Blog a Bull

2ndHalfAdjustments - January 4, 2012 reply

Serious question:

I’m not a huge Noah guy (as I’ve said before), but I recognize he has grown as a player. He’s a superior passer to Omer, but might it be prudent for the Bulls to consider amnestying Noah instead of Boozer, given the need for offense (as legitimately infuriating as he is)? I just don’t see Noah growing that much as a player, whereas I think Omer can become a better offensive player than he currently is.

Nah

I think at worst, you could trade Noah…younger fast centers that can rebound and pass like him are kinda rare, so I’m sure someone would trade for him, whereas no one would ever want to trade for an aging PF like Boozer

ThorCo - January 4, 2012 reply

Getting better

Already great on defense. Offense needs work, but did you see the nifty reverse layup?

c4 - January 4, 2012 reply

MVD

Most Valuable Diety

windycitywarrior - January 4, 2012 reply

Deity?

AerialAssault - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

give him another season of weight lifting

and he’ll be putting his feet on the backboard

SidM - January 4, 2012 reply

I've always loved that Asik throws his nuts in his defenders face whenever he dunks on them.

This cameraman should feel honored.

picture captions on BaB

best thing about BaB next to the all the weirdos.

Dash2112 - January 3, 2012 reply

thats the one thing Sonty needs to work

Alex, if you see this, get the photo captions down and you’re gold.

dantheman3k - January 3, 2012 reply

Alex can post all the amazing content he wants.

If he doesn’t post hilarious captions or shit on the comments he’ll never be blogfather.

Indeed.

He has to play down to the audience a bit more. Personally I’m just gonna respond to every one of his well thought out comments with “Smarty pants.” from now on.

Are you sure Rose was a decoy? It seems like Noah wanted to get him the ball, saw he was covered

and just made the smart pass.

I believe Thibs said in the post game the play was for Rose to decoy

KC said Rose was the 1st option

and Noah made the read.

JeffD - January 3, 2012 reply

KC is more plugged in than Thibs

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

I think what he really said is that

this play has many options and both Rose and Luol were part of it. Noah did make the read tho

plus, he wouldn't be much of a decoy

if they didn’t pretend to attempt to get him the ball now would he?

Jaina - January 3, 2012 reply

actually, Thibs did say that Rose was the first option

so ‘decoy’ isn’t really right, but he did certainly draw the defense.

but if he didn't say that Rose was the first option

he wouldn’t be able to use that play again, get it?

Shhhh! He was a fucking decoy. Awesome coaching. GOT IT?

Stacey King said it was a decoy, so it was a fucking decoy!

Beep beep, fellas!

And if Rose got the ball and scored Stacey would have said

THATS WHY YOU PUT THE BALL IN THE MVPS HANDS CLICHE CLICHE CLICHE CLICHE I LIKE FOOD.

lol nice

TOO BIG, TOO STRONG...HOLY SHIT IS THAT A PIZZA?!

You forget the Neil Funk reference

“DID YOU SEE THAT NEIL , THAT BOY IS BAD AND YOU TOO OLD AND PROLLY’ GONAN DIE SOON”

niel while holding the 'cough' button

Cmon stacey, you know i cant see

piccolomair - January 4, 2012 reply

Dude, Stacey had it rolling tonight

I’ve even gotten a little sick of his schtick, but I was popping goosebumps like Diddy pops champagne, tonight

Cristal I'm assuming.

Ciroc boy

Mighty Healthy - January 4, 2012 reply

I may have been swayed, and to think I listened to radio for 85% of that broadcast

can’t do it for the last few minutes, the delay is even more agonizing than Funk.

whether Deng was the first or second option

he was clearly an option. If Deng’s man leaves to double Rose, hit Deng on the back door pass. Still a great play. Still great idea to let noah be the assist man.

Well it was a good enough play to have the inbounds man make a direct cut to the hoop.

If Vinny was coach Noah probably would have been forced to take a fadeaway 3.

Bill Cartwright's Elbow - January 4, 2012 reply

Noah brings a lot a thrust to the team

tuluse - January 4, 2012 reply

Haha, I had almost forgotten that

I wonder how thrusty is Chris Paul

fadeawy long two*

sin - January 4, 2012 reply

from what i saw Rose almost immediately set that screen for Lu

so im pretty sure it was a play

Hath thine eyes deceived me,

Kyle Korver with 8 rebounds and working for loose balls. Never thought I would see that.

Also, McGrady looked worn out from the back-to-back. Not looking good for this years schedule.

mjsher2 - January 3, 2012 reply

Thine eyes hath deceived ye

He shot 1/4, 0/3 from 3, had several turnovers, 3-4 terrible defensive possessions, and missed clutch shots at the end.

He ran down one of those rebounds and immediately threw it to a Hawks player.

Kutcher ain’t out of my doghouse by a long shot.

Like myself, you guys have been playing too much Skyrim

brianm - January 3, 2012 reply

The refs tried to win the game for Atlanta, but then they took an arrow to the knee

so Rose got to thinkin, maybe he's the dragonborn and doesn't know it yet.

Yeah, I'm not ready to give Kyle Korver credit for anything other than being Kyle Korver

which forced the defense to play up on him and respect his shot when he was running around screens. His actual on-court performance sucked except for a few hustle rebounds.

runningman - January 3, 2012 reply

I'll grant you that "being Kyle Korver" was pretty much all he did.

But it’s hard to look at his team high +18 and reason that he didn’t have a positive impact out there.

It really is a lot like how Ashton Kutcher hasn’t been actually funny in years, but by being Ashton Kutcher, he has a positive impact on the ratings of 2 and a Half Men.

Poloplaya14 - January 4, 2012 reply

they truly are one and the same.

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Ha

love the analogy

exactly

I wonder why he’s out there when we’re trying to win the game while guys like Boozer and Noah on the bench.
that makes me wonder what a defensive, comeback lineup of Asik, Booz, Taj, Deng, Rose. or Asik, Noah, Taj, Deng, Rose. but then again, I’m acting like CJ and Rip are no longer with the team or something…

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

I think the lineup made plenty of sense

you’re making a big comeback. offensively you want a guy who can make threes, but you can’t have two bad defensive players, especially when one is a big man, cause you need stops. Omer was working his ass off and Jo was having a bad day. So Rose/Korver/Deng/Taj/Omer seems about right.

Personally I dont want to see Taj at the 3 at any point

he does ok covering them though

I mean, I think Lu is taller…

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

I'm pretty sure Kyle Korver should show why people should stop the cliche, "defense is ALL about effort"

pssstt… some guys just ain’t that good at defense

tyger1147 - January 4, 2012 reply

I always thought that the big issue is that

Noah and Boozer can’t play effectively together. Watching them both sit at crucial times of ball games only makes me wonder if Thibs feels the same way. This is a problem…A big problem.

If the problem was that they couldn't play effectively together

which stats show that they can by the way, one would be sitting while the other was playing. They were playing together fine when they were smoking Memphis by 40, all of a sudden they’re losing and they can’t perform next to each other? Seems like over-thinking. Thibs left the players out there who were making a comeback, simple as that.

runningman - January 3, 2012 reply

Noah was in foul trouble

That is why he wasn’t playing. By the time his fouls were not a concern, Asik was playing well.

Just ran through the postgame thread, and instead of wading into that mess: what is with any apologizing for Boozer?

The Bulls are in deep shit if he plays like this. Totally ground-bound and completely reliant on long 2-point jumpers. He didn’t do that against the Grizzlies, sure, but he’s having more games like this than that.

And he was signed to be much better than that. To me if you’re content with a good game here and there and pointing out defensive rebounding this will not end well. It may not end well anyway, as I’m not sure Boozer’s getting new legs anytime soon.

So what do you suggest? If he could just hold his own in the paint, I believe his play would be enough to get us over the top.

And that’s the problem; he seems timid. Everything is a fadeaway or a faceup jumper. If he will not or is not willing to work in the post, what do we do? What team would possibly be willing to take his contract?

No apologies, but

I don’t mind Thibs using Boozer and Noah just 25-30 minutes a game consistently, for whatever reason, because of the compacted schedule.

kbukie - January 3, 2012 reply

that really has nothing to do with the point yfbb made

He is not playing to the level we signed him for. If he was working hard in the low post, giving us an inside presence, I would be completely fine with 25-30min as well

What I'm saying

He’s bad so far, due to the short preseason, compact schedule, just being terrible, whatever, but really it’s a mixed blessing because if Boozer and Noah were playing better, Thibs would have used them 40 mins each as well, so it may work out for the best in the long run if the starting bigs only play half the games on average.

kbukie - January 3, 2012 reply

eh

I dunno about that. It’s only 6 games into the season. 10 minutes less playing time now will have a very minimal effect come Playoff time

So then they'd just magically turn it on for the playoffs?

If they can get off the bench in the fourth quarter.

It’s pathetic that in the playoffs, against Miami, the Bulls had 24 million dollars sitting on the bench with the season on the line.

Amnesty now?

Khalid El-Amin - January 3, 2012 reply

You can only amnesty guys during a one-week period in the offseason

And if we’re gonna cut bait on Boozer, I’m convinced that he still has a decent amount of trade value. Why give him away?

Poloplaya14 - January 3, 2012 reply

He has no trade value with that contract

He’s the kinda guy you include in a trade in a contract dump if you’re unloading someone good and need incentive to do so. He’s our Turkoglu.

NerdVernacular - January 4, 2012 reply

An amnesty is essentially pointless seeing as we'll still be near the cap

The only thing that would do is allow one of our competitors to have Boozer for a fraction of a fraction of the cost. In which case I guarantee he’ll come back to bite us in the ass.

And am i the only one who’s eyes were bleeding watching Taj offensively? Is that really the guy you want starting for the next few years?

