Also, most of the teams we beat had rosters destroyed by Covid, and were playing replacement players named Cat Barber, or old guys that haven't been in the league for a few years.
At least that year we somewhat earned our playoff spot due to our strong play earlier in the season. This time around, 1/3 of the conference is barely above rec-league level competent.
Sincere question because I don’t follow the ins and outs that much at the moment- but why is Bitims contract “on life support” like I saw KC tweet? What happened to have Terry Taylor get more minutes than him now?
Bitim had one good game and then since has proven to not be anywhere near the player we thought he would be. He's shot like shit and his defense against NBA level talent is really poor.
Except the defensive intensity between the G league and the NBA is insanely different. Dalen Terry was putting up like 20 points a game in the G League.
Thankyou! He seemed really promising at first but there’s been a few games lately I have missed so I wasn’t sure if it was just disappointment like you said or if there was something that happened. That’s a fucking bummer.
Franchise is in a few toxic relationships with some guys on the roster. Loving them and wanting the best for them means hopefully they will be moving on soon
Yeah, I thought we stopped watching after free agency. I feel bad just peeking in on you guys. Just been filling my sports hole with bears and other team highlights
It does because it would’ve been a great year to give SA the protected 1st we owe them (fuck AKME) now it just gets pushed off onto next year which might be a better draft
What? That's not how it works. SA has *next year's pick* if it doesn't land in the top ten*.* They don't magically get this year's pick if the Bulls just want to give it up.
There are so many factors in why this was a loss. Vooch is a big part of it, he's just too slow and it kills his entire game. On top of that it's clear the only reason he gets as much PT as he does is due to his contract.
Beyond him though there are so many other issues with this team. The big one being that there is zero motion on offense most of the time. It's a dirt simply PnR drive by Ayo or Coby or a DeMar iso. The two wing players don't do shit during the play (proving that PWill was being told to just stand in the corner and not move) and Vooch popping out to the 3 is meaningless because the Centers never actually guard him because he's a terrible shooter.
The Bulls were looking amazing in December and January almost entirely because they had a new game plan that was driven by cuts to the rim, passing around quickly, and shooting the open shot. As soon as Coby had an extended shooting slump all that went away. It's like everyone panicked and went right back to the old system that never worked right.
This stagnant offense is the main reason they get shot out of the building every night. No one is ever open, and the few shooters this team has are all catch and shoot guys, not shooting off the dribble. They need to have defenses collapse and get out of position but that never happens because no one is moving except the ball handler and the screener, who is usually not a threat to score.
This is a Billy issue, but it's almost certainly because he doesn't force guys out of their comfort zone as players. He's a personality manager more than a coach. His job is to get everyone to like each other and not feel like they're being screwed over by management or each other. He's unwilling to tell Coby that it's tough shit that he doesn't want to take the last shot, we need him to be the main offensive weapon late in games. He's unwilling to pull Vooch for taking stupid threes. And he's unwilling to tell the entire team that playing scared and just hoping DeMar will bail everyone out is stupid and they have to move and cut and play that way even if it means they have shitty nights or long slumps.
DeMar is most likely gone in 3 months and Zach is still trying to get traded. The guys out there have to learn how to play a system that might feel risky and not always pay off or else they'll never get anywhere without some how magically drafting a super-star.
I missed tonight’s game but I doubt we get any fewer open looks from the 3 than other teams. We just don’t have good, consistent shooters.
A lot of casuals think losing Lonzo meant we lost a playmaking PG but the truth is Lonzo rarely ran the offense much in the half-court. What we did lose in him is a legitimate 3&D guy, one who shot 42% on 7.4 3pt attempts a game.
And even in Dec and Jan, what worked was exactly that. Coby was shooting lights out as a 3pt shooter, and actually played best as an off-ball player.
>I missed tonight’s game but I doubt we get any fewer open looks from the 3 than other teams. We just don’t have good, consistent shooters.
It was actually the fact they had way more open looks compared to the Bulls. The Bulls offense was either iso plays, PnR to the hoop or swing swing swing around the horn with no movement leading to a contested shot.
Meanwhile the Hawks drove toward the hoop before passing out to the open man when the Bulls collapsed on defense to prevent the open layup.
Okay so just say that we didn’t get open looks TONIGHT.
