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Oh that perception is most certainly overblown. Still, it can't hurt to continue to sign legit vets, even if they're not the top free agents in their class.

While I will gladly remain skeptical that it could just he FA fluff pieces, there is at least some indication that Hoiberg and Rondo really hit it off talking about the system Hoiberg wants to run, and that it was a big selling feature. Maybe Hoiberg has a better idea what he can utilize in his system than we do. Wade on the other hand is just talented emough still that you worry about fit after talent. It could certainly blow up, but playing copy cat to the rest of the league isn't exactly a sure bet, especially when the best team who does it best just added a top 5 player.

They werent really a true tank team though. Just a crappy team who had failed to build a winner. Not like they sold off their prime player to go for a high pick.

I mean at least in baseball or football a "successful" tank gets you the guy you want. NBA gets you a 25% chance if there is a Lebron type talent. I mean i think the only truely succesful NBA tank job was the Spurs dealing with a fluke injury to a HOF and then lucking into another HOF, for a quick one year tank. I don't think Phillys outlook will look any better in a few years than had they put out an effort and just drafted well in the mid-lotto and used trade and FA to open up other opportunities.

Yea i don't think theres really strong evidence that tanking is effective in any sport, at least not in a planned sort of way. Even with this Cubs team, some of our best assets now are from just being accidentally bad or selling off short term assets in the middle of an already lost season, not from intentionally tanking a season early on for picks. Its a bit of paradox because high picks absolutely correlate to better talent, but on a team level you dont necessarily see a clear trend of teams building championship rosters that way. It comes down to far more luck than that.

Plans are overrated. Acquire valuable assets. Minimize risk. Be ready to take advantage of supreme luck. Yea the starting lineup construction makes little sense, but we're on a transition period and we should be a more exciting team in that transition phase now.

as silly as I think they are, the Bulls front office may have backed into a masterstroke. They have room for 2 max deals next year I think if they dump rondo. They could make a move for Heyward or Westbrook. Rebuilding would have gotten them nowhere and wasted prime years of our current franchise player in Jimmy. They also kept Taj which we badly need for rebounding. Lopez can rebound and defend and is a solid NBA starter. The front court is weak but still the team is maybe the 2nd or 3rd best in the east. If the cavs get injured again in the playoffs who knows the bulls could do some real damage. Main issue here is the coach is a jackass I wish anybody else was coaching. Only one max now. The complaint about drafting is weird, especially when two of the three examples were Krause picks. The Bulls have been a very good drafting team in the Paxson era.

Holy horsefeathers

Just for fun. Sign Wade for something like 3/59 with a partial guarantee on year 3. You should just have to dump MDJ and waive Dinwiddie to make that happen. Make the playoffs with this years team so you remain attractive to FA. In 2017 with only room for one max, sign Gordon Hayward. Decline Rondos option. Keep Mirotics hold and then use his bird rights to go over the cap to re-sign him. Keep Felicio via Gilbert Arenas provision (this would be the same "posion pill" provision we declined to keep Asik under- Lopez's salary will end by the time it explodes) Wade-Butler-Hayward-Mirotic-Lopez Grant-Valentine-McDermott-Portis-Felicio Zipser-2017 pick, hopefully Sac pick Its not fooling me for a championship team, but balanced and fun. And enough in the way of future assets and young rookie contract players to play the trade market in the following one-two years.

Starting 5 of Rondo, Wade, Butler, Gibson, Lopez in an NBA that has completely shifted towards the 3 point shot, sounds pretty iffy. I don't mind zagging when everyone is zigging but this doesnt seem like smart zagging if that makes any sense. Yea, i definiteky know what you mean. In isolation, Wade or Rondo could be passable even though neother brings the 3. Together, with Jimmy who is also just okay with the 3... If Gibson started (questionable they could fit Wade without dumping him) you'd at least have a much improved D with Butler Gibson and Lopez as sound defenders and Wade and Rondo could cheat on the passing lanes, even though neither would be totally sound defensively. Your bench would be all 3 and no D. Mirotic starting would balance things out. It really wouldn't make sense but there's probably enough raw talent to be a top 5 team in the East. Then 2017 becomes a max and retain Mirotic plan instead of a two max plan. All that said, i really still think he returns to Miami. Don't really care about being used as we'd be driving up the price and if not for Wade they seem pretty much done woth FA so he isnt delaying plans.

