Pelicans @ Bulls - Preseason Game #2 Thread

[MrSparkle]

538 rates Lauri as a better player than Zach. That isits 2019-2020 projection. Not saying that 538 is right, but all these confident statements about how anybody who watches basketball can see that Zach is better is demonstrably false. The people at 538 watch basketball and they believe otherwise.

Between the two, I'll agree that Lauri may very well be the better player than Zach. Probably is. He's higher IQ, a more reliable shooter, better defender/intangibles.

[logical_art]

Boylen seems to love Luke.

“I think he can play with anybody,” the Bulls coach said. “He can play 4. He can play 5. He can play out. He can play in. He’s smart. From our evaluation from the film I watched when I studied him to him playing against us to his raw numbers, he’s one of the top defenders in the league at rim protection. He works at defense. He cares about it. For guys playing at center, he was the least turnover guy in the league. He can handle the ball and make decisions. He can dribble handoff. He can help us.”

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bulls/big-man-luke-kornet-out-show-hes-more-shooter-bulls

Lets all hope ZOMG is right, because Lauri is already a pretty good player. Adding a better player than Lauri at 2 mil a year would be amazing.

[Red Larrivee]

If we are talking about who Luke might replace in the starting lineup, I'd focus more on WCJ than Lauri. Having five shooters and still having that rim protection/shot blocking - man, I'm salivating already. I think it's WCJ who needs to be making sure (a) that he's healthy and available; and (b) that he starts to show that 3 pt shooting that he showed in college.

According to KC, in a 5 minute stint in the second quarter last night, the Bulls scored 20 points with Sato, White, LaVine, Markkanen and Kornet on the floor. Five out, baby. Who's going to stop Zach from getting to the basket? No one. And all those kickouts. And Coby being able to drive as well. Could be fun.

https://www.nbcsports.com/chicago/bulls/bulls-ball-movement-stands-out-loss-zion-williamsons-pelicans

Luckily for us the Bulls aren't entertaining the idea of benching Markkanen or Carter for Kornet.

[donaldtrump_00]

Worth its own thread later. The Bulls don't want a PG. They want 5 PG's on the floor sharing the ball. Nothing wrong with it.

Share your knowledge

Nothing we haven't discussed before. Whomever has the ball after a rebound brings it up and initiates the offense. The offensive sets are just a bunch of repeating weaves, pick and rolls and two man actions. Basically, everyone gets to run the offense for about 3 seconds and then they are supposed to shoot or pass the ball for someone else to run it.

This offense isn't a bunch of fixed plays being initiated by one guy.

Yes. And this style isnt dunn type of pace. I am watching the weaving and quick passing and it fits lauri and zach and leaves porter jr open for wide open threes. Then they stop doing it for awhile and zach will create and porter jr will be the point forward. Even Valentine. As for kris its anti winning basketball for him unless he makes his moves much faster and i can tell its not for him because on the drive and dunk attempt that got blocked showed me everything.

Hes clearly rushing and looking for ways to score but doesn't have the option to break his defender down as he likes to do. Everything is in a rhythm. White can do it good because hes a natural shooter. Im sure he will figure it out. But just going off last night he will have to change his game. I assume boylen wilk allow him more leeway once hes mightily struggling we still need half court slow paste game when the league catches on ti our schemes

[keloms]

I guess if Februlauri didn't happen last season, I would be concerned by his play so far this preseason but then again, we probably wouldn't have such high expectations for him coming into this season in that case.

A dozen or two game stretch means nothing. Linsanity happened too, but, once the rest of the league scouted him and caught on, the rest of his career was down from there.

Guy just doesn't have the mental edge to take it to another level.

[Clocian]

I need improvement from Lauri by the trade deadline. You know he's gonna want the max. I would not be willing to give him that just as a 3 pt shooter. He can't create, handle is shaky, and has a non-existent post game (just the basics would do).

