A player I am curious about...

[Basghetti80]

is Yi Jianlian...Still think there might be something there, 7'0 230 with his kind of range and ability to score the basketball. Any chance he could be had? If that kid can put it together him and Rose in the pick and roll might be nice. What might we be able to offer NJ?

 

[dougthonus]

I have no idea what NJ thinks of him, but I wouldn't be interested. Hated him when I scouted him predraft and nothing he's done so far has changed my mind.

 

[Manic Devourer]

Problem with Yi was that he was touted as a good shooter, and he really isn't. Sure, he can improve, but his jumping shooting hasn't been all that impressive, nor has his "apparent" athletic ability for his height. With that, if they are willing to let him go, I'd be more than willing to get him for some extra offense off the bench.

Deng + 16th pick for Yi + Hassell + 11th pick

 

[Fred]

Neil Funk hates Yi, so that may one reason to look at him. I remember watching every game with him this year...."What does Yi bring to the table?" He must have said it about 100 freaking times. I kept yelling back at the TV, "What do you bring to the table?" My daughter thought I was going crazy.

 

[Manic Devourer]

Fred wrote:

Meil Funk hates Yi, so that may one reason to look at him. I remember watching every game with him this year...."What does Yi bring to the table?" He must have said it about 100 freaking times. I kept yelling back at the TV, "What do you bring to the table?" My daughter thought I was going crazy.

I remember that game.

He had a similar rant during a game against the Cavs about Boobie Gibson. "It's obvious he can't shoot. He hasn't hit anything" After draining a shot. "Besides that make, he can't shoot. What does he bring to the table?"

He is like a grumpy old, nagging grandpa and it just gets really old and exhausting to listen to someone complain constantly.

 

[Shakes]

Ability to score the basketball? He's a low volume, inefficient scorer ... and that's the "good" part of his game!

Yi's only value is as a contract that expires in 2010 (I assume NJ haven't/won't pick up his option).

 

[Rose1]

He reminds me of Dirk. Dirk struggled early in his career but found his finesse, comfort, and shot. I would get him soon as they make him available. I think he would thrive in a Vinny system. He can shoot off the pick and pop with a deadly slasher like Rose. Right now, Yi is basically a reserve. You can't teach height and I think he will eventually get it right.

 

[Dpauley23]

Fred wrote:

Neil Funk hates Yi, so that may one reason to look at him. I remember watching every game with him this year...."What does Yi bring to the table?" He must have said it about 100 freaking times. I kept yelling back at the TV, "What do you bring to the table?" My daughter thought I was going crazy.

Neil Funk also jinx us a thousand times about how guys sucked. I was watching Cavs vs Bulls earlier in the year and he was talking about how awful Daniel Gibson was. Well what do you know as Gibson knocks down 4 threes in row

 

[Dpauley23]

Rose1 wrote:

He reminds me of Dirk. Dirk struggled early in his career but found his finesse, comfort, and shot. I would get him soon as they make him available. I think he would thrive in a Vinny system. He can shoot off the pick and pop with a deadly slasher like Rose. Right now, Yi is basically a reserve. You can't teach height and I think he will eventually get it right.

Not to be mean, but do you ever watch basketball?

 

[Shakes]

Reminds you of Dirk? Dirk struggled in his first year, but still scored at a better rate (and more efficiently) than Yi has in his first two years. Compare their second years and it's a joke.

Dirk was also 20 in his first year, where as Yi is "20".

 

[dougthonus]

Rose1 wrote:

He reminds me of Dirk. Dirk struggled early in his career but found his finesse, comfort, and shot. I would get him soon as they make him available. I think he would thrive in a Vinny system. He can shoot off the pick and pop with a deadly slasher like Rose. Right now, Yi is basically a reserve. You can't teach height and I think he will eventually get it right.

Dirk was a good player by his second year in the league. Yi is absolutely terrible in his second year. He hasn't improved at all, and possibly has regressed.

 

[Shakes]

You've got to agree with Bill Simmons though, Yi does look mighty good when a chair is guarding him.

 

[Fred]

Dpauley23 wrote:

Fred wrote:

Neil Funk hates Yi, so that may one reason to look at him. I remember watching every game with him this year...."What does Yi bring to the table?" He must have said it about 100 freaking times. I kept yelling back at the TV, "What do you bring to the table?" My daughter thought I was going crazy.

Neil Funk also jinx us a thousand times about how guys sucked. I was watching Cavs vs Bulls earlier in the year and he was talking about how awful Daniel Gibson was. Well what do you know as Gibson knocks down 4 threes in row

I know I was the only guy in the world watching Game 2 on Comcast, but he did it again there. He started saying how we were killing the Celtics, that Ray Allen and Pierce were done. We were up by 5 at the time.

I have no idea what he said in the second half. I saw the light and went to TNT by then.

 

[Rose1]

Dpauley23 wrote:

Rose1 wrote:

He reminds me of Dirk. Dirk struggled early in his career but found his finesse, comfort, and shot. I would get him soon as they make him available. I think he would thrive in a Vinny system. He can shoot off the pick and pop with a deadly slasher like Rose. Right now, Yi is basically a reserve. You can't teach height and I think he will eventually get it right.

Not to be mean, but do you ever watch basketball?

