GT: Bucks @ Bulls - 6 CT

[WesPeace]

I'm happy for Ayo, to prove to his doubters again, he belongs here.. homeboi playa

Buzelis could be 18-20 ppg already this season, if he is free to do his thing..he should be,but..

[Rose2Boozer]

At some point, I believe we may see Buzelis and Williams at the forward spots. If Williams can consistently rebound and make shots he'll prove to be more valuable in the starting lineup than Okoro. Less is more with Williams. We need more rebounds, more three point makes, and less ball handling. Ultimately, Okoro and Huerter could be battling for regular rotation minutes.

The short term answer is Ayo, even if he doesn't start, he is setting himself up to receive starters minutes. Giddey, White, Ayo, Buzelis, and Vucevic could end up being the team's best five.

Noa Essengue's defensive awareness on the perimeter has been a pleasant surprise. We need to see more of that in what's left of the preseason.

[Ice Man]

I'm pretty sure I heard Stacey say during the 3rd quarter that it would be great if Vuc can be a defensive anchor when on the court, to show veteran leadership for the young players. Really, that's what I heard.

[sco]

Well thru 3 games it looks like Patrick actually earned playing time.

Pat actually made nice passes.

Pat has more game than Okoro. Okoro can’t really do anything on ball. He can shoot and cut. Nothing on ball and no passing or creating.

First, all Pat can do "on ball" is turn the ball over. Billy, trying to do the right thing and develop that part of Pat's game, has him doing things he really can't do. Pat's lack of a handle and a complete lack of any post moves is not something that he can seemingly fix. I love that Okoro wants nothing to do with having the ball in his hands. He will take open 3's and make back cuts and try for offensive bounds. That's all I want from my 5th option on offense.

I'm fine with Pat playing 18mpg behind Matas. Bench defenses are less able to turn Pat over.

[sco]

I'm happy for Ayo, to prove to his doubters again, he belongs here.. homeboi playa

Buzelis could be 18-20 ppg already this season, if he is free to do his thing..he should be,but..

I am happy that Ayo figured out for himself or Billy figured it out, but he is night and day when he just relentlessly drives to the basket. It turns on his confidence and opens up his 3pt shot (which is still hit and miss, but if that starts falling again, he'll be a keeper). That said, I still am not seeing more than average defense out of him, which takes away some of his value.

I'm rooting for a bench mob of Jones/Ayo/Huerter/Pat (although I prefer Noa)/Collins (I prefer Vuc).

[MrSparkle]

I'm pretty sure I heard Stacey say during the 3rd quarter that it would be great if Vuc can be a defensive anchor when on the court, to show veteran leadership for the young players. Really, that's what I heard.

"Better thank me for these moments, boys. You'll never work this hard again!"

[dougthonus]

I'm pretty sure I heard Stacey say during the 3rd quarter that it would be great if Vuc can be a defensive anchor when on the court, to show veteran leadership for the young players. Really, that's what I heard.

I mean, to be fair, that would be great if Vuc could do that.

[Chi town]

I'm happy for Ayo, to prove to his doubters again, he belongs here.. homeboi playa

Buzelis could be 18-20 ppg already this season, if he is free to do his thing..he should be,but..

I am happy that Ayo figured out for himself or Billy figured it out, but he is night and day when he just relentlessly drives to the basket. It turns on his confidence and opens up his 3pt shot (which is still hit and miss, but if that starts falling again, he'll be a keeper). That said, I still am not seeing more than average defense out of him, which takes away some of his value.

I'm rooting for a bench mob of Jones/Ayo/Huerter/Pat (although I prefer Noa)/Collins (I prefer Vuc).

I think we are going to see more Buz and Pat together than we think.

League wide many teams are following the “physical” brand of D now ala OKC. Jokic said DEN is doing it in an interview yesterday.

Huerter SUCKS against physicality as does DT and JP. Pat is going to play if his motor runs.

Pats handle still sucks but he still creates off the dribble with drive and kick. I just want him to chuck 3s because his shot looks more fluid and confident.

