February 12, 2024 • 36 mins
Bulls Brother Nate makes his debut on the pod! He and Alex unpack team president Arturas Karnisovas' troubling recent trend of standing pat at trade deadlines, as he did again this year, and preview some intriguing buyout names for Chicago. They also unpack what the rest of the NBA did while the Bulls twiddled their thumbs. Chicago was 25-27 at the time of this recording, on February 10th, 2024.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Welcome to another edition of the BullsBros. Podcast. I'm Bull's brother Alex,
joined remotely by a first time guest, Bulls brother Nate. What's up
Nate? Hey, I'm going good. Good. Good to see you.
Good to talk some bulls with you, as we do in our spare time.
Anyway, I figured we turned themics on this time because the Bulls
(00:33):
had another very busy trade deadline inwhich they did absolutely nothing. For the
third straight year, our tourist ConnerShow has made no moves. Afterwards,
he said that, you know,they had some opers, but they decide
to stand pat and they liked thegroup they had, and they want to
stay competitive, all the usual nonsensethat he says, when in fact,
the definition of competitive is very strangebecause the Bulls are competing for like the
(00:57):
ninth seed and a shot to makethe playoffs, not even making the playoffs,
which by the way, is thegoal for the Bulls, not making
the play in and missing the playoffs, but actually making the playoffs. This
team is not good enough in myopinion to do that, with long term
injuries to Zack Vieniz out for theyear and as the ball of course,
but then also other guys are playing, got Patrick Willmans out for some amount
(01:17):
of time, we don't exactly know. And yeah, it's just hard to
see this Bulls team being anybody inthe top A the East because the eight
seed is like the Miami Heat,who's much better than the Bulls. So
that's how I feel about the Bullstried deadline in activity. I thought it
was terrible. I thought it wasegregious. I thought it's a fire ball
offense. I thought it was embarrassingfor a major franchise to pretend that they're
(01:38):
being competitive for anything. And I'mdeeply ashamed. Nate, how do you
feel? Wow, you just summedup a lot of a lot of my
fellow fans frustrations. Man, I'vebeen so optimistic this year. I was
just hoping for something, which Iknow is sort of another universal thing.
You know, there's still a buyoutmarket. We can still get slightly better
gun in for that eight seed.But yeah, I mean, best case
(02:00):
scenario we get, we get towin a play in game or two,
and I don't know, I don'tknow if that's enough even for the most
optimistic fans. Yeah, and youknow, the Ryansdorf family just wants that
sweet sweet playoff money for a coupleof games, just the two games probably,
but they're not I don't think again, they're not good enough to do
(02:21):
even that. Okay, so theMagic or the eight seed, the Miami
Heat or the seventh seed Pacers arethe sixth seed, I don't think we're
gonna be able to catch. Well. Philadelphia is kind of on a losing
streak without Joe and b. They'velost four in a row and who knows
when it's gonna be back. Theyadded former blel Patrick Beverley, but other
than that, they didn't do aton. I'm sorry. They got rid
of hornerable Patrick Beverley and they addedformera ble Cameron Pain. That is what
(02:43):
the Philadelphia seventy six ers did.But they're two and eight in their last
ten, so they I guess theycould fall closer to the playing bracket like
seven seed Terrain. But then we'reright above the Atlanta Hawks for twenty three
and twenty nine, and you know, they've got their best players better than
our best player, Trey Young.It's better than Kobe White. And then
Brooklyn Nets are the eleventh seed,and the Toronto Raptors are not really trying.
(03:05):
So so there's eleven teams buying forten spots, but are we any
better than the top eight in theEast or even the Hawks? Like I
don't think so. I could seeus being the Hawks in one playing game,
I guess, but other than that, we couldn't take anybody. So
pessimistic times anyway, I want totalk about some of the bigger moves of
(03:27):
the day for teams that were active. The New York Knicks added Bayan by
Danovich and Alec Burks and they onlyhad to give up two second round picks,
and then the Evan Fournier contract andMalchive Flynn and Quinton Grimes and Ryan
Archidiacna Horma ball, so Grimes isthe only good player outgoing in that deal.
I thought that was a great move. I thought it was crazy they
(03:50):
could get by Danovich on with justa couple of seconds and Burke's former Nick
returning to the Knicks, and thatteam just continues to get better. They
got Odionobi the lost sense and yeah, they they look like they could be
a sort of sneaky Eastern Conference Finalskind of also ran team all of a
sudden, very tibsy A lot ofdefense, and it's all oriented around a
(04:13):
great scoring lead guard in Steamson productsJim Brunson, so exciting teams and I
wish that we'd done that gone.It's definitely tricky, you know, you
want to root for TIBs. Imean, you know, being with this
history with the Bulls, but theKnicks, I mean, come on,
we can't really root for the Knicks. It's like having to root for the
Heat. You know. I findmyself doing that a lot throughout the playoffs
(04:36):
last year because they were such underdogsand Jimmy Butler is still kind of our
guy. He's our guy. Imean, I want to you know,
I want to believe that, youknow, the TIBs try hard coaching,
you know, really hard nosed,hard, had lunch pail attitude is going
to you know, be successful againstteams like you know, the Celtics or
(04:57):
the Bucks. But I'm not goingto believe it until I them healthy.
And you know, even that,it's like you think they're gonna be Boston.
I don't think so. Yeah,right, I guess if if Chris
Aspersingas gets hurt or whatever, andBoston has trouble, you know, sometimes
scoring late in playoff games. Butbut you know, this is a different
Boston team than we've seen and it'sbetter. So Derek White, yeah,
(05:21):
all star snub possibly, Yeah,maybe he's like the next guy. They
already have two injury replacements. Butif someone else goes down, could it
be Derek White getting that that nextcall? I don't know. That guy's
been great. What a team,that Boston Sells team. Okay, did
they do Anythingzzlies? Oh? Yeah, there it is. And they traded
(05:44):
Lamar Stevens the Hawks twenty twenty sevensecond round pick and the Mavericks twenty twenty
or twenty thirty secon round pick,So okay, yeah, they helped show
up their front court. Actually,that's that's actually pretty good. Tilman's one
of the few Grizzlies players who's beenhealthy some of the year. He's got
a knee injury right now, buthe's playing through it basically. So they
(06:06):
also added Jaden Springer for a littlebackcourt help. So yeah, they made
some little moves in the game againstthe Warriors when he had to chase around
Steph Curry and stuff. You know, not a huge move for that team,
but that just adds to their alreadyinsane depth. You know, hopefully
their their coach doesn't sabotage them,and you know, the last couple of
(06:27):
minutes of games. That seems tobe the consensus among Celtics fans. I
don't have too many of them inmy life, but you know, people
in the sports media world, theyseem to be very frustrated with Missoula,
a lot of Celtics fans in sportsmedia these days. But yes, I
agree, missool is the weakness.And then yeah, I just think sometimes
laden playoff games like Brunson or Tatumkind of freezes up and freaks out.
(06:49):
But with you know, with additionalpeople now able to take some of that
scoring burden if needed in port Singisand and White stepping up and even Holidays
an extent, you know, theyshouldn't have to feel like they can.
It needs to be on them todo everything scoring wise. So hopefully,
I mean, well, I don'tknow what I'm I saying hopefully for I
want him to fail, I guess, But but it's an exciting team and
(07:12):
certainly like the Bulls are going tosucceed, so whatever, I guess.
The Sixers they also added Buddy HeelsSixers, so that was a big movie.
So I think the Sixers must beoperating as if Joe E and BID's
going to be back and pretty muchback to his MVP so, which I
think is a bit of a gamblebecause that guy gets hurt all the time
anyway, But he's hurt right nowand it's not totally clear that he will
return by the end of the regularseason, so a little risky. That's
(07:35):
really the key, right, Thekey is will Ebid come back? I
mean, their moves contradict either side, Like why did they get rid of
Pat Beverley? Why did they tradehim away? If Embiad's coming back,
what do they get a second rounderfor Pat? Bet and you know,
traded him to potentially a rival team. Yeah, I mean he's not that
good anymore, So that's I guessthe one thing. But yeah, they
(07:57):
got a second back. Healed.There must have been some you know,
some whatever tampering. He's got toresign there, right, Otherwise what are
they doing that deal for. Yeah, you'd think there must be sort of
like a handshake deal because otherwise it'sincredibly risky. I don't know. That
trade probably was in the works fora while too, because you know,
when he requested a trade in theoff season, right, Yeah, he
(08:20):
was been trying to get out ofthere for a while. But then again,
you know, so is Miles Turner, and then he then he decided
to stick around once they assigned toa lucrative extension. So you know,
if you're not an All Star,it's like trade demands can be heard,
but not necessarily like heated. Itdepends, you know. Jake Crowder kind
of sat out from Phoenix in protestto force a trade, and he did
(08:45):
get a trade, and Phoenix gotfive second round picks back for a guy
that can barely play anymore. So, but usually typically role players can't don't
have that kind of pull, SoI think it's a little while that,
Like, I don't think basically thePacers really should have felt any pressure to
trade, but he healed, Iguess what I'm saying. But anyway,
yeah, that's a good point.I mean, they just didn't want to
(09:05):
lose him for nothing, and theywere able to flip them and get McDermott,
which is a sneaky good move becausehe falls right into that role of
just being like, you know,sharpshooter from three. Yeah, I mean
they've also seen him before, likehe was a pacer for at least a
couple of seasons on those like theDoug Man beloved former Ble. Everybody enjoyed
(09:26):
having him. He wasn't. Isaw the Can I tell the quick story
about him? Yes? Please.I was at a game in Toronto in
probably twenty fifteen, I think,and I watched him. I got there
early, I got to watch thewarm ups and I watched Doug McDermott hit
maybe twenty three pointers in a rowlike he was. It was, it
(09:46):
was unguarded, you know, justduring warm ups. I was like,
holy shit, I see what theywhat they see in this guy. And
then during the game he could barelyget a shot out. It was.
