UMFan83

Of course gotta get the 35th guy in the game at his non-natural position instead of a guy voted in by the players.

Agreed. I was excited to watch this all day, and I was already flipping on the PS3 in the bottom of the 1st. I do that for all All-Star games except the Pro Bowl, which I'm never excited for.

Also, not to bag on Vitters because I like him and want him to succeed, but it's the PCL!! Everyone always points this out when guys like Jason Dubois, Scott McLain, Micah Hoffpauir, and Bryan LaHair dominate, so it has to take a little luster off what he's doing.

So they weren't actually a good team...only Rose was good and they tricked everyone to make it where they did? This is damn near gibberish. Wait...what? Don't get it twisted. Paxson did very little to make that team better in 2010. They still had the players in place before that season started and Rose covered up the huge hole of deficiencies on that team. *If this team was so great in 2011 the bulls with or without Rose should have gotten past the first round. OK I've obviously wasted my time as you know nothing about basketball. Guess how many 2009-2010 Bulls played on the 2010-2011 Bulls? 4! They went from 27th in offense and 13th in defensive rating to 11th and 1st. So you're telling me that Derrick Rose singlehandedly made them go from a mediocre team to the top 2-3 in the NBA just from an offseason of improvement? And that the addition of Thibs, Brewer, Bogans, Asik, Thomas and Watson had nothing to do with the Bulls improving into the best defense in the NBA? It was just Derrick Rose learning how to guard all 5 positions at once? Please read a book on basketball before continuing to post in this thread. Any book. Seriously, I'm would think even a book like this one would somehow help you improve your basketball knowledge: http://s.ecrater.com/stores/158321/4c0efe86bb026_158321n.jpg So you're going to tell me that Brewer, Bogans, Asik, Thomas and Watson had a whole lot to do with their jump in offensive rating? Yes I am telling you Derrick Rose made that ENTIRE team better. There's no [expletive] doubt about that. But Pax's FA moves build a solid core around him that made the team much better. And I'd say that Korver instead of Hakeem Warrick, Watson instead of Flip Murray and Boozer instead of Chris Richard had something to do with the Bulls offense improving. Again, Derrick's the biggest improvement offensively but not even Michael Jordan could turn the 2009-2010 Bulls into a 62 win team. Their best 3 point shooter was Flip Murray...Chris Richard was their backup PF, etc etc.

So they weren't actually a good team...only Rose was good and they tricked everyone to make it where they did? This is damn near gibberish. Wait...what? Don't get it twisted. Paxson did very little to make that team better in 2010. They still had the players in place before that season started and Rose covered up the huge hole of deficiencies on that team. *If this team was so great in 2011 the bulls with or without Rose should have gotten past the first round. OK I've obviously wasted my time as you know nothing about basketball. Guess how many 2009-2010 Bulls played on the 2010-2011 Bulls? 4! They went from 27th in offense and 13th in defensive rating to 11th and 1st. So you're telling me that Derrick Rose singlehandedly made them go from a mediocre team to the top 2-3 in the NBA just from an offseason of improvement? And that the addition of Thibs, Brewer, Bogans, Asik, Thomas and Watson had nothing to do with the Bulls improving into the best defense in the NBA? It was just Derrick Rose learning how to guard all 5 positions at once? Please read a book on basketball before continuing to post in this thread. Any book. Seriously, I'm would think even a book like this one would somehow help you improve your basketball knowledge: http://s.ecrater.com/stores/158321/4c0efe86bb026_158321n.jpg

