GT: Bulls @ Nuggets - 8 CT

[Ice Man]

And Donovan doesn’t have the balls to bench him and play bigs that could actually have a future here.

1) I think Billy will bench Vuc if he doesn't show up in the regular season. Billy had a generous leash with Pat, but eventually he did what needed to be done -- and that was a young player with hopes, rather than a fading vet.

2) Not sure how many of our current bigs have a future here -- perhaps only Noa, but if so he won't be good for a long while yet. But yeah, even if they are just guys filling a roster spot, they need to play ahead of Vuc if Vuc is going to be a traffic cone.

[Ice Man]

Nice game from Giddey, Matas, Ayo.

All that matters.

This is the 9th year that Bulls fans have said something to that effect. In 2017, when this process started, the claim was all that matters is Laurie and Dunn. (Then next year LaVine joined that group, but he was hurt the first year the Bulls had him.) Ever since then, it's been rinse and repeat, only with different names of the young hopes.

I'm waiting for the day when we collectively stop dreaming about the future because we have a present season that matters.

[Stratmaster]

FWIW the Bulls are -25 in the first quarter of their 4 preseason games and -33 in the first 8 minutes. To me, those are the only meaningful minutes in pre-season games.

Turns out other teams run fast too.

I guess Coby will help?

[Ice Man]

Watch on YouTube

If any other team had a year 2 21 year old playing like Buzelis is, the fanbase would be hyping him to no end. They would be polishing his hall of fame statue.
27 points per 36
56%fg
39%3p
71%ts
88%ft

Bulls fans are so jaded at this point they are like . . . meh.

The frustration I indicated with my previous post doesn't take away the fact that Matas is gonna be great. No doubt about that. He's what people wanted Pat Williams to be.

Giddey has also played well in the preseason.[/quote]

Yes, he has.

We have two outright good players in Matas and Giddey, and then after that it's role players.

[Ice Man]

FWIW the Bulls are -25 in the first quarter of their 4 preseason games and -33 in the first 8 minutes. To me, those are the only meaningful minutes in pre-season games.

Turns out other teams run fast too.

I guess Coby will help?

Good point, Strat. And yes Coby will help, but obviously he's not going to be enough by himself to overcome that sort of gap. Obviously, Vuc either needs to show or be benched. That would help a lot, too.

[MissileMike]

FWIW the Bulls are -25 in the first quarter of their 4 preseason games and -33 in the first 8 minutes. To me, those are the only meaningful minutes in pre-season games.

Turns out other teams run fast too.

I guess Coby will help?

Good point, Strat. And yes Coby will help, but obviously he's not going to be enough by himself to overcome that sort of gap. Obviously, Vuc either needs to show or be benched. That would help a lot, too.

The first quarter thing is good point and it's concerning. Turnovers are a huge cause, at least from what I've seen, and Giddey is the main offender there. I've noticed that when the opposing teams play hard on-ball defense, he's ineffective as a ball handler. And Vuc looks terrible so far.

[Red Larrivee]

Yes, he has.

We have two outright good players in Matas and Giddey, and then after that it's role players.

Lets not forget about Coby either.

[WesPeace]

Watch on YouTube

If any other team had a year 2 21 year old playing like Buzelis is, the fanbase would be hyping him to no end. They would be polishing his hall of fame statue.
27 points per 36
56%fg
39%3p
71%ts
88%ft

Bulls fans are so jaded at this point they are like . . . meh.

Giddey has also played well in the preseason.

I think Matas gets a lot of praise.. thats my feel, but I'm among the hype-rs tbh lol

[Red Larrivee]

Vooch wont be this bad guys lol. He will be a lot better once the season starts.

But your points are still valid.

Correct.

There's just no point to him with this roster anymore. It'd be addition by subtraction for the Bulls. I doubt he really wants to be here either.

His expiring doesn't even matter. We have plenty of deals we can move to get a trade done if it came to that. Just eat the money and move on.

[sco]

I turned the game off in the 4th, looks like we made a run in garbage time. From what I saw there were only two real take-aways from the game (but since it is preseason there really are NO real take-aways):

Matas is looking to be more aggressive offensively and defensively...and doing nicely against starting talent. A strong sophomore season from Matas with his ceiling potentially lifted is the best possible thing we can hope to get from this season.

Giddey looked less slow and rusty. Started to look like late-season Giddey. The 3's were falling. He got to the line 8 times.

The rest of the game was pretty meaningless.

Vuc is an old vet and doesn't try hard in preseason. Also, Vuc always shrinks against the better C's in the league and Joker owns him. The only part of this game I missed was hanging out on this thread for some Vuc bashing. Collins seems to be such an obviously better choice to start. The +- comparison was Vuc -26/Collins +12

Ayo showed that he's a mixed bag. He started ok, and went away from attacking the basket. Defensively, I just get the love for him. He's much worse than guys like Okoro, Terry and Pat defensively.