It was he maybe hit one inthe game. It was. It was
terrible. That's my story. Imean, that's the dog. That's the
Doug bit Buckets experience. You know. I think he's got a little better,
but he's you know, he's stillkind of inconsistent and he doesn't have
(10:09):
like the instincts of like the greatshooters were, like, he's not really
amazing at cutting off ball or whatever, and for his size, like you
know, he should be better,rebetter whatever, he's you know, he's
fine. He's a professional basketball player. You can help a good deal.
He'll fit into that role with thePacers. And they don't you know,
they don't play defense anywhere over there, so they do not. Yeah,
so great shooter. What else dowe get? Some Raptors moves were kind
(10:31):
of dumb, but actually I guesswe could talk about Yeah, so the
Raptors acquired Spencer Dinwidy and then waivedhim, and now apparently he's gonna sign
with the Lakers. So Spencer DEWIwouldn't rely that's huge fit for the Bulls
because we have a lot of guards. So, but it's a big move
for the Lakers. Yeah, hewas starting. He started every game,
He started all forty eight games thathe played with Brooklyn. And then you
(10:52):
know, just to get him fornothing, you're not even a trade.
You know, that's a steal.Yeah. I wonder if if he'll get
along with Lebron and the gang.It seems like a lot of you hear
a lot of stuff about him,like it's very mixed, Like some people
will be like he's beloved in Dallas, right. That was the word was
that he was going to end upback on the MAVs, right, But
he seems to be for somebody that'snot that bad of a player. They
(11:13):
just get rid of him for nothing. I don't understand. I think it's
definitely suspicious. There definitely were timeswhen he was on the nets. What
is this? Was this his thirdtime around? His second time around?
At least his second he would killthe Bulls and I'd be like, wow,
did the Bulls draft him? Likewhat? They just got rid of
him? Only we drafted him.I think we had him in training camp,
(11:35):
but we decided to keep someone elseinstead of him, even though he
was clearly the best point guard wehad that year. I forget who who
we could kept instead. Maybe itwas Camera Paan speaking of camera pain,
but it was something done like that, Yeah, where it was clear that
Dawid he was the guy, andthen we said no, no, no,
and uh, yeah, Denwy hadbeen the guy. Dabe would have
been in prior season. Is agood fit for us. He's been having
(11:56):
a down season, that's not athing, but he's a very good three
punt shooter when he's on. Justisn't this year? Are there other big
trades that I'm not thinking of?I guess the Ross O'Neill David Roddy trade
to the Suns helps build up anothergood playoff team. Timberloves got Manty Morris
for like Shape Mild and Troy Brown, So it's pretty good. Let's see
(12:18):
here the words save some money witha gamer to call you trusse if they're
barely the playoff team. Robert LopezVulnerable, beloved, hormable seems likely to
be bought out by the Kings aftera deal with the Books. And yeah
he was at their game reading abook. Yeah right, Yeah, did
(12:41):
he have to be at the game? I don't know whether he had to
be at the game else to do. I guess that's true. Also,
he put funny tweet about how greatit was to be teammates with Pat Bev
for all the forty five minutes andgreat memories that were made. Yeah,
that's amazing for kind of a Idon't know, I would say mediocre Hall
(13:03):
of Trades at the deadline, itwas kind of cool to get to the
new stories like that, and thebig ones seemed like they already happened,
right, Yeah, so like thePascal Siak them to the Pacers deal,
the James Harden to the Clippers dealand the og and and nobody did the
next deal. We're like the bigtrades of the season. It turns out
in season that is obviously Daman Lordwas a huge one, but that was
before the season. So yeah,I don't know, you know, I
(13:24):
think the Knicks or the sneaky maybenot so sneaky winner of the trade the
nd season trade market. I wouldsay this year they look they look formidable,
they're very fun. Celx, youknow, made some smart moves.
The Sixers, if Embi comes back, made some good moves. I guess
you can talk about the Thunder gettingGordon Hayward and then they just signed Bumbo
(13:46):
for the rest of the season.So that's their center depth solution. It
turns out, you know, greatshot blocker, decent rebounder, can't score
for shit, but it's not aterrible move. So I don't, you
know, I don't really think thatthe are gonna win anything this year,
but they did show up the deatha little bit. Bill Soons was talking
about Thunder actual getting the legitimate bigguy to help them out there because Chet
and the uh the one Jayalen Williams, good gentle j will yeah, j
(14:15):
Will, right, of course,j Will. That's like there. And
then I guess Jay Doub was thebackup power forward right slash center, so
like that was their big three bigguys. So now Beyonbo becomes their next
he becomes their backup center essentially,and then Jay Dop can focus on just
backing up j Will at the fourspot. Anyway, that's not a bad
deal. But Gordon Haward, youknow, gets hurt all the time,
(14:35):
so we'll see if he's healthy bythe playoffs. I was confused by that.
I was confused why they didn't tradeone or two of their eight million
first round picks for some kind ofbackup big who maybe would be a little
bit more versatile and skilled than beyondwell beyond most. Fine, it's gonna
be a player, but just barelyat this point this year. I mean,
(14:58):
yeah, they're so good now,right, Why would they not?
What would they not just I meancashing something. You don't have to trade
five, you know, first roundpicks for some crazy star, but you
know, flipping one or two ofthose for you know, even a decent
backup four or five, I don'tknow. I'm not pressed. Man,
(15:18):
He's a genius but it just itseems like they might be wasting, you
know, a year of contention.I agree. I think, you know,
even Gafford or Tillman, who bothmoved, they could have. I
think they're both better than Bambo atthis point in Beamo's career. So yeah,
what if they played Denver in theconference finals? What are they going
to do with Jokic? I mean, what is anybody gonna do with Jokic?
(15:39):
But really, what are they gonnado? Have is mac Biambo punch
in the face? I guess Ijust hope that everybody else beats them and
then sort of try to get thebough out of Jogi's hands as much as
possible. I don't know, it'snot really They're a weird matchup for the
Nuggets, and I think the Lakersactually, you know, in a first
round series, could could beat themas an underdog. So there's like a
(16:02):
weird vulnerability with them. And thenit's they're kind of the opposite of the
Timberwolves, who like are also kindof a little tethered to like their identity,
and it could come back to bitethem in the postseason as well,
but for you know, opposite reasons. Basically because they have a lot of
good big guys, but they theyyou know, I don't have a ton
of small ball depth, and theymight have some sort of positional They do
(16:23):
have some sort of positional overlap withthe like basically three starting caliber centers.
So I don't know it'll be interestingplayoffs, but I did kind of expect
other other teams to make bigger moves, the Lakers who do something, or
the Hawks. You have team didanything, the Bowl's not doing anything that's
not stays put stays put. Well, for the Lakers, it sounds like
(16:45):
what they want to do is usethree first round draft picks, which they'll
have at their disposal, and getlike more of a big fish than John
Ta Murray in the summer. JohnMurray, also, I think, is
on expiring contract, right, soI guess they, you know, worried
about retaining him. Let's confirm.I'm gonna confirm that hold for I don't
(17:06):
know if has got a team ora player option for next year. If
he's unrestricted unrestracted. Okay, sothat makes sense. I guess it's like
a little risky. You could justthere some early rumors about him going back
to the Spurs just like they likehim there. Obviously, if you're the
GM of Atlanta, you don't wantto actually do that, but it would
(17:27):
have been a fun story to have, like and just to have him with
Wemby for the rest of the yearSpurs would be a lot more fun to
actually watch. Yeah, or likeBill Simmons has been trying to advocate for
his backcourt teammate All Star Trey Youngto go to the Spurs. I think,
you know, a really high levelpoint guard to the Spurs. News
lost sense. They got a lotof assets too, so they could do
a deal like for one of thoseguys. I guess Spurs also have the
(17:49):
money. They just signed Joan TayMurray outright this summer, so I suppose
that's possible. But there's always TreeYoung rumors. I find that to be
really interesting because it seems like hishis uh, the perception of him around
the league is not great, eventhough he puts up insane numbers, and
he would need one of those Godfatheroffers like five first round picks plus a
player. I mean, what teamcould do that? The Thunder they don't.
