Bulls vs Mavs 7pm CT

[sco]

Just came on to reiterate what I say every game. The Bulls (and Vuc) are very good against non-rim protecting teams, but we struggle mightily against rim protectors.

[FriedRise]

Gafford will play for 10 teams in his career. He isn’t very good.

I think Gafford has found his golden ticket. Follow Luka wherever he goes, and you'll get and stay paid.

Felicio would've been in the league a lot longer if he got more time with DWade.

[DuckIII]

No comment.

[drosestruts]

Been a while since we got absolutely annihilated in a game. Hard to imagine that that Dallas team is currently in the play-in in the West. Dallas-Golden State-and LA all being in the play-in is going to be insane (if that holds).

Don't think there's much to take away from this game - don't think it's a microcosm of anything aside from Luka being awesome and what a great player like Luka and some vertical spacing can provide.

It does make me wonder what this team could look like with a lob threat - DeMar as we know faces plenty of double teams but we lack a great release valve - it mostly generates open 3's but we're not exactly the best 3-point shooting team so it's worth the risk to other teams. Simply not a tool in our tool chest due to our personal at the moment.

Looking more and more destined for that 9-seed spot.

[Andi Obst]

At this point, it's all about getting that 9-seed to have a home game in the 9/10 play-in game and maybe get a win there.

Exciting times for sure.

[2weekswithpay]

Either AK loves lying to himself, or he punches the wall every time he closes the door. It’d be one thing if one of the guys blossomed and outperformed a decent Vuc, but to see almost every outgoing piece and asset essentially outplay him (basically since the trades), Gafford, Wendell, Lauri (who’s better than Vuc in his peak prime)… AND THEN Franz, also lapping him since his rookie season…

That’s quite the 4-0 TKO for a bull**** C who can’t impact NBA games unless they’re sub-500 teams.. picking him up for 2 very young franchise players and 2 young 2-way roleplayers.

Murphy’s law in effect, but still… the scouting of Vuc himself was a disaster. It’s crazy, but the net result is way worse than Isiah overpaying for Eddy Curry (we got Noah and Tyrus - of course, could’ve been LMA). I long considered that the biggest fleecing (in/out) in Bulls’ history, kind of our baby Celtics/Nets trade, but this one takes the cake in disparity. Unfortunately we’re the losers. Guilty as charged- i thought it was good to change the young Cs for a vet stabilizing big. I should retire from realgm’ing, in shame.

Carter is not better than Vuc. Choosing Vuc over Lauri looks REALLY bad now though. Had yeah I’d rather have Franz. Gafford will play for 10 teams in his career. He isn’t very good.

Forget stats, forget contracts, forget any preconceived notions...which player impacts winning more?

WCJ. If you gave every playoff team the choice between Vuc and WCJ, WCJ would win easily. Being better defensively goes a long way.

[Andi Obst]

LMAO when I read "Carter is not better than Vuc" I thought it was about Jevon and was like "Okay, that discussion is kinda crazy".

But WCJ?! How is this even a question at this point? The only thing Vuc is better at is staying healthy and I'm not even sure how much of a good thing that actually is.

[MrSparkle]

The big problem with Vuc, is that at his best… against a hot team, he gets absolutely obliterated and exploited on the defensive end. At his worst, he gets obliterated by a bad team. At his best, he does well against struggling teams.

3.5 seasons in, I’m a little baffled why we’re still overthinking this. Vuc is an NBA liability, below average NBA starter, not a starting asset.

[Jeffster81]

NBA Hell.

[Red8911]

Carter is not better than Vuc. Choosing Vuc over Lauri looks REALLY bad now though. Had yeah I’d rather have Franz. Gafford will play for 10 teams in his career. He isn’t very good.

Forget stats, forget contracts, forget any preconceived notions...which player impacts winning more?

WCJ. If you gave every playoff team the choice between Vuc and WCJ, WCJ would win easily. Being better defensively goes a long way.

WCJ is not better than Vuc and never will be. Waiting for Vuc to have a bad game still doesn’t change the facts.

Carter is and always will be a role player, pretty soon he will be coming off the bench no matter what teams he’s on and he’s only 24 years old.

I still can’t believe the Bulls tanked a whole damn year just to draft Wendell Fkn Carter.

[kodo]

Vuc is one of the lowest efficiency scorers in the league at a position that requires high efficiency.

18 points in a game on 9 shots from someone like Gafford is much better than 22 points on 22 shots from Vucevic (like he just had vs LAC). With the Gafford swap you lose 4 points but gain 13 more possessions.
13 more possessions from Ayo/Coby/Caruso who all shoot 60% TS = 15.6 points.

The C position is the only position where you find that kind of sky high efficiency, and we've wasted ours by constantly having our C pop out to the 3 where Vuc shoots 25%.

