What do you think AK's plan is?

[DASMACKDOWN]

I really want to know what Marc Eversley's plan is.

Because that is the guy who needs to speak.

In his first interview with Chuck, he talked about what style of play he wanted and the types of players he wanted. He said he wanted to play fast, put up alot of 3s have switchable players and big on rim protection.

Well if you look at the players drafted PWill, Ayo, Dalen, Matas, they all fit the architype. Various levels of skill and ability but they fit the model.

The only thing not addressed is rim protection.

So this is why I say where is this guy? How much of this current roster is AK and how much is it Marc?

For the life of me I wish he would be at these press conferences just to answer with AK on what is going on with the franchise we love.

He isn't much of a speaker either but he is 10 times better than AK.

[dougthonus]

OK, I also don't care about this season and next anymore at all, but until we can draft or otherwise acquire a C better than Smith, which IMO is no small task as I think he's starter quality and still young (plus on a value deal in summer 2026 when we can have huge cap space, making him all the more important potentially), he IS our long term asset at that position. We're just lucky for the moment that Billy and the FO can kinda justify keeping him on the bench behind Vuc, as that helps our tank IMO and also helps keep his market value down which might help us re-sign him later.

I don't view two years as a long term asset given our position. Once he's unrestricted at the end of that time, the most likely scenario is that he leaves. Especially if he feels his minutes have been unfairly kept low.

But I'm not falling all over myself to trade him, just an option I would have explored. I was way more inclined to trade Coby/Ayo (which I had talked about this summer a lot), because I didn't think we'd be in position to utilize them over their current contracts.

Smith's extra year gives you a bit more time to decide, but I think between now and next trade deadline is the best time to move him if you end up in a position where you definitely want to move him as it gives another team two playoff runs on his deal.

[Red8911]

I really want to know what Marc Eversley's plan is.

Because that is the guy who needs to speak.

In his first interview with Chuck, he talked about what style of play he wanted and the types of players he wanted. He said he wanted to play fast, put up alot of 3s have switchable players and big on rim protection.

Well if you look at the players drafted PWill, Ayo, Dalen, Matas, they all fit the architype. Various levels of skill and ability but they fit the model.

The only thing not addressed is rim protection.

So this is why I say where is this guy? How much of this current roster is AK and how much is it Marc?

For the life of me I wish he would be at these press conferences just to answer with AK on what is going on with the franchise we love.

He isn't much of a speaker either but he is 10 times better than AK.

True AK is terrible at speaking at these press conferences and hasn’t gotten better over the years.

Honestly don’t even know how he got the job to begin with. You have to be a very good talker to be a a president. Paxson in comparison was good but he also lied a lot, which I guess comes with the job at times.

AK has so many negatives at this point where I wouldn’t be surprised if the Reinsdorfs had enough and fire him even though they are more responsible for the failures not the GM/Presidents.

[Jcool0]

I really want to know what Marc Eversley's plan is.

Because that is the guy who needs to speak.

In his first interview with Chuck, he talked about what style of play he wanted and the types of players he wanted. He said he wanted to play fast, put up alot of 3s have switchable players and big on rim protection.

Well if you look at the players drafted PWill, Ayo, Dalen, Matas, they all fit the architype. Various levels of skill and ability but they fit the model.

The only thing not addressed is rim protection.

So this is why I say where is this guy? How much of this current roster is AK and how much is it Marc?

For the life of me I wish he would be at these press conferences just to answer with AK on what is going on with the franchise we love.

He isn't much of a speaker either but he is 10 times better than AK.

True AK is terrible at speaking at these press conferences and hasn’t gotten better over the years.

Honestly don’t even know how he got the job to begin with. You have to be a very good talker to be a a president. Paxson in comparison was good but he also lied a lot, which I guess comes with the job at times.

AK has so many negatives at this point where I wouldn’t be surprised if the Reinsdorfs had enough and fire him even though they are more responsible for the failures not the GM/Presidents.

3 of the 5 finalized turn down the job. I think AK got some of the credit for drafting Jokic.