[mj234eva]

This thread is hilarious

[Betta Bulleavit]

538 rates Lauri as a better player than Zach. That isits 2019-2020 projection. Not saying that 538 is right, but all these confident statements about how anybody who watches basketball can see that Zach is better is demonstrably false. The people at 538 watch basketball and they believe otherwise.

Between the two, I'll agree that Lauri may very well be the better player than Zach. Probably is. He's higher IQ, a more reliable shooter, better defender/intangibles.

I like Lauri. But outside of rebounding, can you (or anyone else) give me another facet of the game that Lauri is definitively better at than Zach? I don’t ask that as a means to knock Lauri. But Zach has grown a lot as a player and while the advanced analytics mumble jumble might say otherwise, he is this team’s best player period. I know that might not be the easiest thing for some people to accept. But it really is about time.

[PaKii94]

I just rewatched the first half while paying closer attention to Lauri. I will watch the 3rd quarter in a few minutes. I am not worried anymore. Besides the first bad shot that's been linked in the previous pages, Lauri actually played a nice game and played his role to a T. He was pacing himself and looking to playmake. Also he played good defense on Zion and holiday.

I do think he can be lethal at the 5 for spurts. He was open for days when Thad came in. And when he was guarded, his spacing helped the others get to the rim. But the downside to this is the dreaded "being used as a spacer aspect". At this point the bulls were up 15, Zach was cooking and Lauri was chilling.

I don't think he's at the point where he's going to be taking his man off the dribble yet. He can do that on closeouts but he got the ball swiped out of bounds by Zion twice.

I think we'll see the true scoring abilities come regular season when it actually matters and he gets heavier minutes


On a side note, Dunn is sooooo bad. He messes up the offensive rhythm so much. On his first play in the game, he passes it to lavine at the top of the key and almost runs into him. Then he had some more out of sync possessions which slowed down the team. If Sato had stayed in longer, this team would have popped off earlier in the game.

Dunn's best bet is literally just standing in the corner and playing defense. He has no touch or timing anymore.

As for Zach, he's such a pure athlete but damn he's still not over his turnover habits. This I'm hopeful will slowly but eventually be ironed out (or at least go down). There were multiple plays where Zach would try to drive or make a play but then stop and jump pass or bobble it. He could have easily had 3-4 more turnovers.

[FriedRise]

Love reading all the hot takes! A preseason thread with almost 40 pages is also very cool. Hope this continues into the season.

[PaKii94]

I guess if Februlauri didn't happen last season, I would be concerned by his play so far this preseason but then again, we probably wouldn't have such high expectations for him coming into this season in that case.

A dozen or two game stretch means nothing. Linsanity happened too, but, once the rest of the league scouted him and caught on, the rest of his career was down from there.

Guy just doesn't have the mental edge to take it to another level.

He averaged 19.7p/9.3r on 57%TS for the first 40 games of the season (half a season) until the fatigue issue hit.

Or 20.7/9.9 on 58.6 TS% if you discount the first couple games as rust/ recovery from elbow injury/preseason

He showed it for more than a couple games. Getting to the elite tier is extremely hard to do. And again, you're basing this off of preseason games.

[PaKii94]

I'm definitely bookmarking this thread for future laughs

[sco]

After watching the game (after reading most of the posts here), I was surprised by some of the commentary regarding Lauri and Sato. I thought both guys played very well. Lauri did a decent job on both ends. What he didn't do, and what guys might be looking for, is try to go ISO. He made himself available around the perimeter, made some nice backdoor cuts for dunks, and played with good vision, making some good passes. On defense, his rotation and awareness seemed improved over last year. I say this as someone who's been hard on Lauri.

Sato made some really nice passes and a bunch of heady plays. He really is such a good backcourt partner for Zach.

[DuckIII]

538 rates Lauri as a better player than Zach. That isits 2019-2020 projection. Not saying that 538 is right, but all these confident statements about how anybody who watches basketball can see that Zach is better is demonstrably false. The people at 538 watch basketball and they believe otherwise.