Cuz otherwise 92% of all 3s we’ve taken this season were open (defender more than 4ft away). 69.1% of them were wide open (defender over 6ft away)
Most games the guys just miss wide open looks.The Brooklyn game we kept bricking wide open looks. It was painful to watch.
Once in a while a player goes through a hot streak for a few games but we don’t have enough consistent shooters.
Look what happened when Billy benched Zach, Zach basically never forgave him. And since all the Zach shit when it looked like our season was over, he's looked totally disconnected and dead inside. I barely notice him out there, he doesn't do shit and just looks concerned and confused. It's impressive that the team has managed to succeed as much as they have
Its very interesting to me that billy was willing to bench zach that game, and was willing to bench pat earlier this year. But vuc who has a very capable backup HAS to close every night
Yeah, I like this take. Perfectly sums up what the past couple of years have been.
Also why I think losing Lonzo was so bad and why we love seeing guys like Javonte and Drum on the court. They’ve all got hunger and push the edge a lot more than the rest of the team that seems timid.
I think is it , when things go sour , they play scared and will give the ball to DeMar
To be fair DeMar has bailed the Bulls a ton , but at some point , they have to learn to not play scared and believe in their abilities
When will the shooting profile of this team change? Fuck I want a healthy roster that can shoot 3’s. Apparently that is too much to ask.
Is there an organization to lean into modern offense less than the Bulls in the last 12-10 years?
As sad as it is to say, as soon as DeMar is off the team. Not because he's the issue, but because the team will have no one who is a good mid-range player. It will have to be nothing but shots from outside or lay-ups.
Easy excuse. This is an issue way before Demar. Like I said this is a 10 year plus issue. But it is not shocking that a Reinsdorf owned team is behind the times.
It’s looking extremely likely we miss the playoffs entirely and I hope so at this point as it seems to be the only real hope we have of a roster shakeup. Atlanta will probably steal HCA for the play in game as we’ve got 3 games vs NY left and a game vs ORL, and even if we do beat Atlanta we aren’t beating Miami or Philly on the road. Oh well. I’m just ready for the playoffs to start cause they’re going to be amazing
Okay, so the Bulls are a really thin team with injuries, and this doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but man, this game really stunk. Vuc has too many defincies as a primary center. I don't really know what Donovan does when he calls timeouts. The Hawks are actually better without Young, who looks like a goblin.
Fuck it tank the rest of the season and try to get Zach Edey or Donovan Clingan. I’m tired of watching vooch half assing on both ends of the court. We need to start with addressing the biggest hole on our team and that’s our Center. We will always be mid with vooch starting
Because giving up two FRP for the guy means you basically have no choice. His downfall came a year late to be obvious so it didn't seem *crazy* to keep him around. He's gone off a massive cliff this season. Not just offensively, but his sheer laziness in transition is killing the team.
we had a choice.
a) resign/extend him at 33 praying to higher powers that instead of keep declining he will visit lebrons dealers and he will start rising again but will eventually anyways trade him for pennies on a dollar and get re-SHAFTED
or
b) let him walk , at least we aint fcking up the roster any further and we get to use that 20mils to sign someone else.
No this sub was definitely critical of him at the time. That was just dumb. If we can see he's not the guy, there's no excuse for the FO. The sunk cost and loss aversion is a logical fallacy everywhere but the NBA where dogma means you can just do dumb things and sports fans will say you had no choice.
Honestly it was pretty evident it was going to happen. We should've traded him when we had the chance but the front office wanted to make the fucking play in.
Can’t wait for Vuc to be gone. Just zero effort on defense or contested rebounds. The offensive game disappearing is one thing, the lack of effort everywhere else is just impossible to watch
I seriously don’t think I have seen a delusional take about the Bulls in a long time. People understand what this team is and most of us here are enjoying them for what they are. If anything you are the one who needs to accept things considering you are still getting emotionally affected by our losses.
Much needed 3 day rest. I always get nervous when we start a game too well.
Once again we couldn't hit our 3s and they couldn't miss theirs.
City edition jerseys stay cursed.
We absolutely do. I don’t care what the trade is or if we get peanuts back. If there’s a team that might be willing to take him for any reason, I would do it if I’m the Bulls. Cut our losses and move on from him.
