GT Play-In #1: Atlanta Hawks @ Chicago Bulls - Wed 4/17 @ 8:30pm CT - ESPN

[FriedRise]

As long as the money keeps flowing in, ownership is good with the team being what it is.

We lead the league in total attendance for 3 straight years since AK took over, so that's a W in their eyes. I wouldn't be surprised if that's the #1 criteria in AK's job evaluation because if it wasn't, we would've seen a lot more roster moves from them. At the moment, why fix what's not broken?

[TheSuzerain]

I think AK's seat is warm.

People skip over GarPax (mostly Paxson) earning up a lot of goodwill over time with genuine success. AK has none of that goodwill built up.

Plus the team is visibly nowhere. It's not like there's a flashy talent that can hide the rotted foundation. We have 34 year old Demar Derozan leading the league in minutes.

[jnrjr79]

I think AK's seat is warm.

People skip over GarPax (mostly Paxson) earning up a lot of goodwill over time with genuine success. AK has none of that goodwill built up.

Plus the team is visibly nowhere. It's not like there's a flashy talent that can hide the rotted foundation. We have 34 year old Demar Derozan leading the league in minutes.

Given AK was extended, I doubt the seat is warm. I think the only hope/wild card is whether Michael Reinsdorf will be less patient than Jerry was (and whether he's really at the wheel).

[MrSparkle]

I think AK's seat is warm.

People skip over GarPax (mostly Paxson) earning up a lot of goodwill over time with genuine success. AK has none of that goodwill built up.

Plus the team is visibly nowhere. It's not like there's a flashy talent that can hide the rotted foundation. We have 34 year old Demar Derozan leading the league in minutes.

I agree, although the Reinsdorfs have been the most patient and least winning ownership in the NBA (years to GM playoff wins), besides maybe Dolan, Ranadive and long gone Sterling.

They have the injury and youth excuses. Should buy them 1-2 years past the Lonzo contract, of cushion. Although I don't know what excuses they have for Vuc, nor for their net-negative "star" trio that now either moves into the $100M+ bracket, or gets broken up to avoid tax.

[umfan83]

I've been up for 5 hours today and just now for the first time thought about the fact that the Bulls have a do or die elimination game tonight. What has JR done to my love of this franchise. Make me care again dammit

Anyways go Bulls

[umfan83]

I think AK's seat is warm.

People skip over GarPax (mostly Paxson) earning up a lot of goodwill over time with genuine success. AK has none of that goodwill built up.

Plus the team is visibly nowhere. It's not like there's a flashy talent that can hide the rotted foundation. We have 34 year old Demar Derozan leading the league in minutes.

Given AK was extended, I doubt the seat is warm. I think the only hope/wild card is whether Michael Reinsdorf will be less patient than Jerry was (and whether he's really at the wheel).

I am praying that this is a situation similar to Bill/Rocky Wirtz with the Blackhawks where Rocky out of respect for his father waited until his passing to make massive changes, but once he did he ran the organization completely different than Bill Wirtz did. Michael Reinsdorf has been running the show for a few years now but largely things have remained the same. Whenever JR goes, it will be a huge litmus test that could decide the next 20+ years of Bulls basketball.

[DuckIII]

I get so annoyed by comments like this - if Reinsdorf wants and prioritizes home playoff revenue you think we'd be good or something and thus likely to play more playoff games.

The Reinsdorf doesn't care about winning and Reinsdorf wants playoff game revenue comments don't align and yet you see them all the time.

They align. He wants playoff revenue and the only way to achieve that is by, at minimum, reaching the play-in. Moreover, a team winning around half its games and making the postseason likely drives up regular season ticket sales.

It’s not that we believe the organization does not care about winning. It’s that we believe they are content to tread water with an old mediocre team when the alternative is ensuring some losing in order to win at a much higher level later.

They are content with what they’ve achieved. And for some of us what they have achieved does not mean ****.

Your alternative isn't ensuring losing in order to win at a much higher level.

The only thing ensuring losing assures is losing.

Yeah that’s the same “no guarantees with rebuilding!”straw man you have used dozens of times throughout the whole season, even though no one argues otherwise. When I said “ensure” it was connected to the “losing” part of the sentence, not the winning part.

