Preseason GT: Bulls VS Cavs Rematch (and post game thread)

[NecessaryEvil]

I think Billy Donovan is going to have some tough decisions to make. Javonte Green & Alize Johnson are obvious rotation guys. Stanley Johnson is not, unless he's just playing this poorly because it's the preseason? But those other two, energetic, infectious energy and 100% effort every trip down the court. Alize's passion for the game reminds me of Bobby Portis. I think Derrick Jones Jr. is an obvious rotation guy as well, but not as strongly as Alize & Javonte (he is just coming off an injury though) but he can do some really crafty and athletic things that few can out there. Caruso & Ball like guys like that.

Lonzo's not a great finisher.

Vucevic needs to step it up but I really like his activity in the passing lanes. He was responsible for a few steals/deflections tonight.

Troy Brown Jr. is just solid. Had a great pass today for an easy Alize bucket. This would be as good a year as any to breakout.

VERY impressed with Ayo's shot creation ability to close that game. Kid's got some handles as well.


G Ball / Caruso
G Lavine / Brown Jr.
F DeRozan / Jones Jr.
F Williams / Green / A. Johnson
C Vucevic / T. Bradley



DNP - White, S. Johnson, Thomas, Oturu

G League - Dosunmu, Simonovic, Dotson, Thompson


50 Ws

[The Force.]

DNP - White, S. Johnson, Thomas, Oturu[/b]

50 Ws

lol

[PrimzyBulls81]

Alize is really rebounding monster, probably league's best numbers if he would play more later down the road.
Nice clutch buckets from Ayo in the end. We will have deep team and deep bench this season.
Billy D will have some tough choices every night, to leave 2-3 players out of rotation every game.

Ball, Caruso, Ayo
Lavine, White, Green
DeRozan, Brown
Williams, A.Johnson, Jones
Vucevic, Bradley
Thats 13 right there

[Andi Obst]

Yeah, Evan Mobley is a special talent. That guy is for real. Also, the Cavs are way more enjoyable to watch when Sexton isn't playing.

Not much to take away from this one for the Bulls. As a huge fan of the Caruso signing, I just enjoy every second of him showing how good he actually is.

[NecessaryEvil]

DNP - White, S. Johnson, Thomas, Oturu[/b]

50 Ws

lol

He’s injured silly man

[SfBull]

Great experience for our bench, they really stepped up.

The lack of size is still really the team's biggest problem. Alize can't do it all.

Bulls missed Patrick Williams tonight for sure.

And Simonovic and Bradley.

[NecessaryEvil]

Great experience for our bench, they really stepped up.

The lack of size is still really the team's biggest problem. Alize can't do it all.

Bulls missed Patrick Williams tonight for sure.

And Simonovic and Bradley.

Well Simonovic was available ....

[SfBull]

I think Billy Donovan is going to have some tough decisions to make. Javonte Green & Alize Johnson are obvious rotation guys. Stanley Johnson is not, unless he's just playing this poorly because it's the preseason? But those other two, energetic, infectious energy and 100% effort every trip down the court. Alize's passion for the game reminds me of Bobby Portis. I think Derrick Jones Jr. is an obvious rotation guy as well, but not as strongly as Alize & Javonte (he is just coming off an injury though) but he can do some really crafty and athletic things that few can out there. Caruso & Ball like guys like that.

Lonzo's not a great finisher.

Vucevic needs to step it up but I really like his activity in the passing lanes. He was responsible for a few steals/deflections tonight.

Troy Brown Jr. is just solid. Had a great pass today for an easy Alize bucket. This would be as good a year as any to breakout.

VERY impressed with Ayo's shot creation ability to close that game. Kid's got some handles as well.


G Ball / Caruso
G Lavine / Brown Jr.
F DeRozan / Jones Jr.
F Williams / Green / A. Johnson
C Vucevic / T. Bradley



DNP - White, S. Johnson, Thomas, Oturu

G League - Dosunmu, Simonovic, Dotson, Thompson


50 Ws

Alize's game reminds me of Rodman's but he seems to be more focused on shooting after getting the rebound.
We need to keep this guy.About the regular season rotation,I didn't see much of Oturu for including him , I'd give a try on Simonovic as the DNP eventually playing him limited minutes during the season.

[SfBull]

Bulls missed Patrick Williams tonight for sure.

And Simonovic and Bradley.

Well Simonovic was available ....

Donovan could play him next friday .

[Grodoboldo]

As a huge fan of the Caruso signing, I just enjoy every second of him showing how good he actually is.

His passing is better than advertised, to the point that other guys have fumbled the rock because they weren't expecting those kinds of reads from him (his behind the back pass to LaVine comes to mind as an example). Still can't believe the Lakers just let him go to sign a bunch of washed up dudes.

[Andi Obst]

BTW, that was the first really bad defensive game from DeRozan IMO. Cavs took advantage of him ball watching or gambling for steals multiple times. Missed a couple of rotations too.

[TheFinishSniper]

As a huge fan of the Caruso signing, I just enjoy every second of him showing how good he actually is.

His passing is better than advertised, to the point that other guys have fumbled the rock because they weren't expecting those kinds of reads from him (his behind the back pass to LaVine comes to mind as an example). Still can't believe the Lakers just let him go to sign a bunch of washed up dudes.

It was all about luxury tax for Lakers

[Grodoboldo]

As a huge fan of the Caruso signing, I just enjoy every second of him showing how good he actually is.

His passing is better than advertised, to the point that other guys have fumbled the rock because they weren't expecting those kinds of reads from him (his behind the back pass to LaVine comes to mind as an example). Still can't believe the Lakers just let him go to sign a bunch of washed up dudes.