(18:12):
They don't need another reguard to takeGosh Josh Gideon four picks and now
we've got Trey Young and Shade.It's just I don't know. I think
it's a matter of fit, right, like unless unless trade is like I
want out trade me, or I'mnot playing. I don't think he's ever
getting traded. I guess Utah,he does a lot of picks, and
uh, their starting point guard isChris Dunn, so Bull's legend. So
(18:34):
I feel like, man, hewas almost on the league. I'm just
happy for him to make it back. He had a lot of injuries,
and yeah, was one of theone of the pieces in the Jimmy,
the infamous Jimmy Butler trade. Yeah, he sure was. He was like
the fifth pick. He was apretty solid defender, but that was kind
of his offensive game, wasn't great, Chris, that was the fifth pick
(18:56):
out of Providence in his draft.Let's talk about biout options for the Bulls
because this is what we have todeal with. So obviously, Spencer de
Wide's already off the Board's already offthe board. Justice Winslow recently signed a
ten day deal with the Raptors.Not that he would have been worth anything
(19:17):
more than that for the Bulls,but you know, interesting. Former lottery
pick TAJH Gibson sign another ten daydeal with the Knicks. Joe Harris has
been rumored to be a target forthe Bulls. According to NBC Sports Chicago's
Casey Johnson, sharp shooter gets hurta lot, big shooting guard can play
some small forward, can't really guardanybody. But you know, for a
(19:37):
minimum contract, rest of the year, minimum deal, Like yeah, sure,
whatever. I don't even who knowswhat the Bulls are doing right,
Like they're not good enough to actuallydo anything of substance, So it doesn't
really make any kind of difference.It's just be nice to like see a
slightly different team than like the kindof boring team that we've been watching so
far this year. Are there otherbig biot guys? Let's see here?
Oh, PJ. Tucker, DadickJohnson, Daddy Young? Did I yeah?
(20:02):
Bring it back? Okay, bringup the bench. Yeah. I
love that he's young, and likewe're not going anywhere, so it doesn't
actually matter, you know what Imean. You don't have to be adding
guys to win anything, So yeah, I just bring him back, bring
joke, you know it back?Like whatever? You know, Okay,
nothing here retired. I'm always hopingfor the Derek Rose buyouts that we can
(20:22):
bring Derrick Rose back, but he'sgetting paid right now. He's getting paid
to be on the Grizzlies, unfortunately, not play. That was the funny
thing about the Derek ros signing islike they added him to be a guy,
you know, with John Moran outthat they could count his insurance.
But you know, he's Derek Rose. So he got hurt immediately and he's
been hurt most of the year.Yeah, it sucks. You know,
(20:45):
I guess Lamar Stevens might be abuyout guy. I wouldn't mind Lamar Stevens,
you know, like some wing,defensive wing depth, but he can't
shoot. And also it's not guaranteethat he's gonna get brought out, so
Marcus Morris, Brus Morris. Butagain, like these are guys that should
go on teams that want to actuallydo something, you know what I mean.
So I don't know why they wouldbe that incentivized to sign with the
(21:07):
Bulls. Yeah, I mean,other than Thaddys who's got a history here,
I'm not even sure if he wouldget playing time. Honestly, the
more I think about it, becauseI know corne service is like pushing.
You know, the young guys wantsto see Julian Phillips minutes, probably more
than he wants to bring Thaddeus Young, which you know is one of the
only smart angles that he would take. It's just yees see what the young
(21:30):
guys have and Phillips has shown upsome promise, whereas we know what Taddy's
young is and is not at thispoint. Gallinari, I guess, is
also available, so you know,big shooting forward who gets hurt a lot
Killian Hayes, former twenty twenty lotterypick, was terrible on the Pistons for
four years and now is going tobe available to be terrible somewhere else.
I would I would stay away.Yeah, that would be That would be
(21:51):
such a strange fit. I mean, with the emergence of Kobe. Yeah,
there's no time. Same problem here, Corey Joseph I guess, but
again doesn't make a ton of senseto me. He'll probably end up back
in Toronto. I believe he's fromToronto. I think he was on their
team. I don't know, Canadians. I was kind of hoping they would
(22:14):
they would figure out a Wiggans tothe Wiggans of the Raptors trade to just
have you know, they traded fora Linux. They're just like, we're
gonna ge a bunch of Canadian guyson Canada's only team. Yeah. The
Jazz also like the former lottery pickby Agbaji went to Toronto as well,
another Canadian and then obviously they gotback RJ. Barrett. So yeah,
they're just like going in all Canadaover there. That's that's another that's another
(22:38):
team where if you like, youknow, I want to be optimistic and
positive about the Bulls Raw Rob winningthe plane. But you know, if
you really compare what we what wedid to a team like Toronto, even
where what is Toronto doing? Whatdirection are they going? I don't know,
but at least they made a bunchof moves. I mean, I
guess they sold off some of theirstars that they were rumored to be selling
(23:00):
off last year. Yeah, therebuilding, they embraced the rebuild. They
realized they're not that good. Wecould have done that and we just were
like, no, not happening.Allegedly, the front office front office decided
it was not a good idea.Ownership allegedly said it was okay with the
rebuild. You know, there's there'sno uh, there's no obligation for them
to actually tell us the truth inthat scenario. So I don't know if
(23:22):
I would believe it it's true.But our tourist Conner Show has said that
he had the option to do atear time he just didn't want to,
which, you know, it doesn'treally matter because we're gonna be a bad
team anyway. We're gonna be alot of our teams anyway, So you
can say what you want, youknow, but like the fate is the
same. It's just gonna be thereeam. I think. You know,
people in sports have decent sized egos, whether from obvious people or players.
(23:45):
Admitting defeat would be like really doingthe tear out. Yeah, you know,
like it. It wouldn't just beoh it was last year all alonzo
ball got her. We can't predictinjuries, which is kind of what they've
been singing to us for the lastseasons. And I mean, I wish
other but the best for Lonz.I really hope that he can come back,
but it just it doesn't seem realisticat this point to be waiting for
(24:08):
that and hoping for that. No, you know's that's sad situation. It's
the bummer. But also we havean all star, fringe all star level
starting point guard now without him,so we kind of lucked out. But
yeah, yeah, Kobe White agood player development story. We don't We
don't get a lot of those inthis town. He'll be continues to grow
(24:30):
and you know, maybe he'll bean All Star next year. The team
can be good. One of thefew good ACME draft picks. Oh wait,
he was drafted by guar Packs,the final guard Packs pick act.
We have no good draft picks unlessyou count Io. I don't count Patrick
Wims is a good draft pick.I'm sorry, Like he's he's an NBA
level player. Fine, But likewith the fourth pick in that draft when
(24:53):
Tyre's Halbert and den Vessel and doesn'tBane and a bunch of other intriguing guys
that are better right now available,like that was the wrong pick. Looks
horrible, looks horrible. I mean, COVID really screwed up that draft.
So I think every front office personis going to get a pass to a
degree. Right, the Warriors draftedWiseman number two in that draft, Right,
(25:15):
that was a mistake. You imagineany of those guys you just named
on the Warriors right now, likeTyree, either of the Tyreses, even
a Desmond Vane on the Warriors wouldbe out of control. Yeah, o,
LaMelo, although that's true, alsowas third Oh. Speaking of franchises
who have done better with their frontoffice moves recently, Charlotte, I mean
(25:37):
Charlotte really it seems like they havea plan, like they're they're probably going
to be better than us in twoyears. Their team tear down at last,
and they got you know, BrianMiller, who's a questionable character,
but Drake a basketball player. Theygot mouth Bridges, you know, Diato,
And they got LaMelo, who getshurt all the time, but you
know, that's an interesting core.And then and they got rid of the
(26:00):
Hayward contract. Finally they got withof PJ. Washington, they got some
draft assets back, the kind ofstuff we should have done. We have
much better present day players to move. We could have gotten better assets,
I would think, you know,so, I don't know. It's a
bummer. I'm bummed. But whatcan you do? What can you do?
(26:21):
Uh? Nate, do you haveany reason robimism with the Bulls.
Do you think that the Bulls canfinish with like the seventh Do you think
the Bulls can make the playoffs?You know better, they've been playing better
overall as recently. You know,if you if you look at the team
hypothetically at they're at full strength withoutLevine because he's out for the year.
