UMFan83

Apparently, the Bucks also have the rights to swap 1st round picks with the Bulls this season (top 10 protected). So if the Bulls don't make the playoffs and don't finish in the top 3 in the lottery, we are not going to get a draft pick to reflect that. They are also saying that the Bobcats pick might not be until 2014.

Salmons and Tyrus aren't garbage players, but if they're really good enough to carry Milwaukee and Charlotte over us then we weren't deserving of a playoff bid to begin with. Why would a Bulls fan care about the playoffs? This is not some organization that hasn't seen the postseason in 20 years and should be happy with making an appearance. Shouldn't the preference be to do whatever possible to move from a bottom seed type team at best to an actual contender that could win more than 3 playoff games? It's not like making the playoffs in the NBA is an accomplishment. And it's not like "anything can happen". because a) I enjoy watching the playoffs when the bulls are in it, b) I really enjoy watching the bulls play and would lose a lot of that enjoyment if they were not playing for something this year, c) Derrick rose + playoffs = nothing bad, d) trading thomas in that deal doesn't really change our future unless there's another trade brewing or the bobcats miss the playoffs and that 1st (assuming it's this year) becomes something worthwhile whcih still doesn't bother me because of the microscopic odds of getting a top pick. So yeah I really want to make the playoffs this year unless it severely damages our future prospects which it doesn't. I realize the team will probably lose in 5 games or worse but I don't care.

Salmons and Tyrus aren't garbage players, but if they're really good enough to carry Milwaukee and Charlotte over us then we weren't deserving of a playoff bid to begin with. well it's a combo of losing them and those teams gaining them. The only player I can see working into the rotation is Warrick. I'm personally going to be down on this trade because I have the opinion that Tyrus gives us really good minutes most of the time when he plays, and I know not everyone agrees with that opinion.

Sweet we've helped out the only team that likely has a shot of passing us for the last playoff spot and also the team with the best shot of fading in case that first team takes over a playoff spot.

Yeah. My brother was (and still is) the eternal optimist, and he got super pissed at me when I told him that the NCLS was over, and they might as well not even play Game 7 because no matter what, the Marlins would win. He started yelling at me, and I took out my wallet and slapped a 20 (the entire contents of my wallet, which was a lot because I was a poor college student) down on the table. I said "If the Cubs win this game, this is yours. You don't owe me anything if they lose." When Kerry homered, he was bragging and wondering how he was going to spend his 20 bucks. All I did was look at him and say "just wait." After the last out was made, he didn't talk to me the rest of the night. Optimist, pessimist or otherwise, you had no idea whether the series was over or not. The loudest prediction was all yours was. Go look in a game thread, people like you love being the one who "called" the loss first, as if it is some sort of badge. Really though you are simply a loud mouth oaf, and putting it on display for everyone. For every "I called the loss" that is correct, there's 3 instances when you called the loss early and they win. I saw it all the time in game threads last year, hell I used to do it on the regular. If the Cubs had in fact won Game 7, you would have never remembered thinking the series was over after Game 6. I thought they were going to lose Game 7 for the same reason I thought the Lakers would against the Suns in the first round of the playoffs a few years ago. Both had their chance in Game 6 and blew it. And if either had won, I definitely would have remembered not thinking either had a chance, especially in the Cubs' case since I went to class that day right after Miguel Cabrera's homer in the first inning and missed most of Game 7. OK maybe not completely forgotten, but it would have been an afterthought. I wonder how many Reds fans gave up on their team after Fisk hit the HR in 1975. The team didn't as they won game 7. I've never heard anyone say "I knew the Reds were going to lose Game7 but they didnt"

Yeah. My brother was (and still is) the eternal optimist, and he got super pissed at me when I told him that the NCLS was over, and they might as well not even play Game 7 because no matter what, the Marlins would win. He started yelling at me, and I took out my wallet and slapped a 20 (the entire contents of my wallet, which was a lot because I was a poor college student) down on the table. I said "If the Cubs win this game, this is yours. You don't owe me anything if they lose." When Kerry homered, he was bragging and wondering how he was going to spend his 20 bucks. All I did was look at him and say "just wait." After the last out was made, he didn't talk to me the rest of the night. Optimist, pessimist or otherwise, you had no idea whether the series was over or not. The loudest prediction was all yours was. Go look in a game thread, people like you love being the one who "called" the loss first, as if it is some sort of badge. Really though you are simply a loud mouth oaf, and putting it on display for everyone. For every "I called the loss" that is correct, there's 3 instances when you called the loss early and they win. I saw it all the time in game threads last year, hell I used to do it on the regular. If the Cubs had in fact won Game 7, you would have never remembered thinking the series was over after Game 6.

What are the contract situations of those players? I don't think Alexander is an expiring....I think he's only been in the NBA for 2 seasons. Aren't rookie contracts 3 years guaranteed? Edit: Nevermind, they are both expiring

Does he make Thomas obsolete? I mean in terms of a SF that takes Thomas' slot in the rotation, yes. But they are fairly different players. For one, Thomas is a very good weak side shot blocker, while Warrick averages 0.2 blocks per game. Joe Alexander must be a huge bust. I didn't understand at the time why Milwaukee made that pick, and it looks like the Bucks might have given up on him already. He hasn't played in a game all season.

whatever, you know what I meant lol

omg, Geo looks sickly. I'm officially worried he lost too much weight. How's he gonna hit for any power with that frame?

:( Yeah giving Penn state it's only Big 10 win of the season in Evanston no less is pretty damaging for a team's NCAA hopes. Carmody has his team playing worse as the season goes on...