[kodo]

True AK is terrible at speaking at these press conferences and hasn’t gotten better over the years.

Honestly don’t even know how he got the job to begin with. You have to be a very good talker to be a a president. Paxson in comparison was good but he also lied a lot, which I guess comes with the job at times.

AK has so many negatives at this point where I wouldn’t be surprised if the Reinsdorfs had enough and fire him even though they are more responsible for the failures not the GM/Presidents.

Interesting I felt Paxson was much more of a straight talker than AK. AK is straight up gaslighting the Bulls fans with this nonsense of 8-9 regular guys can win a championship. Paxson was highly critical of the team & org when the Bulls were bad.

"‘Luck and hope are not a strategy or a plan" - Paxson on the Boylen era Bulls, based heavily on drafting

" And if you don’t think competitive spirit is important for an organization or basketball team, then you’re wrong. And we were lacking that.” - Paxson on the Hoiberg era Bulls

Paxson on why he advised Michael to replace himself with a new top decision maker (eventually became AK). He implies here he could have just stayed in his job due to how loyal the Reinsdorfs are.
“In the last 3-4 years, I realized, and I relayed this information to Jerry and Michael, we had become stale. And I knew that. The fact that we made the decision to look outside the organization – one of Jerry’s great qualities, and Michael same way, they’re loyal. They just are. And it’s a wonderful thing, and we’re very lucky we have ownership like that. But I always felt like it was my responsibility to be honest in terms of where I thought we were. I just felt at times there was a comfortability in how we were doing things, and maybe we were not looking at other ways to approach this thing. So the last year and a half since we made the changes, it has been new life in the organization, and it was needed.”

[League Circles]

OK, I also don't care about this season and next anymore at all, but until we can draft or otherwise acquire a C better than Smith, which IMO is no small task as I think he's starter quality and still young (plus on a value deal in summer 2026 when we can have huge cap space, making him all the more important potentially), he IS our long term asset at that position. We're just lucky for the moment that Billy and the FO can kinda justify keeping him on the bench behind Vuc, as that helps our tank IMO and also helps keep his market value down which might help us re-sign him later.

I don't view two years as a long term asset given our position. Once he's unrestricted at the end of that time, the most likely scenario is that he leaves. Especially if he feels his minutes have been unfairly kept low.

But I'm not falling all over myself to trade him, just an option I would have explored. I was way more inclined to trade Coby/Ayo (which I had talked about this summer a lot), because I didn't think we'd be in position to utilize them over their current contracts.

Smith's extra year gives you a bit more time to decide, but I think between now and next trade deadline is the best time to move him if you end up in a position where you definitely want to move him as it gives another team two playoff runs on his deal.

Virtually impossible to simultaneously definitely want to move him and get something desirable for him, cause the only way you should want to move a guy without considering the return is if he sucks, in which case no good offer will be made for him. We should always be considering trading any and every player while we're this bad especially.

I guess I operate from an assumption that my team will have to pay market rate to keep good players if and when actual good players become free agents. I don't
really think that good teams primarily rely on value contracts. Hopefully we're capped out already when Smith becomes a UFA, making his bird rights very important to us.

[jnrjr79]

True AK is terrible at speaking at these press conferences and hasn’t gotten better over the years.

Honestly don’t even know how he got the job to begin with. You have to be a very good talker to be a a president. Paxson in comparison was good but he also lied a lot, which I guess comes with the job at times.

AK has so many negatives at this point where I wouldn’t be surprised if the Reinsdorfs had enough and fire him even though they are more responsible for the failures not the GM/Presidents.

Interesting I felt Paxson was much more of a straight talker than AK. AK is straight up gaslighting the Bulls fans with this nonsense of 8-9 regular guys can win a championship. Paxson was highly critical of the team & org when the Bulls were bad.

