PG: Bulls battle, but come up short

[madvillian]

Yeah i dont care about putting up a good fight anymore. This team is played out and I am sick of Demar, vuc, Billy etc

Exactly. Who gives a damn about moral victories at this point?

I'm certain I've read posts from you stating you didn't care about winning championships and didn’t want to watch a tanking team.

well sure but we aren't tanking by design, are we?

[RastaBull]

Sometimes I read posts and comments from people who I know and otherwise see post valid criticism and frustration, and then I see post game posts where they just take away their own credibility.

Uh yeah, Coby needs more late game possessions. Those throwing a lil tantrum about it after tonight’s game are just not watching game to game imo. The problems for this team ARE NOT the same every game. I think it is irrational to come out at this game and say “DDR is the problem late in game, Coby needs more!”

1) DDR is clutch. Him being only option (and playing like he is only option) late, is not gonna produce sustainable winning. And he was doing that in long stretches last year, and early stretches this year. But he was playing like he is the only option … because he was. The team sucked, when he would defer they were crap (Zach included) in clutch spots.
2) DDR has shown ability to play WITH someone else when they show up. Coby has shown up in skill and clutch talent.
3) Coby has not shown up (yet) in clutch mentality. All the whining about him not getting the chances, but I do see him get chances in clutch, and I see him defer. It’s still his instinct and he hasn’t overridden it (someone said “imposter syndrome” earlier and I think that spot on).

This is the game we really wanna complain about DeMar??? Across first half he was holding back, fourth most FGA I think in first half, and Bulls were getting beat. He ends up with 24 on 14 (14/15 FT), 6 ast, 7 reb, and 4 steals. Not always valuable stat, but when your team was down as much as 18+ in second half, and comes within 4 in final 5, the fact that DeMar had highest +\- at +4 is worth noting.

DeMar in clutch was not the problem. Emailed a patented and needed FG in final minute. THATS CLUTCH. And yeah, he took that last attempt not even looking for anyone, and that was THE RIGHT PLAY. Dude spun of his guy, straight drive to basket with so little time off, and went up in way that required contact (he got the contact … Sabonis checked him in air with his arm … it was a foul … maybe a close call in a game where they hold their whistles on close calls … but that wasn’t this game). Hating on DeMar for his role at end of this game only diminishes your credibility.

And yeah, Coby showed again he’s not risen to level of irrational closer confidence. He got that ball with 17 sec down 7 (so you can say game is over also), but he doesn’t take the shot. He passes out to Vuc for a 3. And let’s be real, he does that a lot in those final minute possessions.

I’m sure it’s a very unpopular opinion … but every time Coby take clutch possessions and passes to Vuc at the 3, or passes out of a semi-open shot to unreliable lower option guys … I think … “man, at least if DeMar had the ball I know he’d be take a shot with a better chance than out 3-6 options”


No moral victories. Tii hi a loss sucks. Pisses me off. But it’s not end of game execution. It’s getting down by freaking 15+ points again!!!! That’s coaching, rotations, lack of depth on the bench.

[WindyCityBorn]

Yeah i dont care about putting up a good fight anymore. This team is played out and I am sick of Demar, vuc, Billy etc

Exactly. Who gives a damn about moral victories at this point?

I'm certain I've read posts from you stating you didn't care about winning championships and didn’t want to watch a tanking team.

I don’t want to watch this either. This isn’t a good team and it has no chance to be good. It will only get worse as key contributors continue to decline. We don’t need to bottom out, but we need to rebuild.

I was happy with the pre Lonzo injury version of this team. It was fun to watch and won a lot despite not being a serious contender. What we have now is garbage.

[GoBlue72391]

Yeah i dont care about putting up a good fight anymore. This team is played out and I am sick of Demar, vuc, Billy etc

Exactly. Who gives a damn about moral victories at this point?

Guru

A+ comment

[Hangtime84]

There's such a double standard of Billy saying Lavine has to fit in by making fast decisions, either shoot the ball or pass it but don't have it stick in his hands, and then having Derozan walk the ball up and not even looking at another Bulls uniform or trying to run a play and just hoisting shot after shot.

Coby took 18 shots
Vucevic took 18 shots
Demar took 14 shots

You guys just make stuff up about Demar just to hate on him. He even had 6 assists. What’s the problem ? Is Demar not allowed to take shots anymore ?

