recover.
Did it come to you yet how many games it was going to take them to win the series? I'll wait.
The Bulls have rebounded to make the 2021-22 postseason after a rough 2021.
Mark Hammond:
Well, the early season naysayers were right.This Bulls team, as currently constructed, is a low playoff seed and quick first-round exit. It looked for a bit that the naysayers were wrong, even with Williams out for the season and Zach's sore thumb. Then Lonzo blew out his knee, Grayson Allen went Grayson Allen on Caruso, Omicron came then went, teams figured out that to stop the Bulls you stop DeMar, and Poof!
The Bulls look to be going very gentle into that good night of the NBA off-season. So where do the Bulls go from here? Was all because Lonzo was hurt? Does the starting five of DeMar, Williams, Nik, Zach and Lonzo become the Phoenix Suns of the Eastern Conference, or were the first four months of the season a mirage? In the meantime, the Bulls are going to be asked to offer a max contract to a player with a career defensive plus/minus of -1.5, who has never won a single playoff game in his entire career, with a balky knee and who has never played more that 70 games in a season since Obama was President.
DeMar, who is the main reason the Bulls are not in the play-in game, let alone the playoffs, will be 33. Nik needs long, tall presence behind him who can run the floor, i.e., a unicorn, i.e., Giannis. Lonzo has had his 2nd meniscus tear.
Is it the same knee or does he now have a matching set? Is Patrick Williams going to be a star? Coby White is probably going to be asked to take his negative 2.5 plus/minus talents elsewhere. Oh yeah, the Bulls have no draft capital, so there is that. On the bright side, it looks like Kris Dunn has finally hit his stride and become the player John Paxson and Gar Forman thought he'd be. Unfortunately for GarPax, his name is Ayo Dosunmu.
Basically, the Bulls are now the Lillard-Jurkic-McCollum era Trail Blazers, except a little worse. I'm looking forward to the 2025-26 teardown and rebuild.
Sam Smith:
So other than the auto crash that left you in traction how's your day going? I know, no auto crash, but it seems a bit premature to write off the next four years. Didn't we say in Arturas We Trust? I'd say the Bulls should play at least one playoff game before booking flight plans. Hey, you never know; really.
But coming off last season did you really expect Ball, DeRozan, et al?
Karnisovas proved to be very creative with not that much salary cap room with the various sign-and-trade deals. I think the Bulls issues are more on the margins than in the core, and there's a lot of instability in the Eastern Conference with Embiid's health, Harden's training table, who knows what with Simmons and Irving, and Durant has had some serious injuries.
Round 2 for Butler and Spoelstra at some point?
I'm not giving up this series because you may not know it, but it's a new season and everyone is 0-0. But some of the Bulls needs going forward like an athletic big, a spot up shooter and an attacking guard are not like trying to get LeBron or Kawhi.
C'mon, give ‘em another chance. You'll feel better. Did I see a little smile there?
Jimmy Butler
Mike Queensworth:
I saw a report that said: Rival players speculate that Jimmy Butler could seek trade from Miami Heat if team takes early playoff exit.
Sam Smith:
See, now Jimmy's leaving, too. Seriously, you have to love the NBA offseason. I don't see Jimmy moving on from Miami, where he still is playing well. Though he does miss a lot of games, averaging maybe 20 a season the last four years.
Which going on 33 years old in September with a body he's pushed awfully hard—or so he's told us—the market is not going to be that welcoming. Not Anthony Davis level uncertainty, and we know someone in the NBA always takes a chance on talent. But then Jimmy runs the risk of whether he can find the middle of not being coached hard enough in Chicago and Philadelphia and too hard in Miami. I like Miami to have a nice playoff run, and Jimmy, as remarkable as it seems, to perhaps finish out what could be a Hall of Fame career in Miami.
Seriously, who really wants to leave there in winter, anyway? And we know Pat Riley isn't trading with the Knicks or Lakers.
The Bulls defense had impressive moments during the first half of the regular season.
William Kochneff:
I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Bulls the first half of the season. Injuries obviously proved too much of a hurdle to overcome. Fans should keep in mind that this was a brand new team with players not used to playing with one another.
When you have to keep changing the lineup, there is a huge continuity problem. Keeping continuity would have been difficult enough with a team that was together last year.
Next year? Point guards will know where to find the shooters. Court spacing should be much improved. DeRozan won't have to keep finding his own shot, though it certainly is nice that he can do so.
The defense should be very decent with Ball, Caruso, and Williams in the lineup. A year of playing together should improve switching when necessary. The Bulls will be a force, unless of course, there is a repeat of last year on the injury front.
Sam Smith:
Ain't it not over 'til it's over? Though with all those cheese curd snacks, there probably are a lot of hefty singers in Wisconsin.
LeBron has moved up to No. 2 all-time in scoring with his impressive 2021-22 regular season.
Michael Murden:
A lot has been made lately about LeBron James chasing the all-time scoring record. People talk about the "Shot Clock Era" and imply the pre and post shot clock eras were so different that records and numbers from the two eras can't meaningfully be compared.
I think the same about the 3-Point Era.
I think it so changed the game that NBA records need to be divided into the pre and post Three Point Eras, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar should remain the scoring champion of his era.
How would you compare the advent of the 3-pointer to the advent of the shot clock in terms of how it changed the game and how it changed perceptions of the relative values of players?
Sam Smith:
It's a valid point, though less with the advent of the NBA three-point line in 1979 (the old ABL in the early 1960s and ABA until the merger in 1976 used it) than the rules changes in the early 2000s that limited the physical play and the growing player empowerment at a younger age through the AAU system and players drifting through college for a year or less that saw tall players prefer to remain on the perimeter and shoot. And good luck telling them otherwise or they were going somewhere else.