No you're not

And that is what it comes down to for me. I’m extremely disillusioned with Boozer’s play right now, but as bad as he’s been, he’s still an offensive presence out there. Taj’s offensive game is putrid. It’s not just that he has no mechanism for creating his shot, it’s also that he doesn’t know how to play without the ball. If Boozer doesn’t turn it around, I guess the Bulls are just gonna have to settle for mediocre production from the 4 and try to win regardless.

Poloplaya14 - January 3, 2012 reply

We just have to look at the frontcourt as one single entity from this point forward

Until we have to lose Taj or Asi due to org cheapness, we really have nothing to bitch about. Each of them have flaws, but as a whole, they fucks you up man.

Except they didn't tonight and they didn't during last year's playoffs either.

Our frontcourt definitely has the potential to be dominant, but as YFBB said, they’ve never really fired on all cylinders, which is what it’s gonna take to win a championship.

Poloplaya14 - January 3, 2012 reply

Does it have that kind of potential?

The frontcourt has one guy capable of scoring, and that one guy hasn’t shown the ability to dominate offensively in ages. He hasn’t scored more than 17 points in a game this season and in 16 playoff games last season, he scored 18 or less in 13 of them, with single digit scoring in 6 of those. In the regular season, once you look past December, he only scored 30+ points once.

Additionally, with Boozer logging big minutes at the 4, there goes the chance of having a truly defensively dominant frontcourt for an entire game. The frontcourt is solid and has decent depth, but it can not dominate games in the true sense of the word.

yeah, the thing to remember is this:

this team only has two dominant defenders in the starting lineup, and the way Jo has been playing, it’s really only one. Thibs’ scheme helps (pun!), but if Boozer’s offense is struggling, the Bulls aren’t really dominant on either end.

Kurt Thomas replaced Joakim

and the defense, if I’m not mistaken, was even better during his stint as the starter. Noah’s a good player, but he’s not a dominant anything.

not entirely pointless as the Bulls are pushing the tax

Amnestying Boozer after the season (next person who says ‘now’ gets flagged, argh) frees up a lot of room under that level. More exceptions, can accept sign/trade deals, etc.

It’s definitely an option, though the straight cash ’dorf will be paying will hurt as much as the tax payment, so likely not.

Boozer isn’t going to bite back shit, and if he does so what, the Bulls being better is what matters.

But he’s not getting moved now, obviously, so my point is more this isn’t acceptable play if they want to make the finals.

Are you getting someone better than Boozer

for a mid-level exception?

A sign and trade deal still requires that you give something back. If some elite pf who’s great at 2 of the scoring/defending/defending demands to come only to the Bulls, and his team will take back non-core pieces, the Bulls can then amnesty Boozer. It’s the same way that the Warriors recruited Chandler but would have had to amnesty Biedrins in order to actually sign him, and the Knicks waited to amnesty Billups. There’s no reason that they have to amnesty him first.

Bottom line, he’s not going anywhere until someone else is in the bag whether it’s the mystery savior PF or Mirotic, because doing so will not improve the team.

Right

At this point, with our cap situation, it’s more about having the best player, rather than the best value. I can’t see us getting a better player than Boozer, so it’s kinda pointless to worry about. These our the cards we’ve been dealt. Everyone knew things would be tougher when we didn’t hit is big in free agency last year with Lebron, Wade or Bosh, and that has been the case. Luckily we have that depth, and Rose has been amazing

I think you likely could get someone better than Boozer with the MLE

but it’s more the point that jettisoning him would allow them to better keep Asik and Taj and maintain other options.

And he’s likely going to get worse, not better.

No he’s not going anywhere now, but Amnesty is definitely in play. Maybe not next season, but this shit’s trending downward.

Might not even need the MLE.

we have someone potentially better in Madrid right now.

NerdVernacular - January 4, 2012 reply

I think that's probably the plan

Hold on to Boozer (and try to keep Taj and Asik) until Mirotic comes over. Then you amnesty Boozer. Assuming they don’t make a trade between now and then

Did you see some of the contracts given out this past offseason?

Kwame Brown got more than the MLE for chrissake.

Poloplaya14 - January 4, 2012 reply

Yeah, not sure how you get better than Boozer for the MLE

He might not be a superstar, but he’s still very capable.

Who better than Boozer is making less than 5 million a year right now?

There are a lot of teams with cap space next year. In a world where Kwame gets 7 million, do you believe that a PF of Boozer’s skill went from being valued at 14 million last offseason to less than 5 million this upcoming season? I’ll believe that when I see that. If that scenario comes up, great. I’m all for it.

I’ve been saying since the new CBA was announced that Boozer should be amnestied when Mirotic is able to be bought out. I think you’re crazy to believe that a player even near Boozer is attainable on the open market. For some reason, though, you seem to hate the Mirotic pick too, though he represents the most realistic opportunity to get an underpaid player at PF.

I hate that Boozer's decline is putting them in a very bad situation

Mirotic likely won’t save us, and it won’t be for 2 years at that. He’s not really worth talking about.

Maybe someone takes a championship contender discount and the Gar Paxdorf sales pitch to take less money. Also, the Bulls could use their non-guaranteed contracts to take back a larger-salaried player, something they may be less willing to do if they’re bumping up against the tax.

Well there's no point in talking about

a 5 million dollar superstar to come take Boozer’s place, from my perspective. I don’t see any team in luxury tax trouble who’s going to feel pressured to give up a great PF for expiring contracts. The amnesty provision means that any team in that situation already has a mechanism to drop salary by letting go of their non-productive players instead of a highly productive big man.

it could be a rebuilding team who'd consider such a trade

Well like I said

I’m all for it if it happens. I just don’t think you’re being any more of a realist by hoping for something like that, but dismissing Mirotic.

I think it's technically more realistic by default

since Mirotic is definitely not coming here next season.

I guess I should phrase it as finding Boozer's replacement for the MLE

Just figuring they cut Boozer and sign a MLE PF to replace him isn’t really likely.

But the point is more, the Bulls could have more options in amnestying Boozer instead of hoping he bounces back, or phasing into what Doug Thonus calls an ‘Eddy Curry’ role where he is used for early half offense then sits.

They could maybe get a more high-usage SG to compensate for what’s lost in rolling with Taj as the starter. And/Or sign a PF who’d be better as a bench player than Boozer.

this also is ALL in the context of him having a shitty year, all year, and getting worse. And that they’d have this solution plan mostly in the bag before deciding to amnesty.

*shouldn't

ugh.

You can technically delete a post

and repost it with the correct wording. A luxury most of us don’t have. Heard anything about an edit button ever coming to the site?

no, so be perfect.

Obviously, I already think I am

Just waiting for everybody else to come to that realization.

:-)

I don't believe he'll have a shitty year all year

which is where I’m coming from. I’m up for anything that improves the team. I’m just very resistant to the idea that dropping Boozer and having Taj start even comes close to accomplishing that. There’s a huge gap between Boozer performing worse than expected, and being worse than his alternatives, which we’ve barely begun to cross.

that's fine, I'm just more antsy

I think we’re closer to that level, or at least I’m more worried in extrapolating what looks to be a downward trend for the guy. He just can’t…jump.

Seriously though, what decent big man signs for $5 mil?

I think every single guy worth his salt is making at least 9. Take a look at the Heat for a prime example, by all accounts, they really wanted to add a big. Someone like Dalembert or something, but no one would go there on the cheap. And that’s the ultimate ring chaser team

Yeah it's not even close in my view

David West got 10 million per year for 2 years, and that’s coming off a major injury that’s he’s not fully recovered from. That’s David at his lowest possible value. Is David clearly better than Boozer right now? I have him on my fantasy team, and if he has great value, it must be in his intangibles.

You’re not asking a good player to take a modest reduction in salary, you’re asking him to take less than half of what he’d make on the open market.

with the MLE?

can’t think of one

Hell no! If Taj never shoots from outside of 5 feet it's fine with me.

I understand why people are upset with Boozer but Taj’s ability has been blown WAY out of proportion.

This is pretty much what I was thinking reading the debate myself.

When Booz’s salary is so high compared to his worth as last year, no one wants to take him in a trade so we are stuck with him….and we have to get a better, more consistent performance from him. He lost weight, looks better athletically so I am just shaking my head what could be done. I sure hope the coaching staff has some ideas. He’s got to shoot better in the post or something. With our 2 (2nd) guards going injured almost together, it just speeds the problem up immensely.

The reality is Boozer isn't gonig anywhere this season

So the Bulls will have to make do with what they have

which in my mind means we are not getting past Miami, but we’ll have another successful regular season building up to the inevitable devastating conference finals loss.

unless the Hawks take them out !!

that's definitely the reality, so the problem is his play

and it has to get better.

And if he’s closer to done, a year and a half into his contract, what a fuck-up.

I don't understand anybody that is holding out hope on this guy.

It’s simple: He was not very good last season and especially pathetic in the playoffs, but his supporters were able to fall back on his injured toe/foot. This year, even after losing weight, he’s as slow and statue-esque out there as he was before. If it’s not the toe, what is it now? Boozer’s here for the check and nothing else. He came out saying he was here to quiet the haters and that this year would bring him redemption; he’s full of shit. He’s a con-man, a lazy bum on a team full of scrappy, grimy competitors. I’m sure that he’s been lit up by teammates in practice and behind closed doors. There’s no way that this team, loaded with max-effort guys, everybody has held their tongue with this guy out there CLEARLY dogging it when the team needs him most.

Saying he wasn't good last year is simply incorrect.

19.3 points, 54% shooting, 9.9 rebounds. Those were his stats pre-all star break in 36 games. The 23 games post all-star break he was substantially worse. Probably not coincidentally, the biggest dropoff came after this incident.

The rest of what you said is just unsubstantiated hate, so there’s nothing to argue about. If you simply deny reality that he was performing great for a good portion of the year, it’s easy to paint anybody as terrible.

