Around The NBA : 21-22 Edition

[dice]

I honestly think Ja is better than what Rose ever was. Absolutely incredible player.

it's close for sure. if ja can consistently shoot the 3 and/or become a plus defender...

probably the fourth draft in nba history where the best 2 players were the top 2 picks

zion/ja
shaq/mourning
hayes/unseld
oscar/jerry

get and stay healthy, zion

[nomorezorro]

yet another month ends with the bulls atop the eastern conference...kind of boring how dominant we are...

[bearadonisdna]

Wow bulls just snuck into 1st place again . Monty was assigned head coach of team Lebron .
Donny might have just earned a spot if they announce it tomorrow.

Am hoping he gets it . Being responsible for A+ stars might give him perspective

[jordanwilliams6]

Wow bulls just snuck into 1st place again . Monty was assigned head coach of team Lebron .
Donny might have just earned a spot if they announce it tomorrow.

Am hoping he gets it . Being responsible for A+ stars might give him perspective

Feb 6th is the cut-off date for the head coach.

[dice]

yet another month ends with the bulls atop the eastern conference...kind of boring how dominant we are...

top 6 teams separated by 2 games

[mtron32]

Ja couldn't hold us down tonight

[NecessaryEvil]

Read on Twitter

?s=21



Please Lord AK

[BullChit]

Wow bulls just snuck into 1st place again . Monty was assigned head coach of team Lebron .
Donny might have just earned a spot if they announce it tomorrow.

Am hoping he gets it . Being responsible for A+ stars might give him perspective

He might finally learn what a PF is haha

[cool007]

Blazers used up all their energy and offense vs us shooting lights from 3s - especially early on.

Tonight, they only make 7 three pointers and score only 81 points while going to the line only 8 times and all this vs a tanking team in OKC Thunder that was without their best player in SGA playing.

Just to show that it wasn't our defense, it was just that teams all of a sudden have hot shooting nights vs us lately for no reason. Not saying that we play good defense - we still need to kick it up a notch but teams just happen to be shooting really well vs us lately.

[HomoSapien]

Wow bulls just snuck into 1st place again . Monty was assigned head coach of team Lebron .
Donny might have just earned a spot if they announce it tomorrow.

Am hoping he gets it . Being responsible for A+ stars might give him perspective

Feb 6th is the cut-off date for the head coach.

Our next three games are against the Magic, Raptors, and Pacers. If we take care of business here (which is far from a given) BD should be coaching the game. We play the Sixers on the 6th, but I think winning three of those games will secure it either way.

[BeatDaCavs420]

yet another month ends with the bulls atop the eastern conference...kind of boring how dominant we are...

BuT itS OnLy .5 GaMe

On a serious note I love it go bulls!

[CROBulls]

Blazers used up all their energy and offense vs us shooting lights from 3s - especially early on.

Tonight, they only make 7 three pointers and score only 81 points while going to the line only 8 times and all this vs a tanking team in OKC Thunder that was without their best player in SGA playing.

Just to show that it wasn't our defense, it was just that teams all of a sudden have hot shooting nights vs us lately for no reason. Not saying that we play good defense - we still need to kick it up a notch but teams just happen to be shooting really well vs us lately.

It doesnt suprise me. Bulls are top team on East whatever some people would say. Ofcourse teams gets up against us putting good performance. And then next night you play someone like OKC. This is why I dont shroud from winning any games in any way possible.

We will all acknowledge our defense has fallen down considerably, but we are still capable winning this games when teams go banana on us. And that's victory for me.

[Ice Man]

Blazers used up all their energy and offense vs us shooting lights from 3s - especially early on.

Tonight, they only make 7 three pointers and score only 81 points while going to the line only 8 times and all this vs a tanking team in OKC Thunder that was without their best player in SGA playing.

Just to show that it wasn't our defense

Wait now. Because our previous opponent scored 35 fewer points in its next game, against a bad team, that's evidence that our defense is better than advertised?

[MGB8]

A team that collapses the way the Bulls did against Orlando and the Spurs (and the Pacers and the Rockets) is probably not ready for prime time in the playoffs... as an answer to "why not us?"

I'm not saying that there's no chance... but there are some serious warning signs about the team. But a hot run with everyone healthy at the same time while the Nets and Bucks, etc., deal with x/y/z issues? Stranger thing have happened.

I mean, why would you view that as a red flag? We’re missing 4 of our 5 best defenders, our depth is depleted causing us to lean on guys who aren’t NBA caliber, and we were also missing Zach and JaVonte for the Orlando game. I’ve seen a bunch of people use this stretch as an example of us not being ready or a reason for why we shouldn’t go in on a big trade and frankly I don’t follow the logic. We’re losing because our defensive infrastructure has been essentially removed. That doesn’t indicate any information about this team other than what it would indicate about any other team — if you get hit by tons of injuries, you’ll suffer.

Here’s why we should be optimistic - Brooklyn looks shaky and we project to be fully healthy (including possibly Patrick Williams) by the start of the playoffs.

if the bengals can make the super bowl, the celtics and hawks can make the finals

the east is wide open

Football is one game at a time - much more variability than a series.

Meanwhile, I think folks are setting themselves up for a letdown trying to downplay the issues. What other contending team has their defense fall apart - from very good to bad - based on their 6th man going down?