"‘Luck and hope are not a strategy or a plan" - Paxson on the Boylen era Bulls, based heavily on drafting

" And if you don’t think competitive spirit is important for an organization or basketball team, then you’re wrong. And we were lacking that.” - Paxson on the Hoiberg era Bulls

Paxson on why he advised Michael to replace himself with a new top decision maker (eventually became AK). He implies here he could have just stayed in his job due to how loyal the Reinsdorfs are.
“In the last 3-4 years, I realized, and I relayed this information to Jerry and Michael, we had become stale. And I knew that. The fact that we made the decision to look outside the organization – one of Jerry’s great qualities, and Michael same way, they’re loyal. They just are. And it’s a wonderful thing, and we’re very lucky we have ownership like that. But I always felt like it was my responsibility to be honest in terms of where I thought we were. I just felt at times there was a comfortability in how we were doing things, and maybe we were not looking at other ways to approach this thing. So the last year and a half since we made the changes, it has been new life in the organization, and it was needed.”

I respect Paxson's stance here, but boy oh boy, it's not a great system when you're relying on the GM to have a solid enough character to self-fire when his performance has gone "stale."

Of course, Michael seems to be the primary "owner" at this point and AK comes from outside the organization and might not get the same level of loyalty for those reasons, though obviously he was extended once under pretty questionable circumstances, which isn't encouraging.

[WookieOnRitalin]

I think AK's plan is identical to the Cylon Plan for Humans in Battlestar which was consequently Ron Moore's plan.

AKA...

Make it up as you go. Write yourself into corners and figure it out.

[dougthonus]

Virtually impossible to simultaneously definitely want to move him and get something desirable for him, cause the only way you should want to move a guy without considering the return is if he sucks, in which case no good offer will be made for him. We should always be considering trading any and every player while we're this bad especially.

I guess I operate from an assumption that my team will have to pay market rate to keep good players if and when actual good players become free agents. I don't
really think that good teams primarily rely on value contracts. Hopefully we're capped out already when Smith becomes a UFA, making his bird rights very important to us.

I think this is true, but while a guy is on a good contract, he has surplus value to you because a team in the tax has way more value for him than just his court value.

If you can't use that surplus value of the good contract due to your own team construction, then it serves as a good opportunity to get excess value out of it in a trade.

The Bulls are in that boat right now. If Smith was a core piece of a future team, that would be different, but I think you've even said this before, you don't want to try and build the 4-8 rotation spots on your team on long term deals market value deals (probably at all, but certainly not if you don't have the 1-3 figured out).

[Bulldog23]

He plans on paying Giddy. He will trade probably Coby, Vuc and pick for some one way player like Tre Young.

[League Circles]

Virtually impossible to simultaneously definitely want to move him and get something desirable for him, cause the only way you should want to move a guy without considering the return is if he sucks, in which case no good offer will be made for him. We should always be considering trading any and every player while we're this bad especially.

I guess I operate from an assumption that my team will have to pay market rate to keep good players if and when actual good players become free agents. I don't
really think that good teams primarily rely on value contracts. Hopefully we're capped out already when Smith becomes a UFA, making his bird rights very important to us.

I think this is true, but while a guy is on a good contract, he has surplus value to you because a team in the tax has way more value for him than just his court value.

If you can't use that surplus value of the good contract due to your own team construction, then it serves as a good opportunity to get excess value out of it in a trade.

The Bulls are in that boat right now. If Smith was a core piece of a future team, that would be different, but I think you've even said this before, you don't want to try and build the 4-8 rotation spots on your team on long term deals market value deals (probably at all, but certainly not if you don't have the 1-3 figured out).

Fair enough. A value contract would have more value to a tax team than most others, but worth noting, a tax team is probably quite good, which probably means they have nothing meaningful to offer you in trade other than a similar caliber more expensive player. I strongly oppose the notion that all deals can be balanced out with draft picks. Generally speaking I view late FRPs as liabilities (guaranteed contracts for guys that are probably not top 500 players for their first year or two, and then similar to vet minimum guys in their 3rd and 4th years.

