End of Season Press Conference

[TheSuzerain]

Watch on YouTube

[TheSuzerain]

Surprised there was no thread.

Really hope we get a surprise firing of AK.

[Hangtime84]

I don't mind what AK said. I LIKE what he said about internal development being a focus.

I understand how they feel about a hub center but this won't work if the center cannot defend.

The last attempt was adding bunch of point of attack defenders which was working but our best one that could made it work was Zo.

I hope they move away from that. If Josh and Coby are going to be your starting guards going forward you will need bigger lineup that can defend the rim.

We really do better job at grabbing G-leaguers and turning them into valuable cheap contracts.

[kodo]

"Patience" = run it back.

[DuckIII]

"Patience" = run it back.

I'm more or less okay with that. I'd in fact be pleasantly surprised if he does that and only that. Because despite our finish to the season I believe a team that purely runs this back plus a rookie is a bottom 10 team and we could use another year in the lottery at least.

[Hangtime84]

"Patience" = run it back.

I'm more or less okay with that. I'd in fact be pleasantly surprised if he does that and only that. Because despite our finish to the season I believe a team that purely runs this back plus a rookie is a bottom 10 team and we could use another year in the lottery at least.

Raps and Philly have a chance to leap pass us. But i don't see who else.

[DuckIII]

"Patience" = run it back.

I'm more or less okay with that. I'd in fact be pleasantly surprised if he does that and only that. Because despite our finish to the season I believe a team that purely runs this back plus a rookie is a bottom 10 team and we could use another year in the lottery at least.

Raps and Philly have a chance to leap pass us. But i don't see who else.

Its a tad premature to even guess at that. And obviously the Spurs would be projected to not just pass us, but rocket past us. Who knows what teams will do this summer? Some will tank out and be even worse than us possibly as well.

The only teams I see that I would project to "definitely" be worse than us on paper if all we do is add our pick are Washington, Charlotte and Utah. Everyone else has avenues to make real strides to pass us.

[dougthonus]

He gave the same generic answers he always gives and said nothing whatsoever of substance and tried to take another victory lap for another 39 win season and play-in loss. There's nothing else that I'd prefer he'd say based on his direction, because his direction and strategy still sucks IMO, but I don't expect him to come out and say, looking back at the last four years, I really screwed this up and am still on a path to mediocrity because I think it's the best way to save my job.

Nothing about what he's doing gives me even the remotest confidence that he will ever build a good team, but he backed himself into such a lousy corner that the alternative to what he did was to enter a 4+ year long rebuild, and after living through the last three years of absolute garbage without getting any assets to jump start anything doesn't excite me to live through another 4+ long years of garbage.

He's just driven this team into straight apathy where I can't really be happy or sad about almost anything because he's put us in such a lousy spot that mediocrity with no upside might actually be preferable to trying to rebuild via the draft with no assets.

[CROBulls]

3rd press ending conference in row copy paste. Bulls fans love this.

[DuckIII]

He gave the same generic answers he always gives and said nothing whatsoever of substance and tried to take another victory lap for another 39 win season and play-in loss. There's nothing else that I'd prefer he'd say based on his direction, because his direction and strategy still sucks IMO, but I don't expect him to come out and say, looking back at the last four years, I really screwed this up and am still on a path to mediocrity because I think it's the best way to save my job.

Nothing about what he's doing gives me even the remotest confidence that he will ever build a good team, but he backed himself into such a lousy corner that the alternative to what he did was to enter a 4+ year long rebuild, and after living through the last three years of absolute garbage without getting any assets to jump start anything doesn't excite me to live through another 4+ long years of garbage.

He's just driven this team into straight apathy where I can't really be happy or sad about almost anything because he's put us in such a lousy spot that mediocrity with no upside might actually be preferable to trying to rebuild via the draft with no assets.

For me this was his least gag-inducing press conference yet. For the first time ever he didn't say anything that made him sound insanely incompetent and completely detached from how one is supposed to actually do his job ("too many buyers" - "teams win titles with 9 really good players" etc.).

That's progress baby! Now he just needs to work on his "I'm a human being" impersonation and he might have something to build on from a PR perspective.

[MalagaBulls]

Vuc said he wants to win now, that pretty much means they will try to trade him and extract max value for him.

[TheSuzerain]

He gave the same generic answers he always gives and said nothing whatsoever of substance and tried to take another victory lap for another 39 win season and play-in loss. There's nothing else that I'd prefer he'd say based on his direction, because his direction and strategy still sucks IMO, but I don't expect him to come out and say, looking back at the last four years, I really screwed this up and am still on a path to mediocrity because I think it's the best way to save my job.

Nothing about what he's doing gives me even the remotest confidence that he will ever build a good team, but he backed himself into such a lousy corner that the alternative to what he did was to enter a 4+ year long rebuild, and after living through the last three years of absolute garbage without getting any assets to jump start anything doesn't excite me to live through another 4+ long years of garbage.

He's just driven this team into straight apathy where I can't really be happy or sad about almost anything because he's put us in such a lousy spot that mediocrity with no upside might actually be preferable to trying to rebuild via the draft with no assets.

