Knicks @ Bulls: 7pm Central

[sco]

I was torn as the Knicks are my 2nd fav team and have a legit shot at 2nd seed. Honestly, we caught a break the last game with Hart fouling out early, and with Ayo out and Drummond going down, I thought we held in pretty well...especially with the Knicks seemingly unable to miss from 3. Brunson is so consistently great for them, man how great would it be if we got him instead of Ball.

Coby played decently given that he's lost his 3pt mojo.

Vuc did decently for Vuc

Caruso and Demar were their usual great.

[ChettheJet]

If it was me, Torrey Craig would have been sent to the locker room, down 8 and playing that 'stuff', double embarrassed himself, doing it and then missing. I think with a full roster I think Billy might have. The Bulls had a lot of fast break screwups ending up with nothing. Coby passing up an uncontested layup to pass out for a 3 was low grade loser ball, if the points are there take them.

Sometimes you let one guy score at will and try to shut down the others but they didn't have an answer for anybody. This is the type of game, ORL and ATL, heck most of the last 10, where it shows that the Bulls lack not just size , but shooters or at least shooting threats off the bench. They bring in Terry, Carter, Craig, Bitim who can all make a wide open shot but none of them have the real every game potential to just get hot and get 10-15 points in limited minutes. All of the last 10 or so opponents had guys that could come in and make 2, 3, 4, 3's and force the Bulls to start guarding them. Throw in Caruso and he and the bench guys are left alone and almost encouraged to shoot and even then they don't get up 10 shots.

[drosestruts]

In a world where you can be mad about that failed off the backboard dunk or laugh at it - I'm gonna choose to laugh at it.

Didn't catch the game - hard to win when you're down Ball, LaVine, Williams, Phillips, Ayo, and eventually Drummond.

Do you think a Ball-LaVine-Ayo-Williams-Drummond (and Phillips) team could beat a team comprised of the rest of our players?

I remain impressed by DeMar. Ball's in his court as far as I'm concerned this offseason - he wants to stay here, let's work out a deal. He wants to go elsewhere - hopefully we can find a sign and trade that works for both of us.

[jacoby1us]

We have surpassed the limit on excuses for this team over the past several years, this season alone they have shown that they show up for teams that are actually good. The Shaqn a fool clip from this game will forever be ingrained in my head as a daily reminder of how bad this season really was.

So the Bulls are fighting for a play-in spot against the Celtics whom they haven't beat once this season or the Bucks who they only beat one time during the very beginning of the season?

When did subpar performances deserve such attention, so disappointing to be a Chicago Sportsfan these days.

[madvillian]

We have surpassed the limit on excuses for this team over the past several years, this season alone they have shown that they show up for teams that are actually good. The Shaqn a fool clip from this game will forever be ingrained in my head as a daily reminder of how bad this season really was.

So the Bulls are fighting for a play-in spot against the Celtics whom they haven't beat once this season or the Bucks who they only beat one time during the very beginning of the season?

When did subpar performances deserve such attention, so disappointing to be a Chicago Sportsfan these days.

This entire season was a waste. I guess you developed some decent guards in Ayo and White. But literally the entire rest of the roster means nothing going forward other than 35-40 wins, at best.

And now you have one of the dumbest plays of all time associated with this group. I get that some people are writing it off as a moment of madness but FFS man only the Bulls could do something so stupid.

[drosestruts]

so which is it? was the season a waste or did we develop decent guards?

[Red8911]

I was torn as the Knicks are my 2nd fav team and have a legit shot at 2nd seed. Honestly, we caught a break the last game with Hart fouling out early, and with Ayo out and Drummond going down, I thought we held in pretty well...especially with the Knicks seemingly unable to miss from 3. Brunson is so consistently great for them, man how great would it be if we got him instead of Ball.

Coby played decently given that he's lost his 3pt mojo.

Vuc did decently for Vuc

Caruso and Demar were their usual great.