I think they can snag that eighthseed. Tonight, it's a big game
(26:41):
against the Magic. I believe.It's a road game, so we'll see
that they've been kind of bad onthe road overall this year, and we'll
see how they match up against Orlandobecause they're what they're right behind them in
the seating right and have in frontof me. But yeah, Magic twenty
twenty four, twenty five, andtwenty seven, so we're three games behind
them, and our road record isten and fifteen. Imagine records sixteen and
(27:06):
seven. So we'll see how thatgoes. I mean, I don't know
if we'll have an answer for theirsize too, with Ben Hero the Wagner's
I don't know. I think it. You know, it'll depends a lot
on just Kobe continuing to ball out, everybody come back healthy. Like I
said, we just got Tory Craigback, which I know seems like a
small piece, but you know,he's an adult. At a certain point.
(27:30):
I watched the Bulls Bench union withDale, Terry and Phillips out there,
and you know, I want thoseguys to develop, but I'm just
like, oh my god, we'renot. We don't even have adults playing,
Like can these guys even legally drink? Like what is what is going
on? What are we doing?And so you know have to have like
real NBA players who know who justknow what the schemes are. I know
how to defend, and I think, you know, if we're at full
strength, that we have a chance. I think the best is yet to
(27:52):
come with tomorrow this year, I'mholding out that he'll he'll have a really
good second half. You know,technically post all are but I'm gonna call
it the second half. Maybe he'llbe mad for the snub he wasn't even
considered. I honestly kind of misshaving exactly been because he would have those
games, you know, like hedropped fifty this year even though only played
in twenty five games. You cankind of I don't know, I could
(28:15):
talk myself into into you know,if they resigned a bar in the off
season being better next year. ButI totally could not fault someone that would
point to me in Sam insane thatI'm just wishing for different results for the
same thing that we've seen for thelast three years. It's hard, man.
I mean, it's just we hadthat window of time a few seasons
ago when Lonzo is healthy, We'rethe one seed for a brief period.
(28:40):
It's like it wasn't that long ago, but I guess I guess it was.
I don't know it's long enough forACME to at least have tried to
pivot in any real way, whichthey have not done. They've just doubled
down, and it feels insane tome. But you know, eventually they're
gonna get fired if they just keepdoing nothing. So that's the one positive.
Might just take a couple of yearsof watching this and like, look,
I like watching tomorrow too. ButI just feel bad for him.
(29:02):
I hope you know, he's afree agent this summer, although he's talked
about wanting to sign an extension sincethe trade deadline the last couple of days
with the Bulls, which is insane. I hope he doesn't do that I
hope he hope he joins a teamthat actually could win something. So he
was rumored as a Sixers target too. I don't know what happened with that,
but we probably asked for the moon, that's my theory. Crusoe as
well, well, he was anexpiring so I don't even know if he
(29:23):
could have known it as his firstround pick. But I just like Tomorrow
as a guy, Like, ifthey resign him, I just hope they
don't give him a zach Lavine typedeal, you know, because he's just
not at a point in his careerwhere they really merits that. Yeah,
and if they really wanted to compete, I don't know. I guess is
the world we're keeping Tomorrow would kindof work, but you really have to
(29:45):
do a lot more stuff, youknow, and you have to get off
that Lonzo money, figure something out, which you could. You know,
we're gonna have some picks to movein the summer, and yeah, if
you want to actually compete for anything, then like you have to, you
know, surround these guys with playersthat make sense. You need a lot
more defense on the wing. Iwould want to figure out a solution to
the Bucevic issue. I don't know. I think basically defense is the big
(30:07):
thing, and shooting two important elementsof of being a good basketball team.
So I don't, you know,hard to see them making any kinds of
deals anytime soon, honestly, Butyou know, they wanted to do Zach
supposedly, and Zach wanted them toflip Zach. I heard on Rachel Nichols's
podcast All the Smoke. Nichols saidthat Zach, you know, did this
(30:30):
elective quote unquote surgery because he heardhe was going to the Detroit Pistons,
which I thought was hilarious if it'strue, But I wonder, I wonder
about the sources for that. Youknow, yeah, she's pretty fucked in.
Who said that? I mean,yeah, more than us, but
who I mean who said that?You can see Zach being not very stoked
(30:51):
about getting traded to Detroit of allthe teams he could go to. But
to go out of your way tohave a surgery with a six month four
to six months or recovery time,it feels unnecessary. I mean, what
is his injury even? I mean, that's that just brings up a whole
bunch of questions that we can discussabout the medical staff and how transparent they
(31:11):
are and how competent they are.I don't feel super comfortable criticizing the medical
staff because we just don't know,you know what I mean. Yeah,
I don't have the best track record. We'll just say that. I think
you had Max litigated that pretty hardin the last podcast we did. Oh
has he has he quit the Bullsofficially? I know you were speaking to
(31:33):
him recently. No, he's in. He's watching him play The Magic tonight.
Oh yeah, it was an emptythreat. But we'll see if that
holds true after the next transaction periodover the summer free agency, when the
Bulls sign Corey Joseph to a threeor fifteen million dollar deal or whatever it
is they're going to do. Sohe's hoping that Chicago surprises is. But
(31:56):
really the solution is simple to me. Fire our turner's cardshow is fire Mark
Eversley, Get new management in thefront office, get some competent pay overpay
for Sam Pressty. I don't knowwhat you have to do. Get there
on more, get something creative andand interesting, who's willing to take chances
and acquire assets, and pivot whenit's clear that that has to be done.
(32:17):
So that's what I would say,What do you think sell the team?
It's the only way anything's ever goingto change. I'm not totally out
on on Ak and Mark Eversley atthis point, but the next off season
will be will be huge. Imean, whether or not they extend tomorrow
again, there's part of me thathopes that they do. If they can
(32:40):
maybe find a Levine trade in theoff season, I think there'll be a
lot more options, will be alot more time to negotiate and finesse it
if anybody wants. And you know, I know Sacramento showed interest a while
ago, and if they flame outin the first round, you know,
maybe they'll go, shit, weneed more firepower. Let's go. Let's
go get them. We'll into riskthe money and the injury history. But
(33:02):
yeah, I think that, youknow, I think that our tourist kind
of service might just be you know, he he's got bosses, you know,
And and we have a reputation,you know, our team, it's
a really unfortunate reputation that we're gonnastay under the tax and remain quote unquote
competitive, which means maybe we'll getsome playoff share. But yeah, I
(33:28):
guess I'm not. I'm not onthe I'm not holding up signs of the
arena yet to fire the front office. Not just yet. Well suit yourself,
but if they keep going this way, any reasonable owner would would can
them. And I hope that wedo too, sooner rather than later,
because it's it's disheartening the players also, by the way, like on Thursday,
(33:50):
after the trade deadline passed and nothinghappened, the players almost lost to
the G League Grizzlies. It was. It was an embarrassing game. Even
Adam, I mean, and andstay seeking. We're both kind of out
on the bulls effort. And Iget it. I agree. It does
seem like the Bulls themselves wanted somethingto happen, which is exactly what happened
last trade deadline too. They wenton like a five or six game losing
(34:12):
streak after we did nothing. Theplayers, Yeah, that was that was
a bad game. Again, likeI said, they're not very good on
the road. That's that's been anissue all year. Yes, we did
win that game, but we justbarely won that game. We did win
that game. Yeah, it wasa shame to be tuning in. I
was kind of in and out.I went out to dinner during part of
that game. I caught the lasttwo minutes on television after catching the first
(34:37):
quarter when it was kind of likea back and forth up and down first
quarter where they were just talking abouthow the Grizzlies are, They're so banged
up. You know. It wasSmart, no Morant, no Bain,
like, that's three of the eightor nine guys that are injured, you
know, Steven Adams. They gotrid of them. And then at the
end of the game they were like, I guess that's a win. I
guess it counts. Yeah, Andit was ugly, and that was like
(34:58):
what I tuned into. It wasjust like, oh, holy shit,
yeah, Saysey game. He wasvery optimistic about the Bulls usually even he
was feeling it after that game.I mean, just yeah, the effort's
not there because the players are sickof each other too. They're sick of
playing with each others. We arewatching the play with each other so to
an extent, Kobe White kind ofrevitalis them for a bit, but things
are sort of slowing down now again. Oh well, all right, Well,
(35:22):
thanks Nate Dog for checking in withthe Bulls bros. And hopefully we'll
have you back soon. It'll bean exciting time down the stretch for a
lot of teams, just not ours, but hopefully the plane will be sort
of entertaining. I guess. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
It's really great to see you.I miss Magis as well. Hopefully
next time we can all be Bullsbros together on here. But I just
(35:45):
really appreciate you let me come onand share my meatball Bulls fandom with you.