This hits on the true cruelty of the AK era.

He talks about 'shrinking the timeline' when in fact he has made the timeline to contention as long and as brutal as possible from a fan perspective.

[ChettheJet]

I think the legit question was if DEN had contacted him about their opening. Next was mentioning that BRK looks like the only team with cap space to sign Giddey.

Some here make Joe Cowley look like the NBA Professor. Did you really think he was going to lay out the plan the day after they lose another play in? Were you shocked he didn't name the 12 players he was going to be trying to trade for? Nor did he throw the guys on the roster under the bus that he wants to ship out. The more I read here the more I like the current AK approach. I've endorsed it before and now he's talking about getting young guys with experience who maybe have gotten pushed down the bench and see if they can find a role. A lot of times a new regime takes over (that list is just starting to grow) and they either lust after big names and think a big turnaround is going to happen or they want to tank and love draft picks.

Look at how the Bulls style changed when Giddey got the ball, and Coby became a SG. Collins, Huerter and Jones really opened things up. I'm looking to move Vucevic to get a couple more young guys who can continue the change. You can't rule out anything because you don't know what new VP/GM might call looking to move young veterans they inherited and want expiring contracts

[WesPeace]

He gave the same generic answers he always gives and said nothing whatsoever of substance and tried to take another victory lap for another 39 win season and play-in loss. There's nothing else that I'd prefer he'd say based on his direction, because his direction and strategy still sucks IMO, but I don't expect him to come out and say, looking back at the last four years, I really screwed this up and am still on a path to mediocrity because I think it's the best way to save my job.

Nothing about what he's doing gives me even the remotest confidence that he will ever build a good team, but he backed himself into such a lousy corner that the alternative to what he did was to enter a 4+ year long rebuild, and after living through the last three years of absolute garbage without getting any assets to jump start anything doesn't excite me to live through another 4+ long years of garbage.

He's just driven this team into straight apathy where I can't really be happy or sad about almost anything because he's put us in such a lousy spot that mediocrity with no upside might actually be preferable to trying to rebuild via the draft with no assets.

I saw improvement.. he didnt read all the stuff he said and had to say from the prewritten paper notes lol!

Also he looked more human,not so robotic generic

But otherwise yeah, I agree

[kodo]

Aren't we the only team in the league that has
A) not been in the playoffs last 3 years
B) not had a top 5 pick last 3 years

Utah is guaranteed at least a #5 pick (I think?) this year so they'll have a top 5 pick.
I guess Toronto but they picked top 5 4 years ago, and they have decent odds of moving up this year.

I think the Bulls will be studied in the future on exactly the worst way to run a franchise.

[dougthonus]

For me this was his least gag-inducing press conference yet. For the first time ever he didn't say anything that made him sound insanely incompetent and completely detached from how one is supposed to actually do his job ("too many buyers" - "teams win titles with 9 really good players" etc.).

That's progress baby! Now he just needs to work on his "I'm a human being" impersonation and he might have something to build on from a PR perspective.

I don't know, his whole spiel he went on about shortening the timeline by getting young players with upside and experience rather than building through the draft and ignoring all the questions about how are you ever going to get a star player was still reasonably nauseating, but I agree that it was probably his best press conference yet.

[sco]

How can we get the words "a" and "the" into his vocabulary?

So there are clear take-aways:

1) Despite my wishes to the contrary, 100% Coby is back.
2) He'll pay what he needs to keep Giddey. If I had to guess, he'll put an offer of $28M on the table and will say, if you can find a better deal, I'll match it.
3) He isn't going to trade for a star player 30 or over.
4) Billy will be back.
5) At least he saw our play-in as a real measuring stick for guys and how lacking they are.
6) Only names he mentioned were Josh, Coby and Matas...so maybe everyone else is fair game to go.

[WindyCityBorn]

Vuc said he wants to win now, that pretty much means they will try to trade him and extract max value for him.

Just get rid of him. He is not valuable.

[keloms]

How can we get the words "a" and "the" into his vocabulary?

So there are clear take-aways:

1) Despite my wishes to the contrary, 100% Coby is back.
2) He'll pay what he needs to keep Giddey. If I had to guess, he'll put an offer of $28M on the table and will say, if you can find a better deal, I'll match it.
3) He isn't going to trade for a star player 30 or over.
4) Billy will be back.
5) At least he saw our play-in as a real measuring stick for guys and how lacking they are.
6) Only names he mentioned were Josh, Coby and Matas...so maybe everyone else is fair game to go.

Typical Bulls formula. Can't sniff a real superstar so max out the cap with a B level talent that'll get them absolutely nowhere.

[drosestruts]

These are pretty much pointless - not just AK's, really anyone's end of season press conference.

Matt Ishiba was much more animated, but who cares - results were even worse than ours. He's fired 4 coaches in the past 4 years. 5th times the charm Suns!

There's also rules from the NBA that makes these pointless, I don't think he could even name a player on another team without getting fined, and it'd be awful to say anything negative about a player on your own team.

By the rules - anything you can even say is vague.