Chicago Bulls 2009-10 Thread

[phins]

I'm reading a whole lof of seeing it with your heart, rather than your head in this post. Just my personal opinion...if the Bulls get to 44 wins, I'll be pretty surprised, but the East is terrible out of the top teams, so who knows.

Lol. I don't know how much you pay attention to the NBA or to my posts, but I can assure you there's no heart in that post. Or the majority of my posts.

They won 41 games last year with two of their 4 best players missing most of the season. Their best player was a 20 year old rookie of the year. I don't think predicting 38-44 wins is exactly going out on a limb. You can go ahead and keep getting your NBA analysis by listening to sports radio in passing and tell me my thinking a mediocre team having a mediocre record is going out on a limb. I'm ok with that if you're ok with me putting exactly no stock in what you have to say about basketball.

I'm going to be ok with most things that occur on a message board. We'll see how the Bulls do...Here's to hoping they win a bunch of games for you thrill...

[Maclowery]

Wow. Anyway.

I enjoyed some of the flashes of competence they showed last year. That playoff series was just awesome. I don't think the roster they have can break 50 wins without a low post threat. As much as I didn't enjoy Gordon's play, he did help spread the floor. Without him as a scoring threat, defenses will be able to collapse to the paint to stop Rose's slashing, and we might see even more regrettable 15 footers lobbed up by Tyrus. He's a fun player, and a nice guy to boot, although he never would listen to my recommendations when I'd serve him. Jerk.

Unless Noah has figured out how to stop flopping around like a giant, ungainly fish and starts putting up 18-11 games, I feel like they're destined for another low playoff berth and 1st round loss to one of the big 3. A healthy Deng will be nice, but they're sort of like our 2009 Cards - a team built with some mismatched parts that will probably win over new fans and excite some old ones, show some moments of dominance, then sputter out.

Finally, I'd like to say that I really enjoy watching Kirk on D. Man, if he could just become a long range offensive threat, I'd love their backcourt.

[thrill]

Kirk is an offensive, long-range threat. He's a career 38% shooter from 3. Ray Allen is career 39.8% for comparison.

[phins]

I must be the board's biggest instigator...too many opinions floating around in my head I suppose.

Honestly, there isn't a big difference between winning 35 games, and winning 44 games, just a few breaks going right for the Bulls. Of course, they're one of the biggest rivals for the team I follow, so I'm going to see them in blue lenses, as opposed to red lenses.

[Maclowery]

Kirk is an offensive, long-range threat. He's a career 38% shooter from 3. Ray Allen is career 39.8% for comparison.

I understand that. But it doesn't matter much when he only tries three or four a game. He also is too slow to drive in on people, so you see him take spot shots here and there. I don't think he's going to blossom into a 22ppg scorer - he's just not athletic enough. He's just so mean on D though that I want him to keep getting minutes.

[thrill]

I don't think anyone has ever thought he'd score like that in the NBA. He's like 27. I don't think there's much blossoming left to be done. I do think that he'll take more 3's this year though. Losing Gordon and having Rose means he'll spend less time as the pure point and Derrick's speed and ability to draw defenders and pass out of the double team will mean he'll have a lot of the open 3's that Gordon typically had. I think they'll end up running a lot of 3 guard offense with he, Rose and Salmons and since Salmons isn't a catch and shoot guy, Kirk will be the deep threat.

I think you'd be right to be concerned about the Bulls outside shooting in general. Kirk is a good outside shooter, but I haven't seen anything in the last 5 or whatever years that makes me think he can be your number one threat behind the arc. If they are going to score points this year, they are going to have to run.

[Hungary Jack]

I was only joking about Thomas, but I am still not sure what to make him. Sometimes he runs around the court like the caveman in Quest for Fire. Other times, he seems really focused on inside offensive and defense, which is where he should be.

Re the Bulls in general, there are reasons for optimism. I was never a big fan of Gordon because he was soooo one-dimensional. I think it is quite possible for that lineup to make up for the loss of the 20 pts he provided:

Rose has a full year under his belt. It seems he could add 4 pts to his rookie average of 16.8. His scoring average increased after the trade last year, and he might be surrounded by more offensive options than he had for most of last season.

Salmons average 18 pts as a Bull, and provided much better defense than Gordon could ever hope to provide.

Deng is back and healthy. If he's the 18 ppg small forward we saw 2 years ago, he'll be a big help.

Noah has added size and strength. His ability to run with Rose should give this team some more offense. We'll see if his half-court game is developing.

The Bulls bench will consist of Brad Miller, Hinrich, and Pargo, which is not a bad set of offensive options.

So the Bulls may not be that bad off without Gordon. They'll be better defensively. That said, I still see them having trouble with frontcourt scoring and defending the better centers. 40-45 wins is a good guess because there are still some really crappy teams in the East.

[Maclowery]

Ya, I feel the same about them probably playing 3 in the backcourt. I also would enjoy seeing a lot of up-tempo, fast-break stuff from them, too. I think Tyrus would shine in that respect. It was hard to watch defenses close down Rose for 15 seconds, then watch a half-assed drive, then a kickout to a weak 15 footer from Thomas.

[thrill]

Tyrus needs a shock collar that goes off anytime he shoots from beyond 8 feet. Nothing is worse than when he hits one of those 15 foot jumpers early in the game. He hits one and he starts throwing junk up and thinking he's Kobe.

[epinephrine]

What the hell? Cardinals fans are Bulls fans? I thought most of them were Lakers fans. Maybe it's just me.