Well, we appreciate the meatball Bullsfandom and go Bulls. We'll talk
to everybody soon, all right,thanks again. What wo
Welcome to another edition of the BullsBros. Podcast. I'm Bull's brother Alex,
joined remotely by a first time guest, Bulls brother Nate. What's up
Nate? Hey, I'm going good. Good. Good to see you.
Good to talk some bulls with you, as we do in our spare time.
Anyway, I figured we turned themics on this time because the Bulls
(00:33):
had another very busy trade deadline inwhich they did absolutely nothing. For the
third straight year, our tourist ConnerShow has made no moves. Afterwards,
he said that, you know,they had some opers, but they decide
to stand pat and they liked thegroup they had, and they want to
stay competitive, all the usual nonsensethat he says, when in fact,
the definition of competitive is very strangebecause the Bulls are competing for like the
(00:57):
ninth seed and a shot to makethe playoffs, not even making the playoffs,
which by the way, is thegoal for the Bulls, not making
the play in and missing the playoffs, but actually making the playoffs. This
team is not good enough in myopinion to do that, with long term
injuries to Zack Vieniz out for theyear and as the ball of course,
but then also other guys are playing, got Patrick Willmans out for some amount
(01:17):
of time, we don't exactly know. And yeah, it's just hard to
see this Bulls team being anybody inthe top A the East because the eight
seed is like the Miami Heat,who's much better than the Bulls. So
that's how I feel about the Bullstried deadline in activity. I thought it
was terrible. I thought it wasegregious. I thought it's a fire ball
offense. I thought it was embarrassingfor a major franchise to pretend that they're
(01:38):
being competitive for anything. And I'mdeeply ashamed. Nate, how do you
feel? Wow, you just summedup a lot of a lot of my
fellow fans frustrations. Man, I'vebeen so optimistic this year. I was
just hoping for something, which Iknow is sort of another universal thing.
You know, there's still a buyoutmarket. We can still get slightly better
gun in for that eight seed.But yeah, I mean, best case
(02:00):
scenario we get, we get towin a play in game or two,
and I don't know, I don'tknow if that's enough even for the most
optimistic fans. Yeah, and youknow, the Ryansdorf family just wants that
sweet sweet playoff money for a coupleof games, just the two games probably,
but they're not I don't think again, they're not good enough to do
(02:21):
even that. Okay, so theMagic or the eight seed, the Miami
Heat or the seventh seed Pacers arethe sixth seed, I don't think we're
gonna be able to catch. Well. Philadelphia is kind of on a losing
streak without Joe and b. They'velost four in a row and who knows
when it's gonna be back. Theyadded former blel Patrick Beverley, but other
than that, they didn't do aton. I'm sorry. They got rid
of hornerable Patrick Beverley and they addedformera ble Cameron Pain. That is what
(02:43):
the Philadelphia seventy six ers did.But they're two and eight in their last
ten, so they I guess theycould fall closer to the playing bracket like
seven seed Terrain. But then we'reright above the Atlanta Hawks for twenty three
and twenty nine, and you know, they've got their best players better than
our best player, Trey Young.It's better than Kobe White. And then
Brooklyn Nets are the eleventh seed,and the Toronto Raptors are not really trying.
(03:05):
So so there's eleven teams buying forten spots, but are we any
better than the top eight in theEast or even the Hawks? Like I
don't think so. I could seeus being the Hawks in one playing game,
I guess, but other than that, we couldn't take anybody. So
pessimistic times anyway, I want totalk about some of the bigger moves of
(03:27):
the day for teams that were active. The New York Knicks added Bayan by
Danovich and Alec Burks and they onlyhad to give up two second round picks,
and then the Evan Fournier contract andMalchive Flynn and Quinton Grimes and Ryan
Archidiacna Horma ball, so Grimes isthe only good player outgoing in that deal.
I thought that was a great move. I thought it was crazy they
(03:50):
could get by Danovich on with justa couple of seconds and Burke's former Nick
returning to the Knicks, and thatteam just continues to get better. They
got Odionobi the lost sense and yeah, they they look like they could be
a sort of sneaky Eastern Conference Finalskind of also ran team all of a
sudden, very tibsy A lot ofdefense, and it's all oriented around a
(04:13):
great scoring lead guard in Steamson productsJim Brunson, so exciting teams and I
wish that we'd done that gone.It's definitely tricky, you know, you
want to root for TIBs. Imean, you know, being with this
history with the Bulls, but theKnicks, I mean, come on,
we can't really root for the Knicks. It's like having to root for the
Heat. You know. I findmyself doing that a lot throughout the playoffs
(04:36):
last year because they were such underdogsand Jimmy Butler is still kind of our
guy. He's our guy. Imean, I want to you know,
I want to believe that, youknow, the TIBs try hard coaching,
you know, really hard nosed,hard, had lunch pail attitude is going
to you know, be successful againstteams like you know, the Celtics or
(04:57):
the Bucks. But I'm not goingto believe it until I them healthy.
And you know, even that,it's like you think they're gonna be Boston.
I don't think so. Yeah,right, I guess if if Chris
Aspersingas gets hurt or whatever, andBoston has trouble, you know, sometimes
scoring late in playoff games. Butbut you know, this is a different
Boston team than we've seen and it'sbetter. So Derek White, yeah,
(05:21):
all star snub possibly, Yeah,maybe he's like the next guy. They
already have two injury replacements. Butif someone else goes down, could it
be Derek White getting that that nextcall? I don't know. That guy's
been great. What a team,that Boston Sells team. Okay, did
they do Anythingzzlies? Oh? Yeah, there it is. And they traded
(05:44):
Lamar Stevens the Hawks twenty twenty sevensecond round pick and the Mavericks twenty twenty
or twenty thirty secon round pick,So okay, yeah, they helped show
up their front court. Actually,that's that's actually pretty good. Tilman's one
of the few Grizzlies players who's beenhealthy some of the year. He's got
a knee injury right now, buthe's playing through it basically. So they
(06:06):
also added Jaden Springer for a littlebackcourt help. So yeah, they made
some little moves in the game againstthe Warriors when he had to chase around
Steph Curry and stuff. You know, not a huge move for that team,
but that just adds to their alreadyinsane depth. You know, hopefully
their their coach doesn't sabotage them,and you know, the last couple of
(06:27):
minutes of games. That seems tobe the consensus among Celtics fans. I
don't have too many of them inmy life, but you know, people
in the sports media world, theyseem to be very frustrated with Missoula,
a lot of Celtics fans in sportsmedia these days. But yes, I
agree, missool is the weakness.And then yeah, I just think sometimes
laden playoff games like Brunson or Tatumkind of freezes up and freaks out.
(06:49):
But with you know, with additionalpeople now able to take some of that
scoring burden if needed in port Singisand and White stepping up and even Holidays
an extent, you know, theyshouldn't have to feel like they can.
It needs to be on them todo everything scoring wise. So hopefully,
I mean, well, I don'tknow what I'm I saying hopefully for I
want him to fail, I guess, But but it's an exciting team and
(07:12):
certainly like the Bulls are going tosucceed, so whatever, I guess.
The Sixers they also added Buddy HeelsSixers, so that was a big movie.
So I think the Sixers must beoperating as if Joe E and BID's
going to be back and pretty muchback to his MVP so, which I
think is a bit of a gamblebecause that guy gets hurt all the time
anyway, But he's hurt right nowand it's not totally clear that he will
return by the end of the regularseason, so a little risky. That's
(07:35):
really the key, right, Thekey is will Ebid come back? I
mean, their moves contradict either side, Like why did they get rid of
Pat Beverley? Why did they tradehim away? If Embiad's coming back,
what do they get a second rounderfor Pat? Bet and you know,
traded him to potentially a rival team. Yeah, I mean he's not that
good anymore, So that's I guessthe one thing. But yeah, they
(07:57):
got a second back. Healed.There must have been some you know,
some whatever tampering. He's got toresign there, right, Otherwise what are
they doing that deal for. Yeah, you'd think there must be sort of
like a handshake deal because otherwise it'sincredibly risky. I don't know. That
trade probably was in the works fora while too, because you know,
when he requested a trade in theoff season, right, Yeah, he
(08:20):
was been trying to get out ofthere for a while. But then again,
you know, so is Miles Turner, and then he then he decided
to stick around once they assigned toa lucrative extension. So you know,
if you're not an All Star,it's like trade demands can be heard,
but not necessarily like heated. Itdepends, you know. Jake Crowder kind
of sat out from Phoenix in protestto force a trade, and he did
(08:45):
get a trade, and Phoenix gotfive second round picks back for a guy
that can barely play anymore. So, but usually typically role players can't don't
have that kind of pull, SoI think it's a little while that,
Like, I don't think basically thePacers really should have felt any pressure to
trade, but he healed, Iguess what I'm saying. But anyway,
yeah, that's a good point.I mean, they just didn't want to
(09:05):
lose him for nothing, and theywere able to flip them and get McDermott,
which is a sneaky good move becausehe falls right into that role of
just being like, you know,sharpshooter from three. Yeah, I mean
they've also seen him before, likehe was a pacer for at least a
couple of seasons on those like theDoug Man beloved former Ble. Everybody enjoyed
(09:26):
having him. He wasn't. Isaw the Can I tell the quick story
about him? Yes? Please.I was at a game in Toronto in
probably twenty fifteen, I think,and I watched him. I got there
early, I got to watch thewarm ups and I watched Doug McDermott hit
maybe twenty three pointers in a rowlike he was. It was, it
(09:46):
was unguarded, you know, justduring warm ups. I was like,
holy shit, I see what theywhat they see in this guy. And
then during the game he could barelyget a shot out. It was.