And the Warriors - who, for purposes of fairness, are the front-runners this season - have only two bad losses - one to contending the Bucks, one to the middling T-Wolves.... where in that Wolves neither Steph Curry nor Draymond played. Their other few losses were close. They also thumped the Bulls by 26 (though Bulls no Vuc)

The Bucks have a bad loss to the pretty good Heat in the 2nd game (early games tend to count less as signals, IMO; also no Jrue), a bad loss to the middling Hawks (no Kris), a bad loss and less-bad loss to the pretty good Cavs (no Giannis, Kris, or Jrue for the bad loss, no explanation for the less-bad one), and a bad loss to the pretty-good-but-terribly-inconsistent Nuggets (no explanation... maybe a slump - that and the Cavs game post Caruso karma?).

But not being thumped by bottom feeders. Some losses, but not being beat down by ~20 or more (Spurs game wasn't that bad, true, akin to the Bucks loss to the Pistons... but they don't have the other thumpins by bad teams like the Magic, Pacers... not to mention the other bad losses [by ~20 or worse] to good-to-great teams like the Cavs, Heat, Warriors).

I'm not saying that the Bulls are a bad team. Obviously they aren't - they are a very good team. And they are out their starting PG and 6th man, and have been without their starting "4" (albeit a middling player at this point in his career), throughout the season, and out a key "4" reserve as well.

But they have their soon-to-be MAX player in Lavine, their "playing-like-a-Max-player-this-year" DeRozan, and their "traded-for-an-all-star-level-offensive-5-who-hasn't-consistently-played-like-that" in Vuc... Normally, a big 3 plus decent role players is enough to at least avoid being blown out by bad teams.

Now, if Zach is still hurting... that would be additional factor explaining middling play that, if resolved, could increase playoff upside. But we don't know that right now.

[FriedRise]

Blazers used up all their energy and offense vs us shooting lights from 3s - especially early on.

Tonight, they only make 7 three pointers and score only 81 points while going to the line only 8 times and all this vs a tanking team in OKC Thunder that was without their best player in SGA playing.

Just to show that it wasn't our defense

Wait now. Because our previous opponent scored 35 fewer points in its next game, against a bad team, that's evidence that our defense is better than advertised?

Think he's saying that sometimes teams just get up against certain opponents that no matter what kind of defense you're playing, they will still score on you because they're so in the zone.

Good defense > better offense.

But not sure if I agree 100% since our defensive rotation was putrid in all of San Antonio and the first half of the Portland game, but it did eventually get better in the second half. They finally committed to defending the 3pt line so we ended up trading catch and shoot 3s for off-the-dribble middies, which I'll take against teams that don't have DeMar or KD (and we have one of them).

[DuckIII]

yet another month ends with the bulls atop the eastern conference...kind of boring how dominant we are...

top 6 teams separated by 2 games

He was making a joke.

[Ice Man]

Think he's saying that sometimes teams just get up against certain opponents that no matter what kind of defense you're playing, they will still score on you because they're so in the zone.

Well, it's a theory.

[DuckIII]

I honestly think Ja is better than what Rose ever was. Absolutely incredible player.

this is most blasphemous thing i read on this board

It’s only blasphemy to people who include the location of Rose’s birth as a basketball attribute. Ja is currently having a better season statistically than Rose ever had, and is leading his team to a 35-18 record and is a legitimate MVP candidate though he will not win it this year.

At minimum, it’s not blasphemous even if inaccurate. And it’s pretty hard to confidently say it’s even inaccurate at all. Ja has shown the ability to do things that we just haven’t seen from little guys before. He’s the most exciting player since Iverson except, wait for it, he’s better than Iverson.

[Ice Man]

He’s the most exciting player since Iverson except, wait for it, he’s better than Iverson.

If Iverson played today, he would either score a lot more efficiently than he did back in the day, because defenses have weakened, or he would be a backup. Teams these days don't start guards who have a 50% true shooting percentage.

[CROBulls]

I honestly think Ja is better than what Rose ever was. Absolutely incredible player.

this is most blasphemous thing i read on this board

It’s only blasphemy to people who include the location of Rose’s birth as a basketball attribute. Ja is currently having a better season statistically than Rose ever had, and is leading his team to a 35-18 record and is a legitimate MVP candidate though he will not win it this year.

At minimum, it’s not blasphemous even if inaccurate. And it’s pretty hard to confidently say it’s even inaccurate at all. Ja has shown the ability to do things that we just haven’t seen from little guys before. He’s the most exciting player since Iverson except, wait for it, he’s better than Iverson.

Many players around league have better seasons than Rose ever did. Including multiple players on our team, but I would never say anyone of them even put together make impact on winning games like Rose did. It's not statistical mesaurement of any kind. This is not me badmouthing Ja or disrespecting him.

League was different back then. I would take any player from that era Rose or Kobe for instance over anyone playing today to win me a game. You take this as my opinion or not, but dont quote me stats because I actually watched games then and now and I simply dont care about pure sheet numbers.

I would take back then 22 year old MVP Rose over today's Steph Curry to build a team. But that's me. Because I saw regardless of stats that guy destroying each night every night in matchup including Steph and Chris Paul and winning games.