Woj: Vucevic/Aminu for Carter Jr/Porter/ 2 1sts

[rzzzzz]

I hope Vucevic finally gets his moment in the sun with y’all. Back when we had him, Doug Collins had him in the doghouse for reasons that remain mysterious. He benched him during that playoff against you, which we only won because Rose was out on the floor too long in a game you had wrapped up. And then he benched him against Boston, who still hasn’t got a center (Nice job you guys keeping the Celtics from snagging him!) and cost us the 7 game series. And then he traded him when he blew up the team to get our franchise savior, Bynum, whose Philly career consisted of one night out at a bowling alley. Vuc has been brilliant all this time since, in a vacuum. You guys got something cooking again.

[HouseOfLight]

I do feel for Wendell. Chicago is the highest pressure environment in the entire NBA. It’s not easy to succeed and improve there. You need to be mentally bulletproof. Wendell will be fine once he gets his body right & his head on straight. It’ll take some time with him, but I fully expect him to become, at the very least, an Antonio Davis calibre of player, best case scenario he lives up to his Horford comps. Orlando are allegedly extremely high on him, and viewed him as the centrepiece of that deal. He’s the reason Chicago were able to outbid Boston. So they’ll take their time with him & let him play through his mistakes.

Wendell will always be known as “the guy that Paxson took over SGA”, but I still think he’s salvageable. Also, kudos to B-Dizzle, he showed so much class in his interview about WCJs departure. Spoke highly of him & said that he was very accepting of being benched, etc. Now how the Bulls were able to land a top 3 C in the league in his prime for a package centred around Wendell, I don’t think we’ll ever know, but just be happy that it happened lol

[MrSparkle]

I hope Vucevic finally gets his moment in the sun with y’all. Back when we had him, Doug Collins had him in the doghouse for reasons that remain mysterious. He benched him during that playoff against you, which we only won because Rose was out on the floor too long in a game you had wrapped up. And then he benched him against Boston, who still hasn’t got a center (Nice job you guys keeping the Celtics from snagging him!) and cost us the 7 game series. And then he traded him when he blew up the team to get our franchise savior, Bynum, whose Philly career consisted of one night out at a bowling alley. Vuc has been brilliant all this time since, in a vacuum. You guys got something cooking again.

Doug Collins was always an overrated company guy. No idea what the hell anybody saw in him. He couldn’t get the Wizards cohesive enough to grant MJ a playoff appearance in the weak East. Mis-evaluated Rip. No idea why he’s remembered so fondly; easily the most mediocre accolades of anybody with 40 years of NBA employment.

[HouseOfLight]

This thread seems to have morphed into a general discussion thread of sorts, so I’ll just bring it up here, but I’m fairly certain that Chicago is planning on signing Beal in 2022. It makes sense. And they didn’t want to take on any more money in a Markkanen trade (unless it was for Ball). The Donovan connection, Beal & ZLV are close, the resurrection of Chicago as a global mega brand, etc

I personally think Beal/ZLV/Vooch surrounded by long, gritty defensive types who can pass & drive, sounds like absolute fireworks. I definitely think that’s one of the plans going forward. Otherwise they’ll go with Ball

[The Real Dalic]

Read on Twitter

:'(

This killed me to watch. You can now see why I'm following him over to this board as my second team. He meant the world to the Magic. You guys really got a good one. Do right by him and he'll reward you guys. He won't leave like so many others would in his position.

[MrSparkle]

I do feel for Wendell. Chicago is the highest pressure environment in the entire NBA. It’s not easy to succeed and improve there. You need to be mentally bulletproof. Wendell will be fine once he gets his body right & his head on straight. It’ll take some time with him, but I fully expect him to become, at the very least, an Antonio Davis calibre of player, best case scenario he lives up to his Horford comps. Orlando are allegedly extremely high on him, and viewed him as the centrepiece of that deal. He’s the reason Chicago were able to outbid Boston. So they’ll take their time with him & let him play through his mistakes.