It was he maybe hit one inthe game. It was. It was
terrible. That's my story. Imean, that's the dog. That's the
Doug bit Buckets experience. You know. I think he's got a little better,
but he's you know, he's stillkind of inconsistent and he doesn't have
(10:09):
like the instincts of like the greatshooters were, like, he's not really
amazing at cutting off ball or whatever, and for his size, like you
know, he should be better,rebetter whatever, he's you know, he's
fine. He's a professional basketball player. You can help a good deal.
He'll fit into that role with thePacers. And they don't you know,
they don't play defense anywhere over there, so they do not. Yeah,
so great shooter. What else dowe get? Some Raptors moves were kind
(10:31):
of dumb, but actually I guesswe could talk about Yeah, so the
Raptors acquired Spencer Dinwidy and then waivedhim, and now apparently he's gonna sign
with the Lakers. So Spencer DEWIwouldn't rely that's huge fit for the Bulls
because we have a lot of guards. So, but it's a big move
for the Lakers. Yeah, hewas starting. He started every game,
He started all forty eight games thathe played with Brooklyn. And then you
(10:52):
know, just to get him fornothing, you're not even a trade.
You know, that's a steal.Yeah. I wonder if if he'll get
along with Lebron and the gang.It seems like a lot of you hear
a lot of stuff about him,like it's very mixed, Like some people
will be like he's beloved in Dallas, right. That was the word was
that he was going to end upback on the MAVs, right, But
he seems to be for somebody that'snot that bad of a player. They
(11:13):
just get rid of him for nothing. I don't understand. I think it's
definitely suspicious. There definitely were timeswhen he was on the nets. What
is this? Was this his thirdtime around? His second time around?
At least his second he would killthe Bulls and I'd be like, wow,
did the Bulls draft him? Likewhat? They just got rid of
him? Only we drafted him.I think we had him in training camp,
(11:35):
but we decided to keep someone elseinstead of him, even though he
was clearly the best point guard wehad that year. I forget who who
we could kept instead. Maybe itwas Camera Paan speaking of camera pain,
but it was something done like that, Yeah, where it was clear that
Dawid he was the guy, andthen we said no, no, no,
and uh, yeah, Denwy hadbeen the guy. Dabe would have
been in prior season. Is agood fit for us. He's been having
(11:56):
a down season, that's not athing, but he's a very good three
punt shooter when he's on. Justisn't this year? Are there other big
trades that I'm not thinking of?I guess the Ross O'Neill David Roddy trade
to the Suns helps build up anothergood playoff team. Timberloves got Manty Morris
for like Shape Mild and Troy Brown, So it's pretty good. Let's see
(12:18):
here the words save some money witha gamer to call you trusse if they're
barely the playoff team. Robert LopezVulnerable, beloved, hormable seems likely to
be bought out by the Kings aftera deal with the Books. And yeah
he was at their game reading abook. Yeah right, Yeah, did
(12:41):
he have to be at the game? I don't know whether he had to
be at the game else to do. I guess that's true. Also,
he put funny tweet about how greatit was to be teammates with Pat Bev
for all the forty five minutes andgreat memories that were made. Yeah,
that's amazing for kind of a Idon't know, I would say mediocre Hall
(13:03):
of Trades at the deadline, itwas kind of cool to get to the
new stories like that, and thebig ones seemed like they already happened,
right, Yeah, so like thePascal Siak them to the Pacers deal,
the James Harden to the Clippers dealand the og and and nobody did the
next deal. We're like the bigtrades of the season. It turns out
in season that is obviously Daman Lordwas a huge one, but that was
before the season. So yeah,I don't know, you know, I
(13:24):
think the Knicks or the sneaky maybenot so sneaky winner of the trade the
nd season trade market. I wouldsay this year they look they look formidable,
they're very fun. Celx, youknow, made some smart moves.
The Sixers, if Embi comes back, made some good moves. I guess
you can talk about the Thunder gettingGordon Hayward and then they just signed Bumbo
(13:46):
for the rest of the season.So that's their center depth solution. It
turns out, you know, greatshot blocker, decent rebounder, can't score
for shit, but it's not aterrible move. So I don't, you
know, I don't really think thatthe are gonna win anything this year,
but they did show up the deatha little bit. Bill Soons was talking
about Thunder actual getting the legitimate bigguy to help them out there because Chet
and the uh the one Jayalen Williams, good gentle j will yeah, j
(14:15):
Will, right, of course,j Will. That's like there. And
then I guess Jay Doub was thebackup power forward right slash center, so
like that was their big three bigguys. So now Beyonbo becomes their next
he becomes their backup center essentially,and then Jay Dop can focus on just
backing up j Will at the fourspot. Anyway, that's not a bad
deal. But Gordon Haward, youknow, gets hurt all the time,
(14:35):
so we'll see if he's healthy bythe playoffs. I was confused by that.
I was confused why they didn't tradeone or two of their eight million
first round picks for some kind ofbackup big who maybe would be a little
bit more versatile and skilled than beyondwell beyond most. Fine, it's gonna
be a player, but just barelyat this point this year. I mean,
(14:58):
yeah, they're so good now,right, Why would they not?
What would they not just I meancashing something. You don't have to trade
five, you know, first roundpicks for some crazy star, but you
know, flipping one or two ofthose for you know, even a decent
backup four or five, I don'tknow. I'm not pressed. Man,
(15:18):
He's a genius but it just itseems like they might be wasting, you
know, a year of contention.I agree. I think, you know,
even Gafford or Tillman, who bothmoved, they could have. I
think they're both better than Bambo atthis point in Beamo's career. So yeah,
what if they played Denver in theconference finals? What are they going
to do with Jokic? I mean, what is anybody gonna do with Jokic?
(15:39):
But really, what are they gonnado? Have is mac Biambo punch
in the face? I guess Ijust hope that everybody else beats them and
then sort of try to get thebough out of Jogi's hands as much as
possible. I don't know, it'snot really They're a weird matchup for the
Nuggets, and I think the Lakersactually, you know, in a first
round series, could could beat themas an underdog. So there's like a
(16:02):
weird vulnerability with them. And thenit's they're kind of the opposite of the
Timberwolves, who like are also kindof a little tethered to like their identity,
and it could come back to bitethem in the postseason as well,
but for you know, opposite reasons. Basically because they have a lot of
good big guys, but they theyyou know, I don't have a ton
of small ball depth, and theymight have some sort of positional They do
(16:23):
have some sort of positional overlap withthe like basically three starting caliber centers.
So I don't know it'll be interestingplayoffs, but I did kind of expect
other other teams to make bigger moves, the Lakers who do something, or
the Hawks. You have team didanything, the Bowl's not doing anything that's
not stays put stays put. Well, for the Lakers, it sounds like
(16:45):
what they want to do is usethree first round draft picks, which they'll
have at their disposal, and getlike more of a big fish than John
Ta Murray in the summer. JohnMurray, also, I think, is
on expiring contract, right, soI guess they, you know, worried
about retaining him. Let's confirm.I'm gonna confirm that hold for I don't
(17:06):
know if has got a team ora player option for next year. If
he's unrestricted unrestracted. Okay, sothat makes sense. I guess it's like
a little risky. You could justthere some early rumors about him going back
to the Spurs just like they likehim there. Obviously, if you're the
GM of Atlanta, you don't wantto actually do that, but it would
(17:27):
have been a fun story to have, like and just to have him with
Wemby for the rest of the yearSpurs would be a lot more fun to
actually watch. Yeah, or likeBill Simmons has been trying to advocate for
his backcourt teammate All Star Trey Youngto go to the Spurs. I think,
you know, a really high levelpoint guard to the Spurs. News
lost sense. They got a lotof assets too, so they could do
a deal like for one of thoseguys. I guess Spurs also have the
(17:49):
money. They just signed Joan TayMurray outright this summer, so I suppose
that's possible. But there's always TreeYoung rumors. I find that to be
really interesting because it seems like hishis uh, the perception of him around
the league is not great, eventhough he puts up insane numbers, and
he would need one of those Godfatheroffers like five first round picks plus a
player. I mean, what teamcould do that? The Thunder they don't.
