bukie

The Heat's roster consists of James, Wade, Bosh, and a rotating cast of replacement level players that might do one thing adequately enough to be in the rotation. Maybe Chalmers is better now? The Bulls roster consists of Rose, a couple good shooters in Boozer and Korver, and a full defensive set of rotation players whose job is to keep the other team from scoring long enough for Rose to win the game offensively. Deng can stumble upon offense (after an off day) but doesn't really create it. That defensive rotation, though? Really damned good at their job.

I catch them when they're on NBA TV, which was...the Spurs, Mavs and the first Memphis game (the 0-13 one from WB). So maybe I just caught his especially bad games, but man, he was the most frustrating guy on the court. EDIT: Oh, and some of the Christmas game against Orlando (which admittedly was also a terrible Westbrook game).

Also, I can't wait for Deng's upcoming 3-15 night from the floor tomorrow and everyone inexplicably ragging on him for it.

Here's my point: Westbrook has Durant and Harden, two guys playing out of their minds early on, and even though the Thunder are 10-2, watching them just ticks me off about Westbrook because he could and should be getting so much more out of the offense (which is already clicking well) if he'd just accept when his shot's not falling and letting Durant and Harden do more. There's no excuse for his assist average to have dropped by so much so quickly ...and it's trending down, not up...and his great shooting game against Memphis is almost concerning because it's just going to encourage him to shoot more again. Rose, on the other hand, is probably the 8th or 9th best player in the league, not the first, but he's surrounded by a Boozer who's suddenly afraid to go to the rim and a Noah who's just not in playing shape (tonight aside). His other best offensive option, Deng, is currently being slowly killed by a coach whose idea of rest is making him the only offensive option on the second unit (when they're actually deep at wing! They have 5 wing players, and they all just rotate at SG and leave Deng in to collapse). The only way the Bulls can create offense is via Rose (I mean, did you see the atrocity Wednesday night?), and every other team knows it, and the Bulls are somehow still 11-2. and in the top 10 of offensive efficiency in the league. It's crazy, and Rose in my opinion is a miracle worker for getting this team to pull off an efficient offense overall. So criticizing his shooting efficiency when he's pretty much each and every offensive option on the team is a little hollow, to me.

So now we've moved onto a semantic argument about what "good" is? ORtg streak of 107, 127, 98, 113, 105, while hardly bad, was really only two of 5 games better than team performance (to where his offense was more of a benefit to the team's efficiency than a detriment). His shooting was certainly decent in those back to backs against a tough defensive team in Houston, but are you really sitting there thinking that Westbrook is helping the team more than he's hurt it in the early going this season? And if you're going to continue davearm'ing this discussion, just let me know now so I can stop wasting time.

last 5 games 21 ppg 5.4 apg 3.8rpg on 49% from the field OH GOD SOMEONE WIPE AWAY THE NIGHTMARE And I'm sure Durant appreciates those five touches a game Westbrook gives him. last year westbrook to durant totaled the highest number of assists in the league. that's two strikes. Yes, last year. This year Westbrook's assists are down almost 3 per game, and they've only gotten lower the last five games, during which point Westbrook almost had two good shooting games in a row! Because it's not like there's another player (or two) on the team that would benefit from a few extra passes per game, right? I mean, if the discussion's going to be a moving target that's going to roll back to last year, it's just going to get silly for you.

last 5 games 21 ppg 5.4 apg 3.8rpg on 49% from the field OH GOD SOMEONE WIPE AWAY THE NIGHTMARE And I'm sure Durant appreciates those five touches a game Westbrook gives him.

imb's just trying to find someone to take his mind off Russell Westbrook for a while.

Jerry Palm's bracket, based strictly off RPI. As you may surmise, Illinois's seed is hilarious.

Pomeroy's system also indicates Wisconsin has played the second easiest schedule in the B1G so far, which can't be good news for them. Fortunately, they get PSU, Nebraska and Iowa twice each (well, maybe not Iowa, since they already have a home loss to them).

Pomeroy's system also indicates Purdue has played the easiest B1G schedule so far.

A) He's not an owner and hasn't been one for a while. B) The commissioner's job is not to mediate between players and owners. The job of commissioners in US sports has evolved from the theoretical independant overseer to a direct representative of ownership of those franchises. The fact that he was an owner is a meaningless point, when you consider the whole point of his job is to help his fellow owners maintain stable value of their properties. If the fellow owners didn't mind having him lead them, then there is no conflict of interest. He (well, his family, Wendy was the active CEO) was the owner through 2004 before they finally sold off to Attansio. Even though he's not now, being the owner of a team and the commissioner for 10 years is, to me, still a huge conflict of interest. In 1994, the owners specifically appointed the commissioner to mediate between the players and owners in the labor negotiations, which is a huge reason of why they went south so quickly.