I try to just watch Rose not other teams.

 

[dunkside.com]

Fred wrote:

Neil Funk hates Yi, so that may one reason to look at him. I remember watching every game with him this year...."What does Yi bring to the table?" He must have said it about 100 freaking times. I kept yelling back at the TV, "What do you bring to the table?" My daughter thought I was going crazy.

Well, that one is easy: Neil Funk brings to the table stupidity in a repetitive and very annoying kind of way. Not even the funny kind of stupidity.

 

[JimmyBulls]

Yi is probably closer to 24. I remember Yao blowing him up on Real Sports, but later retracting.

As for as Yi as a basketball player, I don't think the Bulls need to consider a soft big like Yi.

The big with questionmarks I wouldn't mind the Bulls going after is Chris Kaman. Yes, he had a throw away season alot like Loul Deng, but if we can get him for expirings and Thomas, i'd do it in a minute.

 

[dougthonus]

The big with questionmarks I wouldn't mind the Bulls going after is Chris Kaman. Yes, he had a throw away season alot like Loul Deng, but if we can get him for expirings and Thomas, i'd do it in a minute.

I think that's a really interesting trade in the sense that I think most Bulls fans would probably love to do it. On the one hand, Kaman can never stay healthy, his teams basically never play well, and I don't think he's nearly as good as most people think.

On the other hand, Tyrus isn't developing as well as people would hope and he's going to be a FA next year. Expirings are just expirings. So it's not like you're giving much up to take the chance. I don't think it will make the Bulls significantly better, and pending what happens with 2010 free agents this summer (ie are they going to be available in 2010 or are they locked up after 2009 with extensions) I would go for it because there would be little downside at that point.

If all the 2010 FAs make it to 2010 as FAs then I'd be tempted to save my cap room to sign them instead.

 

[Basghetti80]

If it looks like Bosh or Amare are not happening I would think you have to look at this. I personally would offer Tyrus and Miller for Kaman(and filler). Is that a deal the Clips take, doug? Do we have to add anything to that?(picks?)

Rose,Hinrich
Gordon
Deng,Salmons
Noah
Kaman

That is a good basketball team.

 

[JimmyBulls]

Chris Kaman have some minus', but i'm not too worried about how much the Clippers won with him. The Bulls would be aquiring the Kaman, not the Clippers crappy organization. But his health issues are definitely a legit point.

I am far from a salary cap guru, but it could be possible to be players in 2010 if the Bulls cut salary waste. Hinrich has played very well, but a backup point guard making starting point guard money is wasteful spending. The Bull would be smart to just dump the guy for expirings and a pick. It would make alot of sense to trade Kirk to the Wolves for two wavieable expirings, and the 28th pick. That pick would be perfect to spot to draft a cheap backup point guard. I don't think anyone should treat Hinrich like he's this player the Bulls can't function without going forward.

I don't think the Bulls would be title contenders, but I think we'd be much better than we was in 08-09. The Clippers would bite because they was trying to trade Kaman for a expiring this past deadline, and failed. So a Thomas, James or Thomas, and Roberson deal for Kaman would be a great if the ifs add up.

Rose / 28th / Hunter
Salmons / Green(26th)
Deng / Novak(FA)
Noah / Hollins(FA)
Kaman / Miller / Mullens

The above team is not better than this year's team by a mile, but it's a definite upgrade, and allows us to play somewhere besides the perimeter.

 

[dougthonus]

I think that team is probably worse than our team.

You lose #16, Tyrus, Gordon,and Hinrich for Kaman #28 (we could chase the same FAs anyway).

I don't think Kaman and getting Deng back remotely makes up for losing Tyrus, Gordon, and Hinrich. It may not be the worst situation going forward because Hinrich, Gordon, and Tyrus combined have a much larger kap hit than Kaman, so you can reallocate some of the salary space later, but as a straight "how will the team play" perspective I think that team is far worse.

It also is far more injury prone relying on both Deng and Kaman to stay healthy rather htan Gordon/Hinrich who have much better track records (gordon's never missed significant time, and Hinrich had a fluke injury that's not recurrent while Deng/Kaman both have injury issues that are likely to recur).

Of course you don't need to dump Hinrich, and you might lose Gordon anyway, so it's probably not entirely a fair comparison. Realistically, Kaman is just replacing Tyrus + expiring deal. I think whether he outperforms Tyrus next year is up for grabs.

Tyrus actually had a higher PER than Kaman last year though Kaman only played in 31 games, so it may not be a fair comparison. Go back a year though and look at this:
http://www.basketball-reference.com...m=0&p1=kamanch01&y1=2008&p2=thomaty01&y2=2009

Look at the per 36 minute stats, the scoring rate is similar, the overall efficiency is similar. Kaman was a much better rebounder (important for us though since we really need that), but otherwise they were fairly similar. That's Kaman 2 years ago though when healthy. You don't know if you'll get that next year or not, and Tyrus is definitely at a point in his career where we could still see significant improvements whereas Kaman probably is what he is at this point.

I'm not sure that you gain much on the court with Kaman vs Tyrus. I haven't watched enough of Kaman to say how good he is subjectively away from the stats. I haven't looked at his defensive ability and how good his positional defense, help defense, and man defense are. He may bring a lot more than the statcard, but then again he may not.