UMFan83

What is the context of this? I don't get the point of the gif but did you not know the play? Kinsler gets on base with lucky infield single, throw is off course, Huff makes a diving play and Kinsler stupidly turned to 2nd despite his run being meaningless with a 4 run deficit. So he was tagged out. Yeah I didnt see the play. I wasted too much time watching the Bulls last night and not the World Series or the Hawks. lol what a dumb play.

What is the context of this?

Definitely but I just remember how much better we looked in the playoffs last year when Campbell came back. Besides 15 minutes of Campbell on the ice is also 15 less minutes with Hendry or Cullimore on the ice.

We've been over this plenty on the boards in the past but I don't call what Jerry's done in the draft as "trying". He's drafted a grand total of 2 offensive lineman in the first 6 rounds of the draft in the last 8 drafts. That's pathetic. Like jersey has continuously pointed out, the Oline makes up almost 1/4th of your starting 22. You need to be constantly drafting these guys every year to keep a pipeline of talent coming in. The Bears had a decent oline in 05 and 06 (stress on the word decent), but they've never had any depth there. And when the old offensive line players retired or were cut, who was there to take over? And as far as free agency, signing a couple of old declining FAs or backups on other teams is not building a line. While names like Faneca float around each year, Angelo again completely ignores the position. I'm not saying he has to go out and sign Alan Faneca to placate me, but where is the investment on the oline? It's not in the draft....it's not in FA...where is it?? Just for fun, here is a look at the Offensive linemen drafted in Angelos tenure: 1st - Colombo (2002). Solid starter...for another team 3rd - Metcalf (2002). Decent backup for a few years. Failed everytime he got a chance to start 7th - Anderson (2003). Who? 2004 and 2005 - No Offensive lineman drafted 7th - Reed (2006). Got cut like most 7th rounders do. Probably doing taxes for a living now. 4th - Beekman (2007). Was mostly a backup before getting cut this season. 1st - Williams (2008). Starting to look like a bust 7th - Adams (2008). Who? 7th - Barton (2008). Who? 7th - Louis (2009). Finally a starter....on the worst offensive line (by a sizable margin) in football. 7th - Webb (2010). Same....out of necessity. Would probably be on the practice squad for half the NFL teams. So 10 draft picks in 8 years....6 of them drafted in the 7th round, 1 in the 4th, 1 in the 3rd and 2 first rounders.

I'd like to believe that, but it was pretty obvious that the line was "borked" last year as well and somehow Angelo managed to completely ignore the oline in the offseason. In fact, he made it worse. As insane as it sounds right now, I wouldn't be shocked at this point if he didn't make a ton of moves on the line in the offseason. Maybe a 3rd round pick to throw the fans a bone and a signing a declining veteran or two. But I cannot see Angelo making this his number 1 offseason priority. You don't go from ignoring a position group almost completely for 5-6 years and then all the sudden placing a huge emphasis on it. It's obvious Angelo doesn't, for whatever reason, think the offensive line has as much impact on an offense than the rest of us do.

Stranger things have happened (Mark McGwire getting hired for a hitting coach). But Bonds is a huge dick, I can't see people enjoying his presence on the team as a coach. At least he's apparently giving up his talk that he still wants to return to play.

Noooooo!! We need continuity not an upgrade in talent!!

I would give Rose more than one game to prove that he has a three point shot. I only watched the end of the game, but I saw Korver get open and drain a bucket. He just has to do so much running around to get to that point. It takes forever. He reminded me of Hinrich in that regard. Well I am not basing it just on tonights game, but on the World Basketball Championships and the preseason where he bricked 3 after 3. Korver got open on 1 play, but there were at least 4-5 possessions down the stretch where it was obvious the Bulls were looking to get Korver a shot and he couldnt get even an inch of space.