This is hilarious especially the part about the draft 2003: 1 (7) Kirk Hinrich 2004: 1 (3) Ben Gordon 2004: 1 (9) Traded essentially cash for the rights to Luol Deng 2004: 2 (8) Chris Duhon 2006: 1 (2) Tyrus Thomas (essentially) 2006: 1 (16) Thabo Sefolosha (essentially) 2007: 1 (9) Joakim Noah 2007: 2 (21) JamesOn Curry 2008: 1 (1) Derrick Rose 2008: 2 (?) Omer Asik 2009: 1 (16) James Johnson 2009: 1 (26) Taj Gibson 2011: 1 (23) Nikola Mirotic 2011: 1 (30) Jimmy Butler 2012: 1 (29) Marquis Teague I mean jeez, relative to pick in the draft, how can anyone look at that drafting history and say Pax has done a poor job drafting? Being able to get a border line All-Star in Deng for nothing. Finding a servicable backup PG in Duhon in the middle of the 2nd round. Getting a top 5 NBA Center in Noah at 9. Getting an excellent defensive guard who starts for the current WC champs at 16. Having the foresight to draft Asik in the late 2nd round and waiting for him to develop and come over to become one of the best defensive big men in the NBA? Drafting a 6th man of the year candidate in Taj Gibson 26th. Turning a situation where they didn't have room on the roster for a second 1st round pick into one of the Bulls best assets currently in Mirotic. Yes he missed big time on Tyrus, James Johnson is ok but disappointing and JamesOn Curry was nothing (but was a late 2nd round pick). Other than that, they have drafted nothing but solid players since 2003. You are looking at 1 superstar, 3 minor stars (Noah, Deng, Gordon), 3 more solid starters (Hinrich, Gibson, Thabo), and 4 solid rotation players on winning teams. I'm not putting Mirotic, Butler and Teague on this list but Butler already looks like he's earned enough trust to replace Brewer in the rotation, Mirotic looks like a potential star in the making or at least a solid starter, and most people gave the Bulls high marks for Teague. So yeah once again, you make a statement that is so far from the truth, you look completely silly. Can we somehow ban virus from the Bulls and Bears threads? Yet again, I see a lot of 'solid' mediocre players. He's done very little in terms of first round picks and you're omitting the blunder of trading Aldridge for TT among others. In almost 10 years hes drafted 1 superstar with the first pick of the draft and drafted a 1 time borderline all star in Deng who is a nice complementary piece, third option. His free agent gets (and lack of) are below average and I'm not sure he's learned to utilize the 'trade' option in the league. The Bulls also bungled the Skiles situation which leaves me curious to see what they do with Thibs. I'm not omitting Tyrus, I mentioned him right there. Considering he hasn't had had a top 10 pick since 2007, he's done an awesome job drafting. In 2004, the only players to make an ASG from that draft were Dwight Howard (drafted before any Bulls picks) Devin Harris, Lu Deng, Andre Iguodala, and Jameer Nelson. Tell me what superstar the Bulls should have drafted there? Considering names like Josh Childress, Shaun Livingston, Rafael Araujo, and Luke Jackson were top 10 picks that year, you would have to be an idiot to say anything about that draft. In 2003, the Bulls drafted Hinrich after the first 6 picks were LeBron, Darko, Melo, Bosh, Wade and Kaman. After that the only future all-stars taken were David West (18th), Josh Howard (29th) and Mo Williams (41st). Again, there's no way you can criticize Pax for taking Hinrich, especially because Jay Williams decided to end his NBA career leaving the Bulls a huge hole at PG. In 2006, Tyrus was a bust of a pick, despite still being a really solid rotation player that would fit on many good teams. He missed out on the following 3 stars, Aldridge (essentially 4th), Roy (6th) and Rondo (21). Roy we can use hindsight to excuse Pax for that, and if you want to be a dick you can rip on him for not taking Rondo 19 picks ahead of where he was expected to go but whatever. Same thing for Thabo, Rondo is the only player you could definitively say is better than Thabo where the Bulls picked (and probably Kyle Lowry). In 2007, the only All-Star taken after Noah was Marc Gasol (48th). Noah is a borderline all star in his own right. He is clearly the best or 2nd best player that was available when the Bulls picked In 2009, at the 26th pick, there were no All-Stars (so far) picked after Taj. The best player picked after Taj is probably Toney Douglass. Obviously at 16, even while understanding that James Johnson was one of 2 first round Bulls picks (out of 12) in the Pax era that he missed out on, the best player taken between James Johnson and Taj is either Ty Lawson or Jrue Holiday. Good players, definitely not stars, and understandable considering the Bulls drafted a pretty good PG in the previous year's draft. In 2011, when he traded for Mirotic at 23, the best players following him are names like MarShon Brooks, JuJuan Johnson and Norris Cole. I'd take Mirotic and his potential a million times over. Jimmy Butler was picked 30th....I honestly couldnt tell you a better player picked after Butler...maybe Chandler Parsons? No stars So where are all these All-Stars the Bulls should have taken? The only All-Stars you can actually say the Bulls could have drafted at their position and didn't are LaMarcus Aldridge and possibly Rajon Rondo. In 10 years of GM, he's missed on exactly 3 of his 15 draft picks, with only 1 lottery miss (out of 7), and 2 first round misses (and James Johnson is being kind calling a miss). And in those 10 years, he's only missed out on 2 All-Stars that would have been better than the picks he made, both in the same draft. In his 15 draft picks, he arguably took the best player that was available to him in 11 of them (the 4 he didn't being Tyrus, Thabo, James Johnson and JamesOn Curry. I know you are rather stuborn in your pessimism, but I can tell you with certainty that probably 28 of the other 29 NBA GMs would kill for that track record of draft picks (assuming San Antonio is happy with their drafting too).

Seriously that is terrible. How do the Cubs feel about every other team in their division getting an extra high round draft pick every year? I understand the Cubs are a high revenue team that has access to a lot more resources, but they have a braintrust that values the draft much more than throwing money at FA signings. The system is set up so that the Cubs basically have to throw a bunch of money out there at FAs to keep up in talent with the other 4 teams in their division. We all know how well that works as a strategy long term.