(18:12):
They don't need another reguard to takeGosh Josh Gideon four picks and now
we've got Trey Young and Shade.It's just I don't know. I think
it's a matter of fit, right, like unless unless trade is like I
want out trade me, or I'mnot playing. I don't think he's ever
getting traded. I guess Utah,he does a lot of picks, and
uh, their starting point guard isChris Dunn, so Bull's legend. So
(18:34):
I feel like, man, hewas almost on the league. I'm just
happy for him to make it back. He had a lot of injuries,
and yeah, was one of theone of the pieces in the Jimmy,
the infamous Jimmy Butler trade. Yeah, he sure was. He was like
the fifth pick. He was apretty solid defender, but that was kind
of his offensive game, wasn't great, Chris, that was the fifth pick
(18:56):
out of Providence in his draft.Let's talk about biout options for the Bulls
because this is what we have todeal with. So obviously, Spencer de
Wide's already off the Board's already offthe board. Justice Winslow recently signed a
ten day deal with the Raptors.Not that he would have been worth anything
(19:17):
more than that for the Bulls,but you know, interesting. Former lottery
pick TAJH Gibson sign another ten daydeal with the Knicks. Joe Harris has
been rumored to be a target forthe Bulls. According to NBC Sports Chicago's
Casey Johnson, sharp shooter gets hurta lot, big shooting guard can play
some small forward, can't really guardanybody. But you know, for a
(19:37):
minimum contract, rest of the year, minimum deal, Like yeah, sure,
whatever. I don't even who knowswhat the Bulls are doing right,
Like they're not good enough to actuallydo anything of substance, So it doesn't
really make any kind of difference.It's just be nice to like see a
slightly different team than like the kindof boring team that we've been watching so
far this year. Are there otherbig biot guys? Let's see here?
Oh, PJ. Tucker, DadickJohnson, Daddy Young? Did I yeah?
(20:02):
Bring it back? Okay, bringup the bench. Yeah. I
love that he's young, and likewe're not going anywhere, so it doesn't
actually matter, you know what Imean. You don't have to be adding
guys to win anything, So yeah, I just bring him back, bring
joke, you know it back?Like whatever? You know, Okay,
nothing here retired. I'm always hopingfor the Derek Rose buyouts that we can
(20:22):
bring Derrick Rose back, but he'sgetting paid right now. He's getting paid
to be on the Grizzlies, unfortunately, not play. That was the funny
thing about the Derek ros signing islike they added him to be a guy,
you know, with John Moran outthat they could count his insurance.
But you know, he's Derek Rose. So he got hurt immediately and he's
been hurt most of the year.Yeah, it sucks. You know,
(20:45):
I guess Lamar Stevens might be abuyout guy. I wouldn't mind Lamar Stevens,
you know, like some wing,defensive wing depth, but he can't
shoot. And also it's not guaranteethat he's gonna get brought out, so
Marcus Morris, Brus Morris. Butagain, like these are guys that should
go on teams that want to actuallydo something, you know what I mean.
So I don't know why they wouldbe that incentivized to sign with the
(21:07):
Bulls. Yeah, I mean,other than Thaddys who's got a history here,
I'm not even sure if he wouldget playing time. Honestly, the
more I think about it, becauseI know corne service is like pushing.
You know, the young guys wantsto see Julian Phillips minutes, probably more
than he wants to bring Thaddeus Young, which you know is one of the
only smart angles that he would take. It's just yees see what the young
(21:30):
guys have and Phillips has shown upsome promise, whereas we know what Taddy's
young is and is not at thispoint. Gallinari, I guess, is
also available, so you know,big shooting forward who gets hurt a lot
Killian Hayes, former twenty twenty lotterypick, was terrible on the Pistons for
four years and now is going tobe available to be terrible somewhere else.
I would I would stay away.Yeah, that would be That would be
(21:51):
such a strange fit. I mean, with the emergence of Kobe. Yeah,
there's no time. Same problem here, Corey Joseph I guess, but
again doesn't make a ton of senseto me. He'll probably end up back
in Toronto. I believe he's fromToronto. I think he was on their
team. I don't know, Canadians. I was kind of hoping they would
(22:14):
they would figure out a Wiggans tothe Wiggans of the Raptors trade to just
have you know, they traded fora Linux. They're just like, we're
gonna ge a bunch of Canadian guyson Canada's only team. Yeah. The
Jazz also like the former lottery pickby Agbaji went to Toronto as well,
another Canadian and then obviously they gotback RJ. Barrett. So yeah,
they're just like going in all Canadaover there. That's that's another that's another
(22:38):
team where if you like, youknow, I want to be optimistic and
positive about the Bulls Raw Rob winningthe plane. But you know, if
you really compare what we what wedid to a team like Toronto, even
where what is Toronto doing? Whatdirection are they going? I don't know,
but at least they made a bunchof moves. I mean, I
guess they sold off some of theirstars that they were rumored to be selling
(23:00):
off last year. Yeah, therebuilding, they embraced the rebuild. They
realized they're not that good. Wecould have done that and we just were
like, no, not happening.Allegedly, the front office front office decided
it was not a good idea.Ownership allegedly said it was okay with the
rebuild. You know, there's there'sno uh, there's no obligation for them
to actually tell us the truth inthat scenario. So I don't know if
(23:22):
I would believe it it's true.But our tourist Conner Show has said that
he had the option to do atear time he just didn't want to,
which, you know, it doesn'treally matter because we're gonna be a bad
team anyway. We're gonna be alot of our teams anyway, So you
can say what you want, youknow, but like the fate is the
same. It's just gonna be thereeam. I think. You know,
people in sports have decent sized egos, whether from obvious people or players.
(23:45):
Admitting defeat would be like really doingthe tear out. Yeah, you know,
like it. It wouldn't just beoh it was last year all alonzo
ball got her. We can't predictinjuries, which is kind of what they've
been singing to us for the lastseasons. And I mean, I wish
other but the best for Lonz.I really hope that he can come back,
but it just it doesn't seem realisticat this point to be waiting for
(24:08):
that and hoping for that. No, you know's that's sad situation. It's
the bummer. But also we havean all star, fringe all star level
starting point guard now without him,so we kind of lucked out. But
yeah, yeah, Kobe White agood player development story. We don't We
don't get a lot of those inthis town. He'll be continues to grow
(24:30):
and you know, maybe he'll bean All Star next year. The team
can be good. One of thefew good ACME draft picks. Oh wait,
he was drafted by guar Packs,the final guard Packs pick act.
We have no good draft picks unlessyou count Io. I don't count Patrick
Wims is a good draft pick.I'm sorry, Like he's he's an NBA
level player. Fine, But likewith the fourth pick in that draft when
(24:53):
Tyre's Halbert and den Vessel and doesn'tBane and a bunch of other intriguing guys
that are better right now available,like that was the wrong pick. Looks
horrible, looks horrible. I mean, COVID really screwed up that draft.
So I think every front office personis going to get a pass to a
degree. Right, the Warriors draftedWiseman number two in that draft, Right,
(25:15):
that was a mistake. You imagineany of those guys you just named
on the Warriors right now, likeTyree, either of the Tyreses, even
a Desmond Vane on the Warriors wouldbe out of control. Yeah, o,
LaMelo, although that's true, alsowas third Oh. Speaking of franchises
who have done better with their frontoffice moves recently, Charlotte, I mean
(25:37):
Charlotte really it seems like they havea plan, like they're they're probably going
to be better than us in twoyears. Their team tear down at last,
and they got you know, BrianMiller, who's a questionable character,
but Drake a basketball player. Theygot mouth Bridges, you know, Diato,
And they got LaMelo, who getshurt all the time, but you
know, that's an interesting core.And then and they got rid of the
(26:00):
Hayward contract. Finally they got withof PJ. Washington, they got some
draft assets back, the kind ofstuff we should have done. We have
much better present day players to move. We could have gotten better assets,
I would think, you know,so, I don't know. It's a
bummer. I'm bummed. But whatcan you do? What can you do?
(26:21):
Uh? Nate, do you haveany reason robimism with the Bulls.
Do you think that the Bulls canfinish with like the seventh Do you think
the Bulls can make the playoffs?You know better, they've been playing better
overall as recently. You know,if you if you look at the team
hypothetically at they're at full strength withoutLevine because he's out for the year.
