UMFan83

It definitely makes sense because LaVine was nowhere near the same player he was earlier in the season, but at the same time this seems like something floated from his camp to keep his value high. The truth is probably both. “Degenerative knee (that he) would be dealing with long term” doesn’t sound like something to float prior to trying to get a max/long term contract. I wish I trusted the Bulls medical staff more to not be majorly concerned about this for the future of the Bulls. Are you sure you read that right? They said that its been ruled out that it's degenerative. Or do you mean that even making the association with degenerative knee conditions is not ideal before FA?

It definitely makes sense because LaVine was nowhere near the same player he was earlier in the season, but at the same time this seems like something floated from his camp to keep his value high. The truth is probably both.

White Sox fan was posting about their underperforming offense but look who is in the magic quadrant for over performance.

Why do we have to swerve from one extreme to the other? The old offense was broken and I was sick of seeing stats like “the Cubs are hitting .087 as a team over the last 15 games” or whatever. But we didn’t have to go completely in the other direction. That said this was never supposed to be a final form offense.

Is Stroman unlucky so far or is he pitching as bad as his numbers suggest this year

I think the closest parallel to what the Bulls would be doing if they kept this core together is the Heat. They made a few really nice draft picks later in the draft (Duncan Robinson, Bam, Herro, Strus), signed a player that was seen as just below the tier of the top superstars, and then made some other signings to supplement the rest of the core. Seems like this would be at least somewhat of a parallel to what the Bulls would need to do if they kept LaVine/DeRozan together. Other contenders are here because of tanking (Celtics sort of, Sixers, Suns, Warriors pre-championship years), but the NBA is also littered with teams that have tanked and gotten nowhere. The Bulls before AKME shifted gears, the Kings, Magic, Pistons, Knicks, Wizards, etc. Tanking is so tantalizing because you are one bounce of a lottery ball away from completely turning the franchise around, but you still need a lot of luck. The Bulls tanked for 4 years and ended up with Lauri, Wendell Carter, Coby White and Patrick Williams. They finally got some lotto luck and got the 4th pick in 2020, but it was a year that was only 3 players deep. If they had gotten the 4th pick in previous years they could have ended up with guys like Trae Young, Darius Garland, De'Andre Hunter. I just don't think its a good thing for the organization to go back to that right away after just getting done tanking for 4 seasons. Maybe if we were coming off a long stretch of playoff runs, I'd be ok with it. But stay in the wilderness for too long and you become the Kings.

The letter that the Yankees and MLB have been trying to prevent going public has in fact gone public. What do you think, worth all the fuss?

I still think that it would be roster that lacks quality shooters and depth, but it would certainly play better. I have no idea how much Zach's knee injury affected his play in the 2nd half of the season, but clearly his performance dipped. Ball would help in 3 major areas - shooting, playmaking and defense so while he's not as good individually as a Kris Middleton, his impact on the Bulls performance may be greater. Without him the Bulls have stopped pushing the ball as much, DeRozan especially walks it up the court even if they have numbers. The Bulls offense has also devolved into iso heavy, partially because DeRozan is so iso dominant but also because how else will they score with the current roster? It would still be iso heavy but a guy like Ball gets people involved. Another shooter would greatly aid in that too. Now teams can double DeRozan and dare others to beat them, and they don't. If DeRozan cant get his shots off or has a bad shooting day the Bulls are cooked. Finally in terms of depth - the Bulls bench is dead last in just about every offensive category amongst the 16 playoff teams. They have some decent defenders but they can't score worth a damn, especially when Coby's shot is off like it is frequently. They need a microwave type scorer and probably another shooter that's not Matt Thomas.