The idea with Smith, hopefully, is that he continues to become good enough to be our projected starting C in 2026-27, so in summer 2026 we can benefit from his value contract by signing a worthwhile free agent. Then, Smith gets paid market value by us with bird rights in summer 2027, but it's OK because in theory we have a cire worth building with by that point (think something along the lines of Matas emerges and then 1 or 2 more high picks (summer 2025 and 2026) hit along with some combo of emergence of other players (Giddey, Coby, Ayo, Patrick) and one or more legit free agents in 2026. I don't think you can just be as bad as possible until you find a savior and only then try to build around him. I think you have to project the timing on your improvement and hope it works. I think having 4th -8th rotation guys on long term deals is fine and great if you're locked in to enough talent to compete long term with. We certainly aren't locked in to that now, but it's plausible that after the next two summers we might be.

I know free agency isn't what it used to be, but the tides can always change and it wouldn't hurt to be among the only teams preserving cap space, even if it seems like most impact players extend with their current teams these days.

[dougthonus]

I don't think you can just be as bad as possible until you find a savior and only then try to build around him. I think you have to project the timing on your improvement and hope it works.

FWIW, I don't think so either, but we are so incredibly asset poor, that I think in our exact situation, I would completely punt on the next 2 years.

Effectively, if you ignore all of the specifics of hows, and broke it down into just economic value in a given year, I would shift 100% of my value from the next two years into further out years. Ie, if I had 50 value points next year, and could trade all 50, for points in 3 years, even if I only got 25 points in 3 years, I would do it.

The NBA isn't that fungible in terms of things, but holistically, I'd be attempting to do that from a theoretical basis. The question only is how many value points does Smith have for 2 years, and does he have any in year 3 on a new contract? My general view is no. He has no value points on a new contract when he is a UFA.

Granted, this is all over simplified and hard to figure out since "value" is a combination of dollars, fit, on court value, timeline, etc...

I think having 4th -8th rotation guys on long term deals is fine and great if you're locked in to enough talent to compete long term with. We certainly aren't locked in to that now, but it's plausible that after the next two summers we might be.

Virtually impossible to get the 1-3 guys with the 4-8 guys locked up which is the problem. Especially because without the 1-3 guys, you will almost certainly overpay the 4-8 guys because you have a high likelihood of paying them for the role they are playing on your bad team vs the role they would play on a good team.

[League Circles]

I don't think you can just be as bad as possible until you find a savior and only then try to build around him. I think you have to project the timing on your improvement and hope it works.

FWIW, I don't think so either, but we are so incredibly asset poor, that I think in our exact situation, I would completely punt on the next 2 years.

Effectively, if you ignore all of the specifics of hows, and broke it down into just economic value in a given year, I would shift 100% of my value from the next two years into further out years. Ie, if I had 50 value points next year, and could trade all 50, for points in 3 years, even if I only got 25 points in 3 years, I would do it.

The NBA isn't that fungible in terms of things, but holistically, I'd be attempting to do that from a theoretical basis. The question only is how many value points does Smith have for 2 years, and does he have any in year 3 on a new contract? My general view is no. He has no value points on a new contract when he is a UFA.

Granted, this is all over simplified and hard to figure out since "value" is a combination of dollars, fit, on court value, timeline, etc...

I think having 4th -8th rotation guys on long term deals is fine and great if you're locked in to enough talent to compete long term with. We certainly aren't locked in to that now, but it's plausible that after the next two summers we might be.

Virtually impossible to get the 1-3 guys with the 4-8 guys locked up which is the problem. Especially because without the 1-3 guys, you will almost certainly overpay the 4-8 guys because you have a high likelihood of paying them for the role they are playing on your bad team vs the role they would play on a good team.

Don't you think that both of these things are true:

1. We might be capped out in summer 2027
2. Jalen Smith might be better than an MLE pickup for starting C in 27-28, and, fortunately, available to us due to his bird rights

If you agree, he can obviously potentially have significant value even for us on his next contract, even at market value.

