SB Nation User Blog: Unrealcity

D Rose must demand that the Bulls improve.

Unrealcity — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 03:24:34 -0000

The more I think about it, JR must reserve his big contracts for KC and Sam Smith.

Most fans don't know enough about the game to make their own decisions. They don't know players from other teams (besides the All-Stars) and they don't understand the salary cap and other considerations. They have to be told that the org is not trying to get better, but is just trying to stay status quo and make loads of money. And actually from a business perspective, JR is 100% right. He is selling merch. He is selling out the UC. He is getting national pub and games on TV. He would not make enough extra income by making this team a contender, to financially justify the cost. So the correct "business" move is to shed salary any way he can and stay under the tax any way he can. Not winning.

The problem is us, the fans. Especially the hardcore fans of both the Bulls and the NBA. As fans, we want to win. And as Chicago Bulls fan, we've seen it. We've tasted it. And it is always worse to have some thing taken away once you've had it. And we of the BlogABull tribe can see past the national hype. Past the "beat writers" and their articles prepared by the Bulls organization. We see past the press conferences and radio appearances where Gar Paxdorf claims to be going through their "process" to make this team into a winner.

So I think in many scenarios, we're screwed. We've seen in 2000 what big time free agents think of this organization. Sure, Krause is gone, but JR isn't. And the agents and players know this. Just like the organizations do their due diligence, the agents and players do as well. They call other players who have played for them. They know, like we know, that the Bulls aren't really going for it. Actions speak WAY louder than words. And if there is one thing, ONE THING, that the top players are looking for right now, it is a real dedication to going for it. D Wade is not signing an extension because he wants to make sure that Miami is going to make good moves and pay the price to be a contender. LBJ keeps putting pressure on Cleveland to build something around him. Kobe spouted hate for an entire summer about how he was done with the Lakers, because he thought they weren't committed to winning a championship. Bosh, Duncan, Nowitski, Nash. The list goes on of big time players demanding that their organizations try to win or send them to someone who wants to win. And here is the beauty. No one is expecting that you have to win a championship to be happy. It's actually not as hard as you would think. Just try. Only a few teams (the Knicks, Clippers, etc.) are throwing money around so badly that they are "trying" but without hope.

Which brings me to Rose. No matter what we, as the knowledgable fan, knows or says, the org is not listening. They know they have the average fan right where they want them. And heck, most of us love the team too much to boycott, even if we are pissed. And JR is never going to pay the tax. Because he has set the rules up so that he doesn't have to. He says he'll pay the tax for a championship contender. But the only way to become a contender is to pay to become one. The days of paying Jordan and Pippen a couple million a year are long gone. We could wait a century for us to get 4 or 5 perfect fit draft picks that all developed into starters/All-Stars and formed a perfect storm of a team. It's not happening. In the NBA today, you can luck into one (D Rose), but you then have to build the rest. You need to go out and get another star and the right complimentary role players around them. History has shone us this usually happens through trades (for the star), but free agency also plays an important role (aging stars who want a ring).

So here is our one hope. That Rose takes ownership of this team. He stands up and says, "I'm the man. This is my team and I want to win!" And he needs to do this publicly. This does a couple of things. It first sends notice to JR that he better work to make this team a winner, or Rose won't be happy. And if he isn't happy, he'll go somewhere that actually wants to win. But it also puts the other players in the league on notice that the Bulls have a star. And that has to happen as well if we are going to get a top 10 guy to agree to a sign and trade or to sign an extension with us after a trade. Talent loves nothing more than other talented people. Very few people want to sing in a choir with people who suck so that they look even better. And those are not the type of players we want anyway. The best are confident enough in their skills to want to play with the best. And Wade, Bosh and even LBJ have shown in their attitudes and careers that they can share the spot light, at least with another star who can share the spotlight. Kobe, Shaq, AI, Marion, Starbury, not so much.

So it all comes down to Rose. Does he take a Chris Paul jump from good to great this year? Does he learn and grow and start taking what is his, namely, the team? Does he step up as a leader and say, follow me? Does he demand that Jerry Reinsdorf go into the luxury tax to set this team up to win a championship? I hopes so.

Trade idea: Kirk for Rudy

Unrealcity — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:51:57 -0000

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=m24a5j

Portland is said to now have a verbal agreement with Hedo and Rudy is pissed. I know that some other people have also mentioned this in some of the threads, but I think it deserves its own FanPost. I think we can agree that we all are pissed and that something needs to happen before the beginning of the year to make this team more competitive. And I am sick and tired of hearing about everyone else improving while we regress. I don't want to just do something so we can say we did something, but we can't stay pat when everyone else around us is getting better and we were already only mediocre. So, let's finally make a deal happen with Kirk and the Trailblazers. Everyone knows they need a defensive PG and that they love Kirk. We are now in desperate need of a SG. So...

