Maclowery wrote:Quality, established stars are much more important in the NBA compared to non-lottery draft picks, compared to MLB. It's partially just a result of such a smaller roster - baseball has 25 guys in the majors, multiple minor league teams for development. NBA, you draft a guy 18th hoping he does well, he sits on your bench or immediately gets minutes. the Developmental League is nothing near as important as baseball's minor league system.
Basically, I'm saying that signing two major free agents is much, much, much, much more important to the Bulls winning both immediately and over the next couple years than keeping Heinrich and hoping a tall French dude becomes a 15 minute a game guy.
Look at the Finals. Those two teams were there directly due to the acquisition of seasoned All-Star Vets through free agency or absurdly lopsided trades like Gasol's. Teams developing young talent are exciting - the Thunder and Portland come to mind - but neither is nearly as likely to win a final as a team with three major stars, which is what Chicago most likely will be next season.
tldr: I'm excited as hell, dudes
Right, but they haven't signed anybody yet. I'm well aware that Lebron James is going to help the team more than the 17th pick in this year's draft, but they'd better be darned sure that Lebron is coming....... or they just threw away 2 pretty good resources for building a team.
What resources? Face it, without a superstar like Lebron they will continue to be a first, or at best, second round out of the playoffs. They would never truly contend for a championship with mid round picks and Kirk Hinrich. Teams with superstars win championships in the NBA, and I'm glad the Bulls are going "all in" in trying to get one.
I thought Rose was supposed to be "the superstar".
The Lakers don't really have more than one "superstar". They have Kobe, surrounded by a lot of middle-of-the-first-round-draft talent.
Middle-of-the-first round talent like lottery picks Odom, Bynum, Morrison, and Gasol?
You can get that type of talent in the middle of the first round, I think. Rondo was drafted 21st. Glen Davis was 35th overall. I mean, this list could go on and on.
It's not like Kobe is surrounded by Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard, etc.
Arguing about guys based on their draft position is silly. Even top 5 picks flame out all the time and guys that go later can turn out to be good. I doubt 20 teams pass on Rondo if they had any clue what he would become.
Kobe had the second or third best center in the league, Lamar Odom is probably the best third option in the league and a matchup nightmare for any team he plays, Bynum is the best backup center in the league, Artest is still an elite defender, etc. Kobe had the best supporting cast and he won. He still doesn't have a title without an elite center on his team. I bet a friend of mine back when the Kobe/Shaq breakup happened that Kobe would never win another title. And I bet I would have been right if they hadn't gotten Gasol gift wrapped for them.
For petes sake, this is a cyclical argument. The Lakers dominated the regular season because of a superstar whose team signed superb FAs or traded for superb players. The Celtics even moreso. Yay, Rondo has been a surprise to everyone with his rise to elite play. They wouldn't be in the Finals without their top flight FA acquisitions.
Heinrich and that French dude would get the Bulls another 40 win season. Two significant FAs plus the existing core gets a 60 win season. I don't know a single person other than socnorb who is saying the Bulls are making a mistake giving up 'resources' like a backup guard and a weak 17th draft pick.
I hope we can all agree on this come mid July once the FA dominos start to fall.
Maclowery wrote:For petes sake, this is a cyclical argument. The Lakers dominated the regular season because of a superstar whose team signed superb FAs or traded for superb players. The Celtics even moreso. Yay, Rondo has been a surprise to everyone with his rise to elite play. They wouldn't be in the Finals without their top flight FA acquisitions.
Heinrich and that French dude would get the Bulls another 40 win season. Two significant FAs plus the existing core gets a 60 win season. I don't know a single person other than socnorb who is saying the Bulls are making a mistake giving up 'resources' like a backup guard and a weak 17th draft pick.
I hope we can all agree on this come mid July once the FA dominos start to fall.
If it works out, they've done well. If not, then they'll probably be lucky to win 40 again.
Okay, I get it. You think its likely that the Bulls, one of the marquee names in the NBA, in the third largest market in the country, a team with enough to spend on two max contracts, a team that already has a top flight star and a terrific role player to build on, are going to strike out in the largest FA supermarket ever. Thanks for clearing that up.
If they miss out on everyone, kudos to you. Guess they should've stuck to middling draft picks hoping for four Rajons in a row. Ill congratulate your approach come next March as the winners of the 2010 sweepstakes are stomping around the league.
Look. Indiana is one of the biggest basketball states and Larry Bird is an ex player. They are gonna get Kirk and Granger is pretty good. Bird is gonna be the coach and LeBron I'd coming to Indy.
Maclowery wrote:Okay, I get it. You think its likely that the Bulls, one of the marquee names in the NBA, in the third largest market in the country, a team with enough to spend on two max contracts, a team that already has a top flight star and a terrific role player to build on, are going to strike out in the largest FA supermarket ever. Thanks for clearing that up.
If they miss out on everyone, kudos to you. Guess they should've stuck to middling draft picks hoping for four Rajons in a row. Ill congratulate your approach come next March as the winners of the 2010 sweepstakes are stomping around the league.
The thing is, they already had enough cap space for Lebron. Basically, if they don't sign TWO marquee free agents, then they've squandered the 17th overall pick in the draft, and a pretty good guard........ for what?
I never said we are guaranteed to get LBJ, and I assume the other guys were saying that tongue in cheek. I am, though, clearly saying that the Bulls will sign two major free agents, and there's a terrific chance we get either James or Bosh (and a decent chance we get both!).
Again, with the freed up cap space, they can easily replace Hinrich and the 17th pick if they strike out. The Bulls didn't gut their roster, they gave up a tossup pick, and unloaded an overpaid guard who doesn't do very many things well. It's a zero risk proposition.