It was all about luxury tax for Lakers

Understandable, but having a 38yo LeBron limits their window. We criticized the Bulls ownership for being cheap for years, so the Lakers should be held up to the same standards.

[FriedRise]

Great write-up on Caruso by Noh:

Read on Twitter

Here he talks about:
- Caruso's passing ability
- Communicating and getting us organized on defense
- Screen navigation
- Not afraid to put his body on the line and draw a charge
- Screen setting

[TheFinishSniper]

Understandable, but having a 38yo LeBron limits their window. We criticized the Bulls ownership for being cheap for years, so the Lakers should be held up to the same standards.

They should be if they fail. But Lakers more than not succeed and win. Which is why they dont have that reputation. And let's not forget having minimum one superstar on roster during majority of your franchise existance means winning titles. Specially when it's LA and other franchises because they forced by players give them another one or two in return for basically nothing.

[Grodoboldo]

Understandable, but having a 38yo LeBron limits their window. We criticized the Bulls ownership for being cheap for years, so the Lakers should be held up to the same standards.

They should be if they fail. But Lakers more than not succeed and win. Which is why they dont have that reputation. And let's not forget having minimum one superstar on roster during majority of your franchise existance means winning titles. Specially when it's LA and other franchises because they forced by players give them another one or two in return for basically nothing.

OK, I guess. Still think getting a bunch of 35+ yo with egos bigger than skills instead of keeping a pretty good two-way guard is extremely questionable.

[FriedRise]

And since I'm bored and we don't have a game for another 5 days, I was curious about Alize's impact so far because the eye test says he impacts the game a lot. NBA advanced stats agrees with me, for three whole games!

- #1 in Player Impact Estimate!
- #1 in Defensive Rebound %
- #1 in Rebound %
- #5 in Offensive Rebound %
- #8 in TS%

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/advanced-leaders/

Also, Zach, Lonzo, and DeMar lead the league in Defensive WS
https://www.nba.com/stats/players/defense/?sort=DEF_WS&dir=-1

[RSP83]

Notes:
- We almost hold the opponent to below 100 points again. But Taco Fall happened.
- As weird as it may sound, our defense kept us in the game. The same distruptive defense we saw in the previous 2 games was still there at full display. If we shot better, it would've been the same result as the last time we play them.
- We missed too many shots to build a rhythm that would usually lead to scoring surge. We just couldn't make shots. But it's encouraging to see that this group have guys like DJJ and Alize who have the ability to get hustle points using their unique ability. And DeRozan's iso ability really comes in handy when Zach, Vuc, and Lonzo's shots are not falling.
- Zach, DD, and Caruso was a bit too loose with the ball, they gambled with some difficult passes that resulted in unnecessary turnovers. I think overall we turn the ball over like 16 times. Cavs had higher TO-to-Points conversion ratio. Because we shot badly, our TO-to-Points ratio is low.
- Vuc is still missing too many shots he usually makes. I don't think he's hit a 3 yet. I'm glad he has this pre-season to get his rhythm back. However, I'm really happy with his defensive effort, athletic and long guys like Allen, Lauri, Mobley clearly gives him problem, but Vuc has pretty quick hands, he's able to deflect and intercept a lot of entry passes. He gets in the right position.
- Alize belongs in the league. We all now familiar with his rebounding, but his passing is underrated.
- I'm changing my mind on DJJ, I thought he's just an athlete with questionable bball IQ, but I feel that he's often at the right place at the right time. And he understands his strength, he plays within himself. He needs to work on his 3-point shot. If he can do that, he can be one of the top tier role players in the league. If only Tyrus Thomas can have DJJ's mindset.
- Good game from Ayo. Not scared on offense, played smart and tough on defense. I already like him better than past rookies like Valentine, Hutch, and Snell. I would've played him last year over Mokoka and Arci.
- Our rotation is set. Lonzo, Vuc, Zach, DD, Pat Williams, Caruso, Green, Alize, DJJ, Coby White, TBJ. The rest I only care about Ayo and Marko. But Marko seems like he's still a year away from contributing. EDIT: forgot about Bradley.

[ChettheJet]

It was a rough game in the second half. I'm not getting down on Zach, he could have taken the game by the collar like he's done plenty of times and pulled the Bulls to an easy win but it's pre season and no need to force things. If it as the 2nd half of the season, with Vuc in foul trouble I'm sure Tony Bradley would have played, no sense to burning up minutes in these games.

You see why this next man up talk is BS. Green at 6-4 is not your PF or even the backup, this is the same as two years ago when Shaq Harrison was starting at the SF, it's to keep the back half of the rotation in their proper roles. It does point out how thin they are up front. Otero should be taking every advantage in practice to show he deserves minutes with A Johnson behind Patrick but the few he is getting makes it look like he's not doing that.

White and Caruso, with either DeRozan or Williams , one of Brown/Jones/A Johnson and Bradley should really have the bench at least keep pace against the other teams' bench if not get or extend a lead.

It was a 'time to step up' call when Billy put the end of the bench in for the last 5 minutes to see if they could put the defense on and run the offense. And they came through against rotation players for the Cavs.

I think you saw why Lauri was expendable, Lavine, DeRozan and Green guarded him and the Cavs didn't make a point of hammering the ball into him and he didn't exactly crash the boards. Kevin Love really should be taking a buyout, it's not a great showcase for another team to see him stick around and sleepwalk through his minutes

[Rowland Garrett]

Caruso is such a winning player. Always doing the right thing out there.

As I was watching the game, I kept having the same thought about Caruso. Maybe I get roasted for this, but I kept seeing it. He is a more athletic Kirk Hinrich.