There are no other centers on this list.

Read on Twitter

[DuckIII]

At this point, it's all about getting that 9-seed to have a home game in the 9/10 play-in game and maybe get a win there.

Exciting times for sure.

Definitely. We’re a veteran team with the 19th “best” record in the NBA, are actually 21st in point differential, are 3 games under .500, and 3.5 games behind the 18th “best” team.

Super excited about this team’s ceiling!

[Red8911]

I have been defending Billy, but at some point he and the team need to figure out why the same unit that finishes games so well begins them so poorly.

Lately Coby sleep walks in the beginning of games and wakes up later on. This can’t be happening. Coby himself needs to realize that the team now depends on him to contribute all game long. Without his scoring or aggressiveness the bulls are a lot weaker offensively. He has to be better.

[ChettheJet]

I was just seeing maybe on the General Board someone saying Jason Kidd is the worst coach of all time. Well somebody on that bench stood up in the pre game meeting and said, 'I've seen the Bulls play, here's what we need to do, now go out there and do it'. And this one was a cakewalk.

And here we find the Bulls, once more 3 games under .500. There's a limit to the 4 guard small ball world combined with the constant switching and basically half the other teams get the message and beat the Bulls and the other half are willing to ignore the obvious.

[2weekswithpay]

Forget stats, forget contracts, forget any preconceived notions...which player impacts winning more?

WCJ. If you gave every playoff team the choice between Vuc and WCJ, WCJ would win easily. Being better defensively goes a long way.

WCJ is not better than Vuc and never will be. Waiting for Vuc to have a bad game still doesn’t change the facts.

Carter is and always will be a role player, pretty soon he will be coming off the bench no matter what teams he’s on and he’s only 24 years old.

I still can’t believe the Bulls tanked a whole damn year just to draft Wendell Fkn Carter.

I don't have to wait for Vuc to have a bad game nobody does. He's a bad defender and is the least efficient center in the NBA. Why do people think that he's in another tier compared to WCJ? Vuc isn't an All-Star anymore, he isn't even a good starting center right now. He's a role player just like WCJ is but at least WCJ can hold his own on defense, we have to sell out on defense to protect Vuc.

[drosestruts]

The Vuc comparison to other centers isn't quite apples to organges but it is like Granny Smith to Red Delicious. They're both apples, but they're also different.

and before I get too far into this rant I do want to make it clear I do not like Vuc and think he's bad.

But Vuc's shot cart is wildly different then the shot chart of someone like Daniel Gafford.

In theory a center with style like Vuc creates a more open court for other players to attack the rim - I'm just not sure that that's actually happening for this Bulls team.

It also comes down to a floor spacing vs vertical spacing discussion, as it's rather rare for a player to offer both.

Vuc is a particular type of center - but his stylistic differences don't excuse him from his actual bad performance.

Heck I've spent a good portion of the season advocating for signing Kai Jones so I'm clearly no fan or believer in our center rotation.

And while we're complaining about Vuc - I feel like he rushes things so much. He got a nice entry pass yesterday in the post while being guarded by Luka and rushed some dump flip shot that he missed. Why rush things when being guarded by Luka who is much smaller and not known as a good defender. Go to work, and if help comes find the open player.

In my earlier post I said there was nothing to take away from this game and that it wasn't some microcosm of any bigger picture things - but that was partially a lie because Vuc sucked last night and he does suck.

[Stratmaster]

What could have been with Gafford.

Yep. But most mocked him when he was with the Bulls.

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[Stratmaster]

What could have been with Gafford.

The long and ever growing list of "what ifs".

To think that the Bulls had Lauri and Gafford. And now have no power forward or 3rd big. Heavy sigh.

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[Stratmaster]

Carter is not bette me than Vuc.

Well, as a consistently fed scoring option… no… as an all around, more efficient and much better defensive player? Uh, sadly there’s an argument to be made. He also outscored Vuc in 3 of the 7 head to head games, which is not what you want to hear from a defensive specialist.

Straight up, I'm absolutely not picking Wendell over Vuc. The dude cannot stay healthy. He's not helping any team by regularly missing 30+ games a season. And while he's viewed as a defensive player, he sure gave up a ton of huge scoring games to his matchup while with us.

Agreed

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[Stratmaster]

Forget stats, forget contracts, forget any preconceived notions...which player impacts winning more?

WCJ. If you gave every playoff team the choice between Vuc and WCJ, WCJ would win easily. Being better defensively goes a long way.

WCJ is not better than Vuc and never will be. Waiting for Vuc to have a bad game still doesn’t change the facts.

Carter is and always will be a role player, pretty soon he will be coming off the bench no matter what teams he’s on and he’s only 24 years old.

I still can’t believe the Bulls tanked a whole damn year just to draft Wendell Fkn Carter.

Well said

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