ChiCubsFan

Thank god. There's no point in having Deng play with pain in an exhibition game or for Rose to play more minutes than he did after returning from a back injury just 1 week ago.

Oh how I missed Derrick Rose

I love that Noah and Boozer are playing well together lately. We're going to need them to play decent if we want to get pass the Heat.

Yep, and the Bulls at full strength are worse than the Warriors. So Warriors >> Celtics And the Bulls No. Warriors > Bulls but Warriors >> Celtics.

Yep, and the Bulls at full strength are worse than the Warriors. So Warriors >> Celtics

wtf was that???

Now we're getting clowned on. Oh well.

I hate John Lucas so much

that was a terrible last minute for him. missed 2 FTs, tipped the ball in his own basket, and then gave Rivers 4 feet to shoot a wide open game winning 3.

He's been great since January 17th. He's had games of 8/10, 10/9, 14/9, and the Philly game (2/7). His other 6 games were all double doubles. It seems as though your expectations are a little ridiculous if you consider his play the last 3 weeks to be disappointing.

I'm guessing they wanted to play Lu his "normal" minutes and see how the wrist responds to decide whether or not to get the surgery.

Is Omer a restricted or unrestricted FA after this season?

Bucks are having a pretty decent run lately. I think they are a playoff team at this point. Well all they have to do is beat out the Knicks and Cavs so that shouldn't be too hard. I'd love to see the Knicks miss the playoffs. We need JR Smith so bad right now.

The single greatest impact of trading Deng is what we saw yesterday. It leaves us with nobody (maybe JB in a year or 2) to guard LeBron. That said, I make the deal without thinking twice and without a guarantee of him resigning.

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. I'd give them any 3 of our 4 bigs if it means we keep Deng. Hell I'd give them all 4 if it meant we kept Deng. Realistically, I think it would be Noah, Gibson, Deng, and picks for Dwight and Turk

Because the Heat don't do it until the last half of the 4th quarter. I'm also convinced that Lebron James doesn't get worn out. Either way, if Rip and Deng are both healthy that means Mario Chalmers is guarding Rip and Wade is guarding Deng. Those are mismatches you have to exploit. Unless they are taking Chalmers out and having Lebron play point forward? I didn't get to watch the game yesterday so I don't know who else was on the court when Lebron was guarding Rose.

Summary of last night: A win is a win, Rose was unstoppable, Noah and Booz finally both had a good game together, the defense was bad. Thank god I'm not GM of the Bulls or I would have traded Noah for less than he's worth a few weeks ago.

Korver has looked terrible out there for the past 2 or so weeks. I don't see why Butler can't get a few minutes.

Yeah it's kind of annoying. At the same time there's next to no practice time in this season and Thibs wants to get his stuff installed. The offense has soo many more looks this season. And I don't think Rose played an insane amount of minutes in the game. 34 or so? Rip, on the other hand, played too much. He must have been over 40. I definitely would have liked to see Rose down around 28-30 minutes and Rip maybe 32-34, with the extra minutes going to Butler, but I'm not going to complain much. You take the bad with the good with Thibs.

Please get Rip out and Jimmy B in.

My goal would be to have homecourt advantage in the first round and win a playoff series (obviously the latter is more important). That would be very good progress for this team. Oh, I suppose I should add that they aren't embarrassed in the second round (if the second round was something like last year's first round against the Bulls I would be quite happy). In a way, I think the Hawks are an apt comparison. The Pacers look like a team that probably peaks at 50ish wins and second round playoff losses. However, they don't have a Joe Johnson-level contract and therefore have more cap space*. This is a subjective opinion, but they also seem a more likable team than the Hawks (the Hawks are a bad word for NBA fans, but I don't t hink that's only because of their ceiling). *As CCP said, in the NBA, they'll be held back by their market. A super star free agent is almost certainly never going to sign in Indianapolis. Because of that, the Pacers best bet is to build a deep quality team like they have now. That's the best a market like Indianapolis can hope for without lucking into being bad, winning the lottery, and having that year come in a very specific year when a superstar is available. Sounds like a very attainable goal. I agree that the Pacers are more likable than the Hawks. When comparing the 2, I think the Hawks have more top-end talent. I believe Horford, Smith, Johnson is better than any top 3 of the Pacers (Hibbert, George, Granger?) That said, the Pacers are much deeper, much younger, and aren't locked into bad contracts. I think your best bet to compete for a championship would be to have one of your young guys develop into a solid #2 option and then trade off some of the depth for a top player and have him fall in love with his teammates and the city. Obviously Eric Gordon would be a guy that comes to mind. I definitely am enjoying that the Pacers/Bulls rivalry is somewhat back, and should continue to grow in the coming years.

4 of our 5 starters so far will have missed significant time (I'm assuming Joakim misses multiple games too). Who would have thought the only 1 so far to not would be Boozer?

Just curious, but what are your guys' expectations/goals for this season? And how do you plan on becoming a championship caliber team? From an outsiders point of view, it appears you guys are going to be trapped in that Atlanta Hawks mediocrity of hell for the foreseeable future.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/218494/Bulls_Winning_Without_Rose_Noah_Due_To_Depth#ixzz1kIPN6HHR I love this team.

Deng's injury may be the best thing to happen to us all season. 1) Gives Deng some much needed rest. 2) Jimmy Butler almost has to get some real minutes during this game, which will show Thibs that JB can go out and play a few 4 minute stretches here and there to give Deng some much needed rest. Hopefully Deng sits more than just this 1 game. And hopefully Derrick doesn't actually come back tonight.