He had two nice offensive months,

but I didn’t like him much then either. He’s a clown at everything other than scoring, and for the better part of his tenure with the Bulls he’s been subpar in that department. He’s injury free and lighter now, but he looks like a dog out there. I’m done with him. There are so many guys I’d rather have at the 4 it’s not even funny. Gimme that Brandon Bass Boston got from Orlando for that fatass Big Baby. Boozer’s not anywhere near the top of his position.

I’m done with this clown, and have been for a while.

if you're just getting out frustration, fine

but I’ll say this anyway: I think coaching is partially to blame for his struggles. As a PF we want him to muscle his way inside and beat guys up for baskets, but Booz needs to be set up. He’s best as a roll man, and that jumper is by far his best basketball skill. The fact is he just doesn’t fit as a strong low post presence most nights, and he needs more stuff run for him. I’m not apologizing for him but he could be better used.

i do think he's still not being used well

Sure he has to play better, I think he could be better used

If he needs to be set up to get buckets,

then the Bulls brought in the wrong guy. They wanted a guy who could shoulder the load on offense and give Rose some leeway out there. If he needs Rose to set him up in perfect situations to score, Rose might as well look for his own buckets.

He has all the post moves. He can flip in short hooks with either hand, has good footwork down there and has good strength, though he plays soft as hell(?). I’d like to see him put that shot in his back pocket and use it as a last resort. Establish yourself inside, then maybe pop a J(as long as it’s not a fadeaway.)

They weren't just nice

Dec through Feb Boozer was ridiculous…..

Then I don’t know what happened….hasn’t been the same.

majoyenrac - January 4, 2012 reply

BOOZER APOLOGIST RIGHT HERE BITCHES. SUCK IT.

GIMME THAT SHIT JO!

AND ONE!

brianm - January 3, 2012 reply

Honestly, things would be better off for the Bulls if Boozer's bag injury ended his career.

He’s trash. He’s here cashing checks, plain and simple. Pax stepped in it again with this signing. This is worse than the Wallace signing; it’s for 5/65, not 4/60. Just typing that is raising my BP; this garbage ballplayer is making 15 million dollars. SMH…….

Really?

Totally disagree.

Why?

If the Bulls could have got their money back and re-allocated it, you don’t think they could have made a better move going forwards? Boozer’s a net negative out there, in my opinion, and I expect him to be a burden more often than not when the playoffs come around.

theyy could have signed

David Lee…I’ll take lee over boozer right now!

Da Bears2333333 - January 4, 2012 reply

Good for you

Lee makes $80M over 6 years (instead of $65M over 5) isn’t as good a rebounder (especially defensive rebounder), while he gets his Psycho-T esque O stats, isn’t as good in the block as Boozer (when we go there), doesn’t have the rep around the league (which helps in spacing), and isn’t as experienced as Boozer with lack of really any big games under his belt (no playoff games).

Lee’s also not playing too well this year and hasn’t been nearly as good post the big contract as he was before the big contract.

Add in Boozer’s a 18.5 playoff PER guy in 60 games (including him playing through turf toe last year) he’s shored up our PF rotation and we’re winning.

Stats aren’t everything. Has Boozer individually been disappointing, yes, but not as disappointing as you’d think, we’re winning and he’s been at least solid, just not consistently all star playing caliber….

Does he make too much? Yes he does….but he’s not bad and if he made $4M/yr less we’d be very happy.

majoyenrac - January 4, 2012 reply

honestly, yeah it can seem like booz is overpaid

but when you think that amare got 25 million more over the same amount of time… it really doesn’t bother me at all.

their stats are really pretty similar – except carlos avg’ed about 3 reb p36 more than amare, and amare avg’ed 5 more points. and had more blocks (which isn’t a role boozer has on our team anyway). amare is more efficient because he’s a better FT shooter, but carlos actually had a slightly better FG%. booz still had almost a 19 PER last season despite the fact that he “sucked.” good for 39th in the league (among guys who played a reasonable amount of minutes to get rid of the outliers). and amare is looking worse than boozer in the early going of this season (shooting 40%!").

His per is inflated

because of how many minutes the Bulls limit him when they take him out of the lineup for various reasons.

Truth is, his offense is limited at best.

Poor post moves (watching him try to post up is a disaster which more times than not ends up in a bad fadeaway), is too slow to drive past his man, and is not athletic enough to dominate the boards. He gets alto of ‘easy’ rebounds, but will never sky over taller, more athletic bigs.

The Bulls are good enough to contend for a title, and if they want to contend for a title, they will need his salary to get more well rounded players.

funny thing is I always try to slip underhanded comments on his FB page.

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Thank you!

I don’t get it either. I don’t hate the guy I just want to see this team win a title. It offends my senses as a fan of the game that so many here are defend his efforts. He needs to be 20/10. Nothing more, nothing less and he needs to be 20/10 while being a factor in the paint. If this guy is going to play soft and PnP all day, we’re in deep trouble.

Thibs is sitting Boozer because he’s ineffective and unreliable. Taj is playing because he’s dependable enough in one area to afford to be on the court. He literally doesn’t trust Boozer and what he offers when the game matters anymore. This is going to be a problem once again in the playoffs.

MichaelClutchtree - January 3, 2012 reply

fuck boozer

coke - January 4, 2012 reply

I would also like to thank pargo

for giving us the win

coke - January 4, 2012 reply

Gotta love the NBAE/Getty Images

I agree, I don't see the point in patting Boozer on the back because he had a big game against a ZBo-less Grizzlies.

Should we cheer for Boozer if he shows up at some random high school and dominates a pickup game there, too?

With the amount of cap space Boozer is eating, he should be a CONSISTENT 20/10 guy. Throwing celebratory parties when he has one 20/10 game every couple weeks is giving him too much credit for a job not really well done. I can easily stomach Brewer’s 3pt streak ending — he’s a utility guy who works the baseline and plays good D, and at least makes a presence felt on most plays (even when he doesn’t get a touch — he stays active and makes the D account for him). At this point, I would happily trade Boozer for a guy who can go 16/10 on a nightly basis.

BlogaLove?

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

Maybe if you read the whole thing, including the time stamps, you'd understand it a little more

The whole team scored around 30 in the first half, and somehow the only one catching flak is Boozer. The same people come in with the same tired attacks on Boozer, as if he was the only one out there who was ineffective. The criticism of Boozer was driving the argument, not the the defense of him. Nobody was saying that Boozer had a good game, they were saying that everybody but Asik had a bad game until the 4th quarter, at which point Rose and Deng decided to join him. Some people aren’t into scapegoat analysis.

If Rose plays like he did the first 3 quarters, if Noah plays like he did all game, if Brewer and Korver are that ineffective, if John Lucas III plays at all, things will not end well. They were all signed to be much better than that. You yourself have pointed out that a player being overpaid doesn’t come out of our wallets. The reality is that they’re all not going to be good all the time, and all you can hope for is that they’re good the majority of the time, and that they all don’t suck in the same game.

Some people who were in all the threads felt the need to point out that Boozer wasn’t single-handedly killing the Bulls. Taking jumpers isn’t ideal, but at least he was making a couple, while no one else was making any shots at all. Personally, I don’t care what shots he takes, as long as they go in. He just had a great game against Memphis, so why the sudden panic that he can’t be effective? Smith, Horford and that zone are clearly a bad matchup for him, like they were for everybody other Bull on the floor. He’s not an mvp candidate that’s going to be successful every single game, so what’s the point in bitching about it and panicking every time, as if he lost some skill that he had the game before?

Oh, and the other main problem

is that people are insisting that you can fix what’s clearly an offense-related problem by putting Taj in the game instead. If someone is going to argue that, it’s like begging for a dozen people to come point out why that won’t work.

Boozer's only issue isn't offense-related.

Boozer is the type of player that is categorized as a defensive liability with a high offensive upside that should make up for it. When that offensive upside doesn’t show up, then he’s just… a defensive liability.

And Boozer’s lack of ability to produce consistently on the offensive side has an affect on Rose’s game as well. For most of tonight, the Hawks settled in on the strategy that has been popular since last season’s round 1 series against the Pacers — they sent out a high two man trap on Rose. With Hamilton out, it’s entirely up to Boozer to provide some offense to punish the Pacers for over-committing on Rose. When he doesn’t, the Bulls fail to stretch the half court and the offense falls flat. We’ve seen it happen before and we saw it happen again tonight. So far this season, Taj is averaging 11.2 points per 36 minutes, and Boozer is at 15.4. Boozer’s paycheck and lack of defense suggest he should be worth more than a 4.2 per 36 minutes over his defensive substitute. Boozer is also not helping himself with things like a .545 FT% (small sample size warning, of course).

For a guy who got a payday like Boozer’s, the only thing you can really hope is that he steps it up in crucial moments — that’s what you really want out of your stars. They may not always have a good night, but they find that extra gear when it’s really important… and that’s when Boozer’s clutch dies and he gets stuck in neutral. There’s a lot of frustration to go around because, sadly, the Bulls’ offense is still basically only a 3 man show — Rose, Rip, and Boozer (at least, Boozer should be). I’m a huge Luol fan, but he’s not really a “create a shot” kind of guy. With Rip out, that means we were back down to Rose and Boozer to be creators tonight and open the floor up. With Rip out, it was really important for Boozer to step up… and once again, when it mattered, he didn’t show up and wound up serving the team better by sitting on the bench.

This categorization is now wrong.

defensive liability with a high offensive upside

17.5 ppg last season and 13 ppg so far this season tells you all you need to know. Not only has he not been productive enough offensively, he’s been far worse than expected in isolation situations. When he is given the ball with room to work, more often than not he throws up a jumper or gets whistled for the offensive foul; i.e. not enough positive plays out of our supposed “go-to scorer.”

Right...

Obviously, what I was saying wasn’t pro-Boozer. I’m saying that’s what he was sold as, and obviously is not living up to it. When you have a player who is supposed to have a high upside that makes up for a noticeable downside, and that high upside tends to not show up, then you’re not getting your money’s worth.

