AK has “green light” to rebuild - doesn’t wanna

[Dan Z]

To the people that want to "rebuild" (which means tank if anyone is remotely honest with themselves), we've already achieved the outcome of that. We have a young star without flaws that is locked up on a cheap deal. Coby is ABSOLUTELY equivalent at this point, on his contract, to having a top 1-3 draft pick, which is better than you get when you "achieve" the worst record in the league. We already struck gold from an underperforming mine and people want to keep digging instead of cash in.

A rebuild doesn't have to be a similar situation to what the "Process" Sixers did. They can pivot while thinking about the future. For example, the Mavs last year knew that their season wasn't going anywhere, so they did what they could during the later part of the year to get the best pick possible. Then they took the #10 pick and traded it for the #12 (Dereck Lively) while shedding salary in the process (Bertans).

What does Coby have to do with the upcoming draft? He's a good player, but isn't a superstar and the team still needs more talent around him.

[Infinity2152]

Bro, believe me, i wish the Bulls had more success over the last couple of years too. Way I look at is this: coming in as a new GM with a directive to win and a 25 pt scorer already on the team, you can do two things, either throw the farm and TRY to get an A+, 1A type player, or get two A-B+ players and build around that.

I will part ways with you immediately. There is no evidence that when interviewing GM candidates the FO gave them a directive to start winning immediately. What we do know as reported is that getting better immediately was the plan AK presented when interviewing.

Since that appears to be the foundation for your opinion, there’s not a lot to discuss.

They made a LOT of small moves that helped this team and gave the young guys time to grow. The team is playing at a winning pace currently while missing two starters. Yet AKME is being called the worst GM in the league and in Bulls history, literally.

Including specifically by me.

I'll part with you after this. A brand new GM came in and signed major veteran free agent contracts and made huge trades immediately. The same guy is credited with being a huge part of turning Denver into winners. There's far more evidence to suggest win now than rebuild or any other directive.

I'm sure the owners were ready to throw AK a party and sign a 10 year contract when we vaulted to #1 seed in the East.

And you're taking it personally, never said you called him one of the worst GM's or didn't acknowledge his good moves. If the bullet wasn't aimed at you, why jump in front of it? Was talking about the general imbalance, not ANYBODY specifically. See a lot of AKME hate, just presenting a counter viewpoint. Glass can be half empty and half full at the same time.

[RSP83]

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[othawhitemeat]

It’s crazy that AKME is actually a downgrade from GarPax. Just let that sink in for a minute.

It’s really not. Gar may have been a Grade A tool, and when Pax stepped back Gar was a huge failure, but Pax and “GarPax” ranged from average/competent to downright very good, depending on the time frame.

It’s just that they weren’t great. And indeed we ultimately did need to go in a different direction. But it was always a major risk - and in my opinion a likelihood - that their replacement would be worse.

Which happened.

The “crazy” part is that the replacement is infinitely worse, rather than just simply worse. I never expected to end up with the worst FO in franchise history and arguably the worst in the NBA.

Gar sucked. Pax was a B level GM that only needed to take mores risks to be an A. Pax had to me an elite mind in scouting but just unsure of self in getting the stars. Gar sucked.

[League Circles]

It’s crazy that AKME is actually a downgrade from GarPax. Just let that sink in for a minute.

It’s really not. Gar may have been a Grade A tool, and when Pax stepped back Gar was a huge failure, but Pax and “GarPax” ranged from average/competent to downright very good, depending on the time frame.

It’s just that they weren’t great. And indeed we ultimately did need to go in a different direction. But it was always a major risk - and in my opinion a likelihood - that their replacement would be worse.

Which happened.

The “crazy” part is that the replacement is infinitely worse, rather than just simply worse. I never expected to end up with the worst FO in franchise history and arguably the worst in the NBA.

Gar sucked. Pax was a B level GM that only needed to take mores risks to be an A. Pax had to me an elite mind in scouting but just unsure of self in getting the stars. Gar sucked.

I personally don't ever think Gar was calling any important final decisions ever that Paxson disagreed with (enough to veto Gar, which although Paxson said he couldn't do, I firmly believe he always could and probably often did). To me Gar was the Eversley of his time. But IF you treat Gar as the decision maker during his time, he was pretty obviously more successful than Paxson, amd he has the executive of the year award to prove it lol. For me, 2003-2020 was the Paxson show.

[Michael Jackson]

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But are they still a play-in team? Where is Ball is he finally healthy?

[DuckIII]

It’s crazy that AKME is actually a downgrade from GarPax. Just let that sink in for a minute.

It’s extremely depressing to think of how much better off we would be if they just kept GarPax. Given their deep infatuation with Iowa State, GarPax probably would have drafted Halliburton. It’s not crazy to think the Bulls’ current team could have been Coby, Halliburton, Lavine, Wagner, Markkanen plus future picks and cap flexibility.