Portland Trailblazers get Kirk Hinrich

Chicago Bulls get Rudy Fernandez, Steve Blake, and Travis Outlaw

Blazers

Hinrich / Bayless

Roy / Webster

Turkoglu / Batum

Aldridge / Frye

Pryzbilla / Oden

That's a nice looking team. A pretty good mix of vets and young guys across the board. No one is too old though. This is a 60 win team next year.

Bulls

Rose / Blake

Salmons / Fernandez

Deng / Outlaw

Thomas / James Johnson

Noah / Miller

Let me say that Hinrich is one of my favorite players on the Bulls. But I care way more about the Bulls than any one player. And I think we have a much better team with this trade. And if Deng does have lingering problems with his leg, Rudy moves to the starting 2 and Salmons to the starting 3. If only we had DeJuan Blair as our back up 4 I'd be happy. That one's on you GAR!

A word to the Blazers fans that will inevitably be on this thread. We need more for our Captain than two back up scrubs. I know you'll say that they aren't scrubs, but they are just serviceable. You are not getting anywhere in the playoffs with Blake as your starting PG and we're not giving up one of our best players for two mediocre backups. Yes, Kirk is a backup now as well, but only because he is behind one of the most exciting young players in the NBA. He was behind Chris Paul on Team USA, but he still played and played well. You're not going to ever see Blake or Outlaw on that team. No, I am not saying Kirk is just behind Paul, just that he is ahead of Blake and Outlaw, by a good deal, IMO. And the point is, you get better.

Addition by Subtraction AND Addition (Bulls/Raps + Bulls/Knicks)

Unrealcity — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:52:31 -0000

I think the major difference with these two trades from all the earlier discussion about Toronto and JON is that these trades are both beneficial and independent of each other. We get better in both trades and we wouldn't be dependent on one of the trades for the other to work. Plus, you still can move Kirk later for cap space and a back up point if you want to resign BG. It would give us just over 9 mil to resign David Lee if Gordon leaves. Plus 21 mil in 2010 to go after Wade, Joe Johnson, Bosh or A'mare.

Trade 1 - Andres Nocioni, Larry Hughes and Michael Ruffin for Jermaine O'Neal and Nathan Jawai

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=356~2456~741~3441~615&teams=28~28~28~4~4&te=&cash=

We rid ourselves of Noce's contract and Hughes and we get a center (14 & 7 with 2 blocks a game) who would help greatly on defense and would allow TT to roam on defense, which is what he does well. Noah can get experience during the 25 games that JON misses due to injury.

Trade 2 - Drew Gooden for David Lee & Jared Jeffries

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=1717~2772~1711&teams=4~4~18&te=&cash=

New York only takes on $68,625 more and sheds another $6,049,400 from their 2010 plan. They also get Drew Gooden, who I think would excel in D'Antoni's offense at center. Finally, a coach who doesn't care if he plays defense AND asks him to fire away from outside! We get David Lee. He has good hands and would excel finishing with Rose. He runs the floor and can finish! It's worth the money we take on in 2010 to get a piece like this to go with Rose.

Our new roster:

Rose (32) / Hinrich (16)

Gordon (32) / Hinrich (16)

Deng (36) / Thabo (12)

David Lee (34) / TT (14)

Jermaine O'Neal (30) / Noah (18)

David Lee can get minutes at Center when JON is out and TT would then get more minutes at PF. Gray, Hunter, Jawai, Jeffries and Simmons can get garbage / injury minutes when needed.

2010 roster?

Rose, Wade, Deng, D. Lee, Kaman (Trade Hinrich for Kaman)

Rose, Gordon, Deng, D. Lee, Bosh

Fire away.

Building a Championship Team

Unrealcity — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:09:44 -0000

With all this talk about 2010 lately and dreams of bringing Wade, Lebron, Bosh, and Amare to Chicago to play with Rose, I decided to write something about a plan to craft a true championship team. A real NBA dynasty. The above team is first of all impossible (although not as impossible as a few years ago). But what I would like to purpose is that it isn't even a good idea. I have loved watching All Star games for years and in the same way, love watching Team USA, which is exactly what the above team is. And it had trouble beating Spain, Argentina and even lost to Greece! We shouldn't be trying to put this team together or emulate it in any way.