Yup, agreed.

I’m sick of him. I get angry every time I see him out there.

I was saying the team's weakness was offense-related

As a team, there was nothing wrong with the Bulls defense in the Miami series, and there was nothing wrong with their defense this game. The reason they were losing is because their offense was stagnant after the Rose traps, nobody was hitting open shots, etc. Exactly some of the things you pointed out.

This season is 6 games long. Why wouldn’t you look at all 82 games last year? I suspect you did, and that’s why you didn’t use those stats. Carlos was 19.8 on 51% shooting. Taj was 11.2 on 46% per 36 minutes. Is that a big enough gap for you?

I’m sorry, but his payday has nothing to do with it. He doesn’t get to stand on his pile of money so that his shots clear Josh Smith’s arms. He’s got to create space some other way. Money related criticism is just pointless. That’s what it took to get him on the team. Now he’s here. He’s doing the best he can. If he wasn’t on the team, it’s not like Karl Malone would be here instead.

I absolutely cannot agree with a player's contract value having nothing to do with it.

With how tight contracts are in this league, and how little cap space the Bulls have (and an owner who is not willing to pay the luxury tax), players returning value on their contracts is very much a legitimate concern. And I didn’t give last year’s stats, because they don’t matter right now. Boozer is a player on decline and Taj is a player who is still improving — so sure, turn back the clock and Boozer is likely to look better. That’s a given. The problem with looking at an entire year’s stats for Boozer… yeah, he’s going to get his points over the course of a season, that is a given. But a lot of them come in games that don’t matter, and he doesn’t seem to step up in critical moments like a star-caliber player should.

But if you really place zero value on the cost of a player’s contract, then I will happily just agree to disagree because that’s not something I’ll be changing my opinion on. I agree the Bulls’ defense was strong in the Miami series, and in all honesty it was good tonight. And I agree, as you said, the problems arise when the offense stalls coming off the high double traps and lack of ability to nail down open shots. But Boozer is the guy we paid to make those problems go away. Boozer is getting roughly 26% of the team’s cap space to do that. And when Boozer is not providing that offensive lift, he’s not providing any real value over Taj (who consumes approximately 2% of the team’s cap space).

And in terms of per 36 stats from last year...

Taj wins in turnovers (1.5 to 2.9), offensive rebounds (3.3 to 2.2, though totals are about a wash, at 9.5 to 9.6), blocks (2.2 to 0.3), ties in steals (0.8 a piece). It’s really hard to account for defensive point differentials (how many times have we seen an opponent hit an open jumper because Boozer failed to help off a screen), but even at last year’s 8 PPG gap, given other areas Taj was better at and his far superior defensive presence, you could probably argue much of that 8 PPG was accounted for.

So first we were arguing offense

then when substantive full-season stats instead of the laughable 6 game stats don’t back up your narrative of a small difference, you try to find some stats that will. Why did you include offensive rebounds, but leave out defensive ones? Boozer grabbed 26% of the defensive rebounds while he was on the floor, and Taj only grabbed 15%. You don’t think denying the other team extra possessions has an impact on the score? Plus, it’s not just 8ppg, it’s a much more efficient scoring. Even if Taj could score more points he’d have to take a lot more shots to get there.

Also, there are stats that can tell us how effective Taj and Boozer were with the starting lineup. Taj’s defense does not and did not negate the huge offensive gap for a team sorely in need of better offensive production. I looked this up once before, so I’ll just paste that comment below.

" Let’s look at lineup data. Check out units 3, 11, and 20. A starting lineup with Gibson at PF struggled to beat their opponents, no matter who the SG was. Checkout lineups 1 and 6, and see how effective those lineups were with Boozer at PF. If you want to see the effectiveness of the lineup with Boozer at PFand Brewer at SG, go here. Spoiler alert: That lineup was very successful also."

Every piece of statistical evidence says that Boozer is a better player than Taj and that the team performs better with him in. Watching the games shows you that the Bulls defense is shutting down opponents, and that all of their struggles are on the offensive end. Yet your proposed solution is to take out a strong offensive player and replace him with a much worse one. It simply does not make sense. You’re not going to defend the other team down to zero points, and the Bulls are already the best defensive team in the league with the current minute distribution.

Never said Taj is as good of a player as Boozer.

This is why I said I would just agree to disagree — because you don’t take into account player contract value, I do. Once again, I am not knocking Boozer or not “seeing” what his stats are. Let’s put it this way; I believe the Bulls would be better off, as a team, should they cut ties with Boozer as they could spend that $15m AAV better elsewhere. If you want to completely disregard player contract value, then yes, it becomes very easy to defend Boozer. And regarding your below reply — of course Taj is a risk against top defenses, I’ve said all along he is defensive-oriented backup. I like a good South Park reference as much as the next guy, but the notion of “Step 1: Replace Boozer with a worse offensive player. Step 2: ???. Step 3: Championship” is completely missing the point. The idea isn’t that Taj would be a magical answer to Boozer. It’s that Boozer’s $15m could be put towards a better, more consistent offensive replacement.

And...

Obviously, by pointing out that Boozer is a player declining and Taj is a player learning, that doesn’t mean you treat a 6 game sample size like gold — of course it is a small sample size warning situation. However, going forward, it lessens the value of saying differences will match those of previous seasons.

They cannot spend that 15 million elsewhere

for someone who thinks they are knowledgeable about the managerial side, you can’t seem to grasp this basic fact of the salary cap. If the Bulls get rid of Boozer, they will still be over the cap, and will only be able to spend the $5m mid-level exception. Your entire position is built around a lie.

The only way to get a $15 million player to replace Boozer, is to trade Boozer directly for the better player.

I’m being completely serious. If you want me to explain the cap, and specifically why it’s impossible for them to have 15 million dollars available to spend on a player, I will. If you are able to understand the cap, and simply never did the research into the Bulls situation, please go and do so now. You’re not being smarter by taking value into account, you’re simply being deluded in thinking it matters for a team this far over the cap.

Again, you're making assumptions...

Yes, I know the Bulls are currently over the cap. The Bulls also have a lot of contracts expiring before Boozer’s contract ends.

1) As you said, trading is an option.
2) MLE.
3) The following players come off contracts before Boozer’s last season: Deng ($14m AAV), Hamilton ($5m AAV), Korver ($5m AAV), Brewer ($4.3m AAV), Watson ($3.7m AAV), Omer (~$2m AAV average), Gibson ($3.1m AAV), Scal (I forget what he signed for — was it $1.5m AAV?).

Just because Boozer’s $15m does not become immediately available to spend right now doesn’t mean it doesn’t have cap implications over the next four seasons.

So you're talking about dropping Boozer in 2 or 3 years?

Great. I’ve been writing about doing exactly that since November 28th when I learned the details of the CBA. We’re in perfect agreement then.

Dropping Boozer right now, makes no sense, obviously. Why wouldn’t you keep him, and then drop him in a year that cap space would actually be available, since as our other argument established, he’s still more productive than Taj. Until someone better than Boozer actually becomes available for the MLE, or the cap space actually becomes available, you cannot help your team by getting rid of Boozer.

The Bulls have no cap space

They are far over the cap, and will be even if they cut Boozer entirely. All they’ll have left to work with are their exceptions which won’t even get you Kwame Brown in a big man. This is why cap space doesn’t matter. The Bulls are at a point where all that matters is they have the best player possible, even if he’s not the best value. Taking less than the best player will simply mean a worse team.

If you don’t want to use last year’s stats, come back to me when there are a significant number of games this year. You certainly can’t prove a Boozer decline or Taj ascent based on what we’ve seen in 6 games.

If you’re going to disregard Boozer’s numbers because he doesn’t step up against the top/critical teams, you should be really scared of Taj. In fact, Taj was among the very worst in the league at stepping up against the top defenses, ranking 220th out of 239 players. Taj is a capable backup, and that’s it. If you had an actual plan to get a player better than Boozer, that’s one thing, but all you’re coming up with is dumping him for a worse player, and then getting an even worse player to backup Taj. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Championship

THE BULLS BENCH BOOZER BECAUSE OF HIS PUTRID DEFENSE

They are willing to go with a less talented offensive player because of this.

IF that doesn’t tell you anything, I don’t know what will.

So Noah has putrid defense?

If not, you have no basis for saying that’s the reason Boozer wasn’t on the floor. seems to me that Thibs simply kept the team on the floor that was making the run. Caps lock DOESN’T MAKE YOUR POINT STRONGER.

I know its easy to ignore basic facts

But the Bulls benching of Boozer last night wasn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last time.

Weather it be cause other lineups are playing better, or his terrible defense, it will happen again, and again…

As it will for everyone not named Rose and Deng

which are the only two people that Thibs leaves in regardless of circumstance. Every other player on the roster sits on the bench when Thibs feels their replacement is playing well.

thibs rewards the guys who get us there

he even said he was planning to put the starters in but decided against it.

Not the same situation -- Noah was benched because he hit 5 fouls. Boozer only had 2.

Omer was kept in as long as possible while Noah had 5 fouls because he was providing solid defense in his backup role.

You have no idea why either of them stayed on the bench.

Joakim ended the game with 4 fouls, so he could have easily came back in and played during the 4th quarter.

Why did Thibs take out Joakim for the last defensive possession of the game?

You're right, it was 4 PFs, not 5.

But Noah was benched alongside his last foul. And yes, I could easily feed the next step of your argument by saying Asik was a defensive substitution, but that is by no means a 1:1 with the Taj/Boozer situation. Asik is a monster on defense, but the gap between Noah and Asik is nowhere near the gap between Taj and Boozer on defense, and the Asik / Noah substition is one you don’t see as often, as Noah being on the court is no where near as costly on defense as Boozer is.

