And it may not be long with the heart issues Hoiberg has.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

That Woj article is pretty damning. Every national commentator is teeing off on the Bulls, which only makes the local kept press's response all the more shameful.

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The Bulls haven't done anything wrong, and they're not going to do anything wrong.

Thibs was no cherub ... he had his clear faults which were significant enough to cut way too deeply into his extraordinary defensive wizardry and his work ethic that might give someone like John Gruden a moment of pause. He also wanted to unabashedly butt heads with his bosses, and his successes were not remotely enough that he could do that without a logical fear of eventual reprisal.

Like it or not, it was time for Tom to go. Shouldn't have to be that way, but it was, and thus I'm not broken up over it.

Having said that, it's nothing short of appalling how the people in charge are handling this. Schoolyard bullies that have a hard time making their own mark on a piece of paper generally handle their dreadful business with greater tact than this cavalcade of clowns apparently have.

FWIW I was completely disinterested and largely unconvinced about there being anything beyond typical dickishness coming out of the