Chicago Bulls Playoff Thread

[Soul]

this series can be summed up in one word.

 

asterisk.

 

I never understood that. Yes Rose was a key player for a title contender, but its not like the Bulls were heavy favorites to win the title. The Bulls wouldnt have even been favored going into the ECF.

He said series.

 

Yes, emphasis on series. Not attempting to project beyond that.

[illiniguy]

What sucks to me is we got robbed out of a great ECF as fans. Oh well I imagine that this eats at rose and he uses it to get better.

[Flames24Rulz]

What sucks to me is we got robbed out of a great ECF as fans. Oh well I imagine that this eats at rose and he uses it to get better.

 

Hopefully it eats at GarPax to try to add another big piece instead of just having role players compliment Rose.

[UMFan83]

Just for fun...a list of every single injury that caused a Bull to miss at least a game this year:

 

Rose:

Sprained Toe (5 games)

Lower Back Strain (5 games)

Strained Groin (12 games)

Sprained Right Ankle (1 game)

Foot Injury (3 games)

Torn ACL (4+ games)

 

Deng:

Torn Ligament Left Wrist (9 games)

Bruised Ribs (2 games)

 

Watson:

Separated Shoulder (9 games)

Wrist Injury (1 game)

Concussion (2 games)

Left Ankle Sprain (5 games)

 

Hamilton:

Strained Left Groin (10 games)

Right Thigh Injury (14 games)

Right Shoulder Injury (15 games)

 

Noah:

Left Ankle Sprain (1 game)

Illness (1 game)

Left Ankle Sprain (2+ games)

 

Gibson:

Left Ankle Sprain (3 games)

 

Lucas:

Left Groin Strain (4 games)

 

That's 108 games missed due to injuries this year. That's a total of 20 completely separate injuries befalling 7 of our players, including 4 of the 5 starters.

 

Starters: 84 games / 355 possible games (24% of all available starts)

All-Stars: 41 games / 142 possible games (29% of all available starts)

 

Starters in the playoffs: 6 games / 25 possible games (24% of all available starts)

All-Stars in the playoffs: 4 games / 10 possible games (40% of all available starts)

 

OK that wasn't fun at all

[Guest]

And Boozer was somehow healthy all season.

[Careless]

And Boozer was somehow healthy all season.

Cursed!

[17 Seconds]

i can't imagine a more soul-crushing 4 game stretch.

 

game 1- rose tears acl

game 2- loss, fluke jump shooting night for opponent

game 3- loss, heartbreaking late collapse and loss of second best player

game 4- loss, and that unique kind of frustration you only get from watching horrible officiating

 

not saying the bulls deserved to win any of the last 3, but i can't imagine them happening in more painful ways.

[Wilson A2000]

That's 108 games missed due to injuries this year.

 

I wonder how this compares with other teams and non-lockout seasons.

[Soul]

And Boozer was somehow healthy all season.

 

Never stays when you want him, never leaves when you don't.

[cubbyvirus00]

I've been saying it for awhile. The only players I'd keep on this roster are rose, rip, noah and gibson. Everyone else is expendable.

[UMFan83]

I've been saying it for awhile. The only players I'd keep on this roster are rose, rip, noah and gibson. Everyone else is expendable.

 

Wait do you think that "everyone is expendable except rose, Noah, Rip, Taj" is a particularly novel thought?

 

Well maybe because I much rather keep Deng than Rip. Deng is quite valuable when the ligaments in his wrist are intact. But as far as the other 3, pretty much everyone understands as has accepted for awhile that a majority of the team is expendable and now here for the long term.

[Banedon]

I've been saying it for awhile. The only players I'd keep on this roster are rose, rip, noah and gibson. Everyone else is expendable.

 

I'd keep a healthy Deng too. And I'm not super attached to Rip. He was doing well with Rose out there, but he's not irreplaceable.

 

I'm not even mad about this series now. I'm just disappointed. If you take the best 2 players off of any team, that team isn't going to play well. Especially when it's your best scorer and your best big man.

 

Boozer....man, I know he was healthy all year, and that he actually had a decent season as a whole, but man, that guy has 2 major flaws that I just can't overlook. One, the dude can't freaking hold on to the basketball. Whether it's catching, dribbling, whatever...he's constantly bumbling and fumbling it. Two, he goes hard to the basket at times when he needs finesse, usually drawing a charge, and when the basket is wide open, he goes soft and gets it blocked. And good lord, every single time that there's a defensive lapse, it's usually cuz Boozer didn't rotate or do something he was supposed to. Last night his rainbow jumper wouldn't go, and that'll happen. That's usually his best weapon though. But those other things drive me absolutely nuts.

 

There's no realistic way to get rid of him, but it drives me insane to watch him.

[Sammy Sofa]

I've been saying it for awhile. The only players I'd keep on this roster are rose, rip, noah and gibson. Everyone else is expendable.

 

Well, picking Rip over Deng is goofy, and pretty much every major trade they've been rumored to be interested in would have required Noah or Gibson, and usually both.

[Theo]

He's kinda of a clown, well not kinda, he is, but I really want the Bulls to go after Nick Young this offseason.

[Andy]

I understand not wanting him to play an important role, but why wouldn't one want to keep Omer Asik? If you don't want to pay him the type of money he'll command, that's one thing, but he's a nice piece in a defensive role.