To your point, though, also is a good response to the debate about Steph Curry or perhaps some others as the greatest shooters ever. Maybe he is. But I'd agree only post-three point era because if you weren't getting three points for that shot why shoot it? Thus you can't measure the depth of shooters like Curry and Damian Lillard and others against, say, Lou Hudson or Pete Maravich or Bill Sharman, the latter who was shooting more than 90 percent on free throws in the 1950s when we're not even sure the rims were the same size or not bent in the games in Rochester, Syracuse or Ft. Wayne.
Sharman also was a professional baseball player and the first ever in the NBA who devised exercise and workout programs. So there's little doubt he could have worked up to a longer shot. Curry's best free throw season was 93.4 percent; Sharman's was 93.2 percent. Oscar Robertson was easily the strongest guard in the NBA, more powerful than many interior players. Of course, he could have moved out beyond 23 feet. But why would he for the same point total?
In the early 1960s, Robertson was the only non center shooting at least 50 percent. And Jerry West did so later in the 1960s. But to your point, as it were, fortunately we don't have an asterisk anymore for Roger Maris' 61 home runs in 162 games. The NBA was playing 72 games after the shot clock was introduced and not 80 games until about a decade later.
There are always variations in sports, like the NFL season going from 12 to 14 games in the early 1960s and 16 games in the late 1960s. I accept the total records whatever they are because they are accumulations.
LeBron will deserve his record when he gets it. And he really didn't shoot that many threes until recently. I assume eventually someone like Curry or maybe Anthony Edwards in this shooting era plays 25 years and passes everyone shooting 35 threes a game. I wouldn't mind seeing the additional explanations that cover eras inserted into the Halls of Fame and maybe the record books just to note that guys got an extra point for something others guys didn't.
But I don't see many looking at LeBron as the greatest scorer.
He just hung around longer. Karl Malone is third all-time scorer, but who really believes he's a better scorer than Wilt Chamberlain or Michael Jordan?
I don't believe many think Barry Bonds is the Major League home run leader. Not that LeBron did anything wrong, and it's a great feat in this era to endure like he has. But the greatest scorers will retain their places in fans' view, I believe.
Westbrook had a tough season in Los Angeles.
Joe Guest:
Are you ready to declare Russell Westbrook's NBA career over? He won't be missed by NBA fans.
Sam Smith:
I know; what a disaster the guy was averaging 18.5 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.1 assists and missing just four games, three at the end when they were eliminated.
It was an unfortunate fit with LeBron, who dominates the ball, and then requiring shooters to play off LeBron. Ooops, management forgot that.
So in the only American market where the NBA is the number one sport, Los Angles, Westbrook got the blame. It doesn't make a lot of sense to try that again, but in the right place—probably a current non playoff team that needs a force like him for credibility, if not serious contention—I can see him thriving again.
I even felt sorry for him a little this season, and I haven't been much of a fan since going to interview him when he was a rookie and him telling me to get lost. Which wasn't easy in Oklahoma City. But he even warmed to the media this season. A little; not so many non-map suggestions. Which tells you how depressed he really was. The Knicks, Hornets and Rockets are the latest speculation, though I don't see how Charlotte works with LaMelo Ball.
Billy Donovan leads the huddle.
Alejandro Yegros:
No matter what question he's being asked Billy Donovan brings up the mantra of "not hanging your head." Clearly he's locked in on this theme.
Do you think that the main guys (especially Vucevuc) are doing that?
Sam Smith:
No. I've always interpreted that as coach speak when they don't want to name names.
If anything, Vucevic increases his anger when things are going badly. We used to hear that a lot from Hoiberg and Boylen, which was somewhat understandable with the roster turnover and dysfunction going on at the time. I've really never seen that with this roster. These guys much of the season always came back from deficits and with the exception of the very end of the season.
It's really a competitive group.
But you have to feel a little badly for the coach, who has to talk to the media oh so much when management never does and only a maximum of two players are asked to speak briefly after each game and never before like the coach. Billy's been a marvel this season elaborating and giving his time for the repetitive questions from the hostage media thanks to the ongoing COVID rules. So excuse him a few coach cliches.
Patrick Williams.
Joseph Austin:
With all due respect to Javonte Green, who did an admirable of filling in for Patrick Williams this season, Williams needs to be the starting power forward during the playoffs.
We all assume that the Bucks will eliminate the Bulls in 4 or 5 games. However, Williams is another guy who can create his own shot.
Giannis has to be forced to do something other than taking the ball baseline to THE baseline and scoring. I'm not asking Williams to score 35 points, he just needs to be an offensive threat.
Of course, Zach & DeMar have to be leaders. Vucevic can't disappear and be a non-factor. The bench players have to contribute. That's how to pull off the upset against Milwaukee.
Sam Smith:
I assume Williams will start since he was late in the season. Though Donovan talked about Tristan Thompson, I suspect more to give Milwaukee something else to think about besides stopping at the Mars Cheese Castle on the way to Chicago next weekend.
Williams did have an impressive close to the season in Minnesota, but with DeRozan, LaVine and Vucevic back and still 20 years old and having played 17 games this season it's probably unfair to ask him to save the series. His shot is slow, so it will depend on how much trapping the Bucks do on DeRozan/LaVine. He'll likely get the first look at Giannis, and we should get a sense how much the Bucks are into this one seeing how aggressive Giannis is to start.
He isn't always.
It will take a strong defensive effort for the Bulls to take down the Bucks on Sunday night and beyond.
Brodie Larsh:
Is there any silver lining, story or statistic you can throw out there to give Bulls fans hope against Bucks?
Sam Smith:
I'd go with the "they put their pants on one leg at a time" thing, though I believe with the $100 million plus contracts they have people to dress them.