AKME stands pat

[Indomitable]

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He still does not sound any better nor more clarity. I know KC always tries to go soft on Bulls Front office to keep them on good terms, but at some point he gotta ask the obvious.

He works for the Bulls now.

[Jcool0]

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He still does not sound any better nor more clarity. I know KC always tries to go soft on Bulls Front office to keep them on good terms, but at some point he gotta ask the obvious.

He works for the Bulls now.

He has always been this way. One of the last of the old school local reporters.

[DropStep]

(Dupe)

[DropStep]

When the VP spews such idiotic drivel & nonsense which is easily proven false by just looking at every championship team, the fault now lies with ownership. AK is a basketball moron, and so the problem lies with his superiors who haven't fired him and worse keep extending him. Our core problem is the same as it always was, the ownership group. They're the ones who hire the FO.

I mean ownership is always in the crosshairs of the Chicago fanbase, so to say I agree would be the biggest "duh" ever.

That said, AK either thinks everyone's dumb as **** or he's the one that's dumb as ****. If he truly believes a 9 - 10 role player team is a path to a title then he doesn't know what he's doing and should be fired immediately. You have 1 example in 75 years where this is true. Or 1 example in the last 45 years aka, modern(ish) NBA. Maybe 2 depending on how you view Tatum/Brown.

Let's wrap this up guys. Move on.

No! lol. It's always fun to defend the indefensible, so here's a TL;DR effort:

First, it depends on your definition of "star." I think he's talking about top what, 20 guys? A big 2-3 model? Which is currently going out of fashion a bit, because you can end up like the Suns.

He also didn't say a 9-10 role player team is a path to a title, he contrasted A) a bunch of role players with 2-3 stars, versus B) 9-10 very good players. I would consider those "very goods" some guys with some all star teams on their resumes, with some more on-the-bubble all-stars, and the rest including quality starters, a sixth man of the year, and then really outstanding role players, Kyle Korvers, in the 8/9/10 spots. Ironically, we actually had three fringe all-star types for the past few years, but our overall quality certainly did not go 9 deep. Still... if not for Lonzo's knee, who knows? I think maybe there was a contender in there. But that's for another thread.

He also didn't say we have 9-10 very good players now, he said if we could get or develop a bunch of very good players, it could be one way to build a path toward a title.

It could be argued this isn't just a 2004 Pistons/Dennis Johnson Sonics path. The Rockets are kind of on this path currently, although Amen is looking pretty starry lately, and they are still very young, but they are pretty friggin' good right now and I wouldn't say there are any currently great players there. It's also kind of what the Knicks have pursued. Jalen Brunson was not a great player, or on a trajectory to be a great player, when they got him, though he's pretty great now. Randle wasn't a true star, most would say - great stats, especially in that one season, but flawed. OG Anunoby. Yet they were quite contender-y and the fan base was energized. Only recently did they consolidate some of their assets into Towns, who is a star player, but it wasn't a no-brainer. And they consolidated into Mikal Bridges, who isn't great, and is unlikely to be, imo. Brunson is great now, but that is not what they were when they were building their path, and when they first made noise in the playoffs. They were a collection of the very good when their path was laid down. I'm not sure the Cavs have a current hall of famer on their roster either. Although, it's sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy - if they do win titles, Mitchell/Garland/Mobley will have a much better chance of being HOFers. That's the best way to get there.

I don't quite believe that defense of AK's statement, but parts of it I do. Where I think I mostly part ways is kind of where the Knicks are now. Most teams who have 10 really good, but not great players, end up consolidating them for a star or two as the final piece of the puzzle when they are trying to win. Or, somebody makes the leap. Or, both, says Leon Rose. Having nine 31-year-old, quality players, with some fringe-ish all stars leading the way, is hard to imagine winning in this NBA. Sounds more like that gritty, hard out in the playoffs type. But I do believe that sometimes you're just a collection of interesting players somewhere along the way, without any thoroughbreds, and the path isn't always clear ahead of time. That's probably the direction AK is trying to go - because getting real bad is the best way to get thoroughbreds, and he won't do that.

[SalmonsSuperfan]

They gotta trade him for something eventually, right?

Precisely.. which is why it made sense to do it now. Firstly, Vuc's value actually decreases come the off season.. regardless what side of the camp you on if he's paid fairly or not, come then, it's one less potential playoff run a team would have with him. He's 35 years old!

And with how many teams that are making financial moves... opening up more space would allow us to be bigger buyers and take on draft capital. It is easier for teams to trade with a team under the cap who can absorb more rather than trying to piece the puzzle together to match Vuc's contract.

And before anyone else comments that we could easily buy more draft capital the hard way (with cash)... it's been eons since we've done so. Ownership is to cheap to pony up extra money... so we ought to maximise our ability to earn it the hard way (eating bad contracts).

We ought to really be selling our flexibility to all the teams loaded with picks and go... hey, we can take away your undesirables for that in return. We can make it a 3 way or offer you a lovely TPE.

Yeah I sort of think they should’ve traded him for whatever they could get. I’m not sure those Nurk/Val packages are helping their former teams that much however. Interesting to see the Ingram return too.

I’m wondering: am I out of touch or were a lot of very good players traded for nothing this year? Are these players not good anymore? Should the Bulls have actually ADDED at the deadline? Why wasn’t there a 3 team trade with LAL sending out Vuc and bringing in Mark Williams?

I’m definitely out of touch because I have no clue who Mark Williams is and he has a very boring name but apparently he’s a good basketball player. I still know these players better than AK.

[SalmonsSuperfan]

Was also thinking about the Vuc trade and the nice season he’s having (the 3 pt shot is cratering back to earth right?), how maybe we didn’t get ripped off…Wendell is not a good player. And I was like “that guy franz wagner probably fell off a cliff” but he’s evidently a 25/5/5 player now. What. Not efficient I guess.

