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Might as well get this going as even if the Bulls win the upcoming play in, they're not getting beyond the 1st round
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I'll kick this thread off with some player grades. Normally I'd make that its own thread, but whatever.
Grades will be based on what I thought of the player going in and how they performed relative to that expectation.
We'll go for the starters first
Coby White - A
Coby had a rough start to the year, like most of the team really, but really managed to turn it around and finished red hot by season's end. Sure, he still has his faults, consistency still lingering as one of them, but he's someone that I see giving his all on both ends of the court regardless of the result and has been more of a vocal leader on this young team, and I respect that. He also finished with a career high in PPG at 20.4 and shot a respectable 45% FG and 37% from 3 and 90% from FT. This was the most efficient Coby has been in his career scoring the ball (60% TS%)and he was really able to settle into the main scorer role post deadline better than I was expecting. He impressed me with his ability to get to the line more post deadline, he was able to get to the line almost as many times as he did pre-deadline, but in half the games. Questions will remain about him being able to consistently put up numbers like he has been to close the year (24.5ppg post deadline vs 18.2 before) and he has a payday coming up, so I will expect his long term future with the team to be a point of contention in the coming year.
Josh Giddey - A
Honestly, I thought Giddey was gonna be super meh as I had huge questions about his shooting and defense, and to start the year he was really proving me right on the defensive front. He started off super hot from 3 then cooled off massively into January before picking it way back up to close the year, so I still have some questions on his shooting, but he's shot the ball as well as he ever has, so maybe the Bulls shooting coach is doing something right. At the end of the day, Giddey finishes with a career high 37.8% from 3, along with 46.5% FG and 78% FTs, 14.6ppg, 8.1rpg, 7.2apg and another career high 1.2 spg. From February onward, dude was really hooping as well as he ever has. As we know, he's a guy who fills the stat sheet and when he's on point, this offense really clicks. He's probably earned himself that 30M/year contract he wanted, for better or worse, so we should probably expect him to be here to stay. I think there will always be a degree of resentment around him because of the trade, but production wise, I think Giddey was what AK wanted him to be this season. His growth in being trusted to close out games is noteworthy imo.
Matas Buzelis - A-
If we're being real, we only got to see about half a season of real Matas minutes, even though he did play in 80 games this year. However, once he was finally given an opportunity, we saw all the flashes that we would've hoped for him to start the year. Since being made a starter Matas averaged 13ppg, 4.8rpg, and 1.9apg with 46.7% FG, 36% 3 and 83% FT, pretty darn respectable. Definitely AK's best draft pick so far, based on current output and potential, so that's something. He also led the team in blocks with 75. Poor dunk contest showing aside, I think Matas has shown us enough potential to at least give some hope for him growing into a star.
Nikola Vucevic - B+
After shooting so badly last year we thought he might be washed, Vuc bounced back with his best shooting year ever. He remained a double double machine despite Giddey coming in to steal rebounds. Would've been nice to get this level of 3pt proficiency the last few years, but oh well. I'll give credit to Vuc for not being completely checked out on this team like I thought he would, especially after last year. Whatever it was, he seems to have found a second wind of sorts to his tenure with this team. All expectation, including probably his own, points to him getting moved in the offseason or at least him not finishing out his contract here, but you never know. All said and done, to finish this year Vuc averaged a Bulls career high 18.5ppg to go with his usual 10.1rpg, 3.5apg on 53% FG, 40% 3pt, and 80.5% FT. Can't really ask for much more at this point I think.
Kevin Huerter - B
Coming off a very down season with Sacramento, Huerter came over here and found new life in Billy's offense, quickly becoming one of his most trusted players and stealing Lonzo's spot as top plus minus guy. The Bulls finally implemented some off ball action to generate 3s with him on the roster and I think he is a larger part than some would think in the Bulls' late success. He only played 26 games with the Bulls, but still ended up averaging 13ppg, 3rpg, 3apg on 44/38/71 splits in 30mpg. Not bad for a new guy who was having an otherwise miserable year before the trade. He pretty much looked like the Hawks version of himself, who was a pretty solid role player.