That's exactly why you trade for Carmelo. You can always find a guy pretty similar to Noah. Rose is great, but he isn't the guy on a championship team. Huh? Name 5 players that are over 6'11'' can give you 10/12 consistently every night, are above average passers, have a relentless motor and bring it every single night. I would think there are many more players who can score and create a shot than there are players of Noah's style of play. No doubt we need a 2nd scorer...I've been saying that all offseason. But it doesn't have to be Anthony. We might not get a player as good as Melo, but we can fill that 2nd option guy without having to give up Noah. It seems like those types of players are on the block every year. (to name a few Kevin Martin, Jason Richardson, Steven Jackson, Carmelo Anthony). Not as many in the Varajao, Noah, Camby mold are around to be picked up.

Yeah Korver was awful. He could not get himself open. But I guess that's a function of him being basically the only reliable 3 point shooter on your team. Deng was awful shooting 3's tonight. Rose is basically hopeless at shooting 3's. I've completely given up on his claim that he has a very good 3 point shot now. If anything it's completely fucked up his shot as he didnt shoot all that great in the worlds, the preseason and now tonight. Most of his shots have looked flat.

Real GM is hilarious. some of the thoughts: -The Bulls really really suck this year. -Rose will never be a #1 option, he's clearly a number 2 option -Piss poor effort for Chicago tonight

Whats up with Hossa? Nice bounce back from a shitty weekend.

So what are our old friends up to?

Texas: Playoff Roster: Clay Rapada (0.1 IP with Cubs) Others on 40 man: Andres Blanco, Rich Harden San Francisco: Playoff Roster: Mike Fontenot Others on 40 man: None So if you count the 40 man roster, the Rangers have the most ex-Cubs. If you don't, they are tied, but SF gets the edge since Fontenot spent 3 years getting infiltrated with Cubdom and Rapada had only a cup of coffee with the Cubs.

Exactly. If Wade can accept being the #2 guy on the team he once led to a championship, then things will work out well. If that happens though, I can't see this marriage working for more than a couple of years. At some point, Wade is going to wonder if his legacy is going to be taking Scottie's title of "best sidekick in NBA history" away from him. He might end up with the same Kobe complex where he's constantly critiqued for "never winning a championship with his team". Now I would agree 2006 was his team but retroactively people will call it a Shaq/Wade title, not a Wade title with Shaq. And remember, he's 28, he's not 25 like LeBron. He has miles on him. Anyways we'll see. They have many more games to play together, but through game 1 the results were slightly alarming.

For some reason, I don't think Kitna is that bad. He's probably one of the better backups in the league. Does that mean they aren't going to miss Romo? Of course not, Romo is much better. That said, I think Kitna will keep them in games with the weapons he has to throw to. Of course as old as Kitna is, I reserve the right to blame any crappy performance he has on his age regressing him. However, I thought he was really old and done when Palmer got hurt in the playoffs in 05 and he took over, and for the next 2 years started for Detroit and was actually decent.

Definitely Kitna.

The Heat did look out of sorts on offense and looked like they didn't know who should take the shot. It looked exactly like a team that hasn't played together much. Which is a bad sign for the NBA that a team that looked that disjointed was within 3 of the EC Champs in their building with 90 seconds left. It was weird seeing the Heat come out of TOs and have plays drawn up for LeBron and then Wade. It was just alternating between them. The idea that whoever is the hot hand will take the shots down the stretch might actually happen. I'm not trying to overreact to one game but I wonder if Wade is going to be a sideshow in this offense. LeBron looked like LeBron in Cleveland. A lot of isolation a lot of holding the ball. The man obviously needs to completely dominate the ball on offense to be effective. It will be interesting to see how Wade handles it, because he's not a guy that can thrive by having the ball kicked out to him or whatever. Overall they will be fine, but it's extremely interesting to watch the little things in each Heat game. Also, Boston's bench is awesome. One of the best in the NBA.

for real?