This is hilarious especially the part about the draft 2003: 1 (7) Kirk Hinrich 2004: 1 (3) Ben Gordon 2004: 1 (9) Traded essentially cash for the rights to Luol Deng 2004: 2 (8) Chris Duhon 2006: 1 (2) Tyrus Thomas (essentially) 2006: 1 (16) Thabo Sefolosha (essentially) 2007: 1 (9) Joakim Noah 2007: 2 (21) JamesOn Curry 2008: 1 (1) Derrick Rose 2008: 2 (?) Omer Asik 2009: 1 (16) James Johnson 2009: 1 (26) Taj Gibson 2011: 1 (21) Nikola Mirotic 2011: 1 (30) Jimmy Butler 2012: 1 (29) Marquis Teague I mean jeez, relative to pick in the draft, how can anyone look at that drafting history and say Pax has done a poor job drafting? Being able to get a border line All-Star in Deng for nothing. Finding a servicable backup PG in Duhon in the middle of the 2nd round. Getting a top 5 NBA Center in Noah at 9. Getting an excellent defensive guard who starts for the current WC champs at 16. Having the foresight to draft Asik in the late 2nd round and waiting for him to develop and come over to become one of the best defensive big men in the NBA? Drafting a 6th man of the year candidate in Taj Gibson 26th. Turning a situation where they didn't have room on the roster for a second 1st round pick into one of the Bulls best assets currently in Mirotic. Yes he missed big time on Tyrus, James Johnson is ok but disappointing and JamesOn Curry was nothing (but was a late 2nd round pick). Other than that, they have drafted nothing but solid players since 2003. You are looking at 1 superstar, 3 minor stars (Noah, Deng, Gordon), 3 more solid starters (Hinrich, Gibson, Thabo), and 4 solid rotation players on winning teams. I'm not putting Mirotic, Butler and Teague on this list but Butler already looks like he's earned enough trust to replace Brewer in the rotation, Mirotic looks like a potential star in the making or at least a solid starter, and most people gave the Bulls high marks for Teague. So yeah once again, you make a statement that is so far from the truth, you look completely silly. Can we somehow ban virus from the Bulls and Bears threads?

I think you forgot something. Ugh horrible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16qhwX26vOA&feature=youtube_gdata_player Also, I recommend watching with speakers off.

Has anyone posted this video before? 8 minutes of Cutler and Marshall hookups back in Denver. Made me excited for the season to start.

Holy hell that is the dumbest thing ever. How the hell did that BS get approved?

Gonna really suck if he needs TJ surgery randomly next year and watches $4.2 million turn into $500,000

how does that work exactly? I know there is some sandwich picks given as compensation for losing some caliber of FA's but only if that player has been on the team since the start of the season. How do they determine who is worthy enough? Still the old A/B system? And what is the difference between that and what you are talking about?

Yes, the former GM of the Red Sox has absolutely no clue what it would be like to see a beloved (or whatever Dempster is) player playing for a bitter rival. NO IDEA AT ALL. Once you understand one rivalry you understand them all right? Do you think he knows that Cardinals Cubs is as bitter a rivalry as Yankees Red Sox, which he has been around for his entire life? It's possible, but I'm not sure. Anyways it was a stupid comment because it shouldnt influence his decision making at all if they are offering the best deal.

No one batted an eye when Ted Lilly was injured and didn't play in 2009 and the Cubs didnt have anyone represented. Z certainly could have been selected to replace him.

Cardinals *vomit* Not that it matters because I want the best return no matter what, but I'm not sure if Theo knows how much it would suck to see Dempster in a Cardinals uniform helping them push for a playoff spot.

There's no way of us not not getting something not big for not the 24 other Cubs not named Dempster.

you're gonna have to be more specific here.

So Asik and Hinrich are the players we decide to throw money at and exceed the cap? Everyone's making moves around the league and in Chicago our big dilemma is if we're going to match Asiks offer sheet. Smh True we should have signed Deron Williams with our invisible cap space.

What other stat evaluates how well a goaltender performs? It's not a perfect measurement, but it's the best one for a goalie. There has to be some sort of stat that measures goalie performance better than save %. It's like evaluating a pitcher on purely ERA. There are other variables that control his ability to prevent goals that I have a hard time using it anymore. Also, just wanted to point out sully's "he had 4 shutouts in 2011 alone" comment, 4 in 2011 and 1 in the rest of his entire playoff career. And the year he had 4 was the year where the Canucks goalie for game 7 of the SCF was in question until minutes before gametime.

:roll: I prefaced all of my Dempster comments admitting they were wrong on irrational on my part. Now I have to see this ignorance every time Dempster has a good outing. Do you not think there is at least a tiny difference between this game (middle of the season on a team going nowhere) and the first game of the first round of the playoffs? I stand by my comments. He was at his worst when the pressure was at it's peak. It's ok, you'll never be known as the biggest dempster hater on this board. where is that gvillecub dude anyways?

I would have been ok with it. Again, this would be securing talent using an advantage that won't be available from now on. The Cubs will spend less money on the draft starting this year, and spend less money internationally from now on, so if you have to overpay for talent, you do it now even if the risk is higher (than Soler). Interesting though. If true the Cubs went extremely hard at 3 Cuban prospects, and in 2 of the cases offered the most money, and ended up going 1 for 3.

I clicked on this thread and scrolled down to the last post in this page to see if there was any news. I read only el duderino's post directly above this and my first thought was 'LLF'

Hilarious because the way things are set up financially right now, they are all but certain to pay the tax next year regardless of whether they pick up Omer.