Patrick Williams - F-
Frankly, he's been pretty terrible all year. Didn't matter if he started or came off the bench, the output just was not there. His defensive rating was awful and while normally we would've been able to say "well at least he shoots 40% from 3" in years past, he shot just 35% this year, a career low. For all intents and purposes, this was Pat's worst year yet, with career lows across the board except assists (ironically a career high there). I think the only player with less output, besides two way guys, was Jevon Carter. The naysayers will say "I told you so 3 years ago!" and I guess they were right.
Lonzo Ball - A+
Given that we thought this guy's career was over, and he came back making the kind of impact that he did, if anyone deserves an A+ it's Lonzo. Sure, he only played 35 games in the end, but considering we were expecting another 0 games from him and he didn't play any back to backs, I think it's respectable. Lonzo basically became the Bulls' best perimeter defender by midseason (lol what does that say about the defense on this team), and always had the highest plus minus on the team until Huerter arrived (he's still 2nd behind Huerter). Him and Giddey together in the starting lineup really made the offense move as their passing ability opened up a lot for others. I have all the respect in the world for Zo coming back from that injury, even if he hasn't played since February.
Ayo Dosunmu - B
Another victim to the Bulls' medical malpractices, Ayo only played 46 games due to what ended up being a fractured shoulder. In spite of that, Ayo still had a pretty solid year, except for shooting 3s, which may be explained by that lingering shoulder issue. Like many Bulls players, Ayo was pretty terrible to start the year, but he found his rhythm in the starting lineup and had a pretty good December-January stretch, including his first career triple double (27/10/11/3/1 stat line in that game btw). Minus the shooting, he was averaging pretty on par numbers to last year, which was the best of his career, so all things considered, it was a pretty solid year for Ayo when he was able to play. Hopefully Dr. Brian Cole actually fixed his shoulder instead of making it worse lol.
Julian Phillips - C+
On paper, nothing about Phillips' numbers will stand out to you, however when you watch him play (insert dig about Bulls' TV deal here) you can tell he should be getting more run than he does. He showed out in the bench player showcase games to close out the year and many times I felt like we had a better team with him in the game than Pat. Hopefully Billy trusts him more going into next year because this kid does have some ability. His corner 3 feels pretty automatic to me and his motor combined with his athleticism usually results in a dunk or two if given the chance. Still only 21, Phillips is the 2nd youngest player on the team and definitely still has room to grow. He did get to play in 79 games this year, about double from last year, so there's that.
Zach Collins - B
I honestly wasn't expecting much of anything from this guy on our team, but he ended up stealing Jalen Smith's spot in the rotation and did pretty well as a starter when Vuc was out. He kind of gives a lot of the same things Vuc does, minus the post scoring, but since no one posts up anymore anyway, he does basically the same stuff offensively that we'd need from Vuc. He's a pretty good passer, which is the one thing I remembered him being good at in San Antonio, and that showed during his starting stretch. He's just a role player, but he plays his role pretty well. No idea what the Bulls do with him going forward, but he's at least playable in this scheme.
Tre Jones - B
This might be better suited as an incomplete, but I think I saw what I needed to see. Tre might've stole the thunder from Huerter if he didn't hurt his foot. When he started, he balled out. Really high motor, a pest defensively, smart with the ball, he outperformed all my expectations for him after the trade. Not known as a shooter, he even shot 50% from 3 before going down with injury, granted on super low volume. Not quite the plus minus darling as Zo or Heurter, but he played very well as a starter nonetheless. If the Bulls didn't have 5000 guards already, I'd say he'd be worth keeping as a backup, but alas, he is still redundant and the lack of shooting will come back to bite him in the end, as it did in SA.
Talen Horton-Tucker - C
Good ole Talen Horton-Chucker. All said and done, this dude gets buckets...and that's about it. Not really a microwave offensively, but he knows how to put up shots and he made a decent number of them this year. His defense is highly unremarkable, and sometimes he does a bit too much, but if you need a bucket, THT is your man. A decent guy to have on the bench if you need him, but I felt like most of the time, we were better off with him sitting. He had his moments though, don't want to take that away from him, he definitely won a few games. Chicago native too, so I'm sure he loves playing here. Ironically his 33.6% 3pt% is a career high and his 45.7% FG% is just touch under his career high. Respect.
