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Great win for Jerry, he's a very happy man.

Very successful season...

Low stakes but it's incredible that the Bulls haven't won a home postseason game since May 8, 2015, basically nine years. I know everyone basically hates the owner, GM and organization but I have enjoyed the fight of the squad this year and NEED a win over the Hawks on Wednesday. Gotta happen. Can't choke at the UC yet again.

This team has no juice. Like if you're going to keep Demar and build around him, don't you at least need to have a plan to go over .500? Does anyone even care if the Bulls make the playoffs? Do the players? I get natural competitive juices will kick in but this doesn't strike me as a team raging to play Boston.

A statement win that surely will strike fear into the souls of the Boston Celtics.

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burlydee wrote:This team has no juice. Like if you're going to keep Demar and build around him, don't you at least need to have a plan to go over .500? Does anyone even care if the Bulls make the playoffs? Do the players? I get natural competitive juices will kick in but this doesn't strike me as a team raging to play Boston.

The FO will point to the current iteration of the team as having a 33-29 record (No Zach, increased roles to Coby & Ayo) as a reason to run it back.

Is it a mediocre team? Sure but the current squad we watch night in and night out is a betting than 0.500 team. The biggest mistake they can make will be bringing Zach back next year.

burlydee wrote:This team has no juice. Like if you're going to keep Demar and build around him, don't you at least need to have a plan to go over .500? Does anyone even care if the Bulls make the playoffs? Do the players? I get natural competitive juices will kick in but this doesn't strike me as a team raging to play Boston.

The question is, will the Bulls have anyone left to play if they somehow got into the playoffs.

The players left either look gassed or are end of bench guys playing out of necessity.

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The team worked hard all year and now we have homecourt advantage…for the worse play in game.

Demar is such a horrible playoff performer, kinda doesn't matter if he's got gas or not. Last time were in the POs, he went from 28 ppg on 51% FG in the regular season to 21 ppg 41% FG in the playoffs.

Not that it matters vs Boston if Demar is 100% or not.

I have absolutely zero excitement for the playin game. The best thing about it is it will be the end of this awful season.

jordanwilliams6 wrote:

burlydee wrote:This team has no juice. Like if you're going to keep Demar and build around him, don't you at least need to have a plan to go over .500? Does anyone even care if the Bulls make the playoffs? Do the players? I get natural competitive juices will kick in but this doesn't strike me as a team raging to play Boston.

The FO will point to the current iteration of the team as having a 33-29 record (No Zach, increased roles to Coby & Ayo) as a reason to run it back.

Is it a mediocre team? Sure but the current squad we watch night in and night out is a betting than 0.500 team. The biggest mistake they can make will be bringing Zach back next year.

They might not have a choice but to keep Zach at least until the trade deadline (so he can showcase what he can do).

There are some redeemable young pieces on this team so I don't begrudge them for not burning it all down. Theoretically if you could surgically remove the $60 million in dead money sitting on the bench in Lavine and Ball (not even going to include Williams here) and add in an average amount of reasonably motivated talent equivalent to $60M to the roster you're probably looking at a 45-47ish win team.

Still no chance at a title and mostly treadmill but I kind of get the idea of wanting to cultivate young players like White, Ayo, Williams, Terry and such in a somewhat competitive environment.

Dan Z wrote:

jordanwilliams6 wrote:

burlydee wrote:This team has no juice. Like if you're going to keep Demar and build around him, don't you at least need to have a plan to go over .500? Does anyone even care if the Bulls make the playoffs? Do the players? I get natural competitive juices will kick in but this doesn't strike me as a team raging to play Boston.

The FO will point to the current iteration of the team as having a 33-29 record (No Zach, increased roles to Coby & Ayo) as a reason to run it back.

Is it a mediocre team? Sure but the current squad we watch night in and night out is a betting than 0.500 team. The biggest mistake they can make will be bringing Zach back next year.

They might not have a choice but to keep Zach at least until the trade deadline (so he can showcase what he can do).

Agreed. I don't think they have much of a choice other than to keep Zach (unless they straight up salary dump him).

I think Zach is here to stay as there aren't many teams out there that want his contract on the books, especially with his health and whether he can contribute to winning being a question mark.

Seeing as they aren't going to blow it up I'd like for them to see what the team can look like without DeMar and Zach as the main guy, not that I'm advocating for Zach to be the goto guy, but giving DeMar's touches to Zach and continuing to utilise Coby and Ayo in their roles would be interesting, if not, maybe Zach at least pumps up his trade value and the Bulls can get a young piece to build with back.