We'll potentially have 2-5 of our top players locked up after the next two offseasons, in no particular order:

Matas
2025 FRP
2026 FRP
1 or 2 significant free agents in summer 2026

Then Smith may slot in with guys like Patrick, possibly Ayo or Coby, maybe Ball.

I agree with your general point of course which I've talked about many times, but there is a very low likelihood that we'll have an elite top 2 or 3 guys, which means in order to be good we'll probably need to have at least 2-3 quality players or ways to get them ASAP after we get the top 2 or 3 guys, or else we'll have to get a slow one per year on the MLE for a few years before we're truly good, and voila, by then, maybe the FA we signed in 2026 is already fading or whatever.

This is why, in a certain sense, Smith, Ball and to a lesser extent Patrick have more potential value to us than Coby, Giddey and Ayo. Cause they'll all be locked in to cheap deals still in summer 2026 while Ayo, Giddey and Coby will all be either gone or on new, more expensive deals.

[dougthonus]

Don't you think that both of these things are true:

1. We might be capped out in summer 2027
2. Jalen Smith might be better than an MLE pickup for starting C in 27-28, and, fortunately, available to us due to his bird rights

With the plan I outlined no, because I'm not committing to any long term contracts the next two years unless something unlikely and magical falls into my lap, and am instead trading for future assets.

If you agree, he can obviously potentially have significant value even for us on his next contract, even at market value.

However, even under those cases, I disagree Smith would have significant value because it assumes:
1: Jalen Smith becomes a better than MLE player
2: You are still limited in total dollars so while you might keep him vs someone else and might want to keep him, his total dollars still count towards the tax. Ie, you have extra flexibility, but not necessarily extra value.
3: That Jalen Smith either takes less than market value or that a market value guy on a market value deal adds surplus value to the team

#1 is up for grabs, #2 and #3 mean that he might add some value, but removes the word significant from the way I would look at it.

This is why, in a certain sense, Smith, Ball and to a lesser extent Patrick have more potential value to us than Coby, Giddey and Ayo. Cause they'll all be locked in to cheap deals still in summer 2026 while Ayo, Giddey and Coby will all be either gone or on new, more expensive deals.

We won't be good in 26/27, then Smith will no longer be on a cheap deal. It's the Ayo/Coby problem just with one additional year that you are incredibly unlikely to leverage to meaningful result.

That said, again, not saying I have to trade Smith, I have no idea if value exists for him. If the league doesn't think his contract is surplus value and is unwilling to pay that surplus value, then it makes no sense to trade him. I'm not taking trade calls, so hard to say, just feels like a guy that might be true of.

[DASMACKDOWN]

True AK is terrible at speaking at these press conferences and hasn’t gotten better over the years.

Honestly don’t even know how he got the job to begin with. You have to be a very good talker to be a a president. Paxson in comparison was good but he also lied a lot, which I guess comes with the job at times.

AK has so many negatives at this point where I wouldn’t be surprised if the Reinsdorfs had enough and fire him even though they are more responsible for the failures not the GM/Presidents.

Interesting I felt Paxson was much more of a straight talker than AK. AK is straight up gaslighting the Bulls fans with this nonsense of 8-9 regular guys can win a championship. Paxson was highly critical of the team & org when the Bulls were bad.

"‘Luck and hope are not a strategy or a plan" - Paxson on the Boylen era Bulls, based heavily on drafting

" And if you don’t think competitive spirit is important for an organization or basketball team, then you’re wrong. And we were lacking that.” - Paxson on the Hoiberg era Bulls

Paxson on why he advised Michael to replace himself with a new top decision maker (eventually became AK). He implies here he could have just stayed in his job due to how loyal the Reinsdorfs are.

Does Pax still work for the team as an advisor?

Because at this point there is no way AKME are lasting the 17 years like Pax had at the job.

Paxson was so different than AK. Paxson had built up equity with the Bulls and the fans. He is part of the first 3 peat for goodness sakes. Also Paxson came out the gate hot and turned things around very quickly in contrast to Krause.