We should be looking at the dynasties. Jordan's Bulls, Magic's Lakers, Bird's Celtics, Shaq's Lakers. There are more, but these are the one's I know best, so I am going to "play within myself" here and stick with what I know. Some of this information is old hat, but I thought it would be nice to put it together and see if we can build something special.

The Recipe

1. You need at least two super stars. (Jordan & Pippen; Magic, Worthy & Kareem; Bird, McHale & Parrish; Shaq & Kobe) The NBA is about superstars. I don't think I need to elaborate here.

2. You need an elite scorer. (Jordan; Worthy; Bird; Kobe) This is a little different than number one. Bosh & Boozer are superstars, but neither are D. Wade or Kobe. When I say elite, I mean that they have to be able to score 35-50 points at will in the finals, just because they refuse to lose. When Pippen wasn't having a great scoring day, but was filling up the other categories, someone had to step up. Jordan could at will. So can the others on this list.

3. You need a center who can score and play defense. (Cartwright; Kareem; Parrish; Shaq) Jordan didn't win until he got Cartwright, even though he didn't want to make the trade for him. I guess it just proves that Jordan has never been good at being a GM. Even the later 3-peat had Luc Longley and several other big back-ups. I use the Bulls as an example, because they are the only ones on the list without a superstar center. So they are the exception, not the rule, but they still needed size and some inside-outside game, even if it was only at the beginning of halves.

4. You need a starter quality player on the bench. (Paxson/Kukoc; A.C. Green; Ainge; Horry) These teams were deep. They all had someone who could come in and put some points on the board off the bench.

5. You need aging All Star/Champion veterans. (Ron Harper/John Salley, Kareem/Mychal Thompson; Bill Walton; Horace Grant/Ron Harper - with the Lakers) We still see this a lot now as stars get older and want to win a ring, they sign for less and take a lesser role to be on a championship team. I say All Star/Champion because they either had to be a former star player that was on the downside/tail-end of their career or were role players for a championship team. Horry and Posey are excellent modern day examples and a big reason Posey got a inflated deal.

6. You need 3 point scorers. (Craig Hodges & John Paxson/Steve Kerr & Jud Buechler; Byron Scott; Larry Bird & Danny Ainge; Derek Fisher, Rick Fox & Robert Horry) Funny side note: I just had a really hard time spelling Fisher's name (Derek) because of one Derrick Rose, even though Fisher's spelling is the common version. While Bird and Ainge didn't have the percentages that the other did, they certainly could hit them when it mattered. Obviously, having a great three point shooter helps pread the floor and would allow Rose to operate. Sometimes you need that big three to either get back in it, to put it away, or to knot it up at the end of a game. Although break aways and dunks can be momentum changers, it is the three ball that is usually "the nail in the coffin."

7. You need a top defender or two. (Jordan, Pippen & Grant/Rodman; A.C. Green; McHale; Shaq & Kobe) You are going to be playing against superstars and somebody has to stop them. The Bulls and the most recent Lakers dynasties can thank their own superstars for being elite on both offense and defense.

One last note: It seems that style of play is not universal, or that great teams could play any style might be closer to accurate. You have to be able to score in transition and in a up tempo game, but also be able to run an effecient half court offense as well. Also rate of play fluctuates. Scoring over a hundred points a game is not the answer, just scoring more than the other team. Some night's it's 148-110 and some nights it's 87-86.

So, on to the current Bulls team.

1. Superstars - We have Derrick Rose. Who do we pair with him? This has been bandied about here on BaB in the midst of the 2010 free agency extraordinaire. Obviously we need another superstar (or two) to get back to the dynasty days and it currently seems that 2010 may be the best option. But which one of the 2010 players is best for the Bulls and Rose? I believe either Chris Bosh or Amar'e Stoudemire. Bosh is better at defense, but Amar'e is someone who can take over a game with his scoring. Also, Stoudemire would be the ultimate running mate on the fast break to throw it down. Both Wade and Lebron, while better than Bosh and Amar'e, need the ball to operate, which would be a conflict of interest with Rose.

2. Elite Scorer - This one is more negligible/fluid right now. Rose looks like he may get there. He is already showing flashes of taking over games. If he is able to get there, it would pair nicely with Bosh. But if he is looking more like Magic than Lebron, Amar'e might be better. Ben Gordon is an elite shooter, but not scorer. He has too many problems handling the ball in crucial moments. Jordan and Kobe aren't dribbling the ball off their feet with the game on the line.