Oko only getting 10 minutes was interesting. He looked bad out there. I'll be optimistic that it will take him only a few months to find his way here and get more comfortable.

Pat, fresh off his 8 rb game had 1 friggin rebound. He did go 2-5 from 3, so there's some value to him.

Carter has value as a SG/microwave scorer. He's not a PG, but he's a guy you can put out there with defensive-minded bench guys who may be able to shoot you back into games when he's hot. Dude is a good shooter/scorer.

[drosestruts]

Can Noa play center?

Anthony Davis was 6'10", 222 lbs, with a 7'5" wingspan and 9'0" standing reach coming out of college

Noa is 6'11", 204 lbs, 7'1" wingspan and 9'1" standing reach

Chet Holgren was 7'0". 195 lbs, 7'6" wingspan and 9'6" standing reach

[kodo]

9 blocks was nice to see. Unfortunately 6 of the 9 came from Matas & Giddey, not our centers. Also sucks when Giddey blocks his man at the rim, and Denver just picks up the blocked ball off the ground and gets a putback because the rest of the team can't be bothered to pick the ball up.

It's a huge WIP, but there is some progress on defense. We're also fouling the crap out of teams in PS. It will take a while to get acceptance from refs but will pay off in future years, it will hurt us this year but we need to get started somewhere.

[KissedByaRose1]

I hate us more than anyone but that was a damn encouraging preseason game against the 2nd best team in the NBA. Matas has it boys! If he can just get to 40% on his open 3s and develop his playmaking we have a legit guy who can be a top two player on a title team.

Awesome to see Giddey stayed in shape this offseason also. I'm excited to watch Bulls basketball this season and even though the record will be very similar it will actually be something we can get excited about in a real way.

If you put Walker Kessler on this team I still think we'd be a 9/10 seed but going into next season i think we'd have a real shot at top 6. Lets hope Billy teaches these guys the right habits early.

[rosenthall]

Closing thoughts:

- Matas definitely looks like our best player in pre-season. He's the only guy that looks like a high quality two-way player to me. Collins, Jones, Ayo and Pat are low quality two-way players. Giddey and Coby are high quality one way players. Huerter is a medium quality one way player. Okoro, DT and Vuc are low quality one-way players.
- Giddey kinda reminded me of Magic era vuc tonight. Decent hub offense, lots of counting stats, but he didn't bend the defense that much. Only Matas really did that.
- Pat's having a better pre-season than he usually has, but boy is he still doing some of the same head-scratching stuff each game that he's always done. I think he'll "rebound" back to his 10/4/1 self, but I don't see anything beyond that.

[DuckIII]

I cannot wait until Vucevic and Carter are off this team. Some of the worsts signings in the history of the franchise.

Carter won’t play unless we have major injury issues.

Vuc is the one that makes no sense. Just waive him and let him sign with another team. We aren’t going to get an asset for him that is more valuable than PT for the guys we actually want to play.

[DuckIII]

Watch on YouTube

If any other team had a year 2 21 year old playing like Buzelis is, the fanbase would be hyping him to no end. They would be polishing his hall of fame statue.
27 points per 36
56%fg
39%3p
71%ts
88%ft

Bulls fans are so jaded at this point they are like . . . meh.

Giddey has also played well in the preseason.

I’ve tried to offset that by declaring that he’s our franchise player and a lock to be a pretty high level star. I pushed in all my chips.

[Ice Man]

We aren’t going to get an asset to him that is more valuable than PT for the guys we actually want to play.

I'm fine with playing Vuc if he's half decent. I'm not much for this never-ending strategy of throwing young (and thus not yet very good) players against he wall and losing, season after season after season. But if he sucks, then yes waive. Better to lose with a young guy who might end up being helpful than with a go-nowhere old guy.

[Bulliever2020]

Watch on YouTube

If any other team had a year 2 21 year old playing like Buzelis is, the fanbase would be hyping him to no end. They would be polishing his hall of fame statue.
27 points per 36
56%fg
39%3p
71%ts
88%ft

Bulls fans are so jaded at this point they are like . . . meh.

I just don't agree with this at all. Please point me to these posts where people are "meh" on him. I'd say the majority of posts I see about him here refer to him as a future star and a guy who will be the best player on the team sooner rather than later.

[DuckIII]

We aren’t going to get an asset to him that is more valuable than PT for the guys we actually want to play.

I'm fine with playing Vuc if he's half decent. I'm not much for this never-ending strategy of throwing young (and thus not yet very good) players against he wall and losing, season after season after season. But if he sucks, then yes waive. Better to lose with a young guy who might end up being helpful than with a go-nowhere old guy.

I’m not worried about losing. We need one more year in the lottery anyway.

[Ice Man]

I’m not worried about losing. We need one more year in the lottery anyway.

Then Vuc is your man!