AK end of season press conference?

[TheSuzerain]

Lol just watched it.

A leader who just gave that press conference should have been relieved of their duties already.

[Evil_Headband]

Lol just watched it.

A leader who just gave that press conference should have been relieved of their duties already.

Yes, he is awful in these conferences. He should have ME do them.

[Red8911]

Lol just watched it.

A leader who just gave that press conference should have been relieved of their duties already.

Yes, he is awful in these conferences. He should have ME do them.

True he’s definitely not a good talker but at the same time he’s the guy in charge of this roster so it’s better to hear straight from him.

[Michael Jackson]

This dude is a clown that was given way too much too early from his stint in Denver

You recognize now is time for change?!

He does have something in common with GarPax though, being bad at his job.

Continuity right!!

Actually with GarPax we were light years ahead, we would have pics and a better young core. Likely Haliburton would be here too.

[DuckIII]

A lot of podcasters & really good reporters who have followed the Bulls for years are tuning out:

Read on Twitter

I can’t say I agree with all the rationale, but I thought the line describing the Bulls as the “Applebees of the NBA” was pretty close to perfect.

[Michael Jackson]

It will be hard for AK to make any real changes. He has two requirements in decision making:

1. Stay out of the luxury tax
2. For major moves, only make moves that will make the Bulls better for next year

He’ll try to move Zach but there won’t be offers that improve the team short term. Letting DeMar or Patrick walk makes them worse. They’ll be back.

It’s not what I would do but there is a chance it works out. Coby and Ayo seem to still be improving. Pat could improve. DeMar is still fighting off Father Time pretty well. A healthy, engaged Zach is a good player. Hell, there is even a non-zero chance that Lonzo is back and contributing. Maybe even one of the young, developmental players makes a jump. Maybe they hit on the draft pick.

I have no idea how he stays out of the luxury tax though unless Lonzo medically retires. Contract is wiped then, right?

I don't think there is much he can add that makes sense going into the tax. Being capped out spending a few extra million will not add anuy game changing talent. AK handcuffed himself, as most teams are trying to stay out of the tax unless contending and no one wants to go into the apron except Ballmer, Ishba and GSW.

[dougthonus]

If anyone is interested in a pretty robust breakdown of various things he said in the press conference and what they mean, you can check out my podcast, I just dropped an episode about it. Links are here: https://linktr.ee/bullsbeat

In summary, I interpreted these things:
- Donovan is staying and is he loves him
- The rest of the front office is staying and he loves them
- AK takes full responsibility and needs to do better
- The big 3 will be broken up
- DeMar will be back (thus Zach or Vuc will be gone)
- (more interpretive) I think it will be Zach that's gone as he danced around Zach questions and fielded no Vuc questions
- We need to be a top 4 team in the East to justify paying the luxury tax
- Coby is still far away from a finished product
- We would only make moves at the deadline that improved the team, not ones for the future
- (more interpretive and less direct) we are looking to be better right away vs taking a step back
- We have been creative in the past and will use that again to make changes
- Will look at everything (except head coach, front office, DeMar, Pat, and moves that have us take a step back but improve the future)

[TheSuzerain]

Dumb question: I didn't have the stomach to watch the whole press conference. Was Vucevic discussed?

IMO, he is an issue but the Bulls exacerbate it by:
- Giving into his mopiness. He gets too many entitlement minutes and has too long of a leash. There are games where he is a problem and should be benched.
- Insisting that he is a floor spreader. He isn't. Teams are ignoring him behind the arc and just filling the lane. He is punishing them with a (checks notes) 29.4% 3p%. The offense needs to change fundamentally if Vucevic is your starting C.

Not discussed directly. Only thing was AK saying "it doesn't work" with regards to Demar/Lavine/Vuc.

[Rose2Boozer]

bull. AK doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. He said all the right things, but I didn't hear his list of keepers. I know he has them, but of course he's not going to be calling specific names at a press conference. That being said, I need to know who he considers his keepers. If DDR, Caruso, and Williams are his keepers, that's tantamount to competitive continuity.

[DuckIII]

- (more interpretive and less direct) we are looking to be better right away vs taking a step back

It’s only interpretive because he didn’t use those exact words verbatim, but it’s the very clear message. He accepted without comment KC’s premise that the Bulls won’t rebuild (more on this in a minute), stated that he was never going to do in-season trades that risked taking the Bulls out of the “playoffs”, and then removed all doubt by stating that he has to get us into the “top 6.”

The only things that make me optimistic are:

1. He seems like a man beaten down by his own incompetence. Unfortunately, by analogy, this can lead to a gambling addict seeking help or it can lead to him irrationally going all in out of desperation. So this might also be reason for extreme fear and pessimism.

2. DDR’s statements about his age and winning. AK can say “we’ll get creative and aggressive with the draft and free agency” all he wants but we all know there are no bullets in the gun. He can’t turn this team into a real winner with short term win now moves. It cannot happen.

And DDR knows it cannot happen. The only real hope left is that he saves us from AK and takes less money to join a contender. Maybe that forces us into more of a rebuilding mindset out of necessity.

