Who isn't mad at Arturas?

[nekorajo]

I'm not, at least not because of the trade deadline.

It seems like group think has taken over Bulls fans. I thought the initial hiring of Arturas was over-celebrated when he had proven nothing here yet. Now it seems like most fans are overreacting in the opposite direction.

I remember people complaining about GarPax having a plan, stating that plan but not following that plan. Enter Arturas who's been consistent with his ideology. He's not willing to step backwards in order to potentially move forward. He doesn't want to rely on building with high draft picks based on the team sucking. This was clear from the beginning when the majority liked AKME.

This team, even with significant injuries to its best players, has outperformed the team they inherited. So why are his ex supporters so mad all of the sudden? Last year's trade deadline was more significant, and there was barely a peep when Arturas made no moves. He's sticking to his guns. Isn't that what people wanted? It seems like all Bulls GMs/Presidents are doomed to being despised.

I've never been an Arturas guy. I still trust Pax's eye for roster balance more. But it quickly became clear that AK hit it out of the park when they added Zo, Demar and Caruso.

Unfortunately, Zo's injury tied his hands. Then Zach's surgery tied them again.

In my opinion, this summer is a more appropriate time to judge Arturas, because his hands will be untied for the 1st time in 3 years. Demar comes off the books. Healthy Zach should be tradable, and Zo will either be healthy or a great contract to leverage. Until then, I'll be enjoying watching this team play with heart.

[DuckIII]

You can add Vuc and Mark Eversley.

[nomorezorro]

(watching a dude piss in his own face for three consecutive years) look, you have to respect the fact that he's consistent with his ideology

[League Circles]

I'm not mad at AK because I don't get mad at the producers of television shows when they aren't my favorite show.

[Repeat 3-peat]

There is a lot of things wrong you can point towards with this team. AK is just easy to blame and to target(yes, he earned it)

[Hangtime84]

You don’t get praise from me when you trade away future all nba player and sign a guy who injury history was worst than Anthony Davis at same point in his career.

That same future all nba player played the biggest hole in the roster and addressed the biggest need from a shot profile perspective.

Now his free agency initial signings were on point outside of ball. He has to find talent with low margins of error now. Memphis has done this year with GG and Miami did it 2 seasons ago.

All acquisitions at point must count. And they have the length of Coby’s contract to pull it off.

[madvillian]

Ask yourself, from when they were hired, are we any closer to a consistent, 50 win team that can compete for if not a title, at least make a conference finals?

The answer is clearly no. Well what about assets? If the team isn't very good, maybe they've done a good job positioning us for the future?

Another clear no. We'd be better off with Lauri, WCJR and Franz Wagner than Vuc, DDR and Zach if we're talking next few years and further.

I give them credit for the initial push to reconfigure the team after taking over, but everything since then has been a disaster.

[DuckIII]

All acquisitions at point must count. And they have the length of Coby’s contract to pull it off.

You want to give AKME two and half more years before you decide?

[nekorajo]

There is a lot of things wrong you can point towards with this team. AK is just easy to blame and to target(yes, he earned it)

No PF, resigning Billy, 2 draft picks for Vuc and Aminu, resigning Vuc, trading Gafford, roster imbalance, etc. I get it, and agree. But some people are saying they wanted him to "at least trade Drummond." Not trading Drummond was the straw? That doesn't make sense to me. The collective Bulls fan emotional pendulum is swinging in a right direction, but surprisingly fast all of the sudden. In my opinion.

[League Circles]

Ask yourself, from when they were hired, are we any closer to a consistent, 50 win team that can compete for if not a title, at least make a conference finals?

The answer is clearly no. Well what about assets? If the team isn't very good, maybe they've done a good job positioning us for the future?

Another clear no. We'd be better off with Lauri, WCJR and Franz Wagner than Vuc, DDR and Zach if we're talking next few years and further.

I give them credit for the initial push to reconfigure the team after taking over, but everything since then has been a disaster.

We're obviously closer. When they took over we were hot garbage. Demar, Caruso and Coby are all better than anyone on that team was. Ball was too when healthy, and of course Zach has improved.

If you want to play the franz wagner game we can do that all day with every team. Might as well do it with guys like Jokic, SGA etc than Franz **** Wagner.

[GoBlue72391]

I agree about the hiring of AKME being over celebrated when it first happened.

Everyone was glazing them because they were

1. not GarPax

2. new

3. doing the most basic common sense moves like firing Jim Boylen

There was definitely an element of group think to instantly anointing AKME as the saviors, and the same thing will happen when/if we fire AKME and hire someone else.

How about going in with a neutral view of the new GM and letting their moves over the course of a year or two shape your opinion on them?

But it's not group think to be dissatisfied with the current state of the team, it's completely justified. We're a laughing stock and we're either going to lose our key assets for nothing, trade them at their lowest value for peanuts, or extend aging and declining players to bloated contracts...and all for a likely 1st round exit, if we even make it that far.

We're in NBA hell.

[Little_Bill]

Life is all about perspective,
The sinking of the Titanic was a miracle to the lobsters in the ship’s kitchen.

[League Circles]

The level of confidence people have in how good or bad a team is and/or can be is truly baffling. They play the games so we can find out. The Bulls are indeed a competitive team. Not fulfilling or satisfying as a fan, but infinitely better than being garbage. I honestly can't believe the conviction people have when we've seen multiple teams of similar performance to ours in the last few years make conference or nba finals.