Wendell will always be known as “the guy that Paxson took over SGA”, but I still think he’s salvageable. Also, kudos to B-Dizzle, he showed so much class in his interview about WCJs departure. Spoke highly of him & said that he was very accepting of being benched, etc. Now how the Bulls were able to land a top 3 C in the league in his prime for a package centred around Wendell, I don’t think we’ll ever know, but just be happy that it happened lol

Well, as Bulls fans we’ve seen many “terrible” players become good 4-6 years into their career - after they leave Chicago. You just never know; 1 or 2 off-seasons later, a guy might become a consistent shooter. That’s it for Wendell; he’s got some problems with his game, but obviously if he ever finds a shooting touch, settles down emotionally and gets in peak shape, he’ll be a strong big man. Definitely don’t see a Felicio or Jerian Grant out-the-league trajectory for him.

But in a present window, it was a very lop-sided trade. I think i’m done gloating about winning the trade, cause Bulls have disappointed for 23 years and this trade was not future-proof... but yeah, I tried hard to see the pay-off with Wendell (and Lauri), and found it very hard to even imagine continuing to develop them, let alone doubling their salary. At the point where I might’ve swapped him more for a Troy Brown, but I guess that was Gafford’s worth. Win-wins I think.

[weneeda2guard]

This thread seems to have morphed into a general discussion thread of sorts, so I’ll just bring it up here, but I’m fairly certain that Chicago is planning on signing Beal in 2022. It makes sense. And they didn’t want to take on any more money in a Markkanen trade (unless it was for Ball). The Donovan connection, Beal & ZLV are close, the resurrection of Chicago as a global mega brand, etc

I personally think Beal/ZLV/Vooch surrounded by long, gritty defensive types who can pass & drive, sounds like absolute fireworks. I definitely think that’s one of the plans going forward. Otherwise they’ll go with Ball

I can see a trade for beal can't see us signing him

With us needing to get a pg this summer and lavine extension we won't have the space to sign him in 2022.

[HouseOfLight]

Read on Twitter

:'(

This killed me to watch. You can now see why I'm following him over to this board as my second team. He meant the world to the Magic. You guys really got a good one. Do right by him and he'll reward you guys. He won't leave like so many others would in his position.

Wait you mean leave Orlando? Like so many others would’ve left Orlando instead of resigning? So many would’ve left ORL in his position?

[Am2626]

I'm always a bit precious about giving up picks because I love the draft and the allure of young players.

That said, if we wanted to keep Lavine around, which we should, something like this needed to get done. Vucevic is a legit All-Star, great player, and it's going to be incredibly fun to have a tandem like this to watch night in and night out. Someone has to say it, but I wish we did a deal like this when we had Jimmy.

It's a substantial price to pay, and I'm not definitive on where I set value wise with this deal. What I will say, I have been a WCJ defender for basically all his time here, and I still hope for the best for him, but I'm not devastated we've lost him. He needed a change of scenery, the development since his rookie season has been basically a plateau. I think he was a lot better than people realized, and I'll miss him, but he's the sort of player you are okay with giving up in a deal of this scale.

Whatever your take is on the price we had to pay, we're going to be a pretty good team now, let's enjoy it. It's clear AK is aggressive, has a vision, and will do what it takes to get there... I'm looking forward to seeing how this roster shapes up over the next year or two.

Exactly what price did the Bulls pay with this deal?They basically got rid of the trash that the previous FO left and significantly upgraded their roster. The draft picks are top 4 protected so even in the very unlikely chance that they get exercised now the Bulls would still keep them. Don’t see any downside at all with this deal.

WCJ is a good big as is, has the chance to be very good. Two firsts is a lot to give up for anything.

I'm happy with the deal. But we paid a reasonable price on a high level talent. Naturally, we gave up a considerable amount.

I guess we disagree in how good we feel WCJ is. I see him as an undersized big that has underperformed his draft position and has regressed from his rookie year. I also don’t see a lot of athleticism in him. Also Orlando already has another developmental big in Mo Bamba that has better physical traits than WCJ. Seems redundant to bring in WCJ when they could have seeked someone at a different position when trading away their best player. In my opinion the value that Vuc brings back far superseeds the value of 2 first round picks that probably will be at best mid first round picks. Now if there were no pick protection then yes those picks would have significant value.

[BullChit]

I do feel for Wendell. Chicago is the highest pressure environment in the entire NBA. It’s not easy to succeed and improve there. You need to be mentally bulletproof. Wendell will be fine once he gets his body right & his head on straight. It’ll take some time with him, but I fully expect him to become, at the very least, an Antonio Davis calibre of player, best case scenario he lives up to his Horford comps. Orlando are allegedly extremely high on him, and viewed him as the centrepiece of that deal. He’s the reason Chicago were able to outbid Boston. So they’ll take their time with him & let him play through his mistakes.