See, now that is disingenuous. In 1992, the owners forced the resignation of then-commissioner Fay Vincent. Vincent was quoted after his forced resignation: "The Union basically doesn’t trust the Ownership because collusion was a $280 million theft by Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf of that money from the players. I mean, they rigged the signing of free agents. They got caught. They paid $280 million to the players. And I think that’s polluted labor relations in baseball ever since it happened. I think it’s the reason Fehr has no trust in Selig." Basically, on January 18, 1994, the owners wanted to set up a salary cap and revenue sharing for MLB ownership, which at that time required player approval. The very next day, the owners voted to allow full power to the commissioner for labor negotiations, who at that time was an owner acting as commissioner. So, I'm not sure if you just weren't paying attention at the time, but Selig was hugely to blame for the labor stoppage and postseason cancellation.

Negatives: - He presided over the only cancelled postseason in baseball history, the same year his wildcard playoff expansion was supposed to go into effect. It's a bit disingenuous to mention this and not point out the 17+ years of unprecedented labor peace (in recent history, anyway) that has followed. MLB was contentious labor mess for a long, long time leading up to 1994 (including the 1994 strike, there were 8 work stoppages in the space of 22 years, and none since), and has been relatively harmonious since the end of that debacle. You have to give Selig huge credit for that. It's not disingenuous to point out negatives in a post literally titled "Negatives".

When there are enough exceptions to vote her into office, those can no longer be considered exceptions.

Negatives: - He presided over the only cancelled postseason in baseball history, the same year his wildcard playoff expansion was supposed to go into effect. - He killed baseball in Montreal and let its owner just have another franchise for the heck of it. - He's the owner of a team, which is a huge conflict of interest in mediation between owners and players.

There was another note in the article that 21 of the 30 MLB teams already used a Bloomberg player evaluation system. So, the new market inefficiency: find one of the 8 teams that don't use an electronic player evaluation system, and trade with them.

Isn't that what I said? And yeah, for Boston to not make the playoffs, one of the following teams would have to make the playoffs: Cleveland, Toronto, Milwaukee, Detroit, New Jersey, Charlotte, Washington. I'm not sure there's ever been a more clear-cut 1-8 in the East.

The Cubs' front office has partnered with Bloomberg Sports to develop a state-of-the-art player evaluation system: http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120112&content_id=26325158&vkey=pr_chc&c_id=chc&partnerId=aw-5315041754533599103-1023

You're probably right. So would you just continue forward as is? Make a lineup change? Any other trades you'd look to make? I'd love to try to land someone like Ray Allen, but Boston probably wouldn't deal him unless they collapsed, and even then I'm not sure the Bulls would have pieces the Celtics even wanted (that would make the trade worth it for both sides). Beyond that, playing Noah and Boozer off each other may be the best short-term solution, as the second team needs a scorer and Deng needs to not die.

Don't forget Jack Morris next year. I'm going to really hate next year's HOF voting, aren't I?

I'm not opposed to trading Noah for Howard, but the last thing the Bulls need is another ball dominating guard like Ellis.

I completely agree with your point on Deng, however your stats are misleadding The Bulls have played the most games in the league (LAL, OKC also have 12) so of course they are both going to be in the top of minutes play (Rose is actually #6 in overall minutes played). Monta Ellis and Kevin Love have both played more MPG than Deng, who is 3rd, and Rose is 20th in the league. I think Rose's minutes have actually been pretty good. Deng's are obviously obsessive and need to be corrected immediately. Rose's minutes could get better as well as there are multiple times the Bulls are up double digits with 2 or 3 minutes left and they keep him in there. My hope is that Thibs can start to give Butler 7-10 minutes per game and cut down Deng's minutes some. Probably won't happen, though. Especially with Derrick out. Total minutes at this point isn't misleading (and at the time I posted, Rose was #2 overall in minutes), because every team has been active now for the same 18 days. Minutes per game is one thing, but total minutes played over the same calendar time says a bunch, too. The Bulls have played more games than anyone, and Deng has played more minutes per game than almost anyone. The combination of both is reflected in total minutes played.

Oh...great. It's been so long since we've had a Rajon Rondo debate in the middle of the Bulls thread. I'm surprised it took us 12 games to get there. And such timing with tomorrow's game ahead!

Also, maybe I'm expecting too much development too fast, but I'd have thought John Wall would be better than John Lucas by now.