Jalen Smith - C
He had a solid year before Zach Collins took his spot. Pre-deadline his shooting numbers were a very respectable 47.6/35.4/83.6, but that dropped way down after the deadline as he lost his spot. A solid role player with good hustle most of the time, he added a rim protection presence that imo didn't get utilized enough because Vuc ate up all the minutes. I feel if given a little more freedom, he could've put up some pretty respectable numbers like last year, but even with his poor post-deadline stats, his numbers are respectable. Overall, he did about what I expected.
Jevon Carter - F
On the intangibles side, he's probably an A, as I feel like he is probably a good locker room presence for the young guys on the team, but on court, he's been pretty awful. He was known for his defense in Milwaukee, but I haven't seen a lick of that his entire tenure with Chicago. Mostly irrelevant for on court purposes, I can only assume he'll be here as a locker room presence until his contract expires.
Dalen Terry - C
His shooting got mildly better this year, which is a good sign. He'll never be a scorer, nor do I think he was drafted to be, but continues to do some other things well. Still, I think he's not very playable in this system until his shot is more respectable. He brings a ton of energy though and that makes me want to see him succeed. If he can get his shot somewhere decent, he'd be a decent swiss army knife guy, but until then...
All the two way players - Incomplete
None of them played enough to matter. They did decently well in the GLeague though
Grades will be based on what I thought of the player going in and how they performed relative to that expectation.
We'll go for the starters first
Coby White - A
Coby had a rough start to the year, like most of the team really, but really managed to turn it around and finished red hot by season's end. Sure, he still has his faults, consistency still lingering as one of them, but he's someone that I see giving his all on both ends of the court regardless of the result and has been more of a vocal leader on this young team, and I respect that. He also finished with a career high in PPG at 20.4 and shot a respectable 45% FG and 37% from 3 and 90% from FT. This was the most efficient Coby has been in his career scoring the ball (60% TS%)and he was really able to settle into the main scorer role post deadline better than I was expecting. He impressed me with his ability to get to the line more post deadline, he was able to get to the line almost as many times as he did pre-deadline, but in half the games. Questions will remain about him being able to consistently put up numbers like he has been to close the year (24.5ppg post deadline vs 18.2 before) and he has a payday coming up, so I will expect his long term future with the team to be a point of contention in the coming year.
Josh Giddey - A
Honestly, I thought Giddey was gonna be super meh as I had huge questions about his shooting and defense, and to start the year he was really proving me right on the defensive front. He started off super hot from 3 then cooled off massively into January before picking it way back up to close the year, so I still have some questions on his shooting, but he's shot the ball as well as he ever has, so maybe the Bulls shooting coach is doing something right. At the end of the day, Giddey finishes with a career high 37.8% from 3, along with 46.5% FG and 78% FTs, 14.6ppg, 8.1rpg, 7.2apg and another career high 1.2 spg. From February onward, dude was really hooping as well as he ever has. As we know, he's a guy who fills the stat sheet and when he's on point, this offense really clicks. He's probably earned himself that 30M/year contract he wanted, for better or worse, so we should probably expect him to be here to stay. I think there will always be a degree of resentment around him because of the trade, but production wise, I think Giddey was what AK wanted him to be this season. His growth in being trusted to close out games is noteworthy imo.
Matas Buzelis - A-
If we're being real, we only got to see about half a season of real Matas minutes, even though he did play in 80 games this year. However, once he was finally given an opportunity, we saw all the flashes that we would've hoped for him to start the year. Since being made a starter Matas averaged 13ppg, 4.8rpg, and 1.9apg with 46.7% FG, 36% 3 and 83% FT, pretty darn respectable. Definitely AK's best draft pick so far, based on current output and potential, so that's something. He also led the team in blocks with 75. Poor dunk contest showing aside, I think Matas has shown us enough potential to at least give some hope for him growing into a star.