There was a big enough Asik/Noah difference

that Noah couldn’t stay on the floor, even for a single possession. The funny thing is that I don’t actually believe that Noah is a poor defender, but that makes my point. Neither Boozer or Noah sat because Thibs hates their defense. They sat because their backups were productive, period. As Jaina posted, Thibs himself said that he left that lineup out because they’re the ones who went on the run. If you claim otherwise, the burden of proof is on you.

i guess my thing is that for a max deal

you’d think he’d help pull a team out of that first half muck, give you something on the offensive end so you don’t sink into the mire.

He doesn't have a max deal.

sorry, don't know why I typed that

for the money he got and the rep that he had entering the season.

He hasn’t been worth the money so far, and yes other players failed, but they are viewed by the org. as lesser players, no?

Booz and Rose need to be offensive catalysts.

That's an unrealistic expectation

If you pay people enough money, then they can’t have bad games? They can’t be outplayed by their teammates or the opposition? Why is this standard only applied to Boozer? Noah’s making an awful lot of money now, and you’d think he wouldn’t have to be yanked for the defensive part of an offense/defense switch at the end of the game. Yet, I don’t see any Noah hate.

They can't be as bad as Boozer has been

I’m mad at Noah too. I’m glad he was yanked in this game, his performance has been subpar so far this season.

There are no excuses for Booz.

Exactly

Judging players on their contract is a pointless exercise. You have to look at the big picture of the team. I’m often criticized for rippin Rose, but I do that because I think that truly is the only way we can get to where we wanna be. Deng has made some nice improvements (throw Omer in there too), but unless Rose can continue to play at this level (deep into the playoffs), we’re not gonna reach that championship level

Plenty of people are upset with Noah and think the money he got is high,

myself included. But, he works his ass off and makes the most out of his limited tools. Nothings angers sports fans than a guy who dogs it out there, and the clearer the dogging, the angrier people get. People primarily hate Boozer because of his lackluster effort and his inability to bust his ass and avoid most of the mistakes that he makes on the floor.

Except Boozer is not dogging it out there

His teammates don’t believe he is, and his coach doesn’t believe he is. You think Boozer doesn’t make the most of his limited tools? He was a second round draft pick who slipped because his lack of height and athleticism and yet refined his skills into all-star level play. He doesn’t have to foot speed to hedge as hard as the other defenders and still get back to his man. He doesn’t have the height to work in the post against every defense. Yet, instead of recognizing those as limited tools, you seem to think that if he worked harder he’d somehow be great at that stuff. I don’t get it.

He doesn't move well on defense, his focus is lacking

and he plays with his hands. He doesn’t get the hustle boards and I rarely see him busting his ass out there. When your offense is down, go and hit the floor for a loose ball, make something happen. Tip the ball out, set full screens, just make your presence felt in another capacity. But when he’s not scoring, he’s useless.

what makes you thing Booz is not working hard?

I really don’t think that’s the case. He has many flaws but lack of effort doesn’t seem to be the case. Guess what, he is the team top rebounder this season. You are just a hater dakoose, like you were with Deng before Boozer

I'm a big time Boozer hater.

The Bulls will struggle badly to win a championship with Boozer playing 30mpg. I"m not the only one saying that.

Oh man I remembered the Deng Haters

I used to work for one…lol

If/when the Bulls win a title, I demand mod powers

So I can ban every single person who ever spoke ill of Deng.

That isn't true. The argument is that since they both suck on offense

you might as well put in Taj and get max defense while shifting the shots to Rose and Deng. I think Boozer should still start, but he hasn’t looked like what we payed for, their is no denying that.

They don't both equally suck on offense

The previous game Boozer had 17 points on 8-10 shooting in 25 minutes. Now he’s Taj level on offense, because he struggled against a team that everyone else struggled against? Does Atlanta get any credit?

You’re right, he’s not performing like what the Bulls paid for. I’m looking at Amare and David Lee, and they’ve gotten off to horrible starts this year too. I expect them all to perform closer to career norms by the time the season is over.

though when that ball bounced off his leg on that basket cut after a Rose pass

I was ready to throw something. culmination of a very bad stretch in the game for him.

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

That's the kind of reasonable criticism

that no one has a problem with. It’s this personal hate that causes the arguments, as the people who worry about the size of Boozer’s wallet won’t even acknowledge he’s on the court until he makes makes some kind of mistake. Grab 10 rebounds and score 10 points… nothing. His man scores a bucket…. amnesty that lazy bum.

You want people to get happy for 10 and 10

when he’s screwing up all game long defensively? When he’s shooting fade-aways against smaller, weaker guys like Chuck Hayes and Josh Smith? When he said he’s gonna quiet the haters this year?

He’s a joke.

I don't care if people are happy or not

I’d just like them to make sense. Also, I wasn’t referring to that as a whole game’s production. He can literally have that much in the first half, make a mistake and then have someone calling for his head. It’s not rational.

Well, yeah.

There’s a reason he gets called out for mistakes more than some of the better, more productive players. It’s because he screws up way more than he does. And he hasn’t played a half of basketball in a while where he has only made on mistake.

Chuck Hayes is weaker?

…

Prevenge - January 4, 2012 reply

Just an honest question.

How much do you get into and / or follow the managerial side of sports? Because for a lot of people, valuing a player’s contributions based on his AAV contract cost, especially in leagues with salary caps and a luxury tax, is an important part of determining their worth.

No, I am not happy with Boozer grabbing 10 rebounds and scoring 10 points. We have people who can do that for 1/3rd (or less) of Boozer’s AAV, and would therefor allow us to make upgrades elsewhere.

I follow it as much as you do

But we’re not managers, we don’t make decisions on players, and we don’t pay them out of our own pockets. There is no efficiency championship in the NBA and some players on every team are going to be overpaid relative to their production, unless you manage to get Wade, Lebron, Bosh, and a bunch of ring chasers. It doesn’t matter. How many overpaid contracts did the Mavericks have last year? If Boozer was making 5 million less, how would it affect your life? You had to overpay Boozer to get him on your team, and bringing in somebody who’s worse but paid less wasn’t going to help the Bulls be championship competitors.

10 and 10 was referring to during the game. Only 6 or 7 players equaled Boozer’s 18 and 10 last year.

Whether Boozer is making 75 cents or a billion dollars per game, it doesn't affect my life.

What does that have to do with it? What it does affect is my opinion of his value to the team.

Boozer makes up for it by being a sinkhole on defense

he’s supposed to be the team’s second option, and first when Derrick doesn’t have to do everything every play. So he ‘deserves’ the flak, IMO.

And I do care what shots he takes.

Josh Smith wasn't doing anything offensively while Boozer was in the game

so he wasn’t a sinkhole last night. If you’re talking about him generally being bad at defense, then you should also note that he’s generally good at offense and rebounding. Boozer wasn’t specifically doing anything yesterday that was worse than his teammates, so it doesn’t make sense to single him out.

He was the team’s second option. Was anyone else taking shots other than Rose? Were the third and fourth options performing well in their roles?

Smith was his own worst enemy last night

Boozer has poor footspeed and recognition on defense. It’s not going to get better. He’s always going to be worse than his frontcourt teammates at that. Saying ‘well, EVERYBODY was doing it last night!’ doesn’t really recognize the issue.

And, ok: I want him to be a better second option. If he’s turned into a 18-foot jumpshooter he just won’t be that effective a player.

Well no one's arguing that he's better at defense than his frontcourt teammates

I also don’t see anyone credibly arguing that he’s not better at offense than his frontcourt teammates. He has different skills than them, and that’s why he’s on the team in the first place. If there was somebody who was great at offense, defense, and rebounding, then the Bulls would have got that guy, but this was the best they could do in the year they had cap space. Why cry about it.

What is “the issue” that is not recognized? I recognize he was failing at his job. I also recognize everyone else that were also failing at their jobs. You have yet to explain why Boozer is the only one not allowed to fail. If the issue is that Boozer didn’t save the team while he was in there, it should also be that Rose didn’t save the team through those 3 quarters. I’m not interested in scapegoating. Every player should be mad at themselves, and every player should be criticizes by fans. I don’t think you’re recognizing the issue that 9 people played, 8 were bad for 3 quarters, and 3 were good for the 4th quarter. One person didn’t cause that clusterfuck. Why does everyone else get an excuse?

This is all a massive overreaction. The Bulls are 5-1, had the best record in the league last year, and went to the ECF. They just beat a good team by 40. They brought in a critical offensive player who wasn’t playing last night, and Rose had to play 44 minutes because his backup was off the JV squad. They were also playing the team that has a unique defense that just took stymied the most effective offense in the league the previous night. Why is this the game that the Bulls or Boozer get judged by? Thank goodness there’s another game tonight so we can freak out about something different.

"You have yet to explain why Boozer is the only one not allowed to fail."

he’s not the only one not allowed. He may be the most failing, and most important player who’s failing, but it’s not like we need to have an appropriate % of blame for each player. Boozer can take a shitload of blame but that doesn’t inherently take blame from anyone else.

I don’t think it’s overreacting at all, and the whole argument of parsing out blame, or how much we should react, is stupid. It’s not about that, it’s about Boozer needing to play better. Trying to counteract scapegoating by deflecting blame to other players is just as bad as scapegoating.

You cry about it because it’ll keep the Bulls from a title.

You don't know that it'll keep the Bulls from a title

If you prefer to cry a year in advance of what your nightmares say will happen, have fun. Show me your fortune-telling machine, and i’ll get sad about things that are foregone conclusions too. I think you’re wrong. I think the Bulls have just a good a chance of winning as Miami does. Sorry if I don’t subscribe to the school that says bad things are a sign of future events and good things are immaterial.

As i’ve pointed out 5+ times, Boozer is taking the blame for everyone else, which is the only issue I have a problem with. Blaming one person doesn’t inherently absolve everyone else, just on this blog and in these threads. You’re simply wrong about me deflecting blame. Every single statement I make acknowledges the reality of Boozer while also acknowledging the reality of everyone else on the team. I don’t subscribe to the relativism where you can theoretically make any outlandish statement, I point out the errors with the statement, and then someone else comes in and says that we’re both causing the problem.