Its not the first 3 quarters people complain about. Its the 4th quarter where he generally just has tunnel vision. In traffic, in 2 people's faces, it doesn't matter.

Now there is a time and place for it some games. But it shouldn't be an automatic every time. Look at Fox. Even when he has the ball, you never feel he is going to take the shot no matter what. That is what everyone knows Demar will do.

Yup

[NecessaryEvil]

#LowerTheBarForSarr

[TheGOATRises007]

The dumb turnovers under 2 minutes was disturbing. But this game was a loss from the beginning.

I think Coby is still having a bit of impostor syndrome. He's not comfortable (or don't know how) to be commanding. Look at De'Aaron Fox, that guy is burning with confidence and make everybody on the floor know that he means business. Coby is still "too nice". He needs to be commanding.

They should give him the keys.

DeMar and Vuc are polar opposites to Coby's strengths.

We should try to model our team on the Pacers(with better defense ideally). Pace and space.

We've got too many poor 3pt shooters on the court at all times.

[FriedRise]

The dumb turnovers under 2 minutes was disturbing. But this game was a loss from the beginning.

I think Coby is still having a bit of impostor syndrome. He's not comfortable (or don't know how) to be commanding. Look at De'Aaron Fox, that guy is burning with confidence and make everybody on the floor know that he means business. Coby is still "too nice". He needs to be commanding.

This is his first year with actual keys though. This is the pre ascension time period. Next year of fully Coby and team embracing and building with it, thats when you will hear real allstar buzz.

If he finishes the season avg 20/5/5 he is well on his way.

Fox is also a couple years older than Coby, though he's been leading his team for a while now. They handed him the keys in his 3rd season and they went through several years of misery - winning 39, 31, 31, and 30 games (how's that for continuity?). And that was with him playing similarly to how he's playing now.

They were the laughingstock of the league and more or less a mess of a team especially after fumbling that Bagley pick (wonder how we would judge AKME if they picked that high and the 3 guys immediately drafted after him are head and shoulders better). It wasn't until they traded for Sabonis and put together a real bench (Monk, Lyles, Huerter) that they started winning.

[Dan Z]

The dumb turnovers under 2 minutes was disturbing. But this game was a loss from the beginning.

I think Coby is still having a bit of impostor syndrome. He's not comfortable (or don't know how) to be commanding. Look at De'Aaron Fox, that guy is burning with confidence and make everybody on the floor know that he means business. Coby is still "too nice". He needs to be commanding.

This is his first year with actual keys though. This is the pre ascension time period. Next year of fully Coby and team embracing and building with it, thats when you will hear real allstar buzz.

If he finishes the season avg 20/5/5 he is well on his way.

Fox is also a couple years older than Coby, though he's been leading his team for a while now. They handed him the keys in his 3rd season and they went through several years of misery - winning 39, 31, 31, and 30 games (how's that for continuity?). And that was with him playing similarly to how he's playing now.

They were the laughingstock of the league and more or less a mess of a team especially after fumbling that Bagley pick (wonder how we would judge AKME if they picked that high and the 3 guys immediately drafted after him are head and shoulders better). It wasn't until they traded for Sabonis and put together a real bench (Monk, Lyles, Huerter) that they started winning.

Monte McNair is the current GM of the Kings and started the job in 2020. His first move was drafting Tyrese Haliburton. He later traded him for Sabonis. In 2021 he picked Davion Mitchell and in 2022 Keegan Murray. He also signed Monk and traded for Huerter.

The GM that picked Bagley (Vlade) is long gone.

[Mindcrime]

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[pipfan]

Please, trade Caruso and DDR-maybe Craig and Drummond too-build around Coby, Ayo, Phillips, Terry, Pwill and see what happens. Keep Vuc for stability, for now (and his value is low)

[Ice Man]

Disappointed. I thought a rested Bulls team would beat a good but not great Kings team that was playing Game 6 of a 10-day road trip. But the Kings stepped up despite their fatigue and we did not.

[Stratmaster]

IDK. I get trying to frame this as the dry hard Bulls and at least they battled back, etc.

But the team regressed back to exactly the way the season started. Fall behind by huge deficits. The other team lets up. The Bulls "get back in the game". Demar goes ISO. The team makes stupid turnovers. They come up short.

Rinse and repeat.