Sounds like year two is a mutual option, so this is really a one year commitment. It also brings them right around the salary floor I believe. So they may still shop Taj and MDJ a little or if any interesting flyers are left after the craziness, bring on another guy, but this is probably the roster. Rondo-Grant-Calderon Butler-Valentine-Snell-Dinwiddie McDermott-MDJ-Zipser Mirotic-Gibson-Portis Lopez-Felicio

Do the Bulls have any players that are friends with those guys? More importantly, this creepy weirdo is gone: http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/976011/d-rose-dance.gif Apparently he called Durant to recruit him to NY, and he already recruited Noah. Lol So if JB wants to recruit in Rio Carmelo Anthony (2019) Harrison Barnes (2016) too late Demarcus Cousins (2018) DeMar DeRozan (2016) too late Kevin Durant (2016) too late Paul George (2019) Draymond Green (2020) Kyrie Irving (2020) Deandre Jordan (2019) Kyle Lowry (2018) Klay Thompson (2019) Damn, not a single 2017 FA! Looks like the 2020 plan, although JB is a FA that year too. I think i read he trains with Kyrie. Lets hope he and Bron clash the next few years.

Gotta say, knowing how unlikely this is to work and all the times we've seen it fail, it's still a wayyy more likely path to a superstar than "blow it up and draft one." http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/what-exactly-are-the-bulls-doing-waiting-for-2017-or-bust/ Do the Bulls have any players that are friends with those guys? Jimmy is gonna be at the Olympics. Any 2017 FA gonna be there? Heat planned their 2010 coup in Bejiing right?

If you were of the tank mindset, Warriors could be looking to move Bogut for cap relief, apparently. Salary filler to help meet the cap floor. Could get 20-24 minutes a night and if he plays well, flipped again for another asset at the deadline .

If there was a tank movement it ended when they were unable or unwilling to move Butler. As it stands now you could probably even make an addition by subtraction argument (Not my favorite stat, but...) - Pau Gasol, 21.7 PER in 2291 MP - Derrick Rose 13.5 in 2097 MP - Joakim Noah 14.1 PER in 635 MP And nearly 3000 MP to under 10 PER guys Hinrich, MDJ, Barstow, and Snell (assuming on Snell and MDJ). So Gasol actually had our best PER, and a good PER, but people who watched a lot more Bulls than I have said he wasn't a good fit despite the stats. Rose was not a fit, nor productive. Lopez can do 3/4 of what Noah did in hopefully more minutes. Not bringing back or just riding the pine with other dead weight and replacing with league average production is additional improvement. Calderon can at least hit an outside shot if he plays. Basically though this is at lrast one shot at seeing if there is any untapped potential left in Butler (he now has complete command of the offense) and if Mirotic can tap into his promise and be that third option. Focus on good fits in FA. If you strike out in FA, well, I dont know, but at least probably keep whatever value Butler has intact by letting him inflate his stats. There's probably not that much difference between spots 5-11, and even a first round playoff run brings in valuable revenue, valuable experience, and maybe some additional trade value. If a guy like Valentine is a "hit", he will have value if a top trade target is available. All the first round picks and possible first round picks (Sac) will hold value. Butler will have value.

The NBA should really do away with the max.

Wait that has to be only 4 years right? So basically the max? I was expecting a lot of 10m backups and 20m starters, but if non superstars start making 30m... yea we can add one starter in FA, and that's it.

as much as i wanted to believe that at the time and shortly thereafter, i don't anymore. In the most abstract sense I think it was true, but not actually. We lost Asik and someone else important was banged up I think. After that season they were able to round out the ancillary pieces they needed and even our upgrades couldn't have outpaced their improvement.