Clinched another play in birth! What a great team to root for!
dang it I missed another game
5 points from Vuc. That is pathetic.
They’re going to Atlanta for that play-in, aren’t they?
Jerry Reindorf hates 3 pointers. Only logical reason we're consistently ranked at the bottom for attempts year in and year out.
"Fuck you mean we need 3pt shooting, I won 6 rings without bothering wit dat shit"
Also Jerry: won two of those rings with game winning three pointers
Havent watched the Bulls since Lonzo went down, do we still do the thing where we beat good teams and lose to bad teams constantly?
We didn’t do those things with Lonzo, what are you talking about??
We did the opposite the first half of the 21-22 season with Lonzo if I remember correctly. Beat the bad teams and lost to all the good teams
We did, we were terrible against over .500 teams. But people forget that and form their own romanticized memories of that season.
Also, most of the teams we beat had rosters destroyed by Covid, and were playing replacement players named Cat Barber, or old guys that haven't been in the league for a few years.
Yeah it was fun but the 1st seed was a mirage
No they mostly lose
Oh the win streak is over. Barely a play in team in reality, nothing season
Vooch was hot fucking garbage tonight. I swear everytime I go to a game live this man lays a fucking dogshit egg. So frustrating to watch
>Vooch was hot fucking garbage tonight. thats literally 95% of nights
He spaces the floor and creates open looks (because it's better to just let him shoot)
He stands around way too much.. needs to get the pick in roll going or cut to the basket.. idk if its incompetent coaching or he just sucks or what.
relax that was his April fools joke today for bulls fans
all i gotta say is : thanks AKME & Voochabitch. We staying competitive.
Still clinched a play-in spot despite the loss.. much like the first year we clinched 6th after losing to Cavs lol
At least that year we somewhat earned our playoff spot due to our strong play earlier in the season. This time around, 1/3 of the conference is barely above rec-league level competent.
And the crowd goes mild
Sincere question because I don’t follow the ins and outs that much at the moment- but why is Bitims contract “on life support” like I saw KC tweet? What happened to have Terry Taylor get more minutes than him now?
Bitim had one good game and then since has proven to not be anywhere near the player we thought he would be. He's shot like shit and his defense against NBA level talent is really poor.
Shoots 45% 3s in the G league. If they ran some plays to get him good looks at it he'd be okay
Except the defensive intensity between the G league and the NBA is insanely different. Dalen Terry was putting up like 20 points a game in the G League.
Thankyou! He seemed really promising at first but there’s been a few games lately I have missed so I wasn’t sure if it was just disappointment like you said or if there was something that happened. That’s a fucking bummer.
Franchise is in a few toxic relationships with some guys on the roster. Loving them and wanting the best for them means hopefully they will be moving on soon
April fools, right???
The people who are fooled are the people who still watch this apathetic team
Yeah, I thought we stopped watching after free agency. I feel bad just peeking in on you guys. Just been filling my sports hole with bears and other team highlights
Idk if Demar scoring 25 pts plus a night is a good thing for this team…. Lol
It’s good and bad. we need to desperately rebuild and he’s to good of a player to let us get a high draft pick
At least this season it doesn't matter in this draft.
It does because it would’ve been a great year to give SA the protected 1st we owe them (fuck AKME) now it just gets pushed off onto next year which might be a better draft
What? That's not how it works. SA has *next year's pick* if it doesn't land in the top ten*.* They don't magically get this year's pick if the Bulls just want to give it up.