No one believes rebuilding from an old mediocre team “ensures” a superior and more highly competitive team next. No building strategies are locks. They all have risk and they all require luck.

But what they also do is end. Ours ended about 15 months ago. Our GM just didn’t realize it or doesn’t care.

[jacoby1us]

the play-in is ridiculous but I'll be watching both of the Bulls W's. I like our chances against Boston tbh

The same Boston that beat us everytime this season?

[SalmonsSuperfan]

the play-in is ridiculous but I'll be watching both of the Bulls W's. I like our chances against Boston tbh

The same Boston that beat us everytime this season?

the very same. i thought the obvious sarcasm was obvious after I assured 2 play-in wins. but I guess not.

[League Circles]

They align. He wants playoff revenue and the only way to achieve that is by, at minimum, reaching the play-in. Moreover, a team winning around half its games and making the postseason likely drives up regular season ticket sales.

It’s not that we believe the organization does not care about winning. It’s that we believe they are content to tread water with an old mediocre team when the alternative is ensuring some losing in order to win at a much higher level later.

They are content with what they’ve achieved. And for some of us what they have achieved does not mean ****.

Your alternative isn't ensuring losing in order to win at a much higher level.

The only thing ensuring losing assures is losing.

Yeah that’s the same “no guarantees with rebuilding!”straw man you have used dozens of times throughout the whole season, even though no one argues otherwise. When I said “ensure” it was connected to the “losing” part of the sentence, not the winning part.

No one believes rebuilding from an old mediocre team “ensures” a superior and more highly competitive team next. No building strategies are locks. They all have risk and they all require luck.

But what they also do is end. Ours ended about 15 months ago. Our GM just didn’t realize it or doesn’t care.

I think something overlooked by most is that it's really not at all an automatic that an NBA team loses enough to be bottom 5ish even when "trying" to. What I mean by that is this - we currently have a decent amount of talent on paper on this roster. We have 4 multiple time all stars none of whom are old enough to be destined to be poor relative to that past performance. We also have in addition to those 4 a nicely blossoming Coby White, a DPOY type talent in Caruso, a nicely blossoming Ayo, and I haven't even got to nice 3 and D piece Patrick Williams. Despite this, we're mediocre at best. The reasonable conclusion is that we have a poorly constructed roster of pieces that don't complement each other well.

The problem is that if you take the individual components of a decent talent roster that DON'T fit well together, trade them for "picks and expirings", you have to take back a LOT of salary for matching purposes. And even if that return isn't as good on paper as what's going out, it very well may "accidentally" fit together better in a way that makes us roughly the same in terms of wins and draft position. It also carries a real risk that the opportunities given to, let's say, garbage youth (Sanogo, Terry types) backfires and it turns out that Sanogo is just as "good" as Vuc, Terry is just as "good" as Demar or Zach (because those 2 are poor defenders which is half the game, plus in a sense they're chuckers). It's not really a solution IMO to have a team that's just a thoroughly mediocre but just younger, because it's just not wise to project consistent improvement out of guys due only to age.

We are in a bad spot and AK is of course largely to blame, but it should be viewed as far from automatic that generic alternative X will be better. We need to get really surgical with this roster IMO.

[SfBull]

I think AK's seat is warm.

People skip over GarPax (mostly Paxson) earning up a lot of goodwill over time with genuine success. AK has none of that goodwill built up.

Plus the team is visibly nowhere. It's not like there's a flashy talent that can hide the rotted foundation. We have 34 year old Demar Derozan leading the league in minutes.

Another reason for losing tonight,not going for the playoffs could make his seat warmer.

[GoBlue72391]

‘‘Ayo is having issues with the running and the starting and the sprinting and the stopping,’’ coach Billy Donovan said.

Uhh...what? This sounds Lonzo-esque.

[GoBlue72391]

Did Bitim get elbowed by someone in the eye or is it an after affect from looking at the eclipse lol? how the heck did that happen ? Bulls can’t catch a break even with the bench guys.

Maybe it was from playing, but a detached retina is a thing that just spontaneously happens to some people.

Spontaneous Retinal Detachment is a plague on our society.