[sco]

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He still does not sound any better nor more clarity. I know KC always tries to go soft on Bulls Front office to keep them on good terms, but at some point he gotta ask the obvious.

He works for the Bulls now.

Listening to AK is hard, and not just because his lack of use of articles ("a" or "the"), but really because he sounds like a criminal on the stand. And I get GM's like to keep their cards close to the vest, but after the deadline is over, some of that postering should be done. Like him or not, Pax was always relatively open. AK's answers are usually evasive or incomplete.

What bothered me the most is that he sounds like he hasn't really picked a lane...even for this season.

[jacoby1us]

Unforunate to see that nothing has changed with Bulls leadership, blind leading the blind running backwards. Stop giving your time and money to this organization, you deserve better.

[jc23]

We all believed that the bulls finally had a direction but we were fooled for the billionth year in a row.

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[Muzbar]

The last team to win a championship without a bonafide superstar was the Ben Wallace/Rip Hamilton/Chauncey Billup's Detroit Pistons team or am I missing another team?

The Bulls FO one job in life is to continue to stoke the fire of the Bulls fan civil war. Which admittedly is more entertaining than the product on the court.

Do better Bulls FO.

The Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince disrespect!

No disrespect.

I know.

Just messing around.

[KissedByaRose1]

The pressser he did with CHI media yesterday was one of the roughest things i've ever watched. I actually wanted a reporter to ask him

"Arutras are you aware that the lower you finish in standings the higher your lottery odds are/that's how the draft works?"

Seriously, check it out and watch the whole thing if you have 20 minutes. We don't have to wonder anymore, he confirmed now fewer than 10 times that there is no plan. He's in total wait and see move and does not seem to understand that he's drastically hurting what few current assets we have and that him showing no urgency hurts us more and more.

This has officially taken a pretty sad turn. Obviously rooting for sports teams we like and having them lose sucks, but the level of incompetence shown by this man for this position is pretty unrivaled in my time of viewing pro sports. I'm angry at the bulls, but i feel sad for him. He's in SO over his head and if he had a boss who cared about anything other than the bottom line he woulda been replaced awhile ago but he's forced to go out there and look like an uneducated imbecile time and time again. He clearly has a horrible reputation league wide on top of that and i doubt that's because he's unpleasant to deal with but simply because he's a total waste of time to talk to because he doesn't have a clue what's going on or how things in the modern NBA work.

He repeatedly said he like the position we're in and that Billy/the team did a great job the first part of the season. And i don't think that's BS team speak, i think he actually believes that. Happy he's getting paid what he's getting paid because obviously once this is over the most he'll ever be is a scout again. I think Cowleys a total punk but if you had put him, me, or most of the posters here in charge of the team the last 3 seasons we'd seriously have a much better future outlook and i'm not being hyperbolic at all. As always, this looks so horrible for the Reinsdorfs and i don't understand how the can take such little personal pride in something that matters so much to so many people. At a certain point in time don't you think Michael would care about his dignity at all? For almost a decade now we've been totally irrelevant and well respected members of media call us out weekly for being a clown show. I guess money solves pretty much everything for a lota people because even at the laziest moments in my life i'd never be OK with putting my name on this **** of a job for everyone to see. It's embarrassing

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[Jcool0]

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[DASMACKDOWN]

So....this is how you cover up "We are tanking" "We are rebuilding" from John Paxson.

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AK basically did the same thing but he cant deliver a message that can sound competent.

[jnrjr79]

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My conspiracy theory here is the front office must be cooperating more with Cowley these days, because he's rather quickly started posting stuff defending AK.

[Jcool0]

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My conspiracy theory here is the front office must be cooperating more with Cowley these days, because he's rather quickly started posting stuff defending AK.

He said on CHGO Bulls that if his sources screw him aka nothing much happens over the summer that the gloves will come off and he will treat AK like late stage Gar/Pax.

[Guru]

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My conspiracy theory here is the front office must be cooperating more with Cowley these days, because he's rather quickly started posting stuff defending AK.

There was a note from a podcast I listened to that Cowley, when in the press gaggle, was given information that was off the record....and then immediately revealed it in the public....I assume he got his hand slapped.

[Guru]

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My conspiracy theory here is the front office must be cooperating more with Cowley these days, because he's rather quickly started posting stuff defending AK.

He said on CHGO Bulls that if his sources screw him aka nothing much happens over the summer that the gloves will come off and he will treat AK like late stage Gar/Pax.

That podcast should be called "Gottleib yelling"

It's complete garbage.

[KissedByaRose1]

So....this is how you cover up "We are tanking" "We are rebuilding" from John Paxson.

Watch on YouTube

AK basically did the same thing but he cant deliver a message that can sound competent.

Holy cow. I literally purchased/wore "Fire GarPax" shirts to games in 2019 with my friends but after hearing this I'd give back our 1st round pick to have him back. Probably not even impossible seeing as how he'd be Jerry's cheapest option

[samwana]

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My conspiracy theory here is the front office must be cooperating more with Cowley these days, because he's rather quickly started posting stuff defending AK.

He said on CHGO Bulls that if his sources screw him aka nothing much happens over the summer that the gloves will come off and he will treat AK like late stage Gar/Pax.

Why not asap?

[Guru]

My conspiracy theory here is the front office must be cooperating more with Cowley these days, because he's rather quickly started posting stuff defending AK.

He said on CHGO Bulls that if his sources screw him aka nothing much happens over the summer that the gloves will come off and he will treat AK like late stage Gar/Pax.

Why not asap?

The belief is there will be more buyers as more teams get comfy and cozy with the current CBA