Unless we had a sign and trade, that's correct.

And now I read...

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports' Twitter: Does anyone know what the Bulls are going to do before the deadline now?

... Think about it for 2 seconds. It has nothing to do with what anyone thinks he can still do as a player. I assume you are talking about an expiring contract. But what are the chances that the Bulls don't actually end up signing a good free agent and then just go ahead and resign McGrady in the offseason if they make a trade? That would scare me if I were a fan and they were talking about trading for such a guy. Is that really a legit concern? I think even if McGrady does amazing averages 25/6/6 the rest of the season and the Bulls advance to game 7 of the first round (the farthest in the playoffs a team who is playing with TMac is allowed to advance), I still think at worst they target him as a secondary signing to their big FA (Bosh, Wade, Boozer, etc). Even if McGrady posts the above numbers, he's not going to get anywhere near a max deal with all the issues. Even if he posts those numbers, the Bulls are not going to all the sudden overlook all the issues he's had as well as his age and throw the farm at him. I am pretty sure the Bulls would exhaust every other FA option before attempting to resign McGrady, and even if they do, he's not going to get a franchise crippling contract from the Bulls or any other team in this economy, IMO. And to the above poster, yes the number 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, and 9 reasons the Bulls are interested in McGrady are for his expiring deal, but the Bulls also have significant interest in him because he probably has the highest upside of any expiring available deal. If they make trades to get rid of Hinrich, Salmons and Miller lets say, they need something back to finish out the season respectable.

Which is why the Bulls are trying to get a 3rd team involved. I think the Bulls think they need McGrady to offset the loss of Hinrich or Salmons. Also they want to get rid of the malcontent Thomas sooner than later. From what I've read, he's having a Milton Bradley effect in the locker room. Not saying that's effecting their play, but he's not good enough for them to put up with that.

The fact that he has a history of being good...not ace good but good, the fact that he was injured last year, and the fact that he's making the switch from AL to NL. I know part of Wang's struggles from mid-2008 to now were a release point issue, but it's possible his shoulder injury was what was causing this. Am I going to look at the 4 seasons that he had an ERA of 4.07 or lower, or the 9 starts before surgery last year when his ERA was awful? You are right though, he might not bounce back. But assuming he does, he's definitely going to be better than last year's rotation members on the Nats.

I know what you mean about just knowing something is done before it's over. Besides that, I just knew it was over when Loney hit the grand slam in game 1 in 08. I know I'm a pessimist and in the heat of the action I jump the gun on things, but this just felt different. If I had any doubt I knew it was over, the Cubs kicking the ball all over the IF the next night finished me off. I think I took the 2008 playoffs harder than 2003. I was in a funk for over a month after that series.

Assuming this rumor is true, I didn't realize they needed to unload so much salary for this summer. Without Kirk or Salmons, their committed money in 2010-11 is: Deng $11.3 million Rose $7 million Noah $3.1 million Johnson $1.7 million Gibson $1.1 million That's it. $24.2 million only. I just read somewhere that the salary cap is projected to drop to $50-$54 million next year. I wonder if that would allow 2 free agents. The luxury tax threshold is $70 million, which is where the Bulls salary is now. The cap is projected to be between 50-55 million next year, which is the important number. Also, a max FA will make $15 million per season, so you need $30 million to get 2 max FAs. You also are not including cap holds in your analysis of the Bulls cap situation in the offseason, which will push things up a bit. The Bulls can get rid of these cap holds by renouncing the player, although they can no longer resign that player if they do that.

Did anyone catch the Team Canada game? I was looking at the projected lines and saw that Toews was on the 2nd line and Keith and Seabrook were on the 2nd defensive line. Did Toews Keith and Seabrook get extended time on the ice at the same time? That's pretty cool that 50% of the team on the ice is Blackhawks for part of the game.

I was surfing around Baseball-reference and just happened to be looking at the schedule of the 1970 Cubs. I didn't realize how close this team came to making the playoffs. In fact, they were actually closer to finishing in first than the 1969 Cubs were (in terms of being closer to first place later in the season). Were they better than the 69 Cubs? Probably not. Did they ever hold a 9 game lead in August? No. But the 1970 Cubs were just 1 game out of first place on September 15th, with 16 games left in the season. They were 2 games out of first place on September 20th, with just 10 games left in the season. In typical Cubs fashion, they swooned at the end, winning just 4 of their last 11 games and finishing 5 games out of first, at 84-78. Obviously the 69 Cubs, due to their epic collapse will always hold the title as the most memorable team in the dark years between 1945 and 1984, but I am interested in learning a little more about this team that time forgot. Any old timers have some recollections to share like what the mood of Cubs fans was to start the season, at the middle of the season and at the end when they were still contending. Did the fans believe the Cubs could actually finish it off this time around and make the playoffs? Just curious because I couldn't find much on the internet on the 1970 Cubs, and there aren't an awful lot of Cubs teams between 45 and 84 that contended for the division.

http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=310388 Interesting move for him. 1-4 is now Wang, Marquis, Lannan, Olsen. Obviously not good but better than before. Nats might have been good enough to get out of last place had they been in a different division than the NL East. I can't see them finishing ahead of the Phillies, Mets, Braves or Marlins.

Don't forget, they only have a limited number of tickets available with this presale. The rest go on sale like usual on Friday.

It's $8 a ticket for the highest tier games, I believe. Combine that with the amusment tax which was previously included in the price and is now separate (12% on the price of the 120% ticket), and it's a pretty big jump in price.

this is the same premium offer posted on the first page, right? yep. Whoops...guess I didn't read the whole first page. My bad.