[sco]

I'm happy for Ayo, to prove to his doubters again, he belongs here.. homeboi playa

Buzelis could be 18-20 ppg already this season, if he is free to do his thing..he should be,but..

I am happy that Ayo figured out for himself or Billy figured it out, but he is night and day when he just relentlessly drives to the basket. It turns on his confidence and opens up his 3pt shot (which is still hit and miss, but if that starts falling again, he'll be a keeper). That said, I still am not seeing more than average defense out of him, which takes away some of his value.

I'm rooting for a bench mob of Jones/Ayo/Huerter/Pat (although I prefer Noa)/Collins (I prefer Vuc).

I think we are going to see more Buz and Pat together than we think.

League wide many teams are following the “physical” brand of D now ala OKC. Jokic said DEN is doing it in an interview yesterday.

Huerter SUCKS against physicality as does DT and JP. Pat is going to play if his motor runs.

Pats handle still sucks but he still creates off the dribble with drive and kick. I just want him to chuck 3s because his shot looks more fluid and confident.

Yeah Pat's handle is still a problem, but I feel like both he and Billy feel differently because he keeps dribbling. In this case, practice makes turn-overs.

[MikeDC]

1. I know everyone loves Ayo but I'm unconvinced that he's super amazing until I see it in real games. Last year in the pre-season he was crushing it too. 22 pts/36, 61.5% 3pt%/36 on his volume. Didn't translate when the game started to matter.

Generally, don't try to pretend that pre-season matters much. Still, it's better to look good than to look bad...

2. Okoro doesn't look good to me. I continue to not see what the Bulls were so enthralled with that they went out and traded for him (when all the rest of the league didn't want him). He routinely gets run off the line and passes up shots. Fouled a ton, the ball in his hands is an adventure in a bad way, and he doesn't seem to do many of the little things that make good defenders. He's an objectively bad rebounder for a guy as strong as he is.

The Bulls are going to have a real dilemma on their hands between not having much margin for error to make their play-in goal and wanting to have Okoro in the lineup to justify trading for him. As a thought experiment, would Pat or even Terry look better if all they had to do was stand in the corner and take wide open shots off Garland/DMitch/Jerome/Merrill etc? Of course. Well, so did Okoro.

3. Tre + Giddey on the floor at the same time is going to be some ugly basketball.

[sco]

1. I know everyone loves Ayo but I'm unconvinced that he's super amazing until I see it in real games. Last year in the pre-season he was crushing it too. 22 pts/36, 61.5% 3pt%/36 on his volume. Didn't translate when the game started to matter.

Generally, don't try to pretend that pre-season matters much. Still, it's better to look good than to look bad...

2. Okoro doesn't look good to me. I continue to not see what the Bulls were so enthralled with that they went out and traded for him (when all the rest of the league didn't want him). He routinely gets run off the line and passes up shots. Fouled a ton, the ball in his hands is an adventure in a bad way, and he doesn't seem to do many of the little things that make good defenders. He's an objectively bad rebounder for a guy as strong as he is.

The Bulls are going to have a real dilemma on their hands between not having much margin for error to make their play-in goal and wanting to have Okoro in the lineup to justify trading for him. As a thought experiment, would Pat or even Terry look better if all they had to do was stand in the corner and take wide open shots off Garland/DMitch/Jerome/Merrill etc? Of course. Well, so did Okoro.

3. Tre + Giddey on the floor at the same time is going to be some ugly basketball.

Yeah, we don't have a star on this team so the plan is to replace sucky players with less sucky players and try to get lucky.

On Ayo, I like his attacking the basket which is his strength. It almost always leads to good things from him, but he always seems to go away from it. The rest of game feeds off of it. His defense still looks average to me though.

Okoro fits in the less sucky bucket to me. Every minute he keeps Pat and Terry off the court is a positive. He also is dealing with a new system which will lead to him looking a little slow and out of place for a few months, but he's our 5th option on offense, so I'm less concerned.

I disagree on Tre. He is flat out objectively good. Last year he looked better at the things we wanted to see from Ball and Ayo than they did. He'll be bringing the types of things we saw got from Caruso in terms of BBIQ, but also a skilled ball handler, distributor and guy who has amazed me with his ability to finish at the rim at high %, especially for a guy his size. I'm predicting he leads the team in +- for the season.