I've been back and forth on DeMar, but I think the Bulls need to move on, if they had other promising young pieces other than Coby and Ayo then I'd be fine keeping him on, but they don't.

Simpleton wrote:There are some redeemable young pieces on this team so I don't begrudge them for not burning it all down. Theoretically if you could surgically remove the $60 million in dead money sitting on the bench in Lavine and Ball (not even going to include Williams here) and add in an average amount of reasonably motivated talent equivalent to $60M to the roster you're probably looking at a 45-47ish win team.

Still no chance at a title and mostly treadmill but I kind of get the idea of wanting to cultivate young players like White, Ayo, Williams, Terry and such in a somewhat competitive environment.

Add Philips as well, too bad he got hurt but he was solid as a rookie and should get better.Then also have a draft pick coming up….

Muzbar wrote:

Dan Z wrote:

jordanwilliams6 wrote:The FO will point to the current iteration of the team as having a 33-29 record (No Zach, increased roles to Coby & Ayo) as a reason to run it back.

Is it a mediocre team? Sure but the current squad we watch night in and night out is a betting than 0.500 team. The biggest mistake they can make will be bringing Zach back next year.

They might not have a choice but to keep Zach at least until the trade deadline (so he can showcase what he can do).

Agreed. I don't think they have much of a choice other than to keep Zach (unless they straight up salary dump him).

I think Zach is here to stay as there aren't many teams out there that want his contract on the books, especially with his health and whether he can contribute to winning being a question mark.

Seeing as they aren't going to blow it up I'd like for them to see what the team can look like without DeMar and Zach as the main guy, not that I'm advocating for Zach to be the goto guy, but giving DeMar's touches to Zach and continuing to utilise Coby and Ayo in their roles would be interesting, if not, maybe Zach at least pumps up his trade value and the Bulls can get a young piece to build with back.

I've been back and forth on DeMar, but I think the Bulls need to move on, if they had other promising young pieces other than Coby and Ayo then I'd be fine keeping him on, but they don't.

Zach would have gotten traded if it wasn’t for the surgery. He ll be back to playing way before training camp so a deal is possible in the offseason.

On Demar he’s 95% re signing and staying in Chicago.Bulls want him and he loves being a Bull.

If the Bulls would just trade Lavine for some frontcourt help, they'd be a much better team. Even a three team trade, getting John Collins and Omer Yurtseven, would be better than running it back with Zach. He is a losing player. Just consider him a sunk cost and get him out of Chicago.

Red8911 wrote:

Muzbar wrote:

Dan Z wrote:
They might not have a choice but to keep Zach at least until the trade deadline (so he can showcase what he can do).

Agreed. I don't think they have much of a choice other than to keep Zach (unless they straight up salary dump him).

I think Zach is here to stay as there aren't many teams out there that want his contract on the books, especially with his health and whether he can contribute to winning being a question mark.

Seeing as they aren't going to blow it up I'd like for them to see what the team can look like without DeMar and Zach as the main guy, not that I'm advocating for Zach to be the goto guy, but giving DeMar's touches to Zach and continuing to utilise Coby and Ayo in their roles would be interesting, if not, maybe Zach at least pumps up his trade value and the Bulls can get a young piece to build with back.

I've been back and forth on DeMar, but I think the Bulls need to move on, if they had other promising young pieces other than Coby and Ayo then I'd be fine keeping him on, but they don't.

Zach would have gotten traded if it wasn’t for the surgery. He ll be back to playing way before training camp so a deal is possible in the offseason.

On Demar he’s 95% re signing and staying in Chicago.Bulls want him and he loves being a Bull.

He loves the money we are hopefully NOT paying him. Not sure he loves Chicago.

Chuck Everett wrote:If the Bulls would just trade Lavine for some frontcourt help, they'd be a much better team. Even a three team trade, getting John Collins and Omer Yurtseven, would be better than running it back with Zach. He is a losing player. Just consider him a sunk cost and get him out of Chicago.

The Bulls are basically a 0.500 team with Lavine and Ball giving them nothing. They have a hard cap at the LT barrier and 1/3 of their salary isn't in the state.

I'm guessing the Bulls are thinking that if they can turn Lavine and Ball's salaries into productive players they could at least get into the 40's for wins, which seems to be their end goal.

And yeah, an athletic defensive PF that can hit an open 3 should be high on that list.

So, our best games came from a 35 year old who has no real future on a rebuilding team and a 33 year old whom everybody wants gone. We are so effed.