Ugh It Live!

In calculating the chance of every team to win the NBA title over the next five years, a lot needs to be taken into consideration. Where a team is now, where they are in the building process and how well they are coached and managed all need to be weighed.

"Luckily for me, Thibs and the coaching staff came here and made me feel it was better being here," Deng said. "I’ll be honest with you. Before he came, I wasn’t really happy being here." (via RealGM)

Corporate welfare' to sports owner and charter school promoter Jerry Reinsdorf. Chicago Teachers Union study shows how tax breaks to United Center Bulls, White Sox drain money from schools. Seems pretty biased but hey those who can do; those who can't, teach.

Guard Lou Williams, the 76ers' leading scorer (14.9 points per game), will opt out of the final year of his contract at the end of this season and become an unrestricted free agent, according to a league source with knowledge of the situation. If he were not to opt out, Williams would be due $6.4 million from the Sixers. Said the source: "He's indicated that he's not going to pick up his option. All indications are that he's going to opt out."

Quite possibly the single worst piece of writing since 'Caddyshack 2'. I don't even know where to start with this elitist and more so ignorant, misinformed writing. AND I QUOTE "But if you look beyond the incessant media hype and the sold-out United Center, the truth is that Rose should not be a role model for Chicago kids, especially those in the economically challenged neighborhoods from whence he came. The reasons are many" Fuck Rondo? I say fuck this idiot so-called "writer".

Piccolomair/Sue are in a dark dark place.

It still feels like with the top six teams you could flip a coin week to week on who is playing the best at any given moment. This week the coin came up Spurs.

Updated Standings (Previous) Doc Rivers – 12 points (1st) Frank Vogel – 11 points (2nd) Erik Spoelstra – 11 points (3rd) Gregg Popovich – 8 points (5th) Phil Jackson – 5 points (4th) Tom Thibodeau – 5 points (11th) Rick Adelman – 5 points (6th) Monty Williams – 5 points (7th) Jerry Sloan – 4 Points (8th) Nate McMillan – 3 points (9th) George Karl – 3 points (10th) Rick Carlisle – 2 points (12th) Byron Scott – 2 points (13th) Stan Van Gundy – 2 points (14th) Scott Brooks – 2 points (15th) Flip Saunders 1 point (NR) John Kuester – 1 point (16th) Keith Smart – 1 point (17th) Alvin Gentry – 1 point (18th)

Poopsworld weighs in on our shooting guard situation. Not sure if I agree with the blanket statements, but I admittedly have thought about how things would be different had we landed Redick.

Not really Bulls-related, other than the Simeon connection between the Derrick Rose and Benji Wilson, but I thought it'd be a nice tribute for what was an amazing player during his time who never realized his full potential. Benji was tragically killed the night before his senior season on November 21st, 1984. Another good article linking Rose to Benji is from Bounce that I thought was an interesting read. For those who are unfamiliar with Benji, he who was shot to death on the eve of the start of his senior season in high school. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Wilson Chicago's led Simeon Vocational High School (now known as Simeon Career Academy) to the Illinois State Championship 1984. During his three year tenure, he was scouted out by many NBA teams. He was killed only days after receiving a full collegiate scholarship to the University of Illinois. His friend and Simeon teammate, former NBA and University of Illinois player Nick Anderson, wore jersey number 25 during his career in his honor.

Kevin Love with the first 30/30 night in league history since Moses Malone in 1982. Michael Beasley an Alpha Dog?

Pritch's last slap?

" But last night, Westbrook blew "MVP candidate" Derrick Rose out of the water, and it wasn’t even close. Compare the tape (I haven’t even mentioned Westbrook’s defense, which is very much superior to Rose’s), compare the highlights, compare the box scores, compare the final verdict — by almost every conceivable measure Westbrook was the better player, even if it was only for a single game."

via KCJHoop

CHICAGO -- The Chicago White Sox have hired former Chicago Bulls general manager Jerry Krause to be a baseball consultant, giving him primary duties of helping observe and revamp the team's scouting system in the Dominican Republic.