Not as disagreeable now that you spell it out like that. And my point isn't that we should tank, my point is that it is unlikely that we become a legit contender without a star that is better than Jimmy Butler. Now if the Bulls had a lot of intriguing assets that could either develop into an attractive team, or be used as trade bait for either a star or lottery picks, then yes I am completely fine with not blowing the whole team up. But this team is Jimmy Butler and a cast of mediocre role players basically. We are not going to improve our long term outlook by drafting high floor, low ceiling guys like McDermott and Valentine. We are not going to improve our long term outlook by trading Rose for a packaged headlined by Joakim Noah lite (I know Rose's trade value wasn't high and they did get a potential high ceiling low floor guy in Grant, but I'd rather have the cap space than a 3 year commitment to Lopez at 14 per). These are marginal assets for future transactions. So if we are a 50 win team with no hope of the title, that's fine if we are building toward something or accumulating assets, much like the 05-09 Bulls or the last 2 Celtics teams. But every move I've seen the Bulls make lately has been designed to keep the Bulls in that 42-47 win range without much long term upside and no asset accumulation. So yes I would prefer to blow it up and bottom out for what hopes to be a year or two than watch a team led by Jimmy, Taj and Robin Lopez struggle to make the playoffs. I understand the risk that it will make the team unwatchable and I understand 1-2 years could turn into 5-7 years, but at this point I am having a hard time finding other ways to compete long term. Good trait bait is usually draft picks, recent top 5 draft picks, and salary filler. You aren't going to get guys at 14 who are really that high potential which significantly improves the return verses solid, young, cost controlled assets with less potential. We should at least see their FA strategy and execution.

how much fun did you have watching this game? http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200504240CHI.html Because I had a lot of [expletive] fun that day and I'm OK with admitting that. I was there. On that team we had 2 promising lottery picks, Deng in particular had a superstar ceiling or was thought at the time. There were still people that believed Curry and Chandler had some superstar potential left in them. Gordon was looking like a really good number 2. They were in really nice shape with the salary cap. Yes that team in particular was not going to win a title, but there was a ton of hope that they had their superstar developing and they were on a legit road to the title. This particular team building is Jimmy Butler, whose ceiling we know, then a bunch of low ceiling role players (Valentine, Lopez, Taj, Doug, Niko, Snell, Calderon). Grant is the only player that you might argue could have a ceiling as a star but its also isn't a particularly likely ceiling to achieve. So the Bulls are in a situation where they have 1 star, albeit closer to a top 10-20 in the NBA star, and a roster of role players with low ceilings. They don't have a ton of valuable assets outside of Butler that we can use to get better via trade. Can the team win 45-50 games and win a playoff series? yes. But I am not sure how they can improve much beyond that picking 15-20 every year and making modest FA improvements (because they aren't enticing a superstar with this roster). Trade. Obviously they sucked enough to get a high pick as an asset but the Celts showed that model. The Heats first title they lucked into a star with a non top 3 pick and then finished with another star in a trade. Mavs spent a long time wasting years on their non top 3 pick superstar before the right mix of trades brought them the supporting stars to bring a ship.

Nice highlight video. Just wondering why he only averaged 5 PPG last year. Also he tore a knee ligament in 2014. Denzel Valentine has knee issues. You'd think we've been burned by bum knees enough in our recent history. It's Euroball, it's not like you're gonna get 20ppg scorers. The minutes distribution is typically more even along with ball distribution. The year we spent a first rounder on Mirotic he had just put up 7.5 ppg. The few years after that he exceeded double digits.

So Thibs was just trolling the whole time?

Although some strategic disassembles can make sense. Like I wanted to blow up the roster after Rose's second injury. Yet that team became probably my second favorite team since the championship teams. So what do I know anyways.

I had a lot of fun watching various iterations of second round exit Bulls teams. Whether by FA, trade, or draft you need a horsefeathers ton of luck, so I say go and compete and remain as flexible as possible while winning some games.

i'm very confused. your post could almost not have been more wrong. Disagree. David is right.