Bulls vs Bucks 9pm CT

[MrSparkle]

Excluding the Windy City Bulls (Sanogo and Drell), the Bulls have 3 guys over 6’8 on the roster: Phillips, Drummond, Vuc. 2 very slow footed bigs who can’t keep up with the perimeter or pace of today’s NBA.

We miss their size, but none of the injured guys are even over 6’7 (Pat, Craig, Lonzo, Zach).

That is absolutely insane. It’s like AKME keep intentionally building a tier 2 college squad. I always think back to the Illini/Tar Heel final, where Deron/Dee/Luther were beaten by the less disciplined, less skilled but bigger Felton/McCants/May group.

It’s stupid coming in with such a handicap. I’ve always preferred bigger teams, whether it be the 2011 Bulls with our favorite Keith Bogans manning SG (finally a proper sized SG defender, after years of BG/Kirk mini ball), the 90s Bulls, or these huge ass Nuggets lineups.

This team has a lot of built in handicaps (shooting, size, athleticism).

[Chi town]

Chippy game yes and the refs were obviously very one-sided, but that's nothing new against the Bucks. It honestly should've been expected.

We have 2 PFs on the roster and both of them are out injured, so letting Giannis do what he did was inevitable. The thing that lost them the game were DeMar and Vooch losing their composure and letting Bobby Portis get under their skin. It was an 8pt game early in the 4th and the Bucks only had gotten Giannis going. Everybody else on the Bucks was off. That was a game that would've gone down to the wire if the refs didn't do their thing.

Yep. Continuity of losing brought to you by Vuc and DDR.

[Chi town]

We're definitely missing Williams and Craig, but even then a glaring omission from this roster is that 6'10 athletic F/C type.

Given how much they believed in Ayo based on his contract (and were right), they should have used Carter's money on whomever the best PF available was. Maybe Phillips develops quickly and is that guy next year already, but maybe he doesn't develop at all too.

Either way, we've always had very poor roster balance. It seems like they just believe in playing with a variety of big guard but no real size. Against the non elite PFs, that philosophy probably works pretty well.

Niang over Carter and this team looks quite better.

[MrSparkle]

We're definitely missing Williams and Craig, but even then a glaring omission from this roster is that 6'10 athletic F/C type.

Given how much they believed in Ayo based on his contract (and were right), they should have used Carter's money on whomever the best PF available was. Maybe Phillips develops quickly and is that guy next year already, but maybe he doesn't develop at all too.

Either way, we've always had very poor roster balance. It seems like they just believe in playing with a variety of big guard but no real size. Against the non elite PFs, that philosophy probably works pretty well.

Niang over Carter and this team looks quite better.

I don't know how much better, he's had some decline, but Demar and Coby would benefit from any spacing.

I wonder if the Vuc-handicap prevents the FO from bothering with any concrete-booted stretch PFs. There's no way you could play a Niang, Vuc and Demar together without watching the other team get some 10-second 3P looks.

The other frustration with the whole Vuc marriage. Giving up offensive options and flexibility at forward, to maintain a competent defense. What do we get in exchange? +0.4 offense?

Guarantee that moving Vuc would be addition-by-subtraction. Between the sinking digits and the 27% 3P, the sub-500 CEILING, it's hard sticking with him another year. I mean, I know AK will. But for fans, it's brutal, unless a top-5 pick was the prize.

But yeah- I think that's why Strus, Niang, Bertans and whatever other desperate idea you could come up with for a 3P shooter ... is off the table. The shooter needs to be a great defender, and apparently OG is worth a farm.

[Hangtime84]

Strus wanted to come here but we chose Vuc

[kodo]

I wonder if the Vuc-handicap prevents the FO from bothering with any concrete-booted stretch PFs. There's no way you could play a Niang, Vuc and Demar together without watching the other team get some 10-second 3P looks.

While I would agree, our primary goal 2 years ago was Danilo Gallinari, and we tried to get him again this deadline.

Trotting out a Coby, Lavine, Derozan, Gallinari, Vucevic starting 5 would have been something to behold on the defensive side. Yet that was Plan A for AK.