I do worry about this first real rebuild with AK. When you burn things down, you have to be good giving your fanbase expectations. Whether its Hope or Cope. .

That last press conference might have been the worst presser I have ever seen from professional Sports franchise. It had my blood boiling. Worse than anything Jim Boylen has ever said. That was probably the last straw with like 90% of Bulls fans.

AK's press conference typically is his version of "I'm here so I wont get fined"

[dougthonus]

That last press conference might have been the worst presser I have ever seen from professional Sports franchise. It had my blood boiling. Worse than anything Jim Boylen has ever said. That was probably the last straw with like 90% of Bulls fans.

AK might be the worst press conference GM I've ever watched (granted, it's a short list, I don't generally go watch press conferences of GMs). He's so bad in front of the camera though, everything he says makes me think something like:

1: He doesn't really believe that does he?
2: Of course not. He's just saying it because he thinks it sounds good.
3: Wait, why does he think this sounds good though? This sounds terrible.
4: Please god, I hope he really doesn't believe this...
5: I'm pretty sure he actually believes this.

[Jcool0]

The best NBA GM you could say Sam Presti with OKC. But he also had some luck getting Kevin Durant #2 (same with Dallas getting Luka at #3 and Bulls jumping up to get the #1 pick and Rose) and some big luck that they had Paul George and the one team he wanted to go to just happened to have SGA available to trade for. So for all the hate on AK and he deserves it. Most every GM needs luck if they really want to contend for titles. And if some how the Bulls get #1 this year and Cooper Flagg works out. All these type threads disappear quickly.

[CROBulls]

The best NBA GM you could say Sam Presti with OKC. But he also had some luck getting Kevin Durant #2 (same with Dallas getting Luka at #3 and Bulls jumping up to get the #1 pick and Rose) and some big luck that they had Paul George and the one team he wanted to go to just happened to have SGA available to trade for. So for all the hate on AK and he deserves it. Most every GM needs luck if they really want to contend for titles. And if some how the Bulls get #1 this year and Cooper Flagg works out. All these type threads disappear quickly.

Bulls dont even want to get lucky. You have GM publically saying he never wants to pick high in draft after he picked Patrick Williams with 4th pick. That's like omen, if you wanna have luck smile at you once after all wrong moves you made by your own decisions. Bulls dont deserve high pick. And they dont deserve lucky break. This franchise can as long its owned by Jerry Reinsdorf and his cronies never win anything and never get lucky. And Ill cheer for it.

I wont be mad if we get #1 and get Flagg. I will celebrate it. But nobody in f mind can tell me this owner, this GM and their stooges deserve anything but misery. They killed my fandom.

[Jcool0]

The best NBA GM you could say Sam Presti with OKC. But he also had some luck getting Kevin Durant #2 (same with Dallas getting Luka at #3 and Bulls jumping up to get the #1 pick and Rose) and some big luck that they had Paul George and the one team he wanted to go to just happened to have SGA available to trade for. So for all the hate on AK and he deserves it. Most every GM needs luck if they really want to contend for titles. And if some how the Bulls get #1 this year and Cooper Flagg works out. All these type threads disappear quickly.

Bulls dont even want to get lucky. You have GM publically saying he never wants to pick high in draft after he picked Patrick Williams with 4th pick. That's like omen, if you wanna have luck smile at you once after all wrong moves you made by your own decisions. Bulls dont deserve high pick. And they dont deserve lucky break. This franchise can as long its owned by Jerry Reinsdorf and his cronies never win anything and never get lucky. And Ill cheer for it.

I wont be mad if we get #1 and get Flagg. I will celebrate it. But nobody in f mind can tell me this owner, this GM and their stooges deserve anything but misery. They killed my fandom.

bulls dont have a choice. This team isn't making the playin unless Matas starts averaging 30 ppg on 55/45/85

[nitetrain8603]

Sit back and evaluate for the 4th year in a row. Matas is a nice player but I think his peak impact will be a Lauri Markannen which is a nice player but doesn't make up for the other 4 drafts.

I've seen enough. Fire him

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk