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Nets 96, Bulls 85

Depending on your opinion of how formidable the Golden State Warriors can be at home, this was the Bulls first real turd of the season. It was a good run.

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#StartMikeJames
how about #Rosegethealthy

instead?

agreed

also, how awesome would it be to trade for Thabo’s three-and-d right now?

yeah brewer and cj

For thabo and collision or something.

they would never do that

collison is important to them, and thabo is still hurt i think?

maybe so

Then do brewer and Cj or korver for thabo and cook

fuck thabo

He basically bogans sr.

better than brewer
u dont think ronnie is a better offensive player?

And I gotta say that thabo is a lil better defensive wise

Not in the slightest
After these last few games

I am ready to blow up this team for Dwight Howard

I would agree

but then I’d say “Butler will finally get his shot”
and then I’d say “And we can go get CDR after the season!”

and does anyone really want to hear about my man-crush? I doubt it.

im fine with it

Cdr is a nice solid player

scored 19 in his game this week in Italy =b
And seriously, tell me a lineup of like this isn't better than what we have right now

Rose/Watson
CDR/Korver
Butler/Turkeyglue
Boozer/Scal
Howard/Asik

scal should not be a primary backup...
we would sign someone, but that's the outlook just as a result of the trade and adding CDR
idk if thats better

We have less hustle and speed, might get exposed against a team like Miami.

That's a lot of size though

plus, one year older for DWade is one more year on those tires. I don’t know how long he will still be this good.

plus lebron and james

Would molest korver and turk and maybe vet

cdr* not "vet"
CDR put up 30 on LBJ last year

I’m done talking about it anyway. Not the time nor the place

did he really?

Pretty badass

We signed Rip to a 2 year deal as well, didn't we?

so I suppose you add him in as well

who is cdr?
Chris Douglas-Roberts

played for the University of Memphis when Rose was there and they went to the Championship game.

and not in the NBA

yet somehow an improvement for one of the best rosters in the league.

well he left technically because of the lockout, not because he wasn't going to be signed here

and I’ve said it before; I am biased.

That's ok, but it's definitely not better than our current team.
Your clueless

Ya, CDR and butler starting is brilliant. Awesome.

I probably am

but do remember that Rose and Howard would be on the same team. I like that team more because of that, not because the combo of CDR+Butler is better than Noah+Deng. It isn’t.

Well, you should've always been willing to blow up the team for Dwight Howard

But these last few games should have nothing to do with it.

I wasn't in the game threads, so I don't know if this was mentioned there,

but the Bulls are really bad in day games so far.

mentioned about 50 times

but yeah, it’s true

Hope they revert that tendency on monday...
brewers inability to shoot

Completely clogs the lane up. Rip starting compared to brewer starting is night and day.

Yea, every time the ball was passed to him, the offense just completely stopped

It was painful seeing him out there. If you’re going to prioritize defense, that’s fine, but I would’ve preferred Thibs sub in Asik right away too when Humphries was just sizing up Noah and hitting jumper after jumper over him.

He did eventually go this route, but not until something like 4 consecutive jumpers and by then, the huge lead had already been built. Humphries killed us in that first quarter.

I mentioned it in the other thread, but it's startng to seem like opponent 3-pointers and young power forwards are an issue

Williams’ 5 threes tonight were huge. It seems like all of our losses except Boston were due to the other team killing from threes. We really need to do something to defend a hot team’s sharpshooting, or at least trade for more shooting to counter it.

Also, going back to that Pacer series, we suck against young energetic power forwards. I know Boozer is bad at defense, but why does Noah suck ass against those guys?

Also: Brewer, Noah, Lucas…tonight was your fault.

because Noah is a center

He was a tweener coming out of college but put on bulk because the bulls wanted him at center. He doesn’t get pushed around as much but in return he’s not as fast as hump or hans.

The problem is boozer is a forwards height with a centers speed.

25-8 now. Damn. We've been 'pushed' to #2....
#firstworldproblems
w/e, I just want our team to be healthy. We know how damn good the bulsl can be when healthy.

Its we can get the nets back when playoffs come

What

are you talking about? The Nets aren’t headed for a seed. They’re 12th in the East, and likely won’t move much more, even with a returning Lopez.

So with Atlanta next in another day game (apparently we suck at those), and Rose still looking iffy

Is this gonna be our first time losing two in a row all year?

it will actually be our first time winning 2 in a row in the regular season since sometime in 09-10

we never lost 2 in a row last season until the ECF.

(if we lose)

but i’ve been hearing rose will be playing on monday…

Damn, didn't realize that

Yeah, I’ve got a bad feeling about Monday if Rose doesn’t play. And even if he does, I have my doubts. That Atalnta team has played us tough this year, and they appear to be catching us at a good time

actually, i lied

i thought it was 2 games. but it was MORE than 2 games. we had a few back to back losses last season, but nothing more than 2 in a row. last one was 2/05 and 2/07 of 2011.

so we went the last 32 games

without losing more than 1 in a row.

Oh, ok

Yeah, I was gonna say, that would be pretty damn impressive

still, we didn't lose more than one in a row

for about the last 40% of the season. that is still damn impressive.

KC said he thinks Rose will be back Monday, but does anyone really trust KC?

It looks like it might be.

rose, like the rest of us, probably said "fuck this" after watching tonight's gag
Yeah, but KC was just taking a stab at it, and it makes a lot of sense

Look at it this way, if he doesn’t come back Monday, what in the hell would be the point of playing him against Milwaukee? And even moreso, what would be the point of him playing in the All Star game?

If he’s not ready to go on Monday after all this time off, then I think he should bow out of the All Star game, take the extra rest, and focus on having a strong second half, because that would mean the injury is a bit more serious than we thought

and that's completely true as well

I think Rose will persuade his way into playing Monday. That’s my gut feeling

i heard either yesterday or maybe this morning

that they thought he was going to play either today or monday. might have even been a quote from thibs.

KC said on CTL last night

that there was a slight chance Derrick would play today but more likely on Monday.

At the time

it probably seemed to make sense to hold him out of a game that we should’ve been able to EASILY win without him.

So how many games do we win before we get our 10th loss?
34
my hugely optimistic prediction
Seems reasonable and certainly possible. Only worry right now is injury and rest.
Well, in 2 weeks we face the Spurs, 76ers, Pacers, and Magic

so that will be a bit tough

Ouch. That WILL be tough. Let's hope Dwight doesn't go full retard on Rose again.
and then we face the Heat at home the week after that
Well hopefully by that game Rose and Hamilton are ready to go full tilt.

Hopefully sooner rather than later, but we can afford a blemish or two here and there.

Did you get that from Tropic Thunder?

God I loved that movie.“You can’t go full retard”

I say we win 50 games this year. End up with a 50-16 record.
fuckity fuck fuck
mike james was +10 in 23 minutes. taj was +8 in 19. everyone else a disaster, with noah at bottom
Didn't really see much of Noah. Oh wait, I missed a lot of the second half...
honestly i just don't even care about this...

we’ll have games like this. but in the second half of the season we’ll pretty much have 2/3 home games, and hopefully a healthier roster. we could really make a huge run.

or if not, whatever. we had the best record in the NBA last season, but i don’t need that if it doesn’t lead to victory in the ECF this year. i still don’t see us falling out of the top two.

NOT WITH THE NETS PLAYING THIS GOOD THE EAST BETTER LOOK OUT
STOP SCREAMING!!!
I agree. This isn't panic time at all

Eventually, not having guys like Rip and Rose was gonna bite us in the ass. We just don’t have enough offensive firepower to sustain their loss, and play at the same clip.

If this team is healthy, they’re pretty great

the important thing

is that the argument that the Heat lose to worse teams than us and that means something is negated a bit.

i think we are so used to destroying teams liek the nets that losing to them is liek a "wtf?!!!" kind of loss

ill be honest, i was alot surprised we lost this game in such a shitty fashion. However, these kind of games do happen and as long as the bulls rebound the next game, we’ll be alright.

I disagree

this was an important game. Homecourt advantage is more important for the Bulls than Heat, and losing to a team of scrubs doesn’t help. Does this one game mean the end of the world? No. At the same time, one game may be all it takes for us to fall behind the Heat.

And quite frankly, I get sick of watching Noah and Boozer mail it in every 4th or 5th game. More than anything, I’m annoyed that Boozer and Noah got their asses kicked by Kris Humphries. Our frontline is suppose to be our strength and when they struggle, it makes me very concerned about the Bulls in the playoffs.

Humphries has always had good games against us

he blew it up when he was a scrub the first time the revamped Bulls played him and went off for I think 20+ points off the bench. Maybe he’s got something against Chicago, who knows?

OT but does anyone else think Mike James looks totally cracked out when they close up on him on TV? Dude has got some shifty ass eyes.

i don't really care about that one game

but the Bulls inability to dominate the Nets frontline makes it all the more unlikely they will be unable to do so against the Heat. i think we have to win the frontline battle to beat the Heat in the playoffs. That is why I, personally, spend so much time talking about what Boozer and Noah are doing. I could care less about Humphries. But if he can go for 28 and 17, what the hell is Bosh going to do? How many offensive rebounds are we going to give up to Haslem? I don’t believe the Bulls have the perimeter firepower to outscore the Heat. They have to control the boards and defend. And these performances don’t give me optimism for that. We just aren’t seeing consistent dominating performances from our inside group.

I don’t think we can beat the Heat if it we are counting on Deng/Rose to outscore/play Wade/Lebron. I don’t think it will happen.

meh, this was a lethargic game for the bulls

they will rebound on monday. With rose coming back (and hopefully being 100 percent, knock on wood), our reserve players starting should be better off the bench.

I don't see this roster (when healthy) beating the Heat in a 7 game series

Only one offensive option in crunch time and no inside game to complement a great PG. I would take Kris Humphries over Boozer any day of the week and Robin Lopez over Noah so the Nets have a better 4/5 combo than the Bulls.

The Bulls are very good when they play great defense, but the Heat can be even better on the defensive end because LeBron can shut down any 1, 2 or 3 and the Bulls don’t have a 4 or 5 who can dominate. And the Heat aren’t old. That team will be together as Rose enters his prime which might be right now because Rose is not going to be this explosive in his late 20’s and after 30.

Make your own conclusion. Is there a dominant 4 or 5 out there to be traded? You have to explore every option to figure out how to get Howard on this roster.

I hate these kinds of replies but I stopped reading here
. I would take Kris Humphries over Boozer any day of the week and Robin Lopez over Noah so the Nets have a better 4/5 combo than the Bulls.
he must mean brooke lopez
Correct - Brooke. They look alike
one might even think they're twins!!!
there is no "e" either, lol, just brook. my mistake.
Correct - Brooke. They look alike
i vomitted everywhere
Surely he meant Jennifer Lopez??
kris > carlos

All day…fuck lopez tho

i loled at the robin lopez part...

fyi, brook lopez is not that good of a rebounder.

He can score, decent defender

but for some reason, he sucks at rebounding

brooke rebounded fairly well as a rook, then it went downhill fast

i don’t agree about the “decent” defense, but maybe with avery it would be?

no, you guys are overrating brook lopez

and undermining noah.

i wouldn't trade noah

but this duck guy is right about boozer. what the heck is he gonna bring against miami?

well see. Booz has shown he can score on teams with good defense

im hoping rose can finally learn how to utilize boozs strengths.

name them. if boston had had bass, i doubt boozer would've had his great game.
well, the boston game is a start and with or without bass, they still has KG, Oneal, and Wilcox

he did do well agaist the magic earlier in the year and he wasnt too shabby against the celtics in the away game (except for that stupid timeout he did, he was ok).

well, we playe boston twice, the first game against beantown was ok and the second game was kinda meh
i couldn't disagree more. booz was 100% better the second boston game, even if he had some numbers in the first.

there is another side to the game, another side to the ball.

o’neal is a corpse, wilcox did damage, and do you really think booz would score on kg? they have to put him on noah because noah is far scarier to them.

there were 3 boston games, not two

he was good in the first game, the second was mehish, and third when was very good.

i don't remember boozer's performance in that first game

but he rarely moves his feet on defense like he was thursday. look at today, sheldon williams had 14 boards. sheldon williams!

not to mention if noah helps, humphries destroys. it’s not all on boozer, the fact that noah is so limited hurts his offense too. and humphries didn’t require any assistance destroying noah today.

we are still waiting for the boozer/noah combo to look good against the top teams.

yeah, i wouldnt really put so much fault on booz

it was really noah and fuckin CJ. Today I would say Booz was robbed on many touches thanks to CJ stupid shot at

this team is defense first - you're still hung up on the offense part

offense matters if things get so bad the other team can transition like crazy. but they gave up 59 in the first half and i didn’t think there were that many transition baskets that half.

the ball was not moving like thursday (and before) though, that would’ve helped. “credit” cj, but credit the nets energy too.

i know this team is first defense, but the defense was shit today since the nets were putting up threes in the first half

Booz was never a good defender and if Noah is playing like shit, expect the opposite 4/5 to annihilate us on offense. Hes a scorer and he needed as many touches as possible. Today was the wrong day for CJ trying to play like Kobe Watson.

i don't think yesterday had anything to do with talent

but effort

sorry, i was confusing the second game against boston from the first
Yeah, cause Kris Humphries would dominate the Heat, I'm sure
that's not it. and not what i said, man of straw
Well, I just assumed because you said you were agreeing with Duck, and that's what he said...
i know, robin isn't either - but he might be better - it's killing me the suns don't play him
better 4/5 are better than ours? They are 9-23, we are 25-8...how does that follow logic at all?
WHATS WITH BREWER
he went from inconsistent shooter

to consistently bad shooter

he was hitting his jumper okay

I think his problem is more that he can’t finish at the rim anymore, even on wide open dunks. That and he can’t even come close to creating his own offense, and he’s not working the baseline like he did last year.

I remember last season thinking he was the best in the league at catching on the baseline and throwing down some thunderous dunks. It’s like the best part of his offensive game has just disappeared, while the weakest parts are showing moderate improvement. Add it up and it’s not a good tradeoff.

HE ISN'T AS GOOD AS WE THOUGHT HE WAS!! AND WE LET HIM OFF THE HOOK!!
Any word on signing Fresenko?
wow, talk about panicking...

people saying they rather have lopez than noah, lol

agreed it is just a bad game we played two opponents today the Nets and the refs
yep,

apparently they’d rather have a guy who was sitting on the bench all game than a guy who was actually out there, lol.

noah being on the bench all game would have produced about what he did by playing

but yes, robin lopez is a bad boob

lol, i was kind of being tongue in cheek phrasing it that way

however, you mean brook lopez.

robin wasn’t playing in this game cause he’s not on the nets!

Lopez

As tall as he is doesn’t rebound

you can just reply to the actual comment.
the bulls do need a better scorer off the bench. I have saying this for a long time, but we should trade off brewer, asik, picks...

sign a backup center and maybe trade for C-Lee? OJ Mayo? Idk, I would like the bulls to make some sort of trade that can boost our bench scoring…

unfortunately...

not really, brewer is getting paid 5 mill and thosep layers i mentioned above are getting paid as much or less than brewer.
Okay boys, stop panicing...

I think that most of these problems will disappear (get swept under the carpet?) when we can get back to our regular rotations. The bench mob is a unit. We have taken that unit apart and the 4 core members (Ronnie, CJ, Omer, Taj) are slumping. My suspicion is that, post all-star break, they will go back to their usual roles and become the lock-down defensive unit that we know and love.

As far as Noah goes, he was playing out of his mind until today so one bad game is not enough to engineer a trade for Hump/Lopez. Maybe he partied a bit hard? It is Saturday afternoon…

That said, the fucking Nets! C’mon! They would be outclassed in the D-league. ::Sobs::

nah, thye are not as bad people say they are

keep in mind we played them when they didnt have brooks and other players. They are finally getting healthy and now lopez is returning. They are still a below 500 team but they are not bad team like the hornets.

Problems do not disappear. They only vanish when someone introduces a solution...
i would make a move on kyrylo fesenko
meh, i would try to trade off asik when hes value is still high as well as brewer. I want a bench scorer more than anything else.
Fesenko is a pretty good bench scorer and has a better post game than Boozer
i want him too, but my main concern is bench scoring, I want a player like C-Lee
ok beat me up, but I am not a fan of Boozer ……no post up ……..prefers to play face to the basket unless his defender is shorter than him
we need a true post up player like fesenko
??? I didnt say I disagreed with you, lmao

Im not talking about a post-up player, but mroe like a player like C-Lee.

yeah i know ………but getting C Lee would cost us Taj or Asik…….i would prefer Boozer in that trade $$$$
thats fine by me, tbh. I dont mind giving up Asik. Brewer, 2nd round pick, Asik for C-Lee and hasheem thabeet
Honestly, I just want to get rid of Boozer and his salary
why, are you paying it?

what does that matter at this point?

Who would take it?

No one is going to. Perhaps you could pay the majority of it in a multi player trade but I doubt even then someone wants him.

no, he doesn't have a better post game than Boozer.

how easy b-a-b overreacts and overhates.

This just isn't true...

Booz has been posting up more and more lately, and it’s been paying off. Say what you will about Booz’s D, it’s still bad, but his offensive game has been money lately.

yeah for some like lee from the rockets
exactly!

you read my mind!

Lee isn't good...
actually, hes not a bad player coming off the bench

hes solid when hes getting time on the floor. Im not asking for a starter, but rather a bench player who can score. We cant keep relying on korver off the bench. Teams know our best weapon on the bench is korver.

So basically, he's Brewer.
actually, hes not a bad player coming off the bench

hes solid when hes getting time on the floor.

Don’t see him as a scorer.

actually, he is...

hes pretty athletic…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaRXiIg5BgA

and, look at his TS, eFG, and threes. Idk what makes you think hes like Rinnie Brewer…
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/leeco01.html

more of his athleticism...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TYGV1BLppY&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KnbfSQHbU8

He's clearly better than Brewer, that's an overstatement by me

but nothing I’ve seen indicates that he’d make much of a difference on this team, especially if we have to trade anyone for him.

From my memory, Lee is pretty similar to Brew but Lee can hit his shots. They are both very athletic and mediocre ball handlers. Brew has an edge with his D, but not by much.
I would love an upgrade from Brew to Lee, but at what cost? I will be pissed if we don’t get a very good return for Asik. He is going to be a starter in this league and we should get some compensation. And I don’t think Lee is enough for Asik.

Didn't even know there was a game on. Missed it

Good thing I did huh.

you smart bastard. I bet you knew the bulls were going to stink it up!
How could I know, if I didnt know there was a game on?

I can’t be psychic can I?!

you are, you just dont realize it

its all part of your sub-conscious!

Kyrylo Fesenko

i think getting him would let us shop asik for a bench scorer “LEE”………

Is JL3 getting so much playing lately getting to the annoyance level of Pargo getting playing time for anyone else??
Mike James was just in the D League a week ago

And I think the schedule is wearing on CJ a bit, so I can’t really blame Thibs for playing him as much as he has, but it certainly is miserable to watch.

thing is, CJ is not a good passer. He needs to move the ball around like how Mike JAmes does it
agreed, when CJ gets doubled on those pick and rolls

he tends to overdribble and throws the ball to a covered man. The first time James responded to a trap he threw a behind the back pass to the roller and caught the defense completely off guard. When I saw how the PnR was supposed to be run, I was like… whaaaa?

I hope he can teach Derrick a thing or two.

James runs the PnR like a champ.

If his old ass can handle it, I’d give all of JLIII’s minutes to him. And if CJ when CJ is in the midst of one of his patented 2-12 nights, I’d move Korver over.

To me, Deng is back playing Deng minutes

So playing Ronnie and Kyle at the 2 more instead of Lucas makes sense.

We can blame thibs for playing JL3 at the 2, which he's been doing more and more...
Lucas is good at shooting

not at scoring though

I think it's a stupid strategy

simply b/c JLIII’s game is garbage, but I think for whatever reason Thibs likes having him out there as a secondary ballhandler but can’t because the guy is just so small. When the Nets played Farmer as their 2, it gave Thibs an opportunity to have JLIII out there without getting exploited too badly on D. Why he even wants to is beyond me though.

He was doing it against the Celtics too

It makes no sense to me. It’s not like the Bulls are as desperate for outside shooting as they were a few years ago.

hes really starting to piss me off
You guys are worse than my bi-polar girlfriend

we lose one bad game and you want to blow up the team, talk trades and all that. Shit happens. we’ll get the next one

its the best at what we do...

and what we do, aint very nice…

In fairness

most of us have been clamoring to blow it up for Dwight all season.
And leave her. Now. I married one thinking she would stay on her meds. Fuck that. Divorce is expensive.

So glad I didn't watch this.

egh.

The only part that was consistent with the rest of the season

was Brewer’s awful ability to finish at the rim…and lack of shooting. Then again we can replace Brewer’s name with either Asik/ Noah/ Booz and it still applies.

what yall think?

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=88q6w57

ehhh, this trade does not make sense financially...

we would have to take a big contract in return…

I think you would be a horrible GM of an NBA team.
You've managed to find a trade

that would make both teams worse.

WTF

I think you need to step away from the computer
I'll reiterate this

You are clueless lol

yall killin me

I give y’all cheap contracts…upgrade ur backup backup pg, finnally get a solid 2 guard thats better than mayo + a scal replacement…and y’all do me like pookie in new jack lol

"Sit yo five dollar ass down before I make change!"

Am i my brothers keeper?

im starting to get pissed that jimmy isnt getting minutes

ever since the knicks game, its like thibs got retrograde amnesia…

i dont understand he can finish at the or get to line and he is a very good defender
he got some minutes today...

…?

he deserves more. at least 15 mins a game.
lol, people taking Humphries over Boozer. lol. lol. lol.

Ya’ll need to calm down. We knew they were gonna blow a stinker at sometime. It’s hard to judge a team when missing two of their starters.

Yeah ....I'm not getting

the panic mode some of y’all seem to be into. There are a certain number of games in a season where your team can’t do anything right , and the other team can do no wrong….that is all today was…Oh and also a time where coaching takes it’s best effect!

Bulls lost. I looked for the obligatory 'Sign CDR!!' comments...

quickly found them. I love how Bulls fans are the only ones who seem to think that CDR is anything better than bench fodder just because he played with Rose at Memphis.

Well this is one of the few places that he would fit. And I have not heard anyone trying to get him to start him. Just people sick of Korver or Brewer or JLIII or CJ.
If he is an upgrade and available, why not? I imagine right now the org is looking to dump any of those guys to save some coin. Can you imagine their elation if they can find a team under the cap to take Korver for nothing and sign a replacement near the minimum?

brewer, korver, and cj

are all unguaranteed for next season anyway. if they want to cut them for nothing (well i think it’s 500k in korver’s case), they can at the end of the season. i don’t see them making a trade with those guys for nothing unless maybe they get some picks.

We are right up next to the tax line I believe. They could use that 5 mil or so from Brewer/Korver to get CDR and the 5th big without going into the tax.
It’s just a possibility to fill out the bottom of our roster without going over the tax limit.
I think cheap. I should work for GarPax.

yeah because the Bulls scouts.....

….didn’t already look at him and decide he was garbage , but people on a message board know better.

people on message boards always know better

didn’t you get the memo?!?

We needed that Stacy King mojo in the first quarter

Dude was seriously frazzled when he finally made it into the UC, it was great.

i hate this argument. under this argument, everyone should just shut up

about everything. Why criticize Boozer? I can’t make an 18 foot jumper with a 6’10 defender draped all over me.

Scouts are sometimes wrong. See Lin, Jeremy for an example and Brooks, Marshon for another.

BTW, I think CDR would be a below – average NBA player. But still, I just hate that argument.

It's true, a really shitty argument.

That said, I think CDR is … basically, he’s not great, but he’s what we need. He’s large with a pretty large wingspan, he can create shots [even if they’re all 2 pointers], and he can hit the corner three.
But I don’t have Synergy and don’t have any arguments to back it up, so whatever.

I agree with you smurf

Challenging conventional wisdom can definitely pay huge dividends, and just because someone is scouted as such and such doesn’t mean it will always pan out that way.

This isn’t meant to challenge your comment but more of an aside, that the Bulls scouting department has gotten really really good. I think that most people were disappointed by the Taj pick, and we’ve seen how that panned out. Snagging Omer and Mirotic, and even Butler with such late picks is incredible. I expect absolutely nothing out of picks so deep into the draft, but they’ve all made contributions this season. Even Bulter helped win that game in NYC.

i don't agree with the 1 or 2 people clamoring for CDR

and I don’t have any problems with the Bulls scouting or draft picks. They have been high level on both.

People go too far with it sometimes.

I try to be the least intrusive with my opinion (at least concerning CDR) as possible. I just hate it when someone says something along the lines of, “that’s fucking garbage, you idiot.” ….Then I feel the need to explain. I’m just gonna shut up about it.

Just like 3ptace did with this post actually...you don't know how much resolve it took to let that one go

I had a reply all typed out and everything

you could just reply to those comments

though I was going to say it was one guy…but then someone else responded with CDR-love, heh.

I'm trying to be less like sin about it, but then someone had to respond and get me going lol
Well, let me defend everyone else by saying it's pretty much just me that thinks that.
is anyone watching the knicks game

holy ****.

JR Smith and Lin are carving up the Mavericks with impunity. And Melo still isn’t back.

I want no part of these guys in the playoffs. If we meet them we are ****ed.

scary bro
yeah, just saw the end

That Jeremy Lin kid is pretty good
[/understatement]

Melo coming back

Will only fuck up what they are doing. Do you think he is going to suck it up and hang out waiting for an open three while they run the Lin/Chandler PnR? Hell no. The’re going back to trying to fit the square blocks in the round holes.
I still don’t get what D’Antoni wanted Melo for. He probably didn’t. Dude does not fit there at all. They should do all they can to deal him for Dwight.

Sam Smtih let the Bulls have it in his latest column

Usually I’m not a big fan, but he was on point with these observations

5. The Bulls’ big men may be among the poorest finishers in the league. Omer Asik, though he doesn’t play enough to blame, was zero for five and scoreless again. Though still above 50 percent on the season, he’s three of his last 15 the last five games. Noah battles, but may lead the league in missed tips. Brewer and Boozer have missed several dunks this season. The only ones who really finish strong are Rose and Deng. Dunk the ball!

And this pisses me off.

8. Joakim Noah sometimes needs more than the schedule to be into it. Noah had zero points and six rebounds in 21 minutes and didn’t play the last 17 minutes. He tried to talk around it, but basically acknowledged after the Boston win Thursday that some games are easier to get up for than others. Not the Bulls as a teamn, certainly, who had won 18 straight before Saturday against teams with losing records. But some of Noah’s best games this season were against Miami, Boston and Indiana, all double/doubles. Thibodeau said the vital element for Noah always is his energy or lack of it. Though Noah was getting burned early by Kris Humphries in trying to help C.J. Watson after Deron Williams was dominating Watson.

That is a bullshit attitude from Noah, who hasn’t come close to earning it, and frankly I’m sick of it. Don’t give me six shooters on Thursday and than do this shit on Saturday. I’m not impressed.

and finally, some good news.

Hamilton is expected back after the All-Star break, and there’s a good chance Rose will play Monday against Atlanta. If he can and is healthy, he should. He wants to, I know, and is not going to sit out unless he cannot play. If his back isn’t right, then he has to sit. Everyone who’s had back problems knows there’s not much you can do with the spasms. But if he’s ready, the Bulls really could use him. Really, really could use him.

Some other good stuff –
http://blogs.bulls.com/2012/02/bulls-lead-some-hard-facts-in-blowout-loss-to-nets/

That's some bullshit by Noah. I understand fans not taking a bad team seriously, but how the

hell do you say that shit as a player. This team is far from perfect, and the way Noah played in the beginning of the season, and now he can only “get up for good teams”? You’re paid a hefty sum to play every single night. I don’t care if it’s the worst team in the league or the best.

You can’t choose when to bring your A game. I think they’re a little too concerned about Miami. The way they play sometimes makes me think that they’re just waiting for the ECF. They should remember that Atlanta beat them by a good amount in Atlanta, they lost to the Pacers, and Philly embarrassed them with Iggy showboating to the hoop.

I feel like Rose is really the only one that understands you can’t take a night off. Meanwhile Noah and Boozer look at the opponent and think “Oh okay, I don’t have to try that hard for us to win” I couldn’t watch the game yesterday, but if this is how some players feel about bad teams they might not make it pass the second round. I mean Dallas lost to Golden State in that playoff series a while back. They should never take anything for granted. I’m pretty disappointed in Noah with this quote. Showboat when you win a title. Until then play with energy every single game, instead of doing it just against good teams.

Meh

I’ll take Jo only getting up for good teams over him frying out playing 100% against shitty teams.
Does it really matter if he lets Kris Kardashian grab 20 boards? Who cares? Fuck it, it was only one loss from the best team in the East. Relax man.
How shitty would everyone be if he used up all his good health on that game and got hurt playing hard in the second half?
Lets be honest, we don’t need to give 100% effort every game. Especially our 7 foot injury prone center.

it was obvious to me thatthe bulsl this year are def going to half-ass some games

like the blowout game against the hawks. I think people forget how difficult the bulsl schedule has been vs rest of the NBA. I mean, this schedule is ridiculous and if the bulls were an old team like the Mavs, I dont think we would even be a 2nd seed right now in the East.

Noah just has the balls/stupidity...

to say what all the players think, especially with this truncated schedule. Do you think James, Wade and Bosch played with maximum effort in those losses to Cleveland and Milwaukee?
And Boozer never puts forth maximum effort on defense, maybe one out of three games on offense regardless of opponent. We’dl like to believe the money makes a difference, but it doesn’t.

I don't think Noah or the Bulls have the margin for error of

James, Wade and Bosh. Noah, in particular, hasn’t played at such a high level that it warrants any sort of overconfidence. Even in one of his better games he still gave up 28 and 17 to Cousins.

I'm not going to rag on Noah having a down game

when a guy like Hamilton has missed most of the season for the same reason (Yeah I know he’s “injured” but whatever). Noah’s been playing well lately. He’s just in that Barkley mode where he says what everyone already knows.

those two thing have absolutely nothing to do with one another

he hasn’t been playing well for that long. He has 7 or 8 strong games (and he was outplayed in some of those games) after taking the first 12-15 games to find himself. Not good enough.

don't get me wrong. I understand its impossible to keep the same intensity

all the time and there will be fluctuations. But the fluctuations should be from good player against Boston to complete non-effort against the Nets. 0 pts and 6 rebs. He was barely trying. This is after coming out and saying he was distracted through the first 10 to 12 games because of his contract. The season is only 30 games long, lol. He spent the 1st 10 games in a daze and now he’s bored!

I'm not one to overreact and say blow the team up after one loss, but here is my concern

sure the depth takes a hit with Rose and Rip out, but the fact is this roster has to max out every game to win. it feels like we’ve been saying this since the Skiles Bulls, but the truth is it still applies to this group. they have to give it their all to win game in and game out. it’s why they excel in hustle stats like rebounding and defense. the problem is I fear this compressed season is starting to catch up to them and with no time between games to rest I feel they are getting fatigued. consider giving up 115 to the Kings, letting the old Celtics hang around, and now getting totally outplayed by the Nets. again, I know the Bulls are short-handed at the moment, but I just wonder in this truncated schedule if the Bulls have the legs to keep up this pace all year and make a run.

at the moment?

they haven’t fielded their entire team in 2012. they’ve had their starting lineup together for 5 games. of course it’s getting to them.

also i really don’t agree that the roster has to max out every game. last year it seemed like that while winning, they were constantly letting teams hang around. this year they’ve been putting a lot of teams away. they were blowing out the bad teams even with rose and rip on the bench. yesterday they just sucked. it happens. i think esp the cj and ronnie will be energized going back to their normal minutes. they’re still not a bad team even in their current state – but they’re of course not going to be the team we expect with derrick and rip.

I'd say last year was a learning year.

learning to play for Thibs and each other and learning what it takes to win in the playoffs. i think this is why some teams hung around last year.
this year, sure, they are more cohesive, have a better feel for when to put a bad team away and such, but I still think (with lack of top-end talent outside of Rose) their strength lies in hustle, effort, and working hard every offensive possession to find a decent shot. so I stand by my notion that they seem tired at the moment, especially after the long road trip.
again, this could all change when healthy and with a lighter second half schedule (we’ve played half the schedule in less than two months), but right now they look tired and considering their playing style, this is a concern for me going forward.

i wouldnt say they go all out every game. there are number of games where they would go strong for half of the game, but then slack off the remainder and still win by a hefty margain

the fatigue is simply due to the fact of the number of road games so far, and bench players like CJ watson and Brewer getting starter minutes. Im really baffled by the fans concern over these past few games. If this continues for a longer period of time then I would be worried, but so far it has been few games.

Just over 12 minutes in J.R. Smith's return to the NBA... 8 shots, six attempted Threes with 3 makes... 6 THREES IN 12 MINUTES!

dayum…

I hate all this NYK shit.
ah man I am now jealous of the Knicks

They should absolutely trade Melo.

Though if im Orlando, i would not want to create a juggernaut in my own conference. Im trading Howard to the West

Im not jealous of the Knicks...I just want DRose and Rip healthy...
i wish we had Lucasanity
you shouldnt be. The only team I understand being jealous of it he heat.

Dont forget how dangerous our bulls were when Rip and Rose were healthy.

the stinker yesterday has clouded my judgement
yeah, this is why im still smh on some of the peoples comments from yesterday

its amazing how easily we forget the difference Rip and Rose make.

Good thing I was at work and stayed away from that thread
Yeah but fans have a right to judge a team based with what's not on the floor

since that’s currently what’s out there. Let me see Hamilton and Rose on the floor for more than 5 games and then I’ll stop being worried about this team this season.

Yeah, but when do we start to consider the very real possibility that Rip never really plays this year

and that we go with Ronnie “Blown dunk” Brewer for the playoffs?

I'd at least say by this point

That I flinch when I keep hearing talk of “well when we get Rose and Rip back and everyone is healthy we will kick butt all the rest of the season.” Rip is old and injury prone. The amount of playing time bunched together is creating injuries on most teams. There’s a very good possibility that we don’t ever find them completely healthy. I think Rip will come back after the playoffs, and the sad thing is I don’t think resting him after the all star break would at all ensure him in good shape later.

By then he would be out 3-4 weeks. I think hell be fine by then

The main problem is not Rips health, but the bulls medical staff for clearing him and allowing him to play against the fuckin pistons.

His injuries are really not that bad. His injuries are analogous to Melo’s injuries. Melo is younger and less “injury prone” than rip and yet he has been out for 2 weeks PLUS some other games. The mistake both melo and rip made is that they came back way too early. If they had rested for about 2 weeks when they started getting these injuries, then right now we wouldnt be talking about Rip not playing in the playoffs.

I've already given up relying on Rip during the playoffs

No way do I see him playing in the ECF (if the Bulls even make it that far)

oh please, hes 34, not 38

Jesus they have half the season left. Calm down. All will be well. He has a minor injury that they are being careful with. This team is loading up for a playoff run.

yeah, i think we can thank GarPax for that

I think he intervened and told Thibs to be super conservative with both Rip and Rose.

The Knicks lost to the Hornets

yeeeeeah

shit, Lin is a superstar, not just a good player
when he does it for a few years and not 3 weeks then tell me that
really

come on now

I need at least an amazing playoff run to consider anyone better than “very good”. Right now Lin is hot. It’s been what, 12 games? CJ looked like a world-beater the for at least that long this year too.

Fuck it

I’ll go ahead and say it. CJ is a better player right now than Lin. I think CJ would do even better as the Knicks PG. He is quicker and a better shooter. CJ doesn’t have the best handle, but Lin can’t keep the ball out of the other team’s hands. If it were not for the weak competition Lin would look good instead of great.
I think CJ would kill in that system. He can pass just well enough and his style fits. Look how good Felton looked running it. I will slap you in the face if you try to tell me that Felton is better than CJ. Serious business.
Lin is solid but his “greatness” has been a case of being at the right place at the right time. Any decent PG can tear it up in that system.

wtf are you talking about?

You really think CJ starting over Lin will give you the same results?

CJ is starting for the bulls right now and we got shitted by the NETS.

This is fucking retarded.

Yep

But we are not talking about starting for the Bulls. You are a retard. See, I can do it too.
We are talking about the Knicks PG spot. A spot that Raymond fucking Felton was manning like an all-star just a year ago. Keep things in perspective. It is the offense, not the players.

Nice to know we're depending on chemistry and old guys being healthy

why other teams are loading up. We may be in more trouble than people think.

if our bigs can't do shit, yeah it will fall all on Rose to drop 35 and 10
If lin continue paly like this next year, rose would probably lose his starting all star votes
they were saying that Lin would get all those Chinese votes that Ming used to get
He will.

China will stuff the ballot box like they did when Yao was injured , didn’t play much and still was a starter.

No, he'd get Wade's votes. Wade was second place.
Dude, this is just the tip of the iceberg

If Lin keeps playing like this, no one will even know D Rose and the Bulls are in the league except for the nights they play the Knicks

sort of a role-reversal thing isnt it?

knicks were under the radar for a bit now people around the nba are. Bulls who?

so Lin got an assist there?
Hell if Lebron went to NY

the hype would be even worse

D'Antoni is so lucky that Lin ended up there
Im thinking Knicks will end up with 5/6 seed if they keep it up
lucky is an understatement

these fuckers were about to make the same mistakes that the warriors and rockets did. I want the bulsl to face these guys and kick their ass.

So will the Knicks be better or worse when Carmelo comes back?
better as long as they keep the ball in Lin's hands

which they will

Probably bettter

After all this, Melo knows he can’t fuck around. If he came in and messed with the mojo, I think they’d trade his ass in like 5 minutes

a lot better
I love lin's game, but I still hate the knicks!
Baron Davis = Wally Pipp
the guy got 7 TOs today, I dont get why teams dont take advantage of that
cuz Mavs like to gun - they really arent that great of a half court team
Im not just talking about the Mavs, but other teams that have faced lin

Because he has been playing the worst teams in the league. This was the best team he has faced. Wait did they play the Lakers too? It’s been a soft stretch for them either way.

yeah, well see what happens. I m just so anxious to see a healthy bulls squad. I m tired of seeing Brewer and Watson starting!

KNOCK ON WOOD!

My (totally unsolicited) Advice...

Just don’t watch. I haven’t watched the past week and I am better off for it. I know this is not our team. I’ll wait til we are healthy or we get to the playoffs(or untill I get bored) to watch. Try the Twolves they are a fun watch and you can cheer for them without feeling like you are cheating on the Bulls because they will never be on the same level.

thats true, I agree this is not our team. Your advice is def a good one.
Yeah, they played the Lakers.

He scored 38. :P

On Derrick Fischer

Just saying.

not even derrick fischer

more like his animated corpse

Derek Fisher

Derrick Rose.
But yeah. Teams take advantage of the TO’s, it’s just that he handles the ball so much with the Knicks that the TO’s are actually kinda explainable.
He burned the Nets, they have Deron Williams … defense is more a team D thing anyways.

Yeah defense is a team game, but Fischer is one of the worst players in the league this year. And has Derron ever played defense?
Lin is just an OK player.

Deron Williams is one of the worst defensive PGs in the league.
damn, now you guys got me depressed, lol

Now I want the bulls to make a move to counter the JR Smith signing :(

they get a healthy Derrick Rose and Rip Hamilton back
yeah i know, but i just dislike the fact knicks signed JR Smith

I was hoping at worse the clippers would sign him, nit the Pringlebockers.

knicks so good
Shut up.
well, i hate to admit it, but they are good

their team is exactly the team Datoni is meant to coach. They have the ideal 6th man, JR fuckin Smith. And to make matters worse, Melo is returning.

Except

Melo is the most out of place player on the court. He is looking like he will wind up the goat when this teams starts to suck. Melo returning will coincide with their schedule getting harder. They are about to fall back down to Earth real hard.

I hope ur right man, I dont want to worry about another team.
I'm always right

Nothing to worry about

nah melo will create a ton of spacing for them

like the game today no one respected the knicks in the 3rd and 4th until novak started hitting those 3’s and opened up the floor.

melo will command respect from teh defense and open up the lanes for lin and amare to work a lot more

But he wont because he is not as good of a shooter, nor as willing to sit out there and hit those threes like Novak.
The irony is that they need Melo to get past the heat, but they will never be the best team in the league trying to force Melo into the system they run. It’s not his style and they look dysfunctional with him.
Melo has never been OK with being a decoy. He kinda sucks without the ball in his hands. He should go somewhere they run the triangle. I think he would love having 40% usage.

So if the Knicks somehow beat us in the playoffs

I don’t think I’d be able to recover from that.