[GoBlue72391]

Last month of play:

Code: Select all

Derozan: 27.2 ppg 5.6 apg   50% FG  31% 3P   58.7% TS
Ayo:     19.7 ppg 4.6 apg   57% FG  47% 3P   67.2% TS
Vucevic: 18.2 ppg 10  rpg   52% FG  32% 3P   58.6% TS
Coby:    17.1 ppg 4.7 apg   42% FG  30% 3P   51.8% TS


Not even factoring in defense.

We'll be at a huge disadvantage if he doesn't play tonight. From what I'm seeing he's listed as questionable and will be a game-time decision, along with Drummond.

[drosestruts]

They align. He wants playoff revenue and the only way to achieve that is by, at minimum, reaching the play-in. Moreover, a team winning around half its games and making the postseason likely drives up regular season ticket sales.

It’s not that we believe the organization does not care about winning. It’s that we believe they are content to tread water with an old mediocre team when the alternative is ensuring some losing in order to win at a much higher level later.

They are content with what they’ve achieved. And for some of us what they have achieved does not mean ****.

Your alternative isn't ensuring losing in order to win at a much higher level.

The only thing ensuring losing assures is losing.

Yeah that’s the same “no guarantees with rebuilding!”straw man you have used dozens of times throughout the whole season, even though no one argues otherwise. When I said “ensure” it was connected to the “losing” part of the sentence, not the winning part.

No one believes rebuilding from an old mediocre team “ensures” a superior and more highly competitive team next. No building strategies are locks. They all have risk and they all require luck.

But what they also do is end. Ours ended about 15 months ago. Our GM just didn’t realize it or doesn’t care.

Also are we even old? Quick google search shows this tweet showing the 8 oldest and 8 youngest teams, neither of which are the Bulls, so I guess we're somewhere in the middle?

Read on Twitter

[League Circles]

Your alternative isn't ensuring losing in order to win at a much higher level.

The only thing ensuring losing assures is losing.

Yeah that’s the same “no guarantees with rebuilding!”straw man you have used dozens of times throughout the whole season, even though no one argues otherwise. When I said “ensure” it was connected to the “losing” part of the sentence, not the winning part.

No one believes rebuilding from an old mediocre team “ensures” a superior and more highly competitive team next. No building strategies are locks. They all have risk and they all require luck.

But what they also do is end. Ours ended about 15 months ago. Our GM just didn’t realize it or doesn’t care.

Also are we even old? Quick google search shows this tweet showing the 8 oldest and 8 youngest teams, neither of which are the Bulls, so I guess we're somewhere in the middle?

Read on Twitter

We definitely aren't very old, though it seems that way cause arguably our best player is our oldest. Vuc is kinda old but he's like our 8th best player so who cares. Most of our guys are young (Coby, Patrick, Ayo) or medium (Zach, Caruso, Drummond etc) age.

[pipfan]

I have Ayo as our 3rd best player, behind Caruso but slightly ahead of Coby. There is no 5th best player

[DuckIII]

The core we pay all our money is old and mediocre. If that age data were adjusted to account for role and salary we would be ancient. The raw number aggravating our young role players and barely NBA quality bench players are irrelevant to the actual point.

[GoBlue72391]

Your alternative isn't ensuring losing in order to win at a much higher level.

The only thing ensuring losing assures is losing.

Yeah that’s the same “no guarantees with rebuilding!”straw man you have used dozens of times throughout the whole season, even though no one argues otherwise. When I said “ensure” it was connected to the “losing” part of the sentence, not the winning part.

No one believes rebuilding from an old mediocre team “ensures” a superior and more highly competitive team next. No building strategies are locks. They all have risk and they all require luck.

But what they also do is end. Ours ended about 15 months ago. Our GM just didn’t realize it or doesn’t care.

Also are we even old? Quick google search shows this tweet showing the 8 oldest and 8 youngest teams, neither of which are the Bulls, so I guess we're somewhere in the middle?

Read on Twitter

What matters is the age of our core players and that's 34, 33, and 29 for our three highest-paid players. Three of our key role players are over 30 as well.

When healthy, 7 of our 10 rotation players are 29 or over.

[Bandit King]

Ohhh yeah boi playoff revenue for the reinsdorfs!!!