We're not reading the tea leaves here.

We all saw Boozer get blown up in the playoffs. He was shit against Miami. Even when he was scoring he was killing the team. 14.4/10 is OK, but he needs to be great offensively to make up for his defensive problems. Bosh averaged 23/8 in that series and tore up Carlos.

Now, people attributed that play to not being healthy. Well….he’s healthy now but looks just as shitty, slow and stupid as he did in that series.

And one more reason people have an issue with Boozer more than anyone else: Everybody else is pretty much doing what’s been expected of them. DRose is playing well, and though he chills at times, his late game heroics make up for it. Deng is killing it and Brewer, Rip, Taj and Omer are pretty much doing what we expect of them. The only other guy who’s been playing below our standard is Jo, and he’s getting it pretty good on this site too.

However, Boozer was brought here in the biggest free agency summer of all time. He was our counter to the big three in Miami, to Amare in NY. Not only that, he was here to be a large difference maker and be a beast out there. Then we go out and surprise the world; best record in the league and our kid grows up and becomes the youngest MVP ever. But we lose because Boozer shits himself in the biggest series of all-time. Rose didn’t play well, but that’s largely because our off-season signing couldn’t shoulder some of the offense and lighten the burden on DRose, who clearly wasn’t ready yet to win a series on his own.

biggest series of his life****

That's me speaking largely for myself.

Others may or may not feel that way, but that’s why I can’t stand him. Additionally, he talks a big game but doesn’t back it up. The screaming, the redemption talk about quieting the haters, etc. Shut up and put up, is what I say.

I've got to be honest

I don’t really like discussing this issue with you because so many of your arguments center around personal hate for Boozer, and how that colors everything you see him do. You said yourself that you hated him even when he was playing great. I’ll obviously never be able to sway you or even find middle ground, so I prefer to not even try.

This is sports, you’re entitled to hate anyone for any reason you wish. I respect that.

But I don't hate him irrationally.

I just spelled out reasons for you. Are they correct or not?

I believe your hate is irrational, yes

I think hating any player on your own team is irrational when they’re a net positive.

You say that he played horribly all last year. I list his stats from the first 36 games and you pretty much ignore them. I point out he adds value with his rebounding as one of the best in the game, you claim they’re not some self-defined “hustle” rebounds, and continue to insist that his scoring is the only way he can contribute. I don’t think there is any evidence that can be presented to you that will shift your opinion even a little bit. If Boozer starts averaging 19 and 10 again on 54% shooting, you will still hate him.

What’s the point of us doing anything other than agreeing to disagree?

He had two good months and then fell off of a cliff.

His February was nothing special. His defensive rebounding numbers are good, but he’s never been a top ten offensive rebounder in his career. I’ve watched damn near every Bulls game the last two years, I’ve never really seen Boozer clean up the glass all that impressively. If he was that good of a rebounder, he would be able to register at least one top ten offensive rebounding season.

Boozer absolutely has to score 20+ ppg for me to think he’s an asset to this team. I saw him suck for most of last year and have not seen him break the 20 point barrier yet this season. That’s a joke for a guy who’s here for his supposed offensive prowess.

He's here because he enables the team to win games.

The Bulls had the best record in the league last year, and are tied for it this year.

Boozer is not taking the blame for everyone else

You keep saying that, but it isn’t true. You keep putting up a straw man and knocking it down. Boozer taking the blame for what Boozer has done in his Bulls career. If there is more angst concerning Boozer having a lackluster game than other players it is because he has a reputation for having lackluster games, particularly when it matters most. Boozer simply has more responsiblity for the offense than Noah or Taj or Deng. He does. If the offense is bad, more of the blame will fall on him b/c he is primarily an offensive player. Noah sucking doesn’t explain why Boozer is settling for 18 ft jumpers, or why he can’t consistently post. Boozer’s struggles against athletic defenders is very important – he is suppose to be our 2nd option on offense and most of our main competitors have very athletic post defenders. We can talk about Boozer’s problems without letting it be a pass for Noah or anyone else’s problems as well.

And making decisions to win championships is what Bulls management does and what fans kvetch about.

it's not ignoring everyone else

just that saying other people’s performance doesn’t make Boozer’s performance any better or worse. Boozer can take blame and it doesn’t mean other players can’t take other blame. there’s not a finite level of demerits we’re handing out

None of us know the future, but saying Boozer will bounce back is just as uncertain. And saying his play is acceptable now is just wrong. Now ‘accepting’ is a weird term since there’s little to do about it, but still.

Except I never once stated that that Boozer's performance

did make anyone else’s performance better or worse, so I’m not sure where the disagreement is. If you’re accusing me of saying that, please point out where. I made a lot of long posts trying to be clear that there are no excuses for Boozer, but that by focusing solely on him other relevant issues are being ignored. When everybody stinks on offense, maybe it’s just that Atlanta played great defense, and not that Boozer’s offensive abilities have shrunk beyond salvage from the previous game.

Saying “we’ll consider other problems later” doesn’t work when we never actually get around to discussing those other problems.

You don't think Boozer and Rose have more responsiblity

to rescue the Bulls from a bad offensive performance than other players on the team?

He seems to think that everyone has equal responsibility for wins,

when it’s just not true. If Boozer was the player a lot of us thought he was when he came here, he would be lauded more than some of the other guys playing well. It goes both ways. The guys that contribute more to winning get more credit and the guys who blow harder than everyone else get the most blame. And like YFBB said, there’s not a finite amount of blame that can be doled out.

I don't believe that a failure to do so in any particular game

is worthy of scorn. Jordan’s dominant team lost 10 games. Shit happens. I care much more about how a player does over the long run, and value team success far above personal stats. When the team is 5-1 and the player has a history of being productive, i’m going to wait until he has a clear history of being unproductive before I start to worry about it. He had a great game the very last game and that isn’t nullified in my eyes.

Taj played the whole 4th? Great! Good thing he’s under contract for 3 more years and will be there to help when we need it. It’s a good thing when other players step up. I expect everybody to do their part. Why even have depth if you don’t ever envision a scenario where a backup will be the one that carries you?

17 and 11 isn't a great game.

It’s solid, and if he were to do that over a full season, I would just deem it acceptable. If 17 and 11 is a great game for you, I hate to think what’s a good game for Carlos, 14/8?

So 17 and 11 is acceptable

But 18 and 10 is crap, or are you admitting that Carlos was acceptable last year? That’s what he averaged. Why would 1 rebound per game be a significant difference for a team that was already the best rebounding team in the league?

Also he had 17 and 11

in less than 24 minutes of play. Yes, that was great. in 36 minutes that would have come out to 25 and 16.

well, Booz is playing like shit but I'm still defending Booz and that's because

1) It’s early in the season and if you look at the last one, Rose didn’t play well his early games too. It used to happen to BG too. I’m not freaking out yet

2) Boozer’s D is not worse than advertised. It sucks as it always sucked and we knew it. If anything I think he works hard (even tho he still sucks). That said, I’m still not sold on Rose’s D. I think he still has a lot of trouble guarding quick guards.

3) BaB hate is absolutelly borderline stupid. More often than not the whole team is playing like shit and people are like “it’s all Boozer’s fault”. Boozer is in the bench, it’s his fault he is not playing. Boozer is in the game, it’s his fault we are losing.

yes!!

is what i’ve been trying to say. THE TEAM SHOT UNDER 30% for the majority of the game!! it’s all their fucking fault!

#3

damn auto editing

and one other thing

I don’t like him settling for the mid range shot – but he can make those. Taj, on the other hand, can’t hit that shot to save his life but keeps shooting it. So it’s up to Thibs to fix those things.

Boozer's bad and may be getting worse as he's aging, that's the real issue

not parsing out game-to-game ‘fault’ percentages.

he may be getting worse

but I think it’s too soon to tell. I’m gonna waiting a couple of weeks the same way I’m waiting for Rose to lower his 4 TOPG average. If Booz doesn’t come back to his scoring ways, then I’ll start bitching

Well this whole conversation came up

because you didn’t understand why Boozer was being defended. I’m explaining why. The arguments come up because fault is being parsed out, except Boozer seems to get everyone’s share.

No one denies that he’s going to get worse. We probably disagree on exactly how bad he is.

or in how much he is the one to be blamed by the team's problems

Ok, maybe I understand now, but think its silly

Boozer being bad is a huge problem, and Noah being also bad isn’t changing that.

When last season began there was a lot of "trade Deng", "screw Deng", "Deng sucks" here

but before you know it Deng was playing a great season and not a single hater remains.
I’m not saying this will happen to Boozer but it’s kind of early for this trade/amnesty/he’s done talk, imo

that's fine, you can say it's early. Others can say it isn't.

This is the smartest post about Booz on here today

Po' Booz -

Over the past few years, we all have expressed a lot of frustration over the play of certain players.

I remember DRose getting ragged on in his Rookie of the Year Season, Deng being eviscerated for poor 4th quarters after his extension; Heinrich for his dropoff prior to his trade, Tyrus, BG, etc., etc. If only big contracts could cure players flaws…

Now it is Booz’s turn. He simply is what they said he is.

What with Taj’s poor O, Asik’s stone hands, Brewer’s inconsistent J, Watson’s subpar distribution skills, Korver’s poor D, Noah’s dropoff since mid 2010-11, we could go on and on.

Notwithstanding those realities, we had the best record in the NBA last year, and will likely be at/near the top this year.

Complaining about Booz will pass like gas, after the NEXT big contract or hyped acquisition occurs, then we will move to the next meme.

IMHO, it appears that given all of the above, the synergy of our team and great coaching enables us to just win.