Here are reasons why the Bulls should have no trouble getting over 46.5 wins: -Best player is going to turn (i think) 22 during the season and clearly still has room to improve -Thibs theoretically should be a much better tactician than VDN, but I have a hard time thinking coaching makes much of a different. -They won 41 games last year and signed one of the top 3-4 PFs in the league, who has similar numbers PER and efficiency wise to players like Bosh and Amare. Should fit in well with a guard who shoots a lot and a Center who can play help defense to minimize his own defensive efficiencies -They had absolutely no one who could shoot a 3 last year. And while only getting Kyle Korver is not exactly filling that need, just having at least one dominant 3 point shooter should help the team when he's on the floor. Also Deng has been hitting 3's like crazy in the preseason. If you watched Deng closely, he came into the league shooting 3s, Skiles told him to stop shooting them in order to get the rest of his game going, and for 3-4 years he barely shot them before last year shooting them at a respectable clip. -They have pieces to make a move in season if one arises. Noah is probably no longer considered a great piece since he signed his extension, but other than Boozer, the guys they signed in the offseason all have reasonable contracts, most of them 2 years with an option. -Thibs has been able to positively affect the defense of every team he's been on. And the Bulls were an above average defensive team last year. -They won 41 games last year despite a 10-17 start plagued with Rose hobbling around with 1.5 ankles, and also despite a 10 game losing streak in march where Rose (4 games i think),Deng (6 games) and Noah (10 games) all missed significant time. So the record last year is probably not indicative of the type of team they were at the end of last year. Reasons they might fall below the mark: -There are pretty good injury concerns on the team. Noah and Gibson have that stupid injury that never fully heals and could reappear somewhere down the road. Boozer is already hurt and has been oft injured his career. Brewer is already banged up, Kurt Thomas is old and easily banged up, etc. Even Rose has dealt with minor injuries his first couple of years. Leads me to my next point -As good as they'll tell you the Bulls improved in the offseason, this team still lives and dies with Rose. If Rose gets hurt, even with Boozer in there to weather the storm, the Bulls are done. Boozer is a solid scorer but my impression of him is that he needs a playmaker to get him the ball to be most effective. Without Rose in there, who is your playmaker? Deng? Watson? Brewer? Bogans? Korver? There is none. Deng is a nice 3rd option for a team, Noah is a great energy guy, Watson will be a useful backup guard, but this team only works if Rose is in place. -Thibadeau for all his praises as an X and O guy, has never been the head coach of a bball team. Sure he might be able to teach defense or diagram the perfect play, but how is he going to handle it when a player comes to him complaining of PT. How is he going to keep his team going on the 4th night of a 4 in 5 after blowing a 10 point 4th quarter lead the night before. Like I said earlier, I don't see coaching having a ton of effect on W-L, but I'll add an EXCEPT when the coach doesnt have the trust of his team. -Addressed earlier but there are a lack of guys who can create their own shots. Rose can, Boozer can to an extent, Deng and Watson a bit, havent seen enough of Brewer and Bogans but maybe a little. Overall, they just don't have many pure scorers on the team. Can they get around this? -They will be a good defensive team but they lost a bit of their talent with Hinrich leaving, and 30 mins of Gibson being replaced with 30 minutes of Boozer -The top half of the East is pretty good. They will play teams like the Celtics, Heat, Magic, Hawks, Bucks 3-4 times each this year. -The big one is the start to the season. This isn't anything new, but the Bulls have a very very tough schedule to start the year, as someone above pointed out. This year seems to be even more formidable than past years. Now your looking at a young team, with a new coach, trying to work in 7 new players from last year, and your best new player is out a month and you start the season with an extremely tough schedule. Most years the Bulls have rebounded from their slow starts. will this team be able to? Should be interesting. I have them at about 48 wins. Don't go on RealGM, the Bulls board has plenty of posters that get pissed if you don't predict the Bulls to have more than 50 wins.

See what playing in Toronto does to people?

I'm almost positive I remember Ryno saying that he wouldn't take a job as a bench coach.

I'm getting sick of all the OKC hype so I almost hope they suck, even though I love durant. Durant is really the only one i like. I strongly dislike Westbrook, as I do all young point guards who are not Derrick Rose (Rondo, Wall, Westbrook, hell even Augustin).

I'm assuming league pass has a free preview this week? there are a lot of teams I'm looking forward to watching. For some reason the NBA is second only to baseball in sports where I love to watch other teams besides the Bulls.

I'm all for a 7 game LDS. Helps eliminate the crapshoot of the 1st round.