Please give up less than 7 ER Stro

Not that we expected to win but LOL. This is the 3rd time I think that he's been in the protocol

Lonzo means way more to the Bulls than Middleton does to the Bucks. What big changes do you propose? middleton is better than lonzo. the fact that the bulls are so thin that lonzo might "mean more" is not a credit to the team i already said i want to either blow it up or move one of zach/demar. this core is never getting remotely close to a championship. i don't think blowing it up and tanking is the right way to go about it anymore. We did it for 4 years and we ended up with Patrick Williams and Coby White. AKME is not GarPax but there's no guarantee that we don't end up back in the wilderness for another 4 years. I think it would be better to continue to build off what we have now and create a winning culture. If we're smart about trades we may be able to attract that superstar. Yes it won't be easy since it seems like Chicago is just not a premiere destination at all (we were DeMar's 4th choice after both LA teams and the Knicks for instance), but building a team with a good foundation and winning 45-50 games each year will help. Zach is well-liked around the league too. As is DeMar but he's probably not in the long term picture beyond this contract. What would not help our perception around the league is trading away DeMar after an all-NBA season and/or failing to resign Zach after he outplayed his previous contract. The Bulls still have a perception around the league of being cheapasses (and rightfully so) but there's been enough change in the organization that you can alter the perception.

I think if it helps keep players like Dickenson in college it is cool. He has little chance of NBA success at this point. So if he can get paid to stay as opposed to go to the G League or foreign ball. The college game will get better with more experienced players Might also slow the exodus of high schoolers going straight to the G-League or overseas. Will be really interesting to see how this plays out over the next 1-3 years. College sports has changed dramatically.

All I’m saying is that he has enough of a profile to give him more than 3 weeks before giving up on him especially after missing so much time with injury Idk how much forgiveness he should be given with the profile. What exactly is his profile? Like he’s a 5’7” slappy dude with no other talent, he’s likely bad and was a terrible trade target. Well was a top 40 prospect at the start of last year, so apparently people who scout these things saw something they liked in him. He then had a 112 OPS+ in 200 AB last year. Not great but fine for a rookie. Now 44 ABs into his Cubs career and he’s unsalvageable? I’m not anointing him a savior just suggesting that 3 weeks is not a lot of time to make a determination either way.

Madrigal is annoying tf out of me right now but not ready to call him a waste of an opportunity yet. It's been 3 weeks after missing the last ~4 months of last year. He's been a .300+ hitter literally every single season in college, the minors and pros, so hitting .220 this year would seem like a huge outlier. Hate using BA here but given the consistency over a 6 year period I'm guessing it is a bit immune to luck. If he can resume hitting .300 he will at least be serviceable as a player. He doesn’t hit the ball hard, is not overly fast, doesn’t hit for power or take walks. Him turning in to a pumpkin wouldn’t be the craziest thing with his profile. His batting average skill doesn’t seem like a true skill, it’s under 400 career MLB PAs. I think he sucks though since pre-trade and never was a fan. All I’m saying is that he has enough of a profile to give him more than 3 weeks before giving up on him especially after missing so much time with injury

Madrigal is annoying tf out of me right now but not ready to call him a waste of an opportunity yet. It's been 3 weeks after missing the last ~4 months of last year. He's been a .300+ hitter literally every single season in college, the minors and pros, so hitting .220 this year would seem like a huge outlier. Hate using BA here but given the consistency over a 6 year period I'm guessing it is a bit immune to luck. If he can resume hitting .300 he will at least be serviceable as a player.

Always been a huge fan of NIL

you know this team is going to finish with a bad record, right? Pretty sure that’s what I’m saying here, yes

Yep. What a tool

Series: Pirates 3, Cubs 1 Runs scored: Cubs 29, Pirates 12

7-9 and now comes 14 games against the Braves, Brewers, White Sox, Dodgers and Padres. We might be 10-20 by the time that stretch is done with

And the Cubs can’t bring the tying run from 3rd with less than 2 outs. The more things change the more they stay the same.

How does he not score there? Yeesh

And Madrigal strikes out to lead off the 9th.

And a guy out for the season after TJS

The high contact no strike out dude struck out with runners on 1st and 3rd and 0 outs in a 2 run game