Even worse meltdown than the Miami series?
Yes.
Agreed.

I can accept getting beat by a team with Lebron and wade. I don’t think I could get over getting beat by a guy who was in the D-league to start the year and coached by pringles. And Throw in that its New York on top of that and we’d never hear the end of it. I would go live in a cave for a year

yep

totally agree. i couldn’t stand to lose to the knicks.

it would be hilarious if they did manage to somehow take out miami, but only if then we crush them…

Would that be like driving your car into the Lake?
Actually, I think I misunderstood what you meant

I’m not gonna freak out like in the Miami series, but it’ll definitely be far more devastating. I’ll probably just avoid anything basketball related for a long ass time

Well, we dont know if we have to face them

They will most certainly become the 4th seed team.

I dont think the knicks can beat us. Unlike the heat, they have nobody that can stop rose. If the bulls defense can do well against the heat, then you have no reason to think the bulls can limit the knicks offense.

Don't the Bulls have problems with teams that have multiple 3pt threats? I'm not saying they

would lose, just that I remember losing to the Knicks last year when they went crazy from 3pt land.

yeah, it would def be an offensive slugfest from both teams. The heat had that strength going for them in the ECF, but their defense was the main reason why we lost. The knicks and bulls games will be close, but as long as Datoni is their coach....

they will fail to stop the bulls down the stretch.

yeah, their offense would give us a lot of trouble

I actually don’t think it’s that far fetched for them to beat us at this point, if Lin really is this good. I mean, with Lin, Smith, Anthony, Stoudemire, and Chandler playing cohesively, that’s formidable.

what if they took out miami before they took us out too
I don't give a shit about Miami

Beating us is all that worries me

if they took miami out though

we have a bigger chance of beating the knicks than miami

Perhaps, but any team that beats Miami is gonna be confident as hell
why are people saying the knicks can beat the heat (not talking about you JBJ)

are you fuckin kiddin me. I dont think the knicks match up well to the heat at all. LeBron will destroy Melo and LeBron defense will def limit Melo. Chalmers and Wade will do a decent job guarding lin and the only player the heat need to worry about is Amare.

you realize melo has a winning record against lebron and almost always goes off against bron bron?

melo gets motivated to play in those big games and actually plays defense and shit against lebron. hes the one player that can force lebron to have to play tough tough d for the whole game

then you have lin and amare and jr to offset wade’s scoring

chandler should own bosh

Why do you say LeBron will destroy Melo?

When has that ever happened? From my memory it is the other way around. Melo kills LeBron on both sides of the ball.
Sin, I know you have to have this shit memorized. Bust out some stats.
The Heat have probably have better depth, but the starting 5, I gotta take the Knicks in a head-to-head match-up. And that is mainly because of how Melo has historically been able to outplay LeBron when their teams play. That and I don’t trust Wade to ever be totally healthy again. He is in his 30s and has always had leg issues. Dude destroys his body with the way he plays. He is on the downside of his career.

melo has the head to head matchups by a wide margin
well, if the knicks face the ehat and beat them in the playoffs, then i cant complain

I would rather face the knicks than the heat.

same here

the knicks would be a much easier out than the heat for us but i feel like they have a better shot at the heat than we do

I'm glad

that LeBron is the only player that gets his blood to boil. Or things could be very different in the East. But as it is now, barring injuries, the Knicks will never really be a threat to take the Bulls out in a 7 game series. But the can help us by taking out the heat, if we get lucky.

If Melo actually played defense consistently and with soo much more effort

he’d be the 2nd best 2-way SF in the league.
He’s the only other SF who can almost go toe-to-toe with LeBron.

i see it as a triangle as far as advantages go

miami beats us
we beat knicks
knicks beat miami

i honestly think knicks are the only team in the league with the roster to beat miami and largely because they have 1) a point guard who can score in the paint and 2) someone who can go toe to toe with lebron on both ends of the floor (obviously melo cant guard lebron but hes going to force lebron to have to play tough d for 48 minutes)

Btw, the Knicks play the Heat on Thursday, in what will likely be the most hyped regular season game in the history of Earth
I think the game will be close, but LeChoke and Melo will try to screw their own teams over

but Melo would surpass LeChoke in that category.

melo has historically owned lebron in their matchups
How do you define owned?

13 games:

Lebron vs Melo: 25.2 Pts, 7.2 Reb, 7.6 Assists, 4 30 point+ games, 1 40 point+ game (43).
Melo vs Lebron: 21.8 Prs, 5.7 Reb, 2.3 Assists, 1 30 point+ game, 1 40 point+ game (40 even).

Lebron has clearly been the better player in their head to head match-ups.

LeBron is the type of player that will get his numbers, but it’s more important when he gets them. He is a natural choker and Melo brings out the worst in him every time I have seen it. Are you sure those numbers are right? That doesn’t pass the eye test. And how does their head-to-head W-L records look? Box scores are nice. Wins are nicer.
Hell it was the way he made LeBron his bitch every chance he got is what made people consider Melo elite. Cause he never got past Kobe or Duncan or any other elite player. Dirk? Maybe, I don’t remember. But he owned LeBron on a few big nationally televised games.

That's so true

This is why Melo gets so far in the playoffs every year and Lebron is at home watching…..wait.

one played in the Leastern conference

The other played in the tough tough western conference

stop

the madness

You missed what I said

I said Melo only got over on LeBron. Of course that doesn’t help in the playoffs for him, before now. It’s my contention that the way Melo man-handled LeBron is what vaulted him into superstardom.
And they have the same number of rings. So what if LeBron’s season is a week longer?
I think Derrick Rose is better than both of them. But I’m a homer and fuck you.

win loss record? mhm
I come here looking for mostly Bulls stuff

and i get a bunch of Lin vs. Mavs crap. Are you all too lazy to make an ‘Around the NBA Thread’, or does the guy in China have to wake up in the middle of the night just to make them for you? Bums.

Shut up, you

That was an ugly game we all need to forget.
Fuck an around the NBA thread, all the cool kids are in here already.

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