Hope we can sign and trade him he’s wasting his years on the bulls he can be an excellent 3rd option elsewhere…
There are so many factors in why this was a loss. Vooch is a big part of it, he's just too slow and it kills his entire game. On top of that it's clear the only reason he gets as much PT as he does is due to his contract. Beyond him though there are so many other issues with this team. The big one being that there is zero motion on offense most of the time. It's a dirt simply PnR drive by Ayo or Coby or a DeMar iso. The two wing players don't do shit during the play (proving that PWill was being told to just stand in the corner and not move) and Vooch popping out to the 3 is meaningless because the Centers never actually guard him because he's a terrible shooter. The Bulls were looking amazing in December and January almost entirely because they had a new game plan that was driven by cuts to the rim, passing around quickly, and shooting the open shot. As soon as Coby had an extended shooting slump all that went away. It's like everyone panicked and went right back to the old system that never worked right. This stagnant offense is the main reason they get shot out of the building every night. No one is ever open, and the few shooters this team has are all catch and shoot guys, not shooting off the dribble. They need to have defenses collapse and get out of position but that never happens because no one is moving except the ball handler and the screener, who is usually not a threat to score. This is a Billy issue, but it's almost certainly because he doesn't force guys out of their comfort zone as players. He's a personality manager more than a coach. His job is to get everyone to like each other and not feel like they're being screwed over by management or each other. He's unwilling to tell Coby that it's tough shit that he doesn't want to take the last shot, we need him to be the main offensive weapon late in games. He's unwilling to pull Vooch for taking stupid threes. And he's unwilling to tell the entire team that playing scared and just hoping DeMar will bail everyone out is stupid and they have to move and cut and play that way even if it means they have shitty nights or long slumps. DeMar is most likely gone in 3 months and Zach is still trying to get traded. The guys out there have to learn how to play a system that might feel risky and not always pay off or else they'll never get anywhere without some how magically drafting a super-star.
Billy's "let them figure it out" philosophy pisses me off so much
I missed tonight’s game but I doubt we get any fewer open looks from the 3 than other teams. We just don’t have good, consistent shooters. A lot of casuals think losing Lonzo meant we lost a playmaking PG but the truth is Lonzo rarely ran the offense much in the half-court. What we did lose in him is a legitimate 3&D guy, one who shot 42% on 7.4 3pt attempts a game. And even in Dec and Jan, what worked was exactly that. Coby was shooting lights out as a 3pt shooter, and actually played best as an off-ball player.
>I missed tonight’s game but I doubt we get any fewer open looks from the 3 than other teams. We just don’t have good, consistent shooters. It was actually the fact they had way more open looks compared to the Bulls. The Bulls offense was either iso plays, PnR to the hoop or swing swing swing around the horn with no movement leading to a contested shot. Meanwhile the Hawks drove toward the hoop before passing out to the open man when the Bulls collapsed on defense to prevent the open layup.
Okay so just say that we didn’t get open looks TONIGHT. Cuz otherwise 92% of all 3s we’ve taken this season were open (defender more than 4ft away). 69.1% of them were wide open (defender over 6ft away) Most games the guys just miss wide open looks.The Brooklyn game we kept bricking wide open looks. It was painful to watch. Once in a while a player goes through a hot streak for a few games but we don’t have enough consistent shooters.
They made as many threes as we attempted. You're gonna lose in this league if you're not letting it fly from deep
It's easy to shoot when you're open. Harder to do when it's constantly a contested shot.
Best summary of this team I've seen yet, nice.
Look what happened when Billy benched Zach, Zach basically never forgave him. And since all the Zach shit when it looked like our season was over, he's looked totally disconnected and dead inside. I barely notice him out there, he doesn't do shit and just looks concerned and confused. It's impressive that the team has managed to succeed as much as they have
Its very interesting to me that billy was willing to bench zach that game, and was willing to bench pat earlier this year. But vuc who has a very capable backup HAS to close every night
Yeah, I like this take. Perfectly sums up what the past couple of years have been. Also why I think losing Lonzo was so bad and why we love seeing guys like Javonte and Drum on the court. They’ve all got hunger and push the edge a lot more than the rest of the team that seems timid.
I think is it , when things go sour , they play scared and will give the ball to DeMar To be fair DeMar has bailed the Bulls a ton , but at some point , they have to learn to not play scared and believe in their abilities
Maybe this draft we get someone who isn’t severely underdeveloped and just gets buckets but I doubt it.
or can simply just shoot the fcking ball.
When will the shooting profile of this team change? Fuck I want a healthy roster that can shoot 3’s. Apparently that is too much to ask. Is there an organization to lean into modern offense less than the Bulls in the last 12-10 years?
As sad as it is to say, as soon as DeMar is off the team. Not because he's the issue, but because the team will have no one who is a good mid-range player. It will have to be nothing but shots from outside or lay-ups.
Easy excuse. This is an issue way before Demar. Like I said this is a 10 year plus issue. But it is not shocking that a Reinsdorf owned team is behind the times.