Sent from my SM-S911U using RealGM mobile app

[Wingy]

Disappointed. I thought a rested Bulls team would beat a good but not great Kings team that was playing Game 6 of a 10-day road trip. But the Kings stepped up despite their fatigue and we did not.

Including the dreaded 2nd night of a back-to-back, 3rd game in 4 nights. If they were rested, this probably would’ve been a near wire to wire blow out.

This is the all things even out part of the schedule, and we were on the opposite end early playing a really compacted schedule. This is where the Bulls might take advantage, but PWill’s loss hurts, and no - this particular squad isn’t better without Zach if forced to play together over a longer period of time. (But no one’s forcing your bum ass, AK).

They’re just not very good. The earlier run was against bad and/or injured opponents with Coby unsustainably shooting like he was the greatest shooter of all time.

[DuckIII]

This game was about not playing defense in the first half, not anything that happened later.

Easy game to analyze. Bulls were massively out talented by a healthy Kings team, Kings went cold and Bulls made a fun run, but couldn’t come all the way back against an obviously better team. The end.

I loved the game frankly. It was a lot of fun to watch them claw back. Kudos to the players in the second half.

[Wingy]

This game was about not playing defense in the first half, not anything that happened later.

Easy game to analyze. Bulls were massively out talented by a healthy Kings team, Kings went cold and Bulls made a fun run, but couldn’t come all the way back against an obviously better team. The end.

I loved the game frankly. It was a lot of fun to watch them claw back. Kudos to the players in the second half.

Gonna be a recurring theme. Schedule’s tough for a good stretch, and we’re outmanned. A lotta solid dudes on this squad who will play hard though.

Hoping AK falls ass backwards into the steal of the 2024 draft…basically all we got at this point.

[kodo]

Game was over by allowing 5 Trey Lyles 3s (on 5 shots) by halftime. Team isn't going anywhere regardless of who is healthy, who is rested. We don't defend the 3, and no team in the league is going far with that strategy in 2024. You can trade Lavine for KD, the problems are the same.

On the Fox/Sabonis P&R, we abandon all 3 shooters parked below the break.
- 3 people on Sabonis
- nobody on the left corner
- nobody on the right corner
- nobody on the sideline 3 at the break

Spoiler:

Here's how a normal NBA team defends the Fox/Sabonis P&R.
- You've still put an extra man on Sabonis
- all 3 below the break shooters have a defender near them
- the biggest C&S threat (Huerter) is played tight
- the only remaining shooter is above the break and 6' behind the 3P line

Spoiler:

[HearshotKDS]

In China for the new years and can only watch highlights after the fact. Too bad they couldn’t steal this one back, but it’s tough to feel too bad about the loss given how much of the teams payroll is injured. It’s tough to feel much of anything for this current iteration in fact. I’m grateful Coby and Ayo are giving us worthwhile minutes from the youth on the team it’s often the only thing that’s keeping me engaged.

[nekorajo]

There's such a double standard of Billy saying Lavine has to fit in by making fast decisions, either shoot the ball or pass it but don't have it stick in his hands, and then having Derozan walk the ball up and not even looking at another Bulls uniform or trying to run a play and just hoisting shot after shot.

Coby took 18 shots
Vucevic took 18 shots
Demar took 14 shots

You guys just make stuff up about Demar just to hate on him. He even had 6 assists. What’s the problem ? Is Demar not allowed to take shots anymore ?

Also when Coby dribble dribbles to go through people to score isn’t an issue ? That’s not “moving the ball”. I’m not complaining about that because at times the more talented players need to do that to score. It’s only a problem though if Derozan does it.

Demar has been encouraged to handle the ball more than Zach because he's less likely to turn it over. He's the team's security blanket.

But DeMar doesn't think like a team player, so ball movement suffers when he's the initiator, especially in the 4th Q.

Generally, I wouldn’t care if he took over 20 shots per game if the ball moved 1st. Vuc is a bigger problem than Demar IMO.

[nekorajo]

This game was about not playing defense in the first half, not anything that happened later.

Easy game to analyze. Bulls were massively out talented by a healthy Kings team, Kings went cold and Bulls made a fun run, but couldn’t come all the way back against an obviously better team. The end.

I loved the game frankly. It was a lot of fun to watch them claw back. Kudos to the players in the second half.

I enjoyed it too. This group has heart. Every win is a gift when $60+ million is missing from the roster. People need to set realistic expectations.