Had AK done absolutely nothing other than sign his existing players and use his picks, even the way he used them on Pat and Terry which were both mistakes, we would be in an immeasurably better place today than we are.

You know your job performance is low when your employer would be better off if you had played Golf Clash instead.

[PJSteven22]

Question: Isn't rebuild exactly what he's done? Since he's been here we have a different PG, SF, PF, and center and completely revamped bench. If you change pretty much every player except two, how is that not rebuilding a team? People just don't like what he's rebuilt it to, but the idea he won't change the team is insane. Most of the current Bulls have been added the past three years, many have 2 years or less.

The Bulls haven't traded an active player on the roster in 30 months. Traded Larry Nance Jr. for Derrick Jones Jr.

They absolutely rebuilt the team 3 years ago. They've literally done nothing since then. And that's after seeing the team perform at a mediocre (at best) level for 2 years. They deserve all the blame coming to them.

They completely rebuilt the team.The team was playing great then Ball got injured. Ball was supposed to be coming back, we had to give him the chance, since we're still paying him $20 mill. So get rid of everyone else the very next year because the team is not performing up to par minus a critical starter? They've done a lot since then given their cap constraints, but big free agent moves were out of the question. That leaves trades. Trade players you just added and getting back less sounds like going backwards, especially when the main problem, the $20 mill hole in our cap still exists. Trade Lavine or Debo for bums and picks last year, that team is still not contending and still not bottoming out either. So they've done quite a few small moves to work around it. I wouldn't call adding Beverly, Caruso, Drummond, Craig, Carter doing nothing, those are good players. The team guys want us to have now, all draft picks and prospects, none of them are joining that team in free agency or if bought out.

Funny how they take so much crap for overpaying Zach, but get no credit for the great deals they got on Coby White, Caruso, and Drummond. If all four (Zach, Coby, Caruso, Drummond) were all paid their market value, the cap total between the four is probably close to the same, maybe less.

Most GMs do that. They don’t deserve recognition for it.

[Bandit King]

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But are they still a play-in team? Where is Ball is he finally healthy?

Ball will finally be healthy!!!

[SalmonsSuperfan]

It’s crazy that AKME is actually a downgrade from GarPax. Just let that sink in for a minute.

I don't think it's that crazy, Pax was actually very good at his job. to this day I still don't exactly know what Gar did...talk to people at Iowa State? Be our whipping boy on this forum? I guess he was a pretty useful scout, I don't know who to credit for GarPax's generally good draft record, but boy we sure used to hit on a lot of draft picks. AK probably drafts michael beasley and later trades the mirotic/butler picks + taj, another pick for jj redick or if he's lucky arron afflalo.

damn, just imagine if this guy could be trusted to draft useful players anywhere in the draft at even half the level as garpax. that mirotic/butler draft would be the best thing AK does in his career. the team sold him to the fanbase as the guy who scouted jokic and thus is gonna find diamonds in the rough and he brings us patrick williams, trades the rest of our useful picks for vucevic and adds useless first rounders. Ayo was a good pick but then they give Simonovic the contract they should've given him. Ayo could be making 1/5 of what he makes right now and that's probably a very useful trade asset to add into a deal without worrying too much about matching salaries.

i've said it before, but the decisions this front office has made has really turned me off the bulls. i've watched like 4 games this year when i'm typically good for 40 at this point in the season. so many bad decisions and the ones that I thought were good ideas turned out to be terrible ones. as far as I can tell, the only "good" decision that AK made that other teams wouldn't was signing caruso. and instead of leveraging his value, his contract is going to expire playing for a 10th seed. it's like AK isn't thinking about the present or the future, so what the hell is his plan? the ball/derozan/lavine/vuc idea clearly failed, it's time to move on or it should be time for him to a find a new job.

[leo921]

Even when he does something good AK screws up. Just look at White/Ayo
Signs both to great contracts White 11m per and Ayo for 7m per we should be so happy right?

Nope he only signed them for 3 years I'm guessing to lineup there contracts with Vuc. So guess
what? White/Ayo only have great contracts for 2 more years after this season. My next guess is
that we are going to give DDR a 2 year extension so DDR/Vuc/White/Ayo all expire at the same time
then we will "rebuild" as we gave continuity a chance.

[MrSparkle]

Even when he does something good AK screws up. Just look at White/Ayo
Signs both to great contracts White 11m per and Ayo for 7m per we should be so happy right?

Nope he only signed them for 3 years I'm guessing to lineup there contracts with Vuc. So guess
what? White/Ayo only have great contracts for 2 more years after this season. My next guess is
that we are going to give DDR a 2 year extension so DDR/Vuc/White/Ayo all expire at the same time
then we will "rebuild" as we gave continuity a chance.

Why would Coby and Ayo locks themselves into sub-MLE money going into their young primes? It was not in their best interests to take a 4y deal at the lowest end of their market.