I have not read that article, but my guess is it’s based on a mathematical formula rather than basketball knowledge and the eye test.

[mtron32]

I just rewatched the first half while paying closer attention to Lauri. I will watch the 3rd quarter in a few minutes. I am not worried anymore. Besides the first bad shot that's been linked in the previous pages, Lauri actually played a nice game and played his role to a T. He was pacing himself and looking to playmake. Also he played good defense on Zion and holiday.

I do think he can be lethal at the 5 for spurts. He was open for days when Thad came in. And when he was guarded, his spacing helped the others get to the rim. But the downside to this is the dreaded "being used as a spacer aspect". At this point the bulls were up 15, Zach was cooking and Lauri was chilling.

I don't think he's at the point where he's going to be taking his man off the dribble yet. He can do that on closeouts but he got the ball swiped out of bounds by Zion twice.

I think we'll see the true scoring abilities come regular season when it actually matters and he gets heavier minutes


On a side note, Dunn is sooooo bad. He messes up the offensive rhythm so much. On his first play in the game, he passes it to lavine at the top of the key and almost runs into him. Then he had some more out of sync possessions which slowed down the team. If Sato had stayed in longer, this team would have popped off earlier in the game.

Dunn's best bet is literally just standing in the corner and playing defense. He has no touch or timing anymore.

As for Zach, he's such a pure athlete but damn he's still not over his turnover habits. This I'm hopeful will slowly but eventually be ironed out (or at least go down). There were multiple plays where Zach would try to drive or make a play but then stop and jump pass or bobble it. He could have easily had 3-4 more turnovers.

I hope you're right and he was being guarded by Zion's big a$$ so that cancels out a lot.

[bearadonisdna]

Dont know lauri and wcj seem to have lost some ground regarding perception among fans.
Imo it has to do with their attitudes.
Before injuries, cameras would pan to wcj on the bench and he seemed disgruntled.
Lauri had a stretch where he seemed like he was dogging it. He went from looking like a number 1 option to question whether he should even be on the team. Thats because tanking is to promote development of particular players. If he couldnt have success with everything tailored to his production thats why people are iffy about him.

[DASMACKDOWN]

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[kulaz3000]

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[PaKii94]

Okay I finished watching the 3rd quarter Lauri minutes. He took 1 more dumb shot. He doesn't have the iso but outside of that he played a great game. We are really underrating/underrepresenting his playmaking performance this game. This is a guy who could barely get 2 assists a game last season and had 4 in 24 mins along with multiple hockey assists. Also, he should have had 4 ft shots in the 3rd and with 2 of them being one less 2 point shot miss but the bulls were up 20ish at that point and the refs didn't blow the whistle. That would have put him at 16 points and 5/11 shooting. 3/5 from the two (the two misses being the 2 dumb iso shots) 63TS%

That's 24p/6r/6a per 36 mins. That also includes (imo) improved defense. I'll take that from a preseason game.

In my initial viewing I was disappointed but there was a reason the team was running smoothly and up 20 and Lauri was a big reason why. You can see it in the +16 box score. My concerns are quelled.

[kulaz3000]

Okay I finished watching the 3rd quarter Lauri minutes. He took 1 more dumb shot. He doesn't have the iso but outside of that he played a great game. We are really underrating/underrepresenting his playmaking performance this game. This is a guy who could barely get 2 assists a game last season and had 4 in 24 mins along with multiple hockey assists. Also, he should have had 4 ft shots in the 3rd and with 2 of them being one less 2 point shot miss but the bulls were up 20ish at that point and the refs didn't blow the whistle. That would have put him at 16 points and 5/11 shooting. 3/5 from the two (the two misses being the 2 dumb iso shots) 63TS%

That's 24p/6r/6a per 36 mins. That also includes (imo) improved defense. I'll take that from a preseason game.

In my initial viewing I was disappointed but there was a reason the team was running smoothly and up 20 and Lauri was a big reason why. You can see it in the +16 box score. My concerns are quelled.

But boxscores mean everything.