3. Center who can score and paly defense - Chris Kaman would be nice. He is 26 and would be 28 when the dynasty begins He also would help us become a playoff team and therefore, more desirable to free agents. Brad Miller is too old. Joel Przybilla, meh. Amar'e is a PF ideally. Noah is a nice energy guy off the bench, but he doesn't cut it. On the off chance that we are able or even try to sell everybody and go for two free agents, you could go for a combo of either Nowitzki & Bosh or Amar'e and Bosh. Dirk and Amar'e couldn't play together due to defense. Dirk/Bosh would bring Nowitzki's 3 point shooting to the table, where Stoudemire brings the pounding in the paint. Both players have post moves, but so does Bosh as well. But I think the way to go here is Kaman. He is a solid scorer in the post and an very good rebounder. He also provides a true center with size and defense. Then you can more easily play Stoudemire along side and not worry about interior defense as much. Or if you got Bosh, he could play his natural position at power forward.

4. Starter quality bench player - We'll see, but Ben Gordon would fit perfectly. Our current problem is that we don't have enough offense in the front court to start a defensive guard, so Ben can't take his proper role of instant offense off the bench. But on a championship team with Rose and another superstar, he should be able to take this role and own it. The question is money. We can't afford to pay him 10 million and have a championship squad. So, maybe he gets screwed this summer and can't find the contract he has been wanting anywhere and is forced to take a lesser contract with the Bulls. Or maybe we trade him for an asset. Or maybe he walks and we use his money to get an aging veteran who use to score 20+ points a game, a la Ray Allen. I think we are going to have to wait to see who gets bought out and who suddenly becomes available closer to 2010-11.

5. Aging Veteran - see #4.

6. Three point assains - How about Matt Bonner. He has been reported to be available. JJ Reddick's use in Orlando has been sporadic. Jason Kapono is unhappy in Toronto, but it's due to playing time, so he might not want this spot. Of course, Ben also could help us here, but we'll have to see what happens with him. It would be ideal if Thabo could really lock down on 3's. If I were him, it would be all I worked on offensively. If Thabo could hit the three, we would have our own Bowen/Raja Bell. But following the dynasty blueprint, we should still trade for or sign a specialist as well for the bench.

7. Top Defender - Thabo? TT with his head on straight and his mind clear and focused? Raja Bell is a FA in 2010. Maybe we can get him on a veterans minimum with a chance at a ring. Shaq and Nash will be pretty old in two years, so it may end up being time for him to squeeze out a last run while the Suns rebuild. Raja would also give us some three point shooting. Kaman is a good defender. Deng is decent and I believe has the chance to improve.

My roster of choice.

PG - Derrick Rose - superstar

SG - Thabo Sefolosha or Raja Bell - defense and three point shooting

SF - Luol Deng - solid 3rd option

PF - Amar'e Stoudemire or Chris Bosh- superstar

C - Chris Kaman - solid defense and inside-outside game

Bench - Ben Gordon, Omer Asik, Joakim Noah, and a veteran playing for a ring.

Alright BaB, have at it.

3 Team Trade Idea (NY, LAC & CHI)

Unrealcity — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:22:11 -0000

I have heard people recently complain about trades that they thought were not possible and they included Chris Kaman as an example. But this trade actually seems possible to me. I'm not just throwing it out there because we all want a good big man. So here is the Trade Machine link.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=1017~356~3032~312~1982&teams=12~18~18~4~4&te=&cash=

Clippers

Zach Randolph

Knicks

Tyrus Thomas

Larry Hughes

Bulls

Chris Kaman

Jason Hart

LAC

The Clippers have shown interest in Randolph multiple times and now that it is apparent that they don't have what they thought they had with their current roster, they are even more interested in getting a proven scorer. They have a center in Camby that could play defense next to Zach and Kaman's slow start is making them contemplate this idea. Jason Hart is a throw-in to make the salaries work. Almost everone else has some sort of trade restriction and they don't have time to wait until the trade deadline.

Everyone knows that NY is trying to shed salary for 2010. Zach has played well here at the beginning of the year and so his trade value is high. Now is the best time to move him. They would get a young big (Top 4 pick) with tons of athleticism who at worst only has two years left on his contract in TT. At best, he adds some muscle, learns to finish (and run the court) and becomes D'Antoni's new Marion. And Hughes' salary is gone by 2010! That's all he is good for.

CHI

We get a big with post skills and lose Hughes? Too good to be true? Maybe. But I think this trade actually works and right now, at least has the possibility of happening.

PG Rose - 40 / Lindsey Hunter - 8

SG Gordon - 38 / Thabo - 10

SF Deng - 38 / Nocioni - 7 / Thabo - 3

PF Gooden - 24 / Nocioni - 14 / Noah -10

C Kaman - 35 / Noah - 10 / Gray - 3

When Kirk comes back this changes obviously, but this is decent for now.