Official: DeRozan! Player of the Week p69

[Jimmy Forums]

Goodness gracious! Look at us! Lonzo/Lavine/Demar/Pat/Vuc...we got a **** squad y'all. We back! Caruso on the bench, if we could still S&T Lauri for like a backup rim protector (does Orlando hate Mo Bamba?) we're like ready to go.

This new FO is on fire. Looks like some of you may not like the players or whatever and maybe you'll be right, but the EFFORT here. Oh my god, I can't believe what we're doing.

The Bulls, the BULLS, are wheeling and dealing.

Lonzo for Sato, Demar for Thad? It's nice for once to be the beneficiary of these "well surely my team could've beat that" deals. I left this board because I knew all the fun and ambitious things we discussed here would literally never happen, I was l.i.t.e.r.a.l.l.y. wasting my time and attention and energy on a team that didn't give a hoot about itself. Now look at us. Let's roll.

Stick around, you're a good poster. We're gonna need some of those for our hundred pages game threads.

I just might do that. Love your signature

[ch434355]

I'm loving all the people telling us we shouldn't be excited because we overpaid Demar a little. Not gonna work. Yesterday and today have been awesome and they aren't killing this buzz.

[aramada]

Thad was a much better fit than DDR...

Sir, do you have eyeballs? Might I suggest using them from time to time?

I do and here's what I see:
- There only one basketball
- DDR was option #1 or #1A his entire career. Great scorer and P&R threat, but giant adjustment needed here - potentially #3 option, could slide to bench if the offense is not enough to offset defensive issues
- Defense still below average. Add this to 2 other flawed defenders on the starting 5... that's a disaster waiting to happen
- Shot 25% from outside the past 2 years, 28% career

Thad may not be as good offensively, but he was a great complimentary piece, perfect vet to be around, content to play in the shadow of top scorers / come off the bench, great passing and BBIQ, much better than DDR on defense. And obviously, much more affordable for the Bulls than this giant contract DDR just signed (not to mention picks...)

I understand the enthusiasm, but my gut feeling tells me we may regret this move...

[Jvaughn]

Haven't been this excited for a Bulls team in decades.

[Repeat 3-peat]

I'll miss Thad but he wasn't much of a fit next to Vuc, and he played his best at the 5.

[Jimmy Forums]

This offseason feels like it's going downhill... Teams looks scarier I guess, but not really textbook roster building here. Thad was a much better fit than DDR...

What are you even talking about man? Seems like the off season is going down hill?? When it's the best this franchise has ever been a part of? Really??? Smh.

Sent from my SM-F707U using RealGM mobile app

Let it roll off, man, ride this high

[PrimzyBulls81]

Holy crap, what a makeover of the roster. LoL
We are good now, really good. Top 5 in the east!
Maybe DeMar contract is a bit high, but he is accomplished vet player.

Now all we need is two bigs or maybe just someone like Birch if Lauri stays.

[DuckIII]

A lot of people here owe AKME some apologies. In a one-year span he added Vuc, DeRozan, and Ball. That is an astronomical talent upgrade.

In fairness to me , the only thing AK did that I disagreed with was the Vuc deal. I like the BD hire, love the Williams pick, love the Ayo pick, loved the Theis transaction, etc.

But I haaaaaaaated the Vuc trade. Because I perceived AK had backed himself into a corner because he created a scenario in which he absolutely had to sign Ball.

But then he did sign Ball. And now he’s added Caruso and DD and still has Lauri to play with as an asset.

Frankly it’s amazing and one of the most impressive short term organizational overhauls I’ve ever seen. And the absolute most impressive one that did not involve super-teaming-up.

I bow before the alter of AK’s greatness. He sees further than I. Really incredible stuff. And he’s still not done.

[nomorezorro]

Read on Twitter

G for the Sky. Are they a couple? she seems pretty excited about this signing lol

D.D. solidarity

[hutasadorn]

I don't understand people complaining about the money. We have to get out of the Garpax mindset where we operated like a small market team. This new front office is making moves and spending money. The salary cap will continue to rise in the upcoming years. Be happy the goal is to compete for a championship!

Perfectly said!