We’ve talked about this before either you’re a Bulls fan or a Knicks fan. Can’t be both, not possible to be torn lol.

[sco]

I was torn as the Knicks are my 2nd fav team and have a legit shot at 2nd seed. Honestly, we caught a break the last game with Hart fouling out early, and with Ayo out and Drummond going down, I thought we held in pretty well...especially with the Knicks seemingly unable to miss from 3. Brunson is so consistently great for them, man how great would it be if we got him instead of Ball.

Coby played decently given that he's lost his 3pt mojo.

Vuc did decently for Vuc

Caruso and Demar were their usual great.

We’ve talked about this before either you’re a Bulls fan or a Knicks fan. Can’t be both, not possible to be torn lol.

[jacoby1us]

We have surpassed the limit on excuses for this team over the past several years, this season alone they have shown that they show up for teams that are actually good. The Shaqn a fool clip from this game will forever be ingrained in my head as a daily reminder of how bad this season really was.

So the Bulls are fighting for a play-in spot against the Celtics whom they haven't beat once this season or the Bucks who they only beat one time during the very beginning of the season?

When did subpar performances deserve such attention, so disappointing to be a Chicago Sportsfan these days.

This entire season was a waste. I guess you developed some decent guards in Ayo and White. But literally the entire rest of the roster means nothing going forward other than 35-40 wins, at best.

And now you have one of the dumbest plays of all time associated with this group. I get that some people are writing it off as a moment of madness but FFS man only the Bulls could do something so stupid.

Infuriating is an understatement, we're already the laughing stock of the NBA. No one takes this organization serious outside of Chicago Bulls management and their fanbase Then you go and add this MAJOR BLOOPER to our list of negatives.

Season was definitely a waste, I believe I picked 35 wins so in retrospect they overachieved.

[MrSparkle]

I believe it's a waste, by almost every definition?

2nd year in a row we'll (likely) miss the playoffs by 1-2 seeds, meaning we also get the worst pick of all the teams that missed the playoffs. 3 out of 4 if you consider the year we sent the eventual Franz pick to Orlando, and it was also pretty hard to take any positives away from the Bucks series since we were obliterated and hardly got anything from the young pieces (Pat, Coby, Ayo, even Zach). Stark contrast to the underdog Hinrich/Noc/Deng/Gordon Bulls.

So the 2 past years, you gave yourself zero playoff experience (ok, 1% the vibes with the play-in), you're getting another negligible asset in the draft... Pat, Terry essentially showed no discernible improvement between October and April (I'm sure they did improve marginally by simply being in the league for a year, but not by numbers). Terry's minutes went up, but his percentages plummeted. Pat's injury is another setback. His numbers actually declined. Bitim and Phillips were promising pieces, and maybe they will be, but JP's injury was a huge set-back, and beyond that, both essentially registered fringe NBA digits (worse PERs than Terry, FWIW).

Vuc and Zach declined entirely out of the all-star conversation.
Demar declined a bit, but still proved his offensive value, in a contract year during which he will surely shift towards greater decline.

Caruso, Coby and Ayo improved. OK: we have our role-playing guard rotation set. Showed some resilience. IMHO, we re-established that Demar can still seal close games. Just as he becomes an expiring contract. You're welcome, rest of the league, for the 34yo Demar showcase. I obviously enjoy the feisty guards we have, and hope they improve, but you can't seriously sell this city on Coby/Ayo/Pat being a playoff squad after the ups and downs. That is a rebuilding team. So they're gonna use they're limited assets to spruce this roster up, and I just don't have high hopes. We're in that trading crap-for-crap phase we were in 3-4 years ago, but with no 2025 FRP flexibility (beyond tanking to beat protections).

Oh and Jevon appears to be another $7M deadweight guard. Cause we don't have enough of those (cough, $65M).

