SpongeWorthy

When I said earlier that it was painful to watch Greg McElroy play I meant hilarious.

Toby Gerhart is just beasting all over Oregon.

It's painful to watch Greg McElroy.

This is why you can't have nice things Oregon.

Myth. The Bulls are shooting about the same % this year as they did last year. Of course the Bulls are scoring about 8 points per games less this year, despite playing a slightly tougher five games this year as they did last year. The Bulls are not aggressive enough this year, as can see by the lower FTA so far (112 through 5 games this yr, as opposed to 149 attempts last year), and Gordon wasn't a real factor in getting to the line. Personally the Bulls are missing Rose's explosiveness moreso the Gordon's offense. The Bulls had an effective field goal percentage of .493 which was only good for 20th in the league. The problem is that they're at .427 so far this season which is second to last in the league. They were 7th in 3 point FG percentage last year and they're dead last so far this season (.381 vs. .234). You can attribute that to no Gordon and Salmons/Hinrich being ice cold so far. The good news is that their rebounding on the defensive glass is vastly improved. They're 3rd in defensive rebounding percentage so far when they were 28th last year. Deng and a consistent Noah have been huge their so far. Sadly, Thomas not getting much run has helped that too. Keeping in mind a small sample size so far I think you can expect that letting Gordon going and replacing him with Salmons at the 2 and allowing Deng to slide in at 3 has had the effect you'd expect--trading much better rebounding/defense for a drop off in outside shooting. The good news is that Salmons should start shooting better and Rose will get healthier to help mitigate the losses on offense.

Thomas is out 4-6 weeks. Fractured left radius from a weight lifting session. http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/62614/20091106/tyrus_thomas_out_4_6_weeks/

Yes, he did. Of course, you have to have a quality arm and be able to read defensive backfields to run a pro-style offense though. Two things he can't do. This might be a really dumb question, but who was the last OSU qb to have a somewhat successful NFL career? They've never really had one.

Hell yeah. Nice defense Deng/Noah on the final possession. Thank god for Mo Williams too! Nice win.

That ball hit the rim.

Derrick has to demand the ball there. Salmons was playing like a dumbass but Rose needs take control in that situation and go rip the ball out of his hands if it comes to that.

Quickness wise I think he's closer to being back but I don't think he can elevate the way he wants to in traffic. I think it makes him tentative at finishing around the basket. He's not getting much lift on his jumper either. I just hope his ankle heals up soon.

They've fairly impressive defensively though. Oh yeah, way better defensively. Rose doesn't look lost on the pick and roll defense and putting in Deng at 3 has done wonders for the rebounding.

Rose is just nowhere near having his usual explosiveness. That's pretty frustrating. It's also frustrating that this is a jump shooting team that can't really shoot (especially 3 pointers).

Pretty good first half. Salmons finally showing some signs of life.

By my count he's 4/6 on jumpers so far this year. It's ugly and he basically has to swish it for it to have a chance to go in with that hideous sideways rotation.

I'd only be strongly in favor of getting rid of him if he insists on bringing back the same offensive coaches. Lovie's a defensive guy. I just don't see a good, creative offensive staff as likely to coalesce around him as it would around Cowher, Shanahan, Gruden, Holmgren, etc. The guys with the pull to build a top notch staff are available this offseason. I think Lovie's a fine coach but I think it's pretty telling that you don't see his staffs being poached of coaching talent.

Plus with all the high profile guys potentially available to be head coaches you're going to either fire Lovie, continue to pay him, and then have to bring in a Cowher/Shanahan/Gruden/Holmgren/etc. at a higher price. If you don't hire one of those guys you might be perceived as going low rent with an unproven candidate. Now if you end up winning with that guy all is forgiven but you're risking a backlash if he turns out to be another Jim Zorn or Scott Linehan.

If the Bears miss the playoffs I doubt you're going to see much outrage if Lovie is canned. Sure, there will be a pocket of people who say it would be a mistake but overall public sentiment isn't going to be negative about bringing in a new staff. You'll probably see more criticism from the national media anyway. The public probably won't be STRONGLY in favor of getting rid of Lovie either but it won't preclude a move either. If the Bears miss the playoffs again and then retain the coaching staff it'll be because they think it's the right move and not because they're kowtowing to the wishes of the public...which might be a dumber reason, sadly.

I don't think starting Petey two games in Yankee Stadium was a very good idea... And someone had to have been signaling to Matsui pitch location on that 2 out RBI single.

lol @ the Bucks. Bulls had no business winning that game.

Yep, Jennings is the real deal.

It infuriates me that John Salmons' jersey constantly comes out his shorts. Act like a [expletive] professional.

What I can't stand is Rose giving up the ball to Kirk just inside of the half court line to go stand in the corner while Kirk, Salmons, or Deng utterly fail to initiate offense. This system is just not a fit for Rose's game. It's pretty miraculous that the Bulls offense was actually any good last season which tells you how much BG did for us. And none of the players here really compliment him either. The best thing you can say about Deng is that he improves our rebounding. You can't even run an effective pick and pop game with Miller because he takes SO DAMN LONG to load up his jump shot that he'll usually ball fake and lumber towards the hoop instead with some stupid BS layup or try to thread a pass into a window that's not there. I'm so schizo about this team because when we let Ben go, a move I more or less agreed with, I said that there would be some big time growing pains on the offensive end. But this is pretty bad...this could be one of the worst teams in the league I'm afraid. Hope I'm wrong. I won't be unless we stop treating Derrick like a role player and not the undisputed alpha dog of the team.

Yeah, he plays with a lot of confidence. From what I've seen from Flynn and Jennings so far I doubt Rubio would've even come close to matching them. He's still raw though and I can tell from just a half of basketball that he does a LOT of things that are going to get him deep in Skiles doghouse.

They have some pretty good outside shooters that Paul can kick it out too, though. We really don't. David West is a better interior scorer than I think we've ever had. David West is a homeless man's Chris Bosh. He's a nice player but he's not a 2nd banana on a really good team. What CP3 did with that team the last two years was superhuman and now with Peja a shell of his former self his supporting cast is among the worst in the league.