There's few nba teams that we CAN'T beat. We probably won't advance to the 2nd round, but it's not obvious IMO. Except probably against Boston.

[League Circles]

People are really struggling to understand NBA parity IMO.

[nekorajo]

Ask yourself, from when they were hired, are we any closer to a consistent, 50 win team that can compete for if not a title, at least make a conference finals?

The answer is clearly no. Well what about assets? If the team isn't very good, maybe they've done a good job positioning us for the future?

Another clear no. We'd be better off with Lauri, WCJR and Franz Wagner than Vuc, DDR and Zach if we're talking next few years and further.

I give them credit for the initial push to reconfigure the team after taking over, but everything since then has been a disaster.

Yes, our record has been closer the previous team every season. And that's without the smartest and arguably the best player Arturas brought in, Lonzo.

I think a disaster would have been being as bad as the Spurs last year and not owning our pick. Things have been bad, but they could have been worse. That said I'm not happy or even satisfied with the direction of this team either. I'm just not ready to break out the pitchfork until this summer.

[nekorajo]

Life is all about perspective,
The sinking of the Titanic was a miracle to the lobsters in the ship’s kitchen.

That sir was gold. Hilarious

[ChettheJet]

Sorry, more than 50 years a Bulls fan not the worst, not screwing up constantly. Disappointed that he thinks this group can get somewhere, like to the second round. He assembled a very veteran team. Lavine, DeRozan, Vucevic, Caruso, Carter, Craig, Drummond are never going to be better than they are right now. They are going to be starting too many 30+ year old guys to not be out of the top 4 in the playoffs. If Lonzo returns he could be what he was those first few games.

They need to get younger not add more old slow guys. Get some size at the PF spot and it may be painful but they need to pare down the guard position. They need to add 2 long athletic get out and run bigs. Get Pat to the starting SF

They're counting on Coby now, Ayo is definitely improving, but Billy isn't in a position to turn Patrick loose and won't even start him. Terry remains a maybe and Phillips needs to play.

maybe AKME can fix what's wrong and get higher, they've got the free hand to do it,now DO IT. Or watch the next 2 guys run the club

[FriedRise]

Obviously it'd be awesome, but I could care less if the Bulls win a championship. I'm more or less fine having something that can be a fun 2.5hr distraction every other night and even more hours spent on here, Reddit, Twitter, podcasts, post-game shows, etc.

It's an entertainment, I can never get mad at it. And podcasters / you guys losing your **** over yesterday was also plenty entertainment lol.

Though I'll say that the 5-14 start did suck because THAT team was not entertaining. I was strongly considering clearing out my nights the rest of the season because the product they were putting on just wasn't worth my time. They were just lifeless. But since then? They've been alright. They've now more or less maintained the Lonzo Bulls and the infamous 14-9 win rate for a non-insignificant 33-game stretch. Every season these guys have this kind of stretch of playing good basketball - is this true for every team? The common denominator I can think of is it's crazy what a good PG can do to a team.

In the macro sense, I can't be worrying about this team's future or what moves they need or could to be making, etc. when the people in charge clearly aren't. So I just take it for what it is, roll with it, and focus on what's interesting.. like for this year, Coby taking a leap and incremental growth to Pat and Ayo.

[greenl]

Not mad. Surprised they could be this obtuse. But it doesn't upset me. Bulls run their organization like a middle market team and almost always have. They lead the league in attendance. TV ratings are healthy. There is no real reason to threaten either of those with a re-build. The cost savings of having a young, cheap, bad roster would likely be quickly offset by the loss of ad revenue and ticket sales- frustrating as that may be for those who want a more entertaining product.

I've mostly tried to emotionally divorce myself from the outcome for awhile. Barring lottery luck- there doesn't look like any path to a highly competitive team for quite a few years.

[madvillian]

Ask yourself, from when they were hired, are we any closer to a consistent, 50 win team that can compete for if not a title, at least make a conference finals?

The answer is clearly no. Well what about assets? If the team isn't very good, maybe they've done a good job positioning us for the future?

Another clear no. We'd be better off with Lauri, WCJR and Franz Wagner than Vuc, DDR and Zach if we're talking next few years and further.

I give them credit for the initial push to reconfigure the team after taking over, but everything since then has been a disaster.

We're obviously closer. When they took over we were hot garbage. Demar, Caruso and Coby are all better than anyone on that team was. Ball was too when healthy, and of course Zach has improved.

If you want to play the franz wagner game we can do that all day with every team. Might as well do it with guys like Jokic, SGA etc than Franz **** Wagner.

There is absolutely zero value in going from 25 wins to 35-38. Not for the fans, and not for the team short or long term. They don't get any credit for taking a horrible team and making them borderline mediocre while hemorrhaging long term assets like WCJR, the 7th pick (since you're so hung up on it being Franz, we'll just say it's an asset) and so on and on to get to 38 wins and a play in loss yearly.

We have one path to being a good team: White or Pat turning into a superstar. The odds of that are about .5%, at best. We have no draft assets, no foundation of young players that we expect to grow together, we just have a couple young guys that were inherited from the Gar Pax era that we are praying turn into stars.

We have a below average starting center locked up on a massive overpay, our two best players, one is a malcontent that is chronically injured, the other is an aging player that will need an overpay to stay, who is suited to a style of basketball that we can't win with long term.

There's no there there! WTF. Who the hell would give AKME anything other than a D or F?