ChiCubsFan

giants 27-24

Opinions on Joe Philbin?

With 2 off days coming up, I'm not surprised. I'd like to see Derrick sit against the Cavs, Bobcats, and Nets too. We should be able to win 2 or 3 of those without him.

Can we take Deng and CJ out please?

You're probably right. So would you just continue forward as is? Make a lineup change? Any other trades you'd look to make?

12 games and you're ready to trade Noah? I think him and Boozer may just not be a great fit on the floor together. It's not just these 12 games, but yeah. I'm panicking. I'd be a terrible GM. I just don't know what the next move is. Boozer and Noah have shown no progress in the past year. They just continue to look worse and worse together. Boozer throws in a good game every so often, but he's not playing well consistently. We'll be fine in the regular season as long as Rose is healthy, but we need another scorer to beat Miami.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/42058 Not really sure how switching Taj and Boozer in the rotation helps Deng. Unless he's just saying that Boozer can take the scoring load for the minutes that Rose and Deng are sitting? That's exactly why IMO. The usual bench mob when everyone is healthy is Watson, Brewer, Deng, Gibson, Asik. Deng is the only real "slasher" in that group. I could see a bench mob of Lucas, Watson, Brewer, Boozer, Asik being effective. The only problem with all of this is that the reason why the bench mob has been so effective is because of their lockdown defense, which is considerably better than the starting 5. Adding one of the worst defenders in the NBA to that group instead of Taj Gibson really hurts that. I personally think the better move would be to move Asik to the starting lineup and Noah off the bench. Noah has some offensive value but he seems lost out there with Rose, Deng and Boozer all getting theirs, not to mention Rip when healthy. Noah can give you great defense next to Gibson, as he did at the beginning of last year, and the hope would be that getting him going on defense again might give him some confidence and the overall boost that he needs to play like the guy they gave a $60 million to last year. It's depressing that it's come to this. Let's just trade Noah before he loses all his value. Is it too late to get 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.

Why does Stacey King keep saying to give Love the 3?

I don't think I even get NBATV I do, but it's blacked out here in Chicago. Its on CLTV here, but apparently they don't have an HD channel? Non-HD plus that horrendous looking court is giving me a headache. They do have a HD channel. I'm watching it now via Uverse And it's CSNA/CSNHDa Once again Comcast screws me. I'm an idiot. Channel 285. Court still looks like crap.

I don't think I even get NBATV I do, but it's blacked out here in Chicago. Its on CLTV here, but apparently they don't have an HD channel? Non-HD plus that horrendous looking court is giving me a headache. They do have a HD channel. I'm watching it now via Uverse And it's CSNA/CSNHDa Once again Comcast screws me.

I don't think I even get NBATV I do, but it's blacked out here in Chicago. Its on CLTV here, but apparently they don't have an HD channel? Non-HD plus that horrendous looking court is giving me a headache.

Well I don't get this game in HD. This is gonna hurt my eyes.

Please do this every game for the rest of the year, Carlos.

He has been pretty good most of the season (on offense) problem in, a lot of his points seem to come from jump shots which isn't what I want to see from our large post player. Agreed. His rebounding has been more consistent, as well, and I don't see him lazily and blatantly pushing people out of the way to grab rebounds as often this year either. His defense also has been improved and hopefully he maintains, or improves, that. As I say that Boozer lets BG7 blow by him.

Boozer has looked better lately, which is very encouraging. Our season, in my eyes, hinges upon his ability to be an effective 2nd/3rd scorer for us.

What idiots said the bolded? Yes, obviously most QBs are too risky for top 15. There might be 2 each year that are worth it. RBs should go lower, but there are elite talents out there that are worth a 1st round pick, and even a top of the 1st. It's the Ricky Williams and Cedric Benson types that aren't worth top of the 1st picks in this football environment. You really want a dynamic bck there. Not an old fashioned work horse. Top notch offensive tackles should easily go top 10. Elite LB can go there as well. Ricky Williams is in the same class as Cedric Benson? What? Ricky Williams wasn't just some work horse running back, the dude was dynamic. He was hurt in his first couple years in NO, but still put up respectable numbers. Then in his 3rd year he ran for over 1,200 yards and caught 60 passes for another 500+. Then he got traded to Miami and his first year he combined for over 2,200 yards and 17 TDs. That sounds pretty dynamic to me.

You can use your amnesty at any time on a player that was under contract when the CBA was signed. So they could amnesty Boozer at any point, but they still have to pay out that money. It just doesn't count against the cap. But if they amnesty him and some team under the cap puts in an offer of say 5 million, that team pays 5 million and we pick up the remainder, correct?

You can use your amnesty at any time on a player that was under contract when the CBA was signed. So they could amnesty Boozer at any point, but they still have to pay out that money. It just doesn't count against the cap. Yup. Ended up being perfect for the Bulls because they don't have to make that decision on Boozer immediately and can wait until if and when he breaks down. But they'd still have to be pretty creative to sign Love unless my numbers are wrong. With Rose, Deng, and Noah's salaries I'm not sure where they'll fit in another max player even if they do amnesty Boozer. Maybe in the 2013 offseason if they pretty much get rid of everybody else on the roster, but that would require Love signing his qualifying offer with the Timberwolves when he's a restricted free agent this offseason. S+T. I'm pretty sure unloading Deng (1 year, 14.3M) and/or Noah (3 year, 39.5M) won't be an issue. Deng + Noah would cost 26.4 M in 2013. I'm not sure what Rose will be making that year and what the cap will be then, but it might also be possible to add Love without having to trade either player as well.

Kevin Love is one of the most underrated players in sports. He's truly an elite player and at least a top 10 player in the league. Yet his own team doesn't want to give him a max contract. My dream scenario would be for the Bulls to somehow get Love in the next 2 years. Love said him and Derrick (and Westbrook) talk about playing together a lot. Maybe Derrick would actually go out of his way to recruit his only real friend in the league.

Anyone on the list want tickets? Number was called about 3 or so years too early. I was thinking a deal of something like you get the tickets for yourself for the next 3 years and then after the 3 years we split the games in half. I can put your name down and you can select whatever tickets you want. Also willing to split for multiple groups. PM me if interested.

Free agency won my league for me this year (Newton, M Bush, Helu, K Smith). Good picks: Forte until injury (early round 3), Marshall (round 4), Graham (round 8), Stafford (round 9) Bad picks: Manningham (round 6), Hightower (round 7) Trading Hightower for Harvin and the aforementioned FA pickups were huge. Probably one of the worst teams I drafted but best in-season management I've ever done.

Derrick is playing amazing. Very entertaining first half. The Clippers are so athletic and have a world of talent, but they will never win anything with VDN. He is just simply not an NBA head coach.

This. Give it some time. Our starting 2 guard has been on the team for, what, a week and a half?

How much is RJ signed for? Im lazy and can't search through all the whining to find it. I don't get why people hate this move. DeJesus can't hit lefties, but for the majority of Johnson's career he's murdered them (compared to his success again right handers). Sounds like a pretty good, and cheap, platoon in right to me. Or is his defense in right really that terrible?