I’m just glad that our success is based on maximizing the strengths and minimizing the weaknesses of our guys.

Will I get mad and throw my shoe at the TV at least once a game…probably.
But I’ve been watching the NBA for a long time, and I know it can get a LOT worse.

Enjoy the bumpy ride, folks – these are the players we have, and oh, by the way:

F—k Rondo;
Beat the Heat;
Maul the Mavs;
Thrash the Thunder;
Lash the Lakers;
Kick the Knicks;
Spank the Spurs;
cap any other contenders;

…you get the picture.

Bulls fan for life.

This is why the back-up plan bothered me.

I’d still rather have Tyrus and Kirk and Ben.

:D

tyger1147 - January 4, 2012 reply

lets just take Tyrus back and forgive everyone

I’m down.

Tyrus is basketball retarded

You don’t win games with people like that on your teams. I would still love to have BG on this team

It was all worth it just so I could stop arguing about those three players.

Hear hear

I love having fresh blood to argue about.

Sorry, I'm just to happy with this win to dwell on any negatives

If we were more of a mediocre team I would probably be slightly upset, but since I know we’re really good, I can just enjoy it for what it was.

And for all the people saying Rip is not needed… yeah, no.

Wow Really?

I’ve seen you come and piss in a million bowls of Cherrios after a Bulls win because Rose didn’t run PnR enough or shot too many 3s. Fact is, if we don’t get better efforts out of Noah and Boozer, we’ll be in the same boat as last season.

But I do agree with you about Rip. He's needed big time

It is a little disconcerting

when JBJ is the voice of calmness and serenity lol

its a decoy

DON’T FALL FOR THE DECOY!

Exactly! lol

You can't see me, but I'm doing this right now:

Thibs probably knew better all along.

That was in previous years, when I wasn't as sure of our standing in the league. This year we're really good, and I know it

So, I kinda don’t care. Have you sen me rag on Rose at all this year?

(I’m not allowing you jackyls to hate on me til the Playoffs)

Did you take up Bhuddism or some shit?

you are way too serene right now.

note that I have nothing against Bhuddism, just JBJ practicing it

I'd love to try Boozer in the second unit.

And put Taj into the first unit. It’d be a better fit.

Give Noah some room to operate early in the game and give that offensively dead unit an offensive focus.

Start Taj is what I'm saying

even if its a token amount of minutes like Bogans had he’d be better with the starting unit.

especially with CJ hurt

Yeah I agree

I’m worried that Noah’s play is going down playing with Boozer and to be fair to Boozer, vice versa

maybe shuffle the rotations a bit, I wouldn't bench him

and if he can’t score with Rose commanding attention I don’t think he brings an offensive focus without him.

exactly. I just said that below.

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

I worry about Booz not being able to get an open shot with the bench mob

he can’t create space by himself and almost depends on being on the floor with other guys like Rose, Deng, and Rip who other teams need to account for for him to get an open look. with the second unit, teams can kinda key on him and that could make it worse.

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

per36 minutes numbers for this season

Taj: 10pts, 7,5 boards, 41% FG
Booz: 15 pts, 10rbds, 51% FG

As bad as Booz is, he still is way better than Taj (who is also playing like shit)

I'd take his awful offense plus solid defense

over Boozer always terrible defense and sometimes effective offense.

again: our D is not the problem

Boozers awful defense is a big part as to why are other bigs

are constantly in foul trouble.

Taj and Asik gets in foul trouble with Booz on the bench

He sure isn't doing Noah any favors.

Boozer is playing poorly but Noah's problems are his own

Yeah...

Overplaying and over showing on PnR’s…

Mike from Illinois - January 3, 2012 reply

The Bulls shot 33.8% from the field and 23.5% on three pointers

Their victory over Atlanta was the first time since January 30th, 1998, when they beat GS 87-80 that the Bulls won a game where they shot less than 35% from the field and less than 25% on three pointers. Tonight’s victory broke a streak of 35 losses in a row in such situations.

Also, the 76 points the Bulls scored was the fewest points they have scored in a victory since February 17, 2004, when they beat Toronto 75-73. Tonight’s victory broke a losing streak of 15 games in a row in such situations.

yup, being really shitty on offense leads to losses, turns out

boyonthedock - January 4, 2012 reply

Are you a Bulls fan? You confuse me.

All Chicago allegiance, but an Orlando Magic fan…yet you post random fact on blogabull. Just curious.

bleigh82 - January 4, 2012 reply

someone needs to get a gif of that epic fail of a flop attempt by asik in the 4th

sin - January 3, 2012 reply

Hmm...just got home and didn't see the game. Like a Bosh?

there was some actual contact

but yeah, pretty much

worse

he basically anticipated the man on the break to run into him so he began flopping way before there was even contact and by the time the player (i think it was horford?) stopped asik was already on the floor

sin - January 3, 2012 reply

Lol yea it was funny.

Then Korver tried to flop secs later.

chicity773 - January 4, 2012 reply

we've had this argument before about stacey

but who would rather have? some boring-ass expro like wennington who when he’s not talking about “how he spoke to so-and-so before the game” is just putting up mindless filler? stacey obviously understands basketball, does his share of telestrating and is entertaining to boot. sometimes i feel some of the locals here just like to hate

holla8283 - January 3, 2012 reply

I love Stacey

It’s just like watching the game with really boisterous drunk guy at a bar.

tuluse - January 4, 2012 reply

I'm fine with Stacey

I don’t expect a national-level announcer on a local broadcast. He makes the game more entertaining, which is all I ask.

I'm cool with Stacey...

I just don’t need a mini-dissertation after EVERY freakin play.

MichaelClutchtree - January 3, 2012 reply

all we need to do is trade noah, boozer, and korver for some expiring contracts

shouldnt be hard right?

How can you not love this guy?

McGrawDHBulls Mike McGraw
D-Rose: "I felt bad for our fans to see us that bad. The first half and the third quarter, it just wasn’t there. It was embarrassing."

It’s almost like he was watching me punch my cat and yell “THIS IS FUCKING EMBARRASSING!”

any minute now, PETA will be knocking on your door

Brigade17 - January 4, 2012 reply

better them than the ALF

boyonthedock - January 4, 2012 reply

I couldn't stop laughing at the image of a grown man beating up a cat and Derrick Rose walking in

dantheman3k - January 4, 2012 reply

Rose:.....Crazy

If this was the only time you've ever watched Korver..

You’d say: He’s a rugged rebound and really hustles but he can’t shoot worth a lick.

D-Cas - January 3, 2012 reply

Oh wait.. but he really can't shoot.

D-Cas - January 3, 2012 reply

"We want tacos" is trending because of the Lakers game

so thankfully the UC isn’t the only place that gets stupid at the end of games

I'm gonna miss this depth :(

You can’t keep this many good players on the same team for long.

But until then, I’m fine with the random “second and third best players on the court”.

Option27 - January 4, 2012 via mobile reply

Taj and Omer will probably get paid down the road, but the thing about them

is that neither will ever be worth big money starting. Bigs have been getting STUPID money(Kwame @ 9mill!!) so I expect them to cash in, but the team’s that sign them will probably expect them to do more than they’re capable and eventually be disappointed with the results.

well, if we could keep just one... Asik, please!

BULLieving in Miami - January 4, 2012 via iPhone app reply

I'd rather trade him

ONLY to get more in return

Option27 - January 4, 2012 reply

We can keep Asik...

Part of the new collective bargaining agreement says something about early bird rights that keeps his possible salary offers to 5 million for the first two years. I am not exactly sure of the details but it may as well be called the Omer Asik rule.

It's the Gilbert Arenas rule

If I dig up a link, i’ll post it.

Yeah but they'll lose him eventually when he's still gonna be damn good

Still on that boat where you might as well get something good for him

Option27 - January 4, 2012 reply

There's no reason they have to lose him

Yeah, check out that rule.

We can probably lock him up until he is 31 or 32 with a very modest addition to our payroll (given that he is a very strong asset) and surprisingly little harm done to our flexibility.

https://webfiles.uci.edu/lcoon/cbafaq/salarycap.htm#Q38

Okay, here is the Gilbert Arenas provision I was referring to

With the previous CBA it was sometimes possible to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets their original teams couldn’t match. This happened when a player was an Early Bird or Non-Bird free agent (see question number 19) and the team didn’t have enough cap room to match a sufficiently large offer. For example, Gilbert Arenas was Golden State’s second round draft pick in 2001, and became an Early Bird free agent in 2003. Golden State therefore could only match an offer sheet (or sign Arenas themselves) for up to the average salary (see question number 25), which was about $4.9 million. Washington signed Arenas to an offer sheet with a starting salary of about $8.5 million, which Golden State was powerless to match.

This loophole was addressed in the current CBA (although not closed completely — see below). Teams are now limited in the salary they can offer in an offer sheet to a restricted free agent with one or two years in the league. The first-year salary in the offer sheet cannot be greater than the average salary (see question number 25). Limiting the first year salary in this way guarantees that the player’s original team will be able to match the offer sheet by using the Early Bird exception (if applicable — see question number 19), or Mid-Level exception (provided they haven’t used it already).

The second year salary in such an offer sheet is limited to the standard 8% raise. The third year salary can jump considerably — it is allowed to be as high as it would have been had the first year salary not been limited by this rule to the average salary. Raises (and decreases) after the third season are limited to 6.9% of the salary in the third season. The offer sheet can only contain the large jump in the third season if it provides the maximum salary allowed in the first two seasons. In addition, the offer must be guaranteed and cannot contain bonuses of any kind.

If the raise in the third season exceeds the standard raise (8% of the salary in the first season of the contract), then they place an additional restriction on the team. In order to determine the size of the offer the team can make, they don’t fit just the first year salary under the cap. Instead, they must fit the average salary in the entire contract under the cap. So a team $8 million under the cap is limited to offering a total of $24 million over three years, $32 million over four years, or $40 million over five years. If the offer sheet does not contain a third-season raise larger than 8% of the first-season salary, then they only have to fit the first year salary under the cap.