[leo921]

Even when he does something good AK screws up. Just look at White/Ayo
Signs both to great contracts White 11m per and Ayo for 7m per we should be so happy right?

Nope he only signed them for 3 years I'm guessing to lineup there contracts with Vuc. So guess
what? White/Ayo only have great contracts for 2 more years after this season. My next guess is
that we are going to give DDR a 2 year extension so DDR/Vuc/White/Ayo all expire at the same time
then we will "rebuild" as we gave continuity a chance.

Why would Coby and Ayo locks themselves into sub-MLE money going into their young primes? It was not in their best interests to take a 4y deal at the lowest end of their market.

Then you talk to them and make a deal like White hey i know your willing to sign a 3yr/11m per deal what about 4 yrs at
14m per, I bet he would've took it. Same thing with Ayo hey your willing to sign 3 yrs for 7m per how about 4 yrs 10m per.
Locking up good players on value players helps your cap and it helps them as assets to get something bigger and better
down the line.

[League Circles]

Even when he does something good AK screws up. Just look at White/Ayo
Signs both to great contracts White 11m per and Ayo for 7m per we should be so happy right?

Nope he only signed them for 3 years I'm guessing to lineup there contracts with Vuc. So guess
what? White/Ayo only have great contracts for 2 more years after this season. My next guess is
that we are going to give DDR a 2 year extension so DDR/Vuc/White/Ayo all expire at the same time
then we will "rebuild" as we gave continuity a chance.

Why would Coby and Ayo locks themselves into sub-MLE money going into their young primes? It was not in their best interests to take a 4y deal at the lowest end of their market.

Then you talk to them and make a deal like White hey i know your willing to sign a 3yr/11m per deal what about 4 yrs at
14m per, I bet he would've took it. Same thing with Ayo hey your willing to sign 3 yrs for 7m per how about 4 yrs 10m per.
Locking up good players on value players helps your cap and it helps them as assets to get something bigger and better
down the line.

The thing is, it was far from a given that even the 3 year deals would end up being good for the Bulls. Coby only played well towards the latter part of last season, and Ayo had a poor season. Ayo at 10 million/year even now looks like a probable overpay.

[Muzbar]

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But are they still a play-in team? Where is Ball is he finally healthy?

Oh they'll be trying!!!

Ball will be on his 5th hip replacement and would have played 40 games with the team since he first signed here...

[Michael Jackson]

Read on Twitter

But are they still a play-in team? Where is Ball is he finally healthy?

Oh they'll be trying!!!

Ball will be on his 5th hip replacement and would have played 40 games with the team since he first signed here...

He will hit the game winner to move to the second round of the play-in of which they will then lose. Somehow Vuc stays healthy and has the most minutes games played.

[Muzbar]

But are they still a play-in team? Where is Ball is he finally healthy?

Oh they'll be trying!!!

Ball will be on his 5th hip replacement and would have played 40 games with the team since he first signed here...

He will hit the game winner to move to the second round of the play-in of which they will then lose. Somehow Vuc stays healthy and has the most minutes games played.

Wow. Someone's very optimistic.

Good for you!

[MrSparkle]

Even when he does something good AK screws up. Just look at White/Ayo
Signs both to great contracts White 11m per and Ayo for 7m per we should be so happy right?

Nope he only signed them for 3 years I'm guessing to lineup there contracts with Vuc. So guess
what? White/Ayo only have great contracts for 2 more years after this season. My next guess is
that we are going to give DDR a 2 year extension so DDR/Vuc/White/Ayo all expire at the same time
then we will "rebuild" as we gave continuity a chance.

Why would Coby and Ayo locks themselves into sub-MLE money going into their young primes? It was not in their best interests to take a 4y deal at the lowest end of their market.

Then you talk to them and make a deal like White hey i know your willing to sign a 3yr/11m per deal what about 4 yrs at
14m per, I bet he would've took it. Same thing with Ayo hey your willing to sign 3 yrs for 7m per how about 4 yrs 10m per.
Locking up good players on value players helps your cap and it helps them as assets to get something bigger and better
down the line.

They weren't worth that money before this season, and I think it's disingenuous to think a GM could 100% predict a players' future production.

There is literally no problem with the contracts they got. They were very fair, on the low end of what most expected, and if Coby/Ayo deserve massive pay-raises in 2025/26, that's a good problem to have. If they got 4y deals, then the same issue would happen exactly 1 off-season later, so this is called a nothing-burger.

[PaKii94]

If we are going to remain "competitive" we need to follow this model

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?s=20

[jnrjr79]

If we are going to remain "competitive" we need to follow this model

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?s=20

Great. We just need to draft a 2nd rounder that becomes as good as Jokic, but if that doesn't work, the backup plan is to draft a Giannis-level player at 15.