[GoBlue72391]

I'm pretty sure I heard Stacey say during the 3rd quarter that it would be great if Vuc can be a defensive anchor when on the court, to show veteran leadership for the young players. Really, that's what I heard.

He is a defensive anchor...in that he's weighing the rest of the team down.

[GoBlue72391]

Well thru 3 games it looks like Patrick actually earned playing time.

Pat actually made nice passes.

Pat has more game than Okoro. Okoro can’t really do anything on ball. He can shoot and cut. Nothing on ball and no passing or creating.

What are you smoking? Neither player has any on-ball game.

At least Okoro knows that and doesn't try to do anything on-ball, unlike Pat who routinely gets stripped, loses the ball, dribbles off his foot, and steps out of bounds.

They're both below average players, neither of which should ever be in contention for a starting spot on an even decent team.

I'll go with Okoro because he knows his role and his effort and energy levels are significantly higher than Pat's.

[GoBlue72391]

You can tell me that Josh Giddey won't be a Top 15 NBA point guard this season and a helluva bargain at $25 million. Feel free to say that. But I won't believe you.

That seems like a really low bar, no?

[GoBlue72391]

Jalen comes in and immediately brings activity and quick buckets. I don't get it.

Quite often he provides nothing on offense other than bricked 3 pointers. He's clearly behind Collins IMO.

[Chi town]

We are 6th in the league through 3 preseason games in FTs while missing Coby and Giddey playing half mins.

I think the physical play on D is helping us play more physical on offense. I could see the FTs from Coby Giddey Buz really helping us. Would love to see each of them at 5-6 per game by ASB

[MrSparkle]

Jalen comes in and immediately brings activity and quick buckets. I don't get it.

Quite often he provides nothing on offense other than bricked 3 pointers. He's clearly behind Collins IMO.

I’m not a big fan of Jalen (he’s a serviceable bench big), but I whole heartedly believe he and Collins are a better rotation than playing Vuc 30+ mpg.

[GoBlue72391]

Jalen comes in and immediately brings activity and quick buckets. I don't get it.

Quite often he provides nothing on offense other than bricked 3 pointers. He's clearly behind Collins IMO.

I’m not a big fan of Jalen (he’s a serviceable bench big), but I whole heartedly believe he and Collins are a better rotation than playing Vuc 30+ mpg.

Oh yeah, no doubt, but I don't even bother entertaining that thought because it'll never happen as long as Vuc is still here and healthy.

Ideally, Collins would get something like 26-30 minutes and Smith would get 18-22.

[Stratmaster]

1. I know everyone loves Ayo but I'm unconvinced that he's super amazing until I see it in real games. Last year in the pre-season he was crushing it too. 22 pts/36, 61.5% 3pt%/36 on his volume. Didn't translate when the game started to matter.

Generally, don't try to pretend that pre-season matters much. Still, it's better to look good than to look bad...

2. Okoro doesn't look good to me. I continue to not see what the Bulls were so enthralled with that they went out and traded for him (when all the rest of the league didn't want him). He routinely gets run off the line and passes up shots. Fouled a ton, the ball in his hands is an adventure in a bad way, and he doesn't seem to do many of the little things that make good defenders. He's an objectively bad rebounder for a guy as strong as he is.

The Bulls are going to have a real dilemma on their hands between not having much margin for error to make their play-in goal and wanting to have Okoro in the lineup to justify trading for him. As a thought experiment, would Pat or even Terry look better if all they had to do was stand in the corner and take wide open shots off Garland/DMitch/Jerome/Merrill etc? Of course. Well, so did Okoro.

3. Tre + Giddey on the floor at the same time is going to be some ugly basketball.

1. I don't think Ayo is super amazing. I do think he fits the fabled fast pace offense the Bulls are "running" and I think he is a solid bench Guard.

2. But he takes charges and we all know that is the most important skill in basketball

3. I would hope we won't see that very often. But... Billy will Billy.

[LateNight]

The speed from that game to this decision:

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