RealGM

Just wondering who everyone thinks has been the biggest detriment to success this season. I left these guys out of the poll for these reasons:

AK - too many people would vote for him and make the discussion boring lol
Drummond, Coby, Caruso, Ayo etc (too good for too little money to be plausible choices)


The contenders:
Vuc (my pick, has been atrocious for our offense and defense and has a significant contract to boot)
Demar (a skilled scorer and leader, but play style may cause some to vote for him)
Zach (injuries, poor play this year, and huge contract)
Carter (just terrible, not insignificant contract)
Ball (big talent and contract, doesn't play due to injuries)
Donovan (a few positives but lots of shortcomings)

Seeing as the Vuc trade opened an entire can of worms (losing a great potential pick in Franz, and another lotto pick... less urgency resigning or finding better trade value for Lauri, Gafford, Wendell)... and we're stuck with one of the highest usage, lowest percentage, least efficient Cs in the game with the biggest defensive deficiencies... it's like the cancer that keeps spreading. There's going to be no happy ending. Just a huge sunk cost.

MrSparkle wrote:Seeing as the Vuc trade opened an entire can of worms (losing a great potential pick in Franz, and another lotto pick... less urgency resigning or finding better trade value for Lauri, Gafford, Wendell)... and we're stuck with one of the highest usage, lowest percentage, least efficient Cs in the game with the biggest defensive deficiencies... it's like the cancer that keeps spreading. There's going to be no happy ending. Just a huge sunk cost.

Franz is not a franchise player just a nice third option on a championship team and Jett Howard is a bust

Ownership

it's Vuc by a longshot for me. And not even the whole Vuc experience (trading picks for him, etc.)

Just Vuc on the floor this season.

Drummond is a +26 on the year. Vucevic is -198 on the year. Per StatMuse.

He's one of the most inefficient players in the entire league, is a bad defender.

I don't think it can be pinned on a single player. We would be able to overcome Vuc's shortcomings if we weren't so tiny at the 4 spot and just lacking size as a whole. We have two playable guys who are over 6'6" and one of them just got injured. That's actually wild.

We could go out next year, get rid of Vuc, and replace him with a more modern C and that would definitely help, but our core problems would remain.

We have $70M of our cap space tied up in disabled players, that is far more detrimental than any one player or coach.

We have no high-end talent south of 30. Our young players are good, solid contributors but all have relatively low ceilings.

Our roster construction is just dogsht and doesn't complement each other.

But ultimately ownership and the front office are by far our biggest problems.

First, where is AK on that list, that's the obvious problem. By extension, missing a Ball (or having $20M sitting out) was a source of pain for this team this season.

It’s AK. I refuse to be bound.

DuckIII wrote:It’s AK. I refuse to be bound.

The reason I omitted him and why it's so utterly boring to entertain the idea that it's him are as follows:

1. Everyone knows that most posters feel he's the biggest problem
2. It's logical to always blame the executive for team failures because the executive always choses the players and coaches
3. This website is called RealGM instead of RealOwner for a reason. We mostly enjoy analyzing roster construction, in effect playing GM. So let's just treat it as "which of AK's mistakes was our biggest detriment this year?". That's ALWAYS the question if you include management with players and coaches.

Some people must expect Vuc to be Jokic. Look he's no worse on defense than DeRozan, at least as able as Lavine, when the three of them were playing, the defense couldn't be seen. Considering he hasn't played with a respectable 6-9 or more PF basically while here, at least he rebounds the ball.

I took Zach mainly because he didn't play much but I think he more than Demar would buy into the pass the ball when you're covered and trust the other guys to make a wide open shot. Plus they really miss his 3 point shooting, if they were playing the 28 assists type game he and Patrick would have made this a different team, and I think them being healthy was part of what the run it back plan counted on.

ChettheJet wrote:Some people must expect Vuc to be Jokic. Look he's no worse on defense than DeRozan, at least as able as Lavine, when the three of them were playing, the defense couldn't be seen. Considering he hasn't played with a respectable 6-9 or more PF basically while here, at least he rebounds the ball.

I took Zach mainly because he didn't play much but I think he more than Demar would buy into the pass the ball when you're covered and trust the other guys to make a wide open shot. Plus they really miss his 3 point shooting, if they were playing the 28 assists type game he and Patrick would have made this a different team, and I think them being healthy was part of what the run it back plan counted on.

Even if Vuc is as bad as Demar on defense, which I think is questionable considering Vuc plays the most important position on defense, Vuc's offense has been extremely bad this year. He's shooting way below league average efficiency on lots of open shots.

1. Ownership
2. AKME

HoopsterJones wrote:1. Ownership
2. AKME

Add Vucevic for good measure, we gotta please the OP.

jacoby1us wrote:

HoopsterJones wrote:1. Ownership
2. AKME

Add Vucevic for good measure, we gotta please the OP.

It’s implied by AKME (roster construction).

Vuc trade can still be a mistake, recognized as such, and then minimized. But as I posted in another thread, Vuc gets more P&R opportunities than any other center in this league which is wild when considering he's the league worst P&R screener either rolling to the basket with soft hooks & fadeaways or popping for that sweet 29% 3P.

I think it's a chicken and the egg situation. If Felicio is on the team, is the problem more Felicio or the fact that the coach starts Felicio, plays him 35 mpg, and runs the offense designed to get him the ball. The previous org mitigated the bad Felicio signing by simply not playing him, and then actively looking for young replacements like Portis & Wendell. Bulls have no ever even bothered to look for a long term replacement at center who could possibly challenge Vuc for the starting position. Andre regularly outperforms Vuc, and he still doesn't get the minutes.

The entire center future position being Sanogo just smells of the org making sure Vuc gets all the touches & minutes he needs to justify his trade.

Lexluthor wrote:

MrSparkle wrote:Seeing as the Vuc trade opened an entire can of worms (losing a great potential pick in Franz, and another lotto pick... less urgency resigning or finding better trade value for Lauri, Gafford, Wendell)... and we're stuck with one of the highest usage, lowest percentage, least efficient Cs in the game with the biggest defensive deficiencies... it's like the cancer that keeps spreading. There's going to be no happy ending. Just a huge sunk cost.

Franz is not a franchise player just a nice third option on a championship team and Jett Howard is a bust

Franz may not be a franchise player, but he's a good young player. As for Jett...if the Bulls didn't trade for Vucevic are they still #11 in 2023? Lower? Higher? Do they pick Jett when they have Zach, Coby and Caruso on the team (shooting guards)?

At #11 there were good players available: Dereck Lively, Cason Wallace, Jaime Jacquez Jr, Keyonte George and Cam Whitmore.

Obviously none of these players are franchise level, but they're young and have potential. You won't find a franchise player if you don't try to get one or have the assets to trade for one (Vucevic isn't it).

Neither one of those. Ownership and then AKME.

I think our biggest problem is the fans-we lead the league in attendance and we must be really profitable. Why should ownership do anything else?

As the consensus builds that Vuc is our biggest problem, let's consider plausible ideas to move him.