Wendell will always be known as “the guy that Paxson took over SGA”, but I still think he’s salvageable. Also, kudos to B-Dizzle, he showed so much class in his interview about WCJs departure. Spoke highly of him & said that he was very accepting of being benched, etc. Now how the Bulls were able to land a top 3 C in the league in his prime for a package centred around Wendell, I don’t think we’ll ever know, but just be happy that it happened lol

Billy answer to the Wendell question at his press conference today hit the nail on the head with Wendell.

Basically said Wendell has a great chance to become a good player for a long time in the league with his character and work ethic but his timeline to figure that doesn't line up with our timeline.

Sent from my CPH1979 using Tapatalk

[The Real Dalic]

Read on Twitter

:'(

This killed me to watch. You can now see why I'm following him over to this board as my second team. He meant the world to the Magic. You guys really got a good one. Do right by him and he'll reward you guys. He won't leave like so many others would in his position.

Wait you mean leave Orlando? Like so many others would’ve left Orlando instead of resigning? So many would’ve left ORL in his position?

I mean he's loyal and won't leave any team that does right by him. He's not a prima donna like most stars. So I could see him re-signing with the Bulls on a reasonable contract just like he did for the Magic during his free agency. If the Bulls decide, during his next free agency, that they want to re-sign him and keep building around him and Zach, he will very likely stay.

[Jcool0]

ESPN says the Magic beat us at the trade deadline:

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/31133915/nikola-vucevic-trade-grades-means-bulls-magic

FWIW no one has worse NBA content then ESPN.

[kodo]

ESPN says the Magic beat us at the trade deadline:

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/31133915/nikola-vucevic-trade-grades-means-bulls-magic

FWIW no one has worse NBA content then ESPN.

Not surprising, ESPN had Vuc ranked as the 42nd in the league, although his VORP is #11.
Not sure what to expect from a source that has Lavine ranked below Michael Porter Jr, Nurkic, and Wood.

[HouseOfLight]

Exactly what price did the Bulls pay with this deal?They basically got rid of the trash that the previous FO left and significantly upgraded their roster. The draft picks are top 4 protected so even in the very unlikely chance that they get exercised now the Bulls would still keep them. Don’t see any downside at all with this deal.

WCJ is a good big as is, has the chance to be very good. Two firsts is a lot to give up for anything.

I'm happy with the deal. But we paid a reasonable price on a high level talent. Naturally, we gave up a considerable amount.

I guess we disagree in how good we feel WCJ is. I see him as an undersized big that has underperformed his draft position and has regressed from his rookie year. I also don’t see a lot of athleticism in him. Also Orlando already has another developmental big in Mo Bamba that has better physical traits than WCJ. Seems redundant to bring in WCJ when they could have seeked someone at a different position when trading away their best player. In my opinion the value that Vuc brings back far superseeds the value of 2 first round picks that probably will be at best mid first round picks. Now if there were no pick protection then yes those picks would have significant value.

Mo bamba is horrible. He isn’t better than WCJ anywhere & will possibly be out of the league in a few years. They aren’t building anything around him & no one was interested in trading for him. He barely even plays & has almost no skills/BBIQ. We’ve all seen WCJ when he’s been fully healthy & locked in, and he’s been a versatile beast. I’d bet big money on Bamba getting sent to the G-League soon. The idea of a guy who’s averaged 6/5/1 for his NBA career & who barely even plays somehow being a building block instead of WCJ makes zero sense, even with all of WCJs struggles factored in

Also, WCJ is 6’10, not small at all. Above average size for a contemporary NBA C.

Orlando got robbed, undoubtedly, but if WCJ stays healthy & focused, hes going to be a really good player in a fresh environment, which is what people expect will happen, seeing as how he got dealt a rough hand having to weather the Paxson Plague

[HouseOfLight]

I do feel for Wendell. Chicago is the highest pressure environment in the entire NBA. It’s not easy to succeed and improve there. You need to be mentally bulletproof. Wendell will be fine once he gets his body right & his head on straight. It’ll take some time with him, but I fully expect him to become, at the very least, an Antonio Davis calibre of player, best case scenario he lives up to his Horford comps. Orlando are allegedly extremely high on him, and viewed him as the centrepiece of that deal. He’s the reason Chicago were able to outbid Boston. So they’ll take their time with him & let him play through his mistakes.