Putting this all together, if a team is $11 million under the cap, wants to submit a five year offer sheet, and wants to provide a large raise in the third season, they can offer a total of $55 million. If the average salary is $5 million, then the second year salary will be $5.4 million (8% raise). This leaves $44.6 million to be distributed over the final three seasons. With 6.9% raises in years four and five, the entire contract looks like this:

Basically, the Bulls can match any offer and even try to avoid the luxury tax as long as they commit to cutting Boozer before the third year kicks in. Also, only a team far under the cap can offer Asik a contract with a significant escalator in year 3. I am really happy that Houston signed Dalembert to a multi-year contract as they were the likeliest suitors.

Good work, sparky.

Okay, looking at this, I think that we have a damn good chance of keeping Asik.

First off, it will not hurt our flexibility for 2 years. Second, this provision where the other team

must fit the average salary in the entire contract under the cap

is pretty strong. Essentially, a team that would pay Asik 40 million over 4 years cannot do a 5,5,15,15 deal with him unless they actually have 10 million dollars in cap space. I find it very unlikely that a team would keep that kind of space around for Omer, as much as I like him. This really limits the kind of offers that Omer can get. Poor Turk.

It only takes one team to make the offer

Which is why i’m cautiously optimistic. There might be some crazy GM out there that thinks Omer’s tears cure cancer, and that they won’t regret paying Omer 15 million after a couple of years.

Its also funny that Arenas may as well have 2 new rules written for him...

that perfectly mark the rise and descent of his career.

Yeah

I was going to comment on that as well. Arenas is destined to be a trivia question and a punch line for years to come.

too early to go crazy on Boozer, for starters...

Boozer will always be taking those outside shots. It is part of his game, period.

In my opinion, he is getting to better positions around the paint, as compared to last year. He ended up in some awkward spots before and I think the rust will shake off and he will get more fluid close to the rim. (Same with Rose, not all of his floaters are hitting home.)

Someone else mentioned that while Taj was getting burned with the alley oop, they didn’t really get Boozer on that (unconfirmed), probably because he was blocking out.

—I wonder if the FO is looking at Noah and wondering if something is off or if he is just rusty. He does look a little sloppy. (He needs to sponsor Visine, too…)

inkybreath - January 4, 2012 reply

Totally random but freak it

I really used to hate Ron Adams during the Skiles era.

Now he’s one of my favorite assistant coaches the Bulls have ever had

Option27 - January 4, 2012 reply

He looks like a science teacher

(that’s my analysis)

I interviewed him over the summer

Really smart guy

Scribbz - January 4, 2012 reply

Kind of interesting how Omer can't catch a pass to save his life, yet he's a very strong rebounder

You’d think it’s a pretty similar skillset, no?

he just gets good positioning on rebounds and grabs those

but when he has to fight for one he usually loses it from what i can remember. or has it wrestled away from him.

sin - January 4, 2012 reply

Asik is the God of the Skys

He looks up waiting for the balls to rain so he can storm inside and grab a board. He doesn’t care about what happens below 7 feet

Omer, Taj and Noah have hands of stone.

cencalclassics - January 4, 2012 reply

sad that we went cold against a lineup of pargo/green/mcgrady/radmanovich/pachulia

i mean those were the JL3 minutes but still…

I love it when Asik gave the refs "The look"

then they reviewed the replay

trig - January 4, 2012 reply

The refs were killing Asik all night

He had one actual foul and two were major reaches by the refs. A defender is entitled to all veritical space he can consume if he is jumping straight up in the air. Asik is very good at this, but the refs often penalize him for great defense.

Yeah, I really do not get a lot of Asik's foul calls.

He actually seems to take a good, fundamental approach to it. He doesn’t usually go for swipe blocks, he just respects his size and goes straight up, but the refs seem to call fouls on him anyway just because someone collided with him mid-air.

We need Thibs to defend Asik

Asik is playing great defense on his block attempts. He’s just a jumping tree. If he’s getting whistled for playbook textbook defense I’d like to see Thibs defend his players.

A couple observations

1) I wish the Bulls would have ran a ton more Rose/Boozer pick and roll in the 2nd and 3rd quarters before Boozer was banished to the bench. I know he was sucking, but it would have been nice to try and get Boozer cooking. The Bulls to often go to the 1-5 pick and roll rather than using Boozer. If you want to be successful down the road, that pick and roll game has to get better. It was so awesome last game! Do it more!

2) I don’t think it’s time to get down on Boozer just yet. Heck, Deng hasn’t exactly set the world on fire with his play on the offensive side either. Now, Deng brings a crap ton more defense, but still. It’s early. Furthermore, Boozer had 2 stl and 1 blk yesterday. Last year, there were only 6 times where Boozer had at least 3 stl+blks (and that includes the playoffs). His defense looks much better at times, but old habits do die hard. I think if Boozer stays healthy, he will get there.

3) I want Omer and Ronnie to have just the tiniest bit of offensive ability. This is why Ri[p Hamilton is necessary. Even if his shot isn’t falling, he can hit shots, he can create shots, and he can be a playmaker. Teams will respect that until he shows that he no longer can on a consistent basis. The opposite is true for Ronnie. Until he consistently shows that he can hit shots, teams will leave him, just like the Hawks did yesterday. I don’t know if Rip was the best signing, but I know for sure that the Bulls offense looks much better with him playing. Hopefully he can play for a little bit today against his former team so we can make short work of the Pistons and get Rose and Deng some rest.

DRose01 - January 4, 2012 reply

they do need to run more Rose/Boozer pick and roll

but

1) Rose isn’t very good at it, and he’s a saint so we can’t ask much more

2)Boozer often choose to…not roll.

Rose isn't John Stockton but he's also come a long way with his passing.

It shouldn’t be that hard to get the ball to a guy who slips 99.9% of the screens he sets.

Guys, maybe you will know, maybe not.

I havent been to a Bulls game in like 7 years and I really want to go this year, but tickets are so dang expensive.

Do you know where I can find tickets (even if they are nosebleeds) for like $50/piece?

Everything online is at least $80.

rsikes - January 4, 2012 reply

call the Bulls for a single-game nosebleed ticket

there’s usually something. just may not get a couple together.

thanks appreciate it.

ive checked stubhub, ticketmaster, etc but I dont feel like taking out a loan to go to a Bulls game lol.

rsikes - January 4, 2012 reply

I've bought a lot of Bulls tickets on eBay for cheap.

You just have to be smart about it; buy from the ticket brokers and/or those individual sellers that have sold tickets in the past.

chicity773 - January 4, 2012 reply

I saw the Bulls at Conseco when they played Indiana.

Nosebleeds cost $17. A playoff ticket cost $40 (no bullshit).

I have never been to a UC game. I am the 98.3%.

yea I was checking around opponents venues like the Bradley Center and Conseco FH, etc.

But there’s nothing like the UC crowd

rsikes - January 4, 2012 reply

Zaza Pachulia's shot selection last night was epic

His two attempts were the most ridiculous shots I have seen in some time.

It seemed like the Bulls were stuck on 21 points forever. Must have missed at least 10 straight shots before DRose got that and 1.

bleigh82 - January 4, 2012 reply

I was stuck late at work...

and by the time I got home, there was about 1m45s left to go in the second quarter. When I first started watching the game, I thought the clock must have been wrong. Guess not. ;)

To fix Boozer's offense, the following training drill should be implemented:

Repeatedly feed him the ball in the post with a taser pointed at him. If he fails to dunk, let ’er rip.

NerdVernacular - January 4, 2012 reply

i think it's worth noting

thibs:

“There was a stretch where I was going to come back with the starters but that group was making their run,”

so it’s not like he didn’t think of giving the starters another chance. he does like to ride the hot hand, sometimes to his detriment. but i appreciate him not pulling the guys just because there’s money or names sitting on the bench.

Noah knows

"I have to do a better job being able to be more productive on the court," said Noah. "I need to rebound better. Do better defensively. I’m happy we won, but at the same time I want to do better. When you shoot as poorly as we shot (33.8 percent and won), that’s pretty bad. When you do that and win you should be happy, but at the same time you have to be critical about the things you can do better."

Sam Smith

That's fine, now actually do something about it.

Yeah, enough talk.

This stuff all played out in the playoffs last season with our frontcourt being benched in the critical portions of several fourth quarters.

yeah I kinda wonder if we would have won an extra game in the MIA series

if we had Asik

It's certainly possible

It’s one of the reasons that I’m confident that the Bulls can beat Miami in a series. We’ll get Hamilton, and we’ll get Asik. I think it’s plausible that they can be the difference between the few points the Bulls lost by.

I'm with you on that.

he said one extra game, not three

Tied at the end of game 4.

The Bulls lost by 3 in game 5. Unrealistic that the players could have made a difference of 1 point in one game or 4 points in another?

The difference between the teams was not as wide as you make it seem.

Asik didn't really have a great series though

In 43 minutes between games 1-3 Asik had 5pts, 5rebs, 1bl, 2st, 4to. I know Asik’s time on the court can be meaningful onto it self without the stats to back it up but with him on the court the Heat had their 2 most impressive victories in games 2 and 3. I don’t know if he swings that series with the way he was playing leading up to game 4.

But he bloodied DWade's face, so I can't be upset with anything else.

I can't remember

what his +/- numbers looked like from those games. It would be an interesting data point to find that information.

just because I was already there...

game 1 +9
game 2 +3
Game 3 -3

He outperformed Noah on a +/- basis in Games 2 and 3.

Thanks. Small sample size and not conclusive of course...

But that seems to indicate that he indeed had value beyond his statlines. I do remember him being a strong defensive presence in those games and in the regular season too. My gut feeling is that he was better than neutral as a contributor, and could have provided Joakim with decisive rest in game 4.