Last note about rebuilding: As a reminder KC yet again noted that rebuilding has the full support of ownership but that it is AK who will not do it. He included the assumption in his question - consistent with prior reports - and AK accepted the premise as true. I understand frustration with ownership, but this is a situation in which it has been made clear time and time again that the tail wags the dog on this one. This is the sales pitch AK made to get the job, and he’s the one perpetuating this myopic and delusional strategy.

[DuckIII]

Dumb question: I didn't have the stomach to watch the whole press conference. Was Vucevic discussed?

IMO, he is an issue but the Bulls exacerbate it by:
- Giving into his mopiness. He gets too many entitlement minutes and has too long of a leash. There are games where he is a problem and should be benched.
- Insisting that he is a floor spreader. He isn't. Teams are ignoring him behind the arc and just filling the lane. He is punishing them with a (checks notes) 29.4% 3p%. The offense needs to change fundamentally if Vucevic is your starting C.

Not discussed directly. Only thing was AK saying "it doesn't work" with regards to Demar/Lavine/Vuc.

Which is extremely easy to interpret as simply scapegoating Zach, which removes all significance from the comment. Despite his statements about knowing it doesn’t work and changes need to be made, it’s extremely easy to interpret everything he said as meaning “Zach doesn’t work with this group and we think we can trade him for win now assets that will get us to the 6th seed.”

I.e., the plan is to fix the first 19 games of the season, not the rest of it. I’m pretty sure he never said Zach’s name even once, including when responding to direct questions.

[DuckIII]

Did anyone else have to force down a gag reflex when he set the standard of acceptable achievement as being “the 6th seed” and “ten more wins”?

Not that a 49 win team in the 6th seed is necessarily a bad thing. But what type of 49 win team? The type that wins 49 games because regular season games don’t matter that much because you have superstar players and an eye on the postseason?

Or the type that grinds out all 82 games with veterans to get those 49 wins and still has a deeply flawed postseason roster and could have just as easily won 40 games?

Or the type when the 49 wins is on the back of rising young stars and is a sign of ascendency calling for long term optimism?

His flat and meaningless standards of success reinforce that he does not think, and has no interest in thinking, about a bigger picture of sustainable success.

[dougthonus]

Which is extremely easy to interpret as scapegoating Zach, which removes all significance from the comment. Despite his statements about knowing it doesn’t work and changes need to be made, it’s extremely easy to interpret everything he said as meaning “Zach doesn’t work with this group and we think we can trade him for win now assets that will get us to the 6th seed.”

I.e., the plan is to fix the first 19 games of the season, not the rest of it.

I agree. If you didn't see, KC put out 2/80 for DeMar to align his salary with everyone else.

It looks to me like the plan is roughly:

1: Bring back Pat/DeMar
2: Have most salaries align to end in 2 years
3: Move Zach for role players / salary relief / whatever you can get
4: Free up money somehow to do the above and fit it under the tax, reasonable possibilities:
- Move Carter into someone's cap room / TPE
- Waive stretch Lonzo
- Save money in a Zach trade

Effectively, if I were a betting man, I'd say the roster next year is:
Guards: Coby, Ayo, Lonzo, Carter
Wings: DeMar, Caruso, Terry
Forwards: Pat, Philips, vet min guys
C: Vuc, vet min guys

Somewhere in there fits our draft pick, certainly possible that Craig, Drummond, Javonte could be in that vet min group again or that we swap them for different dudes.

[coldfish]

Which is extremely easy to interpret as scapegoating Zach, which removes all significance from the comment. Despite his statements about knowing it doesn’t work and changes need to be made, it’s extremely easy to interpret everything he said as meaning “Zach doesn’t work with this group and we think we can trade him for win now assets that will get us to the 6th seed.”

I.e., the plan is to fix the first 19 games of the season, not the rest of it.

I agree. If you didn't see, KC put out 2/80 for DeMar to align his salary with everyone else.

It looks to me like the plan is roughly:

1: Bring back Pat/DeMar
2: Have most salaries align to end in 2 years
3: Move Zach for role players / salary relief / whatever you can get
4: Free up money somehow to do the above and fit it under the tax, reasonable possibilities:
- Move Carter into someone's cap room / TPE
- Waive stretch Lonzo
- Save money in a Zach trade

Effectively, if I were a betting man, I'd say the roster next year is:
Guards: Coby, Ayo, Lonzo, Carter
Wings: DeMar, Caruso, Terry
Forwards: Pat, Philips, vet min guys
C: Vuc, vet min guys

Somewhere in there fits our draft pick, certainly possible that Craig, Drummond, Javonte could be in that vet min group again or that we swap them for different dudes.

Yup. From what I saw he was completely telegraphing the plan. I wouldn't doubt if they let Detroit test the waters in free agency, let them flunk out and then give them Zach for bad contracts + salary relief to allow the above plan to fit under the tax barrier. Like, they could use their "trade inventiveness" to get a third team to send a bad contract to Chicago and a pick to Detroit as a sweetener to take Zach.

