KC Johnson is a G. Real good stuff in this pod. Everything in this summary is paraphrasing KC.
Highlights
Trade Status:
Siakam: big payout because Indy can’t sign anyone outright in free agency. KC loves the move. Good fit with Hali.
Don’t be surprised if Zach doesn’t get traded at deadline. He’s definitely getting moved at some point, but the team is in no hurry to get peanuts back if there’s no value at the deadline
Bulls don’t want to move Caruso unless there’s a gangbuster offer
Team doesn’t want to move Demar. Good locker room guy, and doesn’t have much trade value. Bulls likely will be looking to extend him.
Performance:
KC predict 43 wins.
Bulls are 10-3 in clutch games since ZL went down to injury. Bulls are first in the league in defensive rating in the clutch. Bulls have played the most clutch minutes in the league at 101 minutes.
KC likes Zach. Said he needs to get back to 15-17 shots a game; do what you do well. He’s playing like shit this year though. Shooting is down and decision making has regressed.
Since Zach’s return— good defense. Told Coby “I’m just here for your development”, which KC says is indicative of a good teammate.
Vuc’s 3 ball is atrocious this year. Worrisome because it’s not just early season slump at this point.
“Dalen Terry is shooting 19.4% from three… Yikes”
Offensive pace is dead last and it’s not close.
Uptick in 3 pt. Attempts.
Overall, the offense sucks. Exact same as last year. Defense has regressed as well.
Of the big 3, who’s impacting winning the most?
— “Derozan, but it’s all been kinda underwhelming”
by trubiskywetrust
10 Comments
This front office is so bad it’s just comedic at this point.
My questions are how high do they expect lavines value to ever be? Even when he was killing it at the end of last season playing at an all star level nobody was willing to meet their demands in the off-season which is why he was still on the team this year. Also if lavine doesn’t get traded and they wanna extend demar are they probably gonna be forced to let pwill walk? Already 130 mil on payroll next season and that’s without pwill derozan and Drummond. Detroit has had interest in pwill in the past and they have plenty of cap space this summer. Plus even if they can somehow bring all those guys back there’s no space to make any other additions other than minimums. Which means another year of purgatory lol
Wouldn’t be a post from me without a pessimistic interpretation of Zach— it sounded to me like he’s pretty checked out on this team. KC mentioned that it was a little aggressive of him to declare his trade request in December. Should have waited until about now. Said that Zach is soured on Bulls because he’s “sick of losing” and “didn’t like that he was involved in trade speculation last year”
Which to me is more baby back bullshit from Zach. We’re all tired of losing, dog. And you’re involved in trade speculation because you’re the marquee guy on a dumpster fire of a team. Lose the ego.
I don’t love that comment to Coby; “I’m just here for your development”. KC took it as a positive in that he’s supportive of his teammates. To me, that sounds like Zach’s only concern is doing right by his homies. Which—cool. That’s nice. I’d prefer that you’re here to win basketball games seeing as you’re our max guy and we’re in a shit spot because you have no value around the league. I’m probably reading too much into this, but when you view his recent play through that lense, it can sorta look like he’s emotionally checked out; he’s taking half his normal shots and deferring instead. Basically, he’s staying out of the way. Not saying that’s definitely the case, but maybe a plot line worth observing.
Whatever.
Surprised to hear KC confidently say the Bulls will extend DDR. I don’t hate it. DDR isn’t winning a championship any time soon, but neither is this franchise, and someone’s gotta get buckets.
KC sounded super frustrated about our offensive woes. He was pretty diplomatic about the players though. While he didn’t say it, it sounded to me like he’s a little peeved with Billy in this regard.
So basically all the shit we don’t want to see. I’m honestly considering giving up my bulls fando. This shit is pathetic. More seasons of this same ol depressing basketball. Extended zach, extended donovan, extended vuc, now extending demar? Bro like how is this shit allowed by the nba??
Well that’s depressing as hell. I’m sadly back on the blow it up train. We had a fun run there for a while but there’s just not enough going on right now to salvage. If AKME is a buyer at this point they’re morons and I will lose all faith in them. Zero reason to keep this core together.
I would trade Zach, Caruso and Vooch as soon as I can get a decent return. Build around Coby and Pat, with Demar as mentor. Give Terry and Philips meaningful consistent minutes so we can really figure out if they’re good or not. Offseason should be focused on getting younger and more athletic, no more vets.
We need a future prospect at center. Love me some Drum and Vooch but their timeline no longer works for us. We need a good big or two around the 20-23 year old range.
Goal should be to use Coby’s age as the benchmark for future contention. He’s 23. Let’s try to line up our window for competing around the time he turns 26-27 so we’re firing on all cylinders when he’s in his prime.
Re signing Demar makes no fucking sense and I am not sure why it’s even a possibility… if you’re talking like MLE money sure but he’s not worth using any actual valuable cap space at his age. This experiment failed move the fuck on AK
My midseason impression, the defense is alright and the offense is ass. Hopefully AKME can work some LaVine trade before the deadline that doesn’t hurt the defense and actually helps improve the offense. I’m for sending him to SAC for Barnes, Huerter, and a couple future 1sts.
Basically status quo, nothing’s gonna change buckle up for another year of mediocre boring basketball
Hopefully we dont overpay DeMar to keep him here. We wouldnt be able to pay pat lol
I know everyone wants trades, and AKME should have made moves last season to make changes, but moving pieces like Lavine now for lesser value just doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. If we are not getting a solid value then we will just be stuck in the same place as we are now.
If Vuc was shooting his 3s at a decent clip we’d be above .500, he is killing us with those bricks off the back iron