I think they can snag that eighthseed. Tonight, it's a big game
(26:41):
against the Magic. I believe.It's a road game, so we'll see
that they've been kind of bad onthe road overall this year, and we'll
see how they match up against Orlandobecause they're what they're right behind them in
the seating right and have in frontof me. But yeah, Magic twenty
twenty four, twenty five, andtwenty seven, so we're three games behind
them, and our road record isten and fifteen. Imagine records sixteen and
(27:06):
seven. So we'll see how thatgoes. I mean, I don't know
if we'll have an answer for theirsize too, with Ben Hero the Wagner's
I don't know. I think it. You know, it'll depends a lot
on just Kobe continuing to ball out, everybody come back healthy. Like I
said, we just got Tory Craigback, which I know seems like a
small piece, but you know,he's an adult. At a certain point.
(27:30):
I watched the Bulls Bench union withDale, Terry and Phillips out there,
and you know, I want thoseguys to develop, but I'm just
like, oh my god, we'renot. We don't even have adults playing,
Like can these guys even legally drink? Like what is what is going
on? What are we doing?And so you know have to have like
real NBA players who know who justknow what the schemes are. I know
how to defend, and I think, you know, if we're at full
strength, that we have a chance. I think the best is yet to
(27:52):
come with tomorrow this year, I'mholding out that he'll he'll have a really
good second half. You know,technically post all are but I'm gonna call
it the second half. Maybe he'llbe mad for the snub he wasn't even
considered. I honestly kind of misshaving exactly been because he would have those
games, you know, like hedropped fifty this year even though only played
in twenty five games. You cankind of I don't know, I could
(28:15):
talk myself into into you know,if they resigned a bar in the off
season being better next year. ButI totally could not fault someone that would
point to me in Sam insane thatI'm just wishing for different results for the
same thing that we've seen for thelast three years. It's hard, man.
I mean, it's just we hadthat window of time a few seasons
ago when Lonzo is healthy, We'rethe one seed for a brief period.
(28:40):
It's like it wasn't that long ago, but I guess I guess it was.
I don't know it's long enough forACME to at least have tried to
pivot in any real way, whichthey have not done. They've just doubled
down, and it feels insane tome. But you know, eventually they're
gonna get fired if they just keepdoing nothing. So that's the one positive.
Might just take a couple of yearsof watching this and like, look,
I like watching tomorrow too. ButI just feel bad for him.
(29:02):
I hope you know, he's afree agent this summer, although he's talked
about wanting to sign an extension sincethe trade deadline the last couple of days
with the Bulls, which is insane. I hope he doesn't do that I
hope he hope he joins a teamthat actually could win something. So he
was rumored as a Sixers target too. I don't know what happened with that,
but we probably asked for the moon, that's my theory. Crusoe as
well, well, he was anexpiring so I don't even know if he
(29:23):
could have known it as his firstround pick. But I just like Tomorrow
as a guy, Like, ifthey resign him, I just hope they
don't give him a zach Lavine typedeal, you know, because he's just
not at a point in his careerwhere they really merits that. Yeah,
and if they really wanted to compete, I don't know. I guess is
the world we're keeping Tomorrow would kindof work, but you really have to
(29:45):
do a lot more stuff, youknow, and you have to get off
that Lonzo money, figure something out, which you could. You know,
we're gonna have some picks to movein the summer, and yeah, if
you want to actually compete for anything, then like you have to, you
know, surround these guys with playersthat make sense. You need a lot
more defense on the wing. Iwould want to figure out a solution to
the Bucevic issue. I don't know. I think basically defense is the big
(30:07):
thing, and shooting two important elementsof of being a good basketball team.
So I don't, you know,hard to see them making any kinds of
deals anytime soon, honestly, Butyou know, they wanted to do Zach
supposedly, and Zach wanted them toflip Zach. I heard on Rachel Nichols's
podcast All the Smoke. Nichols saidthat Zach, you know, did this
(30:30):
elective quote unquote surgery because he heardhe was going to the Detroit Pistons,
which I thought was hilarious if it'strue, But I wonder, I wonder
about the sources for that. Youknow, yeah, she's pretty fucked in.
Who said that? I mean,yeah, more than us, but
who I mean who said that?You can see Zach being not very stoked
(30:51):
about getting traded to Detroit of allthe teams he could go to. But
to go out of your way tohave a surgery with a six month four
to six months or recovery time,it feels unnecessary. I mean, what
is his injury even? I mean, that's that just brings up a whole
bunch of questions that we can discussabout the medical staff and how transparent they
(31:11):
are and how competent they are.I don't feel super comfortable criticizing the medical
staff because we just don't know,you know what I mean. Yeah,
I don't have the best track record. We'll just say that. I think
you had Max litigated that pretty hardin the last podcast we did. Oh
has he has he quit the Bullsofficially? I know you were speaking to
(31:33):
him recently. No, he's in. He's watching him play The Magic tonight.
Oh yeah, it was an emptythreat. But we'll see if that
holds true after the next transaction periodover the summer free agency, when the
Bulls sign Corey Joseph to a threeor fifteen million dollar deal or whatever it
is they're going to do. Sohe's hoping that Chicago surprises is. But
(31:56):
really the solution is simple to me. Fire our turner's cardshow is fire Mark
Eversley, Get new management in thefront office, get some competent pay overpay
for Sam Pressty. I don't knowwhat you have to do. Get there
on more, get something creative andand interesting, who's willing to take chances
and acquire assets, and pivot whenit's clear that that has to be done.
(32:17):
So that's what I would say,What do you think sell the team?
It's the only way anything's ever goingto change. I'm not totally out
on on Ak and Mark Eversley atthis point, but the next off season
will be will be huge. Imean, whether or not they extend tomorrow
again, there's part of me thathopes that they do. If they can
(32:40):
maybe find a Levine trade in theoff season, I think there'll be a
lot more options, will be alot more time to negotiate and finesse it
if anybody wants. And you know, I know Sacramento showed interest a while
ago, and if they flame outin the first round, you know,
maybe they'll go, shit, weneed more firepower. Let's go. Let's
go get them. We'll into riskthe money and the injury history. But
(33:02):
yeah, I think that, youknow, I think that our tourist kind
of service might just be you know, he he's got bosses, you know,
And and we have a reputation,you know, our team, it's
a really unfortunate reputation that we're gonnastay under the tax and remain quote unquote
competitive, which means maybe we'll getsome playoff share. But yeah, I
(33:28):
guess I'm not. I'm not onthe I'm not holding up signs of the
arena yet to fire the front office. Not just yet. Well suit yourself,
but if they keep going this way, any reasonable owner would would can
them. And I hope that wedo too, sooner rather than later,
because it's it's disheartening the players also, by the way, like on Thursday,
(33:50):
after the trade deadline passed and nothinghappened, the players almost lost to
the G League Grizzlies. It was. It was an embarrassing game. Even
Adam, I mean, and andstay seeking. We're both kind of out
on the bulls effort. And Iget it. I agree. It does
seem like the Bulls themselves wanted somethingto happen, which is exactly what happened
last trade deadline too. They wenton like a five or six game losing
(34:12):
streak after we did nothing. Theplayers, Yeah, that was that was
a bad game. Again, likeI said, they're not very good on
the road. That's that's been anissue all year. Yes, we did
win that game, but we justbarely won that game. We did win
that game. Yeah, it wasa shame to be tuning in. I
was kind of in and out.I went out to dinner during part of
that game. I caught the lasttwo minutes on television after catching the first
(34:37):
quarter when it was kind of likea back and forth up and down first
quarter where they were just talking abouthow the Grizzlies are, They're so banged
up. You know. It wasSmart, no Morant, no Bain,
like, that's three of the eightor nine guys that are injured, you
know, Steven Adams. They gotrid of them. And then at the
end of the game they were like, I guess that's a win. I
guess it counts. Yeah, Andit was ugly, and that was like
(34:58):
what I tuned into. It wasjust like, oh, holy shit,
yeah, Saysey game. He wasvery optimistic about the Bulls usually even he
was feeling it after that game.I mean, just yeah, the effort's
not there because the players are sickof each other too. They're sick of
playing with each others. We arewatching the play with each other so to
an extent, Kobe White kind ofrevitalis them for a bit, but things
are sort of slowing down now again. Oh well, all right, Well,
(35:22):
thanks Nate Dog for checking in withthe Bulls bros. And hopefully we'll
have you back soon. It'll bean exciting time down the stretch for a
lot of teams, just not ours, but hopefully the plane will be sort
of entertaining. I guess. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.
It's really great to see you.I miss Magis as well. Hopefully
next time we can all be Bullsbros together on here. But I just
(35:45):
really appreciate you let me come onand share my meatball Bulls fandom with you.
Well, we appreciate the meatball Bullsfandom and go Bulls. We'll talk
to everybody soon, all right,thanks again. What wo
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