Fast forward to a high-definition picture of sports late in 2010. Here is the news of the day, scrawling across the bottom of your TV screen or mobile Web device: • LeBron James, who had been expecting a free-agency bonanza when his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers expired after the 2009-2010 season, opens the 2010-11 season with … the Cavs, the only team with the right to sign him. Cleveland retains the NBA MVP by slotting his salary into the new league-wide scale. • Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, the hottest commodity for every opening in the NFL over the past six months, signs on to be the new head coach of the Dallas Cowboys … at a league-determined salary that will pay him far less than he'd have made if the Denver Broncos had chosen him over Josh McDaniels in 2009. • The Ricketts family, new owner of the Chicago Cubs, scraps plans for its own cable channel because Major League Baseball has barred all such broadcasts, as well as webcasts, by individual teams. • A young Detroit Red Wings fan who has saved his pennies for months shells out $300 to buy a replica sweater that would have cost him $80 in 2009. • Lockouts and strikes loom large in all four major team sports as an era of relative peace on the sports labor front ends and owners begin to exercise their new power over player unions. Unlikely? Discouraging? It could happen. All of those scenarios, in fact, could become realities if the NFL triumphs in a case now under consideration in the U.S. Supreme Court. Experts agree that the case known as American Needle vs. NFL could easily be the most significant legal turning point in the history of American sports. If the high court rules in favor of the NFL, the development will be more important to the sports industry than Curt Flood's battle against the reserve clause in the 1970s; than baseball's collusion cases in the mid-'80s; than the NFL players union's epic fight for free agency in a series of antitrust cases that stretched over a decade; and even than the enactment of the Sports Broadcasting Act in 1961, which is the legislation that is the foundation of the NFL's television riches.

(773): smoked weed with Joakim Noah last night....if he was half as fast to the basket as he is to grab a joint from me we'd have another championship on our hands Could just be bullshit but hell, it's the summer what else do we have to talk about? Is Noah in Chicago working out @ the Berto Center? That (773) area code lends some truth if he is.

When: Today Where: Orlando Who: Rookies, some Sophomores and Shaun Livingston Why: Dante and Galante At least I hope they're still broadcasting the games, this will singlehandedly make my day if I can enjoy their commentary this afternoon. Also, complete Summer League schedule and results can be found here.

Former/Current White Sox Players: 18.Jose Contreras 24.Magglio Ordonez 26.Bartolo Colon 45.Freddy Garcia 54.Carl Everett Lots of Cubs players on there too including DLee, Zambrano and off course Wood and Prior.

Trevor Ariza's agent David Lee said Monday that the Lakers won't receive a hometown discount from his client. Lee declined to reveal how much of a raise Ariza will seek when he becomes an unrestricted free agent, but he said his client should make him the most coveted wing player on the market.

The Magic offered forward Hedo Turkoglu a four-year, $35 million extension shortly after the NBA Finals. Turkoglu rejected the offer and ultimately opted out of the final year in his contract to become an unrestricted free agent. Orlando acquired Vince Carter, who still has $33.6 million on his contract, on Thursday, which many believe spells the end for Turkoglu.

1. Blake Griffin LAC $16,071,840 2. Hasheem Thabeet MEM $14,379,840 3. James Harden OKC $12,913,440 4. Tyreke Evans SAC $11,642,640 Any way we can figure out how that translates to our guys?

Brian Powell from Awful Announcing gives the rundown on all the logistics of the Draft.

Ohlendorf majored in Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton, a major that combined mathematics, engineering and economics. His thesis was written on the June amateur draft, which will be held on Tuesday. Ohlendorf examined the top 100 picks from 1989-1993, tracked the progress of each player for a 12-year-period, starting with the draft, to determine the value of the picks. Ohlendorf studied the investment (signing bonus) and the financial return from signing the player. "So based on the assumptions I made in my paper, the A's signing Giambi was the biggest winner in top 100 picks of the 1989 through 1993 drafts because he played extremely well in his first six years of major league service,'' Ohlendorf said. "The White Sox did the best job in these drafts, with an internal rate of return of 217 percent. Their best signing was Frank Thomas.''

(Should Derrick be seeing a Nutritionist this summer?) Sportswriters and fans have proposed numerous theories for Lamar Odom's up-and-down play, but here is a new one: Odom's fondness for candy. In an essay titled "Lamar Odom, Sweet Tooth and Erratic Play," Dr. Daniel Amen writes that Odom's massive consumption of candy leads to a sugar high and then a crash, evidence of which can be seen on the basketball court.

Someone with access to Derrick Rose’s academic records at Simeon High School changed a D to a C, boosting the future Bulls Rookie of the Year's transcript for college, sources told the Chicago Sun-Times today. Who altered the records in the grade-changing scandal remains a mystery that the Chicago Public Schools has been unable to solve.