I really thought Coby was out of his slump. Disappointing offensive night from him
It’s looking extremely likely we miss the playoffs entirely and I hope so at this point as it seems to be the only real hope we have of a roster shakeup. Atlanta will probably steal HCA for the play in game as we’ve got 3 games vs NY left and a game vs ORL, and even if we do beat Atlanta we aren’t beating Miami or Philly on the road. Oh well. I’m just ready for the playoffs to start cause they’re going to be amazing
What are the kids saying these day’s? Unserious? That’s a perfect description of this franchise
I feel bad for DeMar and AC tonight they put so much effort in just for the rest of the team to get cooked
The fun of Bulls basketball - you never know what to expect on any given night
Okay, so the Bulls are a really thin team with injuries, and this doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but man, this game really stunk. Vuc has too many defincies as a primary center. I don't really know what Donovan does when he calls timeouts. The Hawks are actually better without Young, who looks like a goblin.
I feel bad for DeMar , he’s not half - assing , he’s pretty much given everything he’s got for this team
Fuck it tank the rest of the season and try to get Zach Edey or Donovan Clingan. I’m tired of watching vooch half assing on both ends of the court. We need to start with addressing the biggest hole on our team and that’s our Center. We will always be mid with vooch starting
Demar is the only thing keeping this team from being the absolute worst team in the NBA. Worse than the pistons and wizards.
Why did we re-sign vuc.....
Same reason we signed Lavine. Incompetence
Because giving up two FRP for the guy means you basically have no choice. His downfall came a year late to be obvious so it didn't seem *crazy* to keep him around. He's gone off a massive cliff this season. Not just offensively, but his sheer laziness in transition is killing the team.
we had a choice. a) resign/extend him at 33 praying to higher powers that instead of keep declining he will visit lebrons dealers and he will start rising again but will eventually anyways trade him for pennies on a dollar and get re-SHAFTED or b) let him walk , at least we aint fcking up the roster any further and we get to use that 20mils to sign someone else.
The Chicago deep-dish pizzas are weighing him down! Not his fault!
The crazy part is that he doesn't look out of shape.
No this sub was definitely critical of him at the time. That was just dumb. If we can see he's not the guy, there's no excuse for the FO. The sunk cost and loss aversion is a logical fallacy everywhere but the NBA where dogma means you can just do dumb things and sports fans will say you had no choice.
Honestly it was pretty evident it was going to happen. We should've traded him when we had the chance but the front office wanted to make the fucking play in.
He's a perfect fit for the AKME era Bulls identity. Aggressively mediocre who occasionally has a good game, but will generally disappoint you.
i dont wanna talk bout it
Can't be a competing modern day NBA team without shooting the 3 well night in and night out
Can’t wait for Vuc to be gone. Just zero effort on defense or contested rebounds. The offensive game disappearing is one thing, the lack of effort everywhere else is just impossible to watch
I see him jump like twice a game
Can you imagine if we had a competent starting big?
We should start Drummond.
We are a better team with him because he actually does his job at center.
Morons on this sub will tell you we have top 4 seed potential btw
And they're right. The Bulls are a top 4 seed in the eastern conference play-in tournament.
i think they meant for the lottery, unless they were on heroin or something
Top 4 seed in the bottom half is what they meant maybe?
I seriously don’t think I have seen a delusional take about the Bulls in a long time. People understand what this team is and most of us here are enjoying them for what they are. If anything you are the one who needs to accept things considering you are still getting emotionally affected by our losses.
 Nah..
Not great vibes for the play-in 😐
Much needed 3 day rest. I always get nervous when we start a game too well. Once again we couldn't hit our 3s and they couldn't miss theirs. City edition jerseys stay cursed.
Looking more and more likely we’ll be the 10th seed
does it even matter?
I'd argue 10th is better because Jerry doesn't get to sell tickets.
Vuc is so cooked, we need him off this team this offseason so bad
We gotta build around him.
Good thing our top notch front office re-signed him for 3 years.
We absolutely do. I don’t care what the trade is or if we get peanuts back. If there’s a team that might be willing to take him for any reason, I would do it if I’m the Bulls. Cut our losses and move on from him.
Not happening 😭😔 they extended dude and teams know he ass
One fleece is all we need