[Banedon]

I understand not wanting him to play an important role, but why wouldn't one want to keep Omer Asik? If you don't want to pay him the type of money he'll command, that's one thing, but he's a nice piece in a defensive role.

 

I'm pretty sure that it's just that he's gonna get paid too much by somebody else.

[Theo]

Won't the Arena's rule apply to Asik?

[gflore34]

It's gotta to be eating at Thibs that his team has mailed it in and along way making a crappy team look good. Not getting back on defense, losing jump balls to guy who can't jump, Brand, not be able to defend Turner who does the same thing every time he has the ball that sh*tty little spin move, on and on.

[UMFan83]

It's gotta to be eating at Thibs that his team has mailed it in and along way making a crappy team look good. Not getting back on defense, losing jump balls to guy who can't jump, Brand, not be able to defend Turner who does the same thing every time he has the ball that sh*tty little spin move, on and on.

 

I don't agree that they've mailed it in, but their confidence is clearly affecting their play. I think its a testament to the team that they are even close in games like yesterday with almost no scoring, but at the end of the day, they don't have anyone that can score when needed late, so they fall short at the end. The same thing happened last year against Miami when Rose was kept in check.

 

The Sixers do suck, but the Bulls have still done an excellent job as a whole defensively in the series (besides game 2), but when you are a poor offense (without Rose and to a lesser extent Noah) and you are going up against the 3rd best defense in the NBA this year, its a tough matchup. You can't play that well defensively and be considered to be mailing it in.

[UMFan83]

On a related topic, KC Johnson had an interesting discussion on the Score today. He said that the organization is shocked and very disappointed with how the Bulls have responded since the Rose injury. The higher ups all thought the Bulls would at least make it to the 2nd round, and likely the ECF.

 

Whether this means they will make changes, I don't think anyone knows. But the fact that Rose and Deng might will likely both be out until January, makes it less likely that they will make any drastic moves to change the team. Certainly going into the luxury tax is basically out of the question. He said there's 0% chance the Bulls amnesty Boozer for 2 reasons, 1) with Rose's extension kicking it, amnestying him doesnt open up any cap space and as bad as he is trying to replace Boozer with the MLE is a gamble and 2) The Bulls title odds are quite low next year, so they might as well get something out of the money they are paying. Also he said that the Bulls will almost certainly match any offer for Asik next year, which sort of surprised me. I'm not sure I believe that. The most another team can offer him is the MLE but do you really want to pay that much for a guy who plays like 12 minutes a game and has an extremely limited offensive game?

 

Finally, and this is just speculation, but KC says he guesses that the Bulls will bring back AT MOST 1 of the following 3 players: Korver, Watson, and Brewer, and says the most likely one if they bring one of them back is Watson because he's a PG with Rose out. And the Bulls will probably try to replace them with minimum salary guys, and/or in house options (like Butler). I know its been common knowledge for awhile that those 3 guys are not locks to come back, but I guess I never considered that the Bulls would decline to bring back all 3. Definitely going to be an interesting but likely depressing offseason as the black cloud continues to hover over the Bulls organization.

[SpongeWorthy]

The only reason we won't amnesty Boozer is because Reinsdorf would have to spend the money

[Wilson A2000]

The only reason we won't amnesty Boozer is because Reinsdorf would have to spend the money

 

Seriously who doesn't want to just throw away $60 million?

[SpongeWorthy]

The only reason we won't amnesty Boozer is because Reinsdorf would have to spend the money

 

Seriously who doesn't want to just throw away $60 million?

 

Sunk cost fallacy.

[Banedon]

On a related topic, KC Johnson had an interesting discussion on the Score today. He said that the organization is shocked and very disappointed with how the Bulls have responded since the Rose injury. The higher ups all thought the Bulls would at least make it to the 2nd round, and likely the ECF.

 

Whether this means they will make changes, I don't think anyone knows. But the fact that Rose and Deng might will likely both be out until January, makes it less likely that they will make any drastic moves to change the team. Certainly going into the luxury tax is basically out of the question. He said there's 0% chance the Bulls amnesty Boozer for 2 reasons, 1) with Rose's extension kicking it, amnestying him doesnt open up any cap space and as bad as he is trying to replace Boozer with the MLE is a gamble and 2) The Bulls title odds are quite low next year, so they might as well get something out of the money they are paying. Also he said that the Bulls will almost certainly match any offer for Asik next year, which sort of surprised me. I'm not sure I believe that. The most another team can offer him is the MLE but do you really want to pay that much for a guy who plays like 12 minutes a game and has an extremely limited offensive game?

 

Finally, and this is just speculation, but KC says he guesses that the Bulls will bring back AT MOST 1 of the following 3 players: Korver, Watson, and Brewer, and says the most likely one if they bring one of them back is Watson because he's a PG with Rose out. And the Bulls will probably try to replace them with minimum salary guys, and/or in house options (like Butler). I know its been common knowledge for awhile that those 3 guys are not locks to come back, but I guess I never considered that the Bulls would decline to bring back all 3. Definitely going to be an interesting but likely depressing offseason as the black cloud continues to hover over the Bulls organization.

 

Big man depth isnt easy to find. And Asik has plenty of room for development. No real offseason hurt him imo.

 

I think they need to keep Korver. We need need that outside threat to keep some of the focus off Rose.

[Flames24Rulz]

I think Brewer's the most likely out of the three that are gone.