Nikola Vucevic - B+
After shooting so badly last year we thought he might be washed, Vuc bounced back with his best shooting year ever. He remained a double double machine despite Giddey coming in to steal rebounds. Would've been nice to get this level of 3pt proficiency the last few years, but oh well. I'll give credit to Vuc for not being completely checked out on this team like I thought he would, especially after last year. Whatever it was, he seems to have found a second wind of sorts to his tenure with this team. All expectation, including probably his own, points to him getting moved in the offseason or at least him not finishing out his contract here, but you never know. All said and done, to finish this year Vuc averaged a Bulls career high 18.5ppg to go with his usual 10.1rpg, 3.5apg on 53% FG, 40% 3pt, and 80.5% FT. Can't really ask for much more at this point I think.
Kevin Huerter - B
Coming off a very down season with Sacramento, Huerter came over here and found new life in Billy's offense, quickly becoming one of his most trusted players and stealing Lonzo's spot as top plus minus guy. The Bulls finally implemented some off ball action to generate 3s with him on the roster and I think he is a larger part than some would think in the Bulls' late success. He only played 26 games with the Bulls, but still ended up averaging 13ppg, 3rpg, 3apg on 44/38/71 splits in 30mpg. Not bad for a new guy who was having an otherwise miserable year before the trade. He pretty much looked like the Hawks version of himself, who was a pretty solid role player.
Patrick Williams - F-
Frankly, he's been pretty terrible all year. Didn't matter if he started or came off the bench, the output just was not there. His defensive rating was awful and while normally we would've been able to say "well at least he shoots 40% from 3" in years past, he shot just 35% this year, a career low. For all intents and purposes, this was Pat's worst year yet, with career lows across the board except assists (ironically a career high there). I think the only player with less output, besides two way guys, was Jevon Carter. The naysayers will say "I told you so 3 years ago!" and I guess they were right.
Lonzo Ball - A+
Given that we thought this guy's career was over, and he came back making the kind of impact that he did, if anyone deserves an A+ it's Lonzo. Sure, he only played 35 games in the end, but considering we were expecting another 0 games from him and he didn't play any back to backs, I think it's respectable. Lonzo basically became the Bulls' best perimeter defender by midseason (lol what does that say about the defense on this team), and always had the highest plus minus on the team until Huerter arrived (he's still 2nd behind Huerter). Him and Giddey together in the starting lineup really made the offense move as their passing ability opened up a lot for others. I have all the respect in the world for Zo coming back from that injury, even if he hasn't played since February.
Ayo Dosunmu - B
Another victim to the Bulls' medical malpractices, Ayo only played 46 games due to what ended up being a fractured shoulder. In spite of that, Ayo still had a pretty solid year, except for shooting 3s, which may be explained by that lingering shoulder issue. Like many Bulls players, Ayo was pretty terrible to start the year, but he found his rhythm in the starting lineup and had a pretty good December-January stretch, including his first career triple double (27/10/11/3/1 stat line in that game btw). Minus the shooting, he was averaging pretty on par numbers to last year, which was the best of his career, so all things considered, it was a pretty solid year for Ayo when he was able to play. Hopefully Dr. Brian Cole actually fixed his shoulder instead of making it worse lol.
Julian Phillips - C+
On paper, nothing about Phillips' numbers will stand out to you, however when you watch him play (insert dig about Bulls' TV deal here) you can tell he should be getting more run than he does. He showed out in the bench player showcase games to close out the year and many times I felt like we had a better team with him in the game than Pat. Hopefully Billy trusts him more going into next year because this kid does have some ability. His corner 3 feels pretty automatic to me and his motor combined with his athleticism usually results in a dunk or two if given the chance. Still only 21, Phillips is the 2nd youngest player on the team and definitely still has room to grow. He did get to play in 79 games this year, about double from last year, so there's that.
Zach Collins - B
I honestly wasn't expecting much of anything from this guy on our team, but he ended up stealing Jalen Smith's spot in the rotation and did pretty well as a starter when Vuc was out. He kind of gives a lot of the same things Vuc does, minus the post scoring, but since no one posts up anymore anyway, he does basically the same stuff offensively that we'd need from Vuc. He's a pretty good passer, which is the one thing I remembered him being good at in San Antonio, and that showed during his starting stretch. He's just a role player, but he plays his role pretty well. No idea what the Bulls do with him going forward, but he's at least playable in this scheme.