[BeKuK]

Haven't been this excited for a Bulls team in decades.

Welcome back to BULLS BASKETBALL!!!

[TheJordanRule]

I'm loving all the people telling us we shouldn't be excited because we overpaid Demar a little. Not gonna work. Yesterday and today have been awesome and they aren't killing this buzz.

Thad's an excellent back up / borderline situational starter but he ain't DD! THIS IS **** AWESOME!!!!

[VolumePoster]

What did I miss?

[Friend_Of_Haley]

Bulls basketball is fun again. First time in like 8 years?

Sign& Trade Lauri for some draft capital to recoup some of what AK has given up. Frankly if you could get a protected first for White, do that too. See if you can do Caruso into the Thies TPE and split the MLE for depth signings.

[tedwilliams1999]

I love this deal - the Bulls are relevant again! Obviously this talent infusion is incredible in the short term, but we do retain long term flexibility as well. We lost a lot of draft capital, but we now have an incredible talent upgrade that we can use if needed to recoup some of those draft assets.

In ~2 years, if this experiment doesn't pan out, Vuc and Derozan should be tradeable, allowing us to retool around Lavine/Lonzo/Williams.

SO EXCITED!

[nekorajo]

I'm not sure how I feel about giving up a 1st round pick and keeping Lauri over Thadgic.

Sheesh another pick? AKME are some aggressive dudes. Seems like they're painting themselves into a corner, aren't they?

[Jimmy Forums]

A lot of people here owe AKME some apologies. In a one-year span he added Vuc, DeRozan, and Ball. That is an astronomical talent upgrade.

In fairness to me , the only thing AK did that I disagreed with was the Vuc deal. I like the BD hire, love the Williams pick, love the Ayo pick, loved the Theis transaction, etc.

But I haaaaaaaated the Vuc trade. Because I perceived AK had backed himself into a corner because he created a scenario in which he absolutely had to sign Ball.

But then he did sign Ball. And now he’s added Caruso and DD and still has Lauri to play with as an asset.

Frankly it’s amazing and one of the most impressive short term organizational overhauls I’ve ever seen. And the absolute most impressive one that did not involve super-teaming-up.

I bow before the alter of AK’s greatness. He sees further than I. Really incredible stuff. And he’s still not done.

I'm having a difficult time putting things into perspective. I, like you, look at what the Bulls were just a couple years ago and now look at what we've done in the last year to produce what the team is now, and frankly it really is one of the most impressive overhauls I can recall in recent memory, especially given the context that it pretty much came out of nowhere. Am I just that impressed because we follow the team, or is it really like that? Only time, as they say, will tell.

[jmajew]

I think we are good enough now to beat the Nets/Bucks/Heat/Hawks/Celtics/76ers/Lakers/Nuggets/Suns/Jazz/clipper/etc. We are definitely in the game now.

Slow your roll.

Let's make the playoffs and then go from there.

I didn't say we would beat them. I said we were good enough. We have a punchers chance. This is fun.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

So, doing some very basic math, I think we would have to lose Lauri or keep him for not much money(or S&T him for cheap contracts) in order to have the full nontaxpayer mle. Tax line is at ~136M. Makes you wonder if JR's desire to not pay tax will make keeping Lauri less likely.

Ball = 21M
DDR = 28M
Caruso = 9M
Zach = 19.5M
Vuc = 24M
PWill = 7.4M
Coby = 5.8M
TBJ = 5.1M
Lauri = 20.1M(cap hold)
JeVonte Green = 2M(cap hold)
Dotson = 1.5M(cap hold)

143.4M = Total

Very rudimentary math though.

[sco]

I saw this as a highly unlikely deal, wow! This one sounds like more the ME part of AKME...good that he did something useful for us!

Unfortunately, that pick could become useful. So we have our 22 pick, not our 23 pick, we have 24, but not 25. Would be nice if it is at least top 5 protected.

I've said it before, I like the fact that we can always have 2 scorers on the floor and rest the 3rd. It would be nice to nab 2 more post defenders to mix in.

I still gotta think Lauri is going (elsewhere)...maybe he gets us a pick back with Minny.

Will we have a team chemistry problem with 2 USC and 2 UCLA guys?