Wendell will always be known as “the guy that Paxson took over SGA”, but I still think he’s salvageable. Also, kudos to B-Dizzle, he showed so much class in his interview about WCJs departure. Spoke highly of him & said that he was very accepting of being benched, etc. Now how the Bulls were able to land a top 3 C in the league in his prime for a package centred around Wendell, I don’t think we’ll ever know, but just be happy that it happened lol

Billy answer to the Wendell question at his press conference today hit the nail on the head with Wendell.

Basically said Wendell has a great chance to become a good player for a long time in the league with his character and work ethic but his timeline to figure that doesn't line up with our timeline.

Sent from my CPH1979 using Tapatalk

Yeah Wendell will be fine, he’s just not physically on point yet. That thumb injury he had prevents most lifting exercises, which is why he’s so soft/skinny-fat up top compared to his rookie season when he was comparatively shredded. One he gets his body on point, he’s too high IQ not to succeed. He gets labeled as a tweener, and that’s somewhat justified I suppose, but his current lack of speed is again due to being slightly overweight from the injuries keeping him on his butt. He’s actually pretty quick-footed when he’s at his ideal weight. If he learns to shoot off the dribble, he can play other positions besides C

[Dresden]

I do feel for Wendell. Chicago is the highest pressure environment in the entire NBA. It’s not easy to succeed and improve there. You need to be mentally bulletproof. Wendell will be fine once he gets his body right & his head on straight. It’ll take some time with him, but I fully expect him to become, at the very least, an Antonio Davis calibre of player, best case scenario he lives up to his Horford comps. Orlando are allegedly extremely high on him, and viewed him as the centrepiece of that deal. He’s the reason Chicago were able to outbid Boston. So they’ll take their time with him & let him play through his mistakes.

Wendell will always be known as “the guy that Paxson took over SGA”, but I still think he’s salvageable. Also, kudos to B-Dizzle, he showed so much class in his interview about WCJs departure. Spoke highly of him & said that he was very accepting of being benched, etc. Now how the Bulls were able to land a top 3 C in the league in his prime for a package centred around Wendell, I don’t think we’ll ever know, but just be happy that it happened lol

Billy answer to the Wendell question at his press conference today hit the nail on the head with Wendell.

Basically said Wendell has a great chance to become a good player for a long time in the league with his character and work ethic but his timeline to figure that doesn't line up with our timeline.

Sent from my CPH1979 using Tapatalk

Donovan is being gracious, but I just don't see what Wendell has to offer. He's pretty strong, I'll give him that. But he's got no instincts or aggressiveness. He doesn't go after the ball, he doesn't look to dominate. He's very passive, and that just doesn't work unless you are very skilled in other areas, like shooting, which he is not. He'll probably bounce around as a bench big man, possibly for a long time, but I don't see anything in his game that projects to a great player. He's just too far behind in too many areas, mentally in particular. If a guy has great drive and a great motor, like Jimmy Butler, other skills can be developed. But Wendell just lacks that killer instinct. A bit like Eddy Curry in that regard.

[erlim]

Read on Twitter

:'(

This killed me to watch. You can now see why I'm following him over to this board as my second team. He meant the world to the Magic. You guys really got a good one. Do right by him and he'll reward you guys. He won't leave like so many others would in his position.

Wow. He’s legitimately and incredibly loyal. That’s like how sad Lillard or McCollum would be if you tore them off the roster of the trailblazers, or DRose from the Bulls.

[CaPiTanAK]

I knew that there was going to be a dumb team that looks at WCJ age and his PER and thinks that he’s going to be a star.

Let me make this clear. Out of all the Bulls lottery picks in the last decade, WCJ is the surest bet to be a bust based on my observation for 2.5 years. He is trash and will be out of this league after his NBA contract. Thank the lord that AK took advantage of the young hype and dumped his trash contract for asset instead of riding this depreciating asset to late second rounder next year. Bravo to the KGB Killer AK.

[Rowland Garrett]

Read on Twitter

:'(

This killed me to watch. You can now see why I'm following him over to this board as my second team. He meant the world to the Magic. You guys really got a good one. Do right by him and he'll reward you guys. He won't leave like so many others would in his position.

[tundraknight]

No pick protections?