And alas, how can I forget... $260K Javonte ends the season with a strong case for MVP. (I am genuinely happy he's back, and hopefully he stays healthy and resigns... He is a BULL... But seriously... What a sorry front-court rotation)

As far as I can tell, every single player's value on this roster is worse than it was last year besides Coby, Caruso and Ayo - but also, neither of these 3 command a king's ransom or all-star return, so you also just wish the entire cap was cleared so that you could at least sign some similarly scrappy and fun players at the rest of the positions, so we can get on with a rebuild.

[2weekswithpay]

so which is it? was the season a waste or did we develop decent guards?

A bit of both. Coby and Ayo's improvement was great but instead of going all out to make the play-in, the team should've been sellers at the trade deadline. The direction of the franchise hasn't changed because of asset mismanagement.

[drosestruts]

so which is it? was the season a waste or did we develop decent guards?

A bit of both. Coby and Ayo's improvement was great but instead of going all out to make the play-in, the team should've been sellers at the trade deadline. The direction of the franchise hasn't changed because of asset mismanagement.

Sell who? Takes two to tango.

I think the deadline was pretty subdued league-wide.

Some earlier season trades for Harden, Siakam, Anunoby, and Rozier (who shockingly got a lottery protected 1st)

Biggest deadline moves were:

Olynk and Agbaji for a 1st - odd trade
Gafford for a 1st
PJ Washington for a 1st

So Dallas was spending 1st for players, no one else was. So who was it we should have been selling at the deadline considering the only team paying for players was looking for a center and a power-forward? Something we comically have little to none of.

Should we have traded Caruso for Moses Moody and a 2026 1st? Would that have made you feel better about the season or our future?

[drosestruts]

also with attention spans these days the world will be making fun of some other dumb NBA play in a week. This isn't some moment that will be remembered forever as a representation of the Bulls.

Jordan Poole still had 3 more games.

[Axl Rose]

Usually you reward your big man in a situation like that so i can understand why Dre jumped - plus who the hell figured Torrey Craig of all people would try to pull off a self-oop? That's forsure a Shaqtin HOF.

[2weekswithpay]

so which is it? was the season a waste or did we develop decent guards?

A bit of both. Coby and Ayo's improvement was great but instead of going all out to make the play-in, the team should've been sellers at the trade deadline. The direction of the franchise hasn't changed because of asset mismanagement.

Sell who? Takes two to tango.

I think the deadline was pretty subdued league-wide.

Some earlier season trades for Harden, Siakam, Anunoby, and Rozier (who shockingly got a lottery protected 1st)

Biggest deadline moves were:

Olynk and Agbaji for a 1st - odd trade
Gafford for a 1st
PJ Washington for a 1st

So Dallas was spending 1st for players, no one else was. So who was it we should have been selling at the deadline considering the only team paying for players was looking for a center and a power-forward? Something we comically have little to none of.

Should we have traded Caruso for Moses Moody and a 2026 1st? Would that have made you feel better about the season or our future?

Woj said that the Bulls could've gotten 2 FRPs for Caruso. Drummond certainly could've gotten a few 2nds. Demar's value was up in the air. AKME's insisting on getting back players in return instead of picks was the issue. Contenders trade picks not rotation players. The Bulls weren't serious about trading anybody.

Read on Twitter

[drosestruts]

A bit of both. Coby and Ayo's improvement was great but instead of going all out to make the play-in, the team should've been sellers at the trade deadline. The direction of the franchise hasn't changed because of asset mismanagement.

Sell who? Takes two to tango.

I think the deadline was pretty subdued league-wide.

Some earlier season trades for Harden, Siakam, Anunoby, and Rozier (who shockingly got a lottery protected 1st)

Biggest deadline moves were:

Olynk and Agbaji for a 1st - odd trade
Gafford for a 1st
PJ Washington for a 1st

So Dallas was spending 1st for players, no one else was. So who was it we should have been selling at the deadline considering the only team paying for players was looking for a center and a power-forward? Something we comically have little to none of.

Should we have traded Caruso for Moses Moody and a 2026 1st? Would that have made you feel better about the season or our future?

