seanimal

I don't see how this team's plight isn't worrisome. They had a young core that many people thought could be elite for years, and all but Toews have regressed. The team took a couple (expected) steps back after winning the cup, and after the GM made a massive overhaul, they have yet to taken a step forward. When they were racking up points earlier this season they weren't playing particularly well. They look to me, at least, to need an impact acquisition on defense to really have a good chance this year. Not making the playoffs would be unacceptable at this point, but their play has still been worrisome for a good year and a half. their play last year wasn't worrisome, it was expected. this year's team has been all over the place. i get that the tone of your post is just you being you, but to say that a team can be racking up points the way they were while not playing well is nonsense. they've been very, very inconsistent overall and when they have had success, it's usually just one or two guys heating up rather than everyone firing on all cylinders. but that's no accident, and they weren't just getting all these points one-at-a-time through shootouts. where i will agree with you wholeheartedly is that this team won't win much when it matters without a huge defensive upgrade. hopefully bowman can/will address this by the deadline. if not, it will be very difficult to be successful in the playoffs with the D crew we're running out there now.

This one is the closest I've seen with D-Rose's contract included. http://www.hoopsworld.com/chicago-bulls-team-salary Based on that you are - at a minimum - looking at Noah and one of Korver and Brewe, plus a 1st round pick or two (for Howard). Most trade proposals I've seen involve Deng, Noah and Gibson, the rights to Nikola Mirotic and a first round pick (the one we apparently have from the Bobcats or something?). there's pretty much no way this deal happens without howard extending. the bulls will be gutted if orlando insists on turkoglu being included on any deal, and at that point the bulls won't be good enough to compete for a championship this year. i'm actually kind of not wanting howard a little bit.

well if he really is trachselvanian, then he should be pretty valuable towards the deadline

were, i should say, as toews and sharpie both logged almost 20 minutes anyway, point still stands, i think it is a bit premature to start freaking the [expletive] out. frustrating, yes. worrisome, ... not yet

oh my lord calm down, there are still 31 games left in the season with 5 (FIVE) points separating us from first. we're missing two of our top-5 players. if we're still here 15 games from now then maybe turn the hysterics on.

hmm, according to this article: so it is possible for a player to ostensibly earn 30% of cap, because of the percentage that is withheld, a player could actually miss out on close to 10% of their projected earnings. http://natashapickowicz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The_More_You_Know.jpg

is the cap hold calculated at the annual average value of the contract or the actual amount the player is making in that particular year? furthermore, does the nba cap fluctuate the way that it does in the NHL? for instance, rose's contract is the max - 30% of cap but with BRI the actual total value of a contract can vary upwards or downwards depending on league revenues right? i'm kind of a dummy with nba contracts and wikipedia wasn't very helpful

i can't seem to find a good cot's-style site for nba contracts that's updated and comprehensive i'm curious how drose's contract schedules out.

he basically did two of those things already last year (36 doubles, 9 triples). i'll be pretty surprised if he doubles his homers, though. I'll take the over on 20. you can't even pitch in 10 dollars for a wedding gift, i'm really excited to hear about the 17 cents you win on this wager yeah but you gotta feel for the guy, getting hosed on property tax for that condo in dade county

yeah but how many times is he gonna steal home buh-dum-bump tsss

i thought it was for the pending peavy trade

i'm pretty skeptical that he'll pan out, but there's certainly potential there, and i don't think that gambling on him is a bad idea at this point. you gotta pay to play.

bynum absolutely does not trump "anything we can offer". orlando is probably hoping for a combination of long-term and short-term players for the pleasure of sending along howard and turkoglu + parts. orlando is probably looking for a package of players that will allow them to be relatively competitive now and in the future. if they move howard for bynum, then that won't happen. the bulls are quite possibly the deepest team in the nba, and that means valuable assets. again, i don't think the chances are particularly high for d12 to come to chicago, but the idea that it's definitely not going to happen is just posturing/trolling. the bulls have as much to offer to orlando as any of the teams on the "list". and i don't think the bulls will make this deal unless he signs an extension

no

haters gonna hate i don't think any of us would gamble on the possibility that dwight is coming, but it's kind of stupid to totally rule it out. and it certainly doesn't hurt to hope.

hahahaha, exactly i'm going to let myself believe there's a much greater than non-zero chance of us being able to get d12 with an extension. i would prefer we keep one of deng/taj and asik, but I really don't see some combination of whatever we have available to be greater than the contribution that howard can provide. i would think they'd want someone who can produce a little offense like boozer since that's kind of what they suck at, plus at least one of noah/taj and probably asik. hopefully we can keep asik. then fill in the missing big man with like kmart and a cardboard cutout of shaq in an orlando uniform and i'm good. man i'm going to be festering troll bait when he ends up in L.A.

god bless the taxpayers of miami i can't wait to see that thing in action

well yeah, i mean, you do gotta win. in the playoffs. this game meant nothing for the most part. i look forward to the, at the very least, 7 games these teams have yet to play

baseball also faces an uphill battle because of the amount of people and equipment needed to play, at least in a formal sense. growing up in the city we used to play stickball in the alley all of the time, but that was with basically any sort of whacking device and usually a tennis ball. at school we played 16" softball and all that required was the ball, an old aluminum bat, and some makeshift bases. it wasn't until i moved to the suburbs that i played actual baseball. it's just a difficult game to get going in the city if you don't have a soccer mom to push you into organized leagues. regarding the equipment, yeah, the kids in latin america field a ball made of who-knows-what with milk cartons for gloves. while that's certainly a possibility here, i think a lot of american kids would just rather not suffer the indignity.

there's actually a surprising amount on barely-athletic white guys in the NBA like korver and miller. then there's jimmer fredette. all sorts of no

it's good to see you fellas appreciating The Great DH Compromise i trust i can rely on your vote Commissioner 2014 (me)

that may be, i know that the issue was about baseball in general, but it was particularly egregious that this or that baseball team had no black players

In the early/mid 2000s I thought they should have been named the Houston Honkys. yeah they did have a ton of white starters back then: Bags, Bigs, Ensberg, Ausmus, Everett, Kent, Berkman, Oswalt, Clemens, Pettitte, Wade Miller, Lidge I'm pretty sure at one point during that time they didn't have a black guy on their 25 man roster. i vaguely remember Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson or someone pointing that out.

i still think the ideal situation is to limit the DH at-bats to the starting pitcher slot and have it in both leagues. you'll still be providing those roster spots for the edgar martinez's of the world, but still preserve some of the late-inning excitement that many baseball fans enjoy, regardless of what that daring iconoclast kyle says.

true, unfortunately, those guys are so few and far between. there's enough of an argument to keep nl rules in a vacuum, but not when they have to compete with the al.