[HearshotKDS]

Which is extremely easy to interpret as scapegoating Zach, which removes all significance from the comment. Despite his statements about knowing it doesn’t work and changes need to be made, it’s extremely easy to interpret everything he said as meaning “Zach doesn’t work with this group and we think we can trade him for win now assets that will get us to the 6th seed.”

I.e., the plan is to fix the first 19 games of the season, not the rest of it.

I agree. If you didn't see, KC put out 2/80 for DeMar to align his salary with everyone else.

It looks to me like the plan is roughly:

1: Bring back Pat/DeMar
2: Have most salaries align to end in 2 years
3: Move Zach for role players / salary relief / whatever you can get
4: Free up money somehow to do the above and fit it under the tax, reasonable possibilities:
- Move Carter into someone's cap room / TPE
- Waive stretch Lonzo
- Save money in a Zach trade

Effectively, if I were a betting man, I'd say the roster next year is:
Guards: Coby, Ayo, Lonzo, Carter
Wings: DeMar, Caruso, Terry
Forwards: Pat, Philips, vet min guys
C: Vuc, vet min guys

Somewhere in there fits our draft pick, certainly possible that Craig, Drummond, Javonte could be in that vet min group again or that we swap them for different dudes.

That team feels like "'23 but a day later and a dollar shorter". Maybe 38 wins and they lose in the first game of playins. Im not sure there are better alternatives if a blowup is off the table though, which is in my mind is damning of the corner the team has been built into.

[Mbrahv0528]

AK sounds shell shocked in the press conference. Its not a good look from leadership.

he had a formula and stayed patience with that said formula and failed.

If he just came in and stayed patience with that formula we would be in a better situation.

Giving up Lauri/Gafford and Vooch trade hurt.

It all started with desire to upgrading the C position no matter the cost.

Your first two sentences contradict each other my friend.

Sent from my SM-S928U using RealGM mobile app

[dougthonus]

AK sounds shell shocked in the press conference. Its not a good look from leadership.

he had a formula and stayed patience with that said formula and failed.

If he just came in and stayed patience with that formula we would be in a better situation.

Giving up Lauri/Gafford and Vooch trade hurt.

It all started with desire to upgrading the C position no matter the cost.

Your first two sentences contradict each other my friend.

I think the point is:
He brought his formula (which was bad) and was patient with it (despite it being bad) and has finally admitted his formula lost.

If instead:
He stuck with the formula he inherited instead of implementing his own formula, and he was patient with that formula, then he would be in much better position.

Those things are not contradictory.

[Dan Z]

- (more interpretive and less direct) we are looking to be better right away vs taking a step back

It’s only interpretive because he didn’t use those exact words verbatim, but it’s the very clear message. He accepted without comment KC’s premise that the Bulls won’t rebuild (more on this in a minute), stated that he was never going to do in-season trades that risked taking the Bulls out of the “playoffs”, and then removed all doubt by stating that he has to get us into the “top 6.”

The only things that make me optimistic are:

1. He seems like a man beaten down by his own incompetence. Unfortunately, by analogy, this can lead to a gambling addict seeking help or it can lead to him irrationally going all in out of desperation. So this might also be reason for extreme fear and pessimism.

2. DDR’s statements about his age and winning. AK can say “we’ll get creative and aggressive with the draft and free agency” all he wants but we all know there are no bullets in the gun. He can’t turn this team into a real winner with short term win now moves. It cannot happen.

And DDR knows it cannot happen. The only real hope left is that he saves us from AK and takes less money to join a contender. Maybe that forces us into more of a rebuilding mindset out of necessity.

Last note about rebuilding: As a reminder KC yet again noted that rebuilding has the full support of ownership but that it is AK who will not do it. He included the assumption in his question - consistent with prior reports - and AK accepted the premise as true. I understand frustration with ownership, but this is a situation in which it has been made clear time and time again that the tail wags the dog on this one. This is the sales pitch AK made to get the job, and he’s the one perpetuating this myopic and delusional strategy.

For a long time I've been hoping that AK moves in a new direction because he realizes that what he's doing isn't working(I know he said that the other day, but Im not sure if he really believes it). Now I think the team won't go anywhere until he's gone and the team has a new front office.

How can anyone be a GM and not plan for the future? If its all "win now" moves done season by season that won't work unless you already have a solid foundation in place.

[Bandit King]

All is well nothing to see here

We trade lavine, resign demar, and pray lonzo is ok.

[dougthonus]

For a long time I've been hoping that AK moves in a new direction because he realizes that what he's doing isn't working(I know he said that the other day, but Im not sure if he really believes it). Now I think the team won't go anywhere until he's gone and the team has a new front office.

How can anyone be a GM and not plan for the future? If its all "win now" moves done season by season that won't work unless you already have a solid foundation in place.

My guess is that he just doesn't want to undergo a rebuild, because while ownership says he "can" rebuild, perhaps their requirements on turnaround time aren't really feasible. Ie, we'll let you rebuild, but you only get one gap year. That's probably not enough time to rebuild and survive unless you get insanely lucky.

He probably knows if he goes for a rebuild he won't survive it. That said, he won't survive what he's doing now either. He's just not the dude, plain and simple.