Woj said that the Bulls could've gotten 2 FRPs for Caruso. Drummond certainly could've gotten a few 2nds. Demar's value was up in the air. AKME's insisting on getting back players in return instead of picks was the issue. Contenders trade picks not rotation players. The Bulls weren't serious about trading anybody.

Read on Twitter

Except no contenders traded any picks at the deadline (aside from Dallas and that depends on if you consider them a contender).

So "contenders trade picks not rotations players" may generally be true, but in looking at this specific trade deadline, the one in which you wish the Bulls had made moves, it doesn't appear to have been the case.

We can also still trade all of those players.

[SfBull]

We're screwed unless AK can be fired .

[2weekswithpay]

Sell who? Takes two to tango.

I think the deadline was pretty subdued league-wide.

Some earlier season trades for Harden, Siakam, Anunoby, and Rozier (who shockingly got a lottery protected 1st)

Biggest deadline moves were:

Olynk and Agbaji for a 1st - odd trade
Gafford for a 1st
PJ Washington for a 1st

So Dallas was spending 1st for players, no one else was. So who was it we should have been selling at the deadline considering the only team paying for players was looking for a center and a power-forward? Something we comically have little to none of.

Should we have traded Caruso for Moses Moody and a 2026 1st? Would that have made you feel better about the season or our future?

Woj said that the Bulls could've gotten 2 FRPs for Caruso. Drummond certainly could've gotten a few 2nds. Demar's value was up in the air. AKME's insisting on getting back players in return instead of picks was the issue. Contenders trade picks not rotation players. The Bulls weren't serious about trading anybody.

Read on Twitter

Except no contenders traded any picks at the deadline (aside from Dallas and that depends on if you consider them a contender).

So "contenders trade picks not rotations players" may generally be true, but in looking at this specific trade deadline, the one in which you wish the Bulls had made moves, it doesn't appear to have been the case.

We can also still trade all of those players.

There weren't many players available that were worth picks. Caruso wasn't on the market. Miles Bridges used his no-trade clause. The Nets wouldn't trade Mikal. Kuzma wanted to stay in Washington for whatever reason.

The Pacers traded 3 FRPs for Siakam. The Mavs gave up a 1st and a pick swap to get Gafford and PJ Washington. The Heat gave up a pick for Rozier. Teams are willing to give up picks for players like Caruso, they aren't going to trade rotation players for him though.

Drummond and Demar are free agents. Sign and trades don't happen all that often and Caruso's value is less than it was at the deadline. Holding on to Caruso only to trade him a few months later is idiotic.

[drosestruts]

We're screwed unless AK can be fired .

I think overall it's fair to summarize AK's time here as bad. They certainly failed to produce a good team in their first 4 years. I'd also argue they really only made one attempt at doing so and it was so weird 3-year continuity plan that just hasn't worked.

Some moves I liked in a vacuum. Some moves have been pretty bad. Overall it just hasn't worked.

I'm not sure if this means they're incapable of ever building a good team, again we've only ever seen them actually try to do so once.And then just double down on it.

One shot is sometimes all you get in this league. I have a feeling they get another crack at it. Have they learned anything from this failed attempt? TBD.

[WindyCityBorn]

In a world where you can be mad about that failed off the backboard dunk or laugh at it - I'm gonna choose to laugh at it.

Didn't catch the game - hard to win when you're down Ball, LaVine, Williams, Phillips, Ayo, and eventually Drummond.

Do you think a Ball-LaVine-Ayo-Williams-Drummond (and Phillips) team could beat a team comprised of the rest of our players?

I remain impressed by DeMar. Ball's in his court as far as I'm concerned this offseason - he wants to stay here, let's work out a deal. He wants to go elsewhere - hopefully we can find a sign and trade that works for both of us.

I don’t accept any LaVine being out excuses when everyone on this board and apparently AK just want to salary dump him. A bunch a scrub in his place wouldn’t change anything. Everyone has written Ball off too which is fair. So no reinforcements coming next season.