Tre Jones - B
This might be better suited as an incomplete, but I think I saw what I needed to see. Tre might've stole the thunder from Huerter if he didn't hurt his foot. When he started, he balled out. Really high motor, a pest defensively, smart with the ball, he outperformed all my expectations for him after the trade. Not known as a shooter, he even shot 50% from 3 before going down with injury, granted on super low volume. Not quite the plus minus darling as Zo or Heurter, but he played very well as a starter nonetheless. If the Bulls didn't have 5000 guards already, I'd say he'd be worth keeping as a backup, but alas, he is still redundant and the lack of shooting will come back to bite him in the end, as it did in SA.
Talen Horton-Tucker - C
Good ole Talen Horton-Chucker. All said and done, this dude gets buckets...and that's about it. Not really a microwave offensively, but he knows how to put up shots and he made a decent number of them this year. His defense is highly unremarkable, and sometimes he does a bit too much, but if you need a bucket, THT is your man. A decent guy to have on the bench if you need him, but I felt like most of the time, we were better off with him sitting. He had his moments though, don't want to take that away from him, he definitely won a few games. Chicago native too, so I'm sure he loves playing here. Ironically his 33.6% 3pt% is a career high and his 45.7% FG% is just touch under his career high. Respect.
Jalen Smith - C
He had a solid year before Zach Collins took his spot. Pre-deadline his shooting numbers were a very respectable 47.6/35.4/83.6, but that dropped way down after the deadline as he lost his spot. A solid role player with good hustle most of the time, he added a rim protection presence that imo didn't get utilized enough because Vuc ate up all the minutes. I feel if given a little more freedom, he could've put up some pretty respectable numbers like last year, but even with his poor post-deadline stats, his numbers are respectable. Overall, he did about what I expected.
Jevon Carter - F
On the intangibles side, he's probably an A, as I feel like he is probably a good locker room presence for the young guys on the team, but on court, he's been pretty awful. He was known for his defense in Milwaukee, but I haven't seen a lick of that his entire tenure with Chicago. Mostly irrelevant for on court purposes, I can only assume he'll be here as a locker room presence until his contract expires.
Dalen Terry - C
His shooting got mildly better this year, which is a good sign. He'll never be a scorer, nor do I think he was drafted to be, but continues to do some other things well. Still, I think he's not very playable in this system until his shot is more respectable. He brings a ton of energy though and that makes me want to see him succeed. If he can get his shot somewhere decent, he'd be a decent swiss army knife guy, but until then...
All the two way players - Incomplete
None of them played enough to matter. They did decently well in the GLeague though
wonky73
4th round grade on Trubisky
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Dream offseason.. sell the team fire everybody
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Too bad it's a pipe dream
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Heat winning the play in and Mavs losing locks the Bulls pick into #12, which has a nominal chance to jump into the top 4 (~8%)
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Little bit old news now, but before the weekend Bulls fired their development coach Peter Patton. Patton's reputation is as a top tier shooting coach, and indeed we did see plenty of good shooting years from many players this year, though Patton was originally hired in 2023.
Supposedly, the players themselves are quite upset by this move, however the reasoning is allegedly being openly critical of the direction of the team, and essentially, being insubordinate to AK.
Of course, the person breaking the news was Joe Cowley, so grains of salt, but nevertheless you can read his article here: Coach Peter Patton's firing results in questioning of Bulls' leadership
Supposedly, the players themselves are quite upset by this move, however the reasoning is allegedly being openly critical of the direction of the team, and essentially, being insubordinate to AK.
Of course, the person breaking the news was Joe Cowley, so grains of salt, but nevertheless you can read his article here: Coach Peter Patton's firing results in questioning of Bulls' leadership
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There's a Twitter douche who wants the Bulls to trade for Ja Morant.
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I suspect the Bulls will mentioned in all kinds of trades for players like Zion, Ja, maybe KD, and probably Giannis at some point. I expect all of them to have negative amounts of truth
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Yep, Zion was the next trade proposal I've seen Look at this bullshit:
Axl Rose
and I knew the silence of the world
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Should it be seen as a warning sign that they have used an Eddy Curry jersey to make that jersey swap?
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It's gonna be a whole offseason of this lol
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Trying to think realistically about this offseason, I think it's gonna be a whole lot of nothing. Reason being, it seems AK has his sights set on the FA class of 2026, he mentioned as much in his press conference. No idea who the heck he might be targeting as most of the UFAs I see listed are old (ie Lebron, KD, Kyrie, Harden, etc) or RFAs that are definitely getting matched, or more likely, extended before they ever hit RFA (ie Banchero, Holmgren, JDub, Dyson Daniels, etc). Nevertheless, that seems to be his plan.
I imagine AK views Giddey and Coby as the backcourt of the future. Obviously we have Matas in the core group as well, and to everyone's dismay, PWill is probably in that group also (not that he's even worth anything trade wise anyway, so he's stuck here). That basically just leaves C as the primary hole, considering that you probably still want to attempt to move Vucevic, or at the worst he's off the books for that 2026 offseason so if he stays, he stays.
As we know, at most the Bulls will have about $25M of cap space this offseason, all of that is presumably going to Giddey. Thus, there will be no notable acquisitions this offseason other than whoever they draft. However, looking ahead to 2026 offseason, the only players Bulls have signed into that year (so far) are Lonzo (team option), PWill, Jalen Smith, Matas (team option), and Julian Phillips (team option) for $45M committed. Adding Giddey's assumed $30M/year then that'll be $75M committed, leaving just under $100M in cap space (total salary cap is projected at $170M for 2026-27). We also need to factor this year's draft pick, let's call it about $6M, so maybe all said and done it's closer to $90M in cap space for 2026, with the option to shed some additional salary with team options.
Taking all that into consideration, if the Bulls do sign a player in FA after Giddey signs, I imagine they'll not use the entire MLE to sign that player so as to continue to maximize 2026 cap space. I could be wrong there though, but Bulls already have 13 players on the roster for next year, one of them being a two way (Jahmir Young), so once Giddey signs, you basically have a full roster.
Still, if you're AK I think you probably still explore trade options for Vuc, Lonzo, maybe Coby (but again I think AK is gonna stick with Coby so this part probably doesn't happen). If you're smart, you let Giddey get his market value since he's RFA, and just match what he gets. That's pretty much it...hope you hit on whoever's there at 12.
I imagine AK views Giddey and Coby as the backcourt of the future. Obviously we have Matas in the core group as well, and to everyone's dismay, PWill is probably in that group also (not that he's even worth anything trade wise anyway, so he's stuck here). That basically just leaves C as the primary hole, considering that you probably still want to attempt to move Vucevic, or at the worst he's off the books for that 2026 offseason so if he stays, he stays.
As we know, at most the Bulls will have about $25M of cap space this offseason, all of that is presumably going to Giddey. Thus, there will be no notable acquisitions this offseason other than whoever they draft. However, looking ahead to 2026 offseason, the only players Bulls have signed into that year (so far) are Lonzo (team option), PWill, Jalen Smith, Matas (team option), and Julian Phillips (team option) for $45M committed. Adding Giddey's assumed $30M/year then that'll be $75M committed, leaving just under $100M in cap space (total salary cap is projected at $170M for 2026-27). We also need to factor this year's draft pick, let's call it about $6M, so maybe all said and done it's closer to $90M in cap space for 2026, with the option to shed some additional salary with team options.
Taking all that into consideration, if the Bulls do sign a player in FA after Giddey signs, I imagine they'll not use the entire MLE to sign that player so as to continue to maximize 2026 cap space. I could be wrong there though, but Bulls already have 13 players on the roster for next year, one of them being a two way (Jahmir Young), so once Giddey signs, you basically have a full roster.
Still, if you're AK I think you probably still explore trade options for Vuc, Lonzo, maybe Coby (but again I think AK is gonna stick with Coby so this part probably doesn't happen). If you're smart, you let Giddey get his market value since he's RFA, and just match what he gets. That's pretty much it...hope you hit on whoever's there at 12.
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There is a part of me that wonders if certain teams opt to blow up their teams after this season. In particular, Milwaukee seems like a prime blow it up candidate, but I can see arguments for Memphis and maybe even Denver as well. And of course there's the news that new Pels GM Joe Dumars will have a mandate from ownership to trade Zion. Of course all of these will fuel the trade rumors that Gus is dreading, but it wouldn't shock me if AK explored them at least to some degree to supercharge this rebuild.
Salary wise you can make the same formula for every potential max contract player: Vuc, PWill, some combination of players from Coby's salary and under, plus picks for [insert star player here]. Of course for larger salaries you can include Collins and/or Huerter to match. You can even sign and trade Giddey probably (I expect AK to cling to Giddey like his life depends on it though).
I don't expect the Bulls to be in realistic play for any potential fire sale "supers" if they do happen to be available, but I do expect the rumors to fly if any team makes any mention of rebuild. I guess we've already seen it
Salary wise you can make the same formula for every potential max contract player: Vuc, PWill, some combination of players from Coby's salary and under, plus picks for [insert star player here]. Of course for larger salaries you can include Collins and/or Huerter to match. You can even sign and trade Giddey probably (I expect AK to cling to Giddey like his life depends on it though).
I don't expect the Bulls to be in realistic play for any potential fire sale "supers" if they do happen to be available, but I do expect the rumors to fly if any team makes any mention of rebuild. I guess we've already seen it
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You have to explore all options that are available to you, and yes, that even means trading for Zion. My issue isn't AKME exploring those options. My issue are these dopes on X that think everything will be fixed if you trade for Zio or Ja.
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Acquiring a Zion or Ja just gets your foot in the door in terms of improving the team's outlook. Certainly if AK wasn't exploring such options, he wouldn't be doing his job.
The generic blueprint for championship contenders these days is:
-At least one bonafide superstar (Giannis, SGA, Jokic, Luka, Steph, etc)
-If not another super, you gotta have at least another very high level tier 2 star who can do more than just score (Jaylen Brown, JDub, Jimmy Butler, etc)
-Gotta have a defensive anchor (Draymond, Chet, Evan Mobley, Jrue Holiday, etc)
-After that it comes down to role players/glue guys, Bulls don't lack for those (Caruso, Lonzo, Derrick White, Dort, Brandin Podziemski, etc)
In the league today, generally speaking, no super, no championship. And even having a super doesn't guarantee you anything, but usually if you don't have one, you're usually screwed. Part of why Cavs kinda feel hard to believe in, even though they're an excellent team, Donovan Mitchell doesn't screen superstar, nor does Garland or Mobley.
Heck, put Giannis on the Bulls today, they might still not be better than Orlando, so that's definitely not the end all be all, but...you're a lot closer than when you started
Long story short, I agree with you, trading for such and such player doesn't fix everything, not even close
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Zion and/or Ja aint fixing this team
theres reasons why their teams are potentially interested in trading those 2, despite how talented they are.
both are oft injured players that dont have basketball as their #1 priority
theres reasons why their teams are potentially interested in trading those 2, despite how talented they are.
both are oft injured players that dont have basketball as their #1 priority
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For Jerry, butts in seats is #1 priority, so seems like a great fit lol
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i know we have said this every year for what seems like forever, but...
bulls should make a push for Giannis this offseason. He might be ready to move on from them and considering lillards contract and injury, it would make sense for him to jump ship
Giddey and Giannis running together could make for a really fun tandem
bulls should make a push for Giannis this offseason. He might be ready to move on from them and considering lillards contract and injury, it would make sense for him to jump ship
Giddey and Giannis running together could make for a really fun tandem
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It's an intriguing thought for sure. It is very likely Bucks opt to blow it up given how the last few years have gone. I doubt Giannis wants to waste another year on his own window.
The somewhat awkward thing for the Bulls is that Giannis is 30 already, so the Bulls would need to do a very quick pivot to win now (again) to maximize Giannis's window. AK has shown that he can attempt to do that, but there's just a lot of holes to fill on this team to make it a true contender even if they were to somehow land Giannis.
There's also the question of if what the Bulls have to give up is enticing enough to Milwaukee...I'm sure they'll want as much draft capital as they can, especially since they own none of their picks for the near future. Even if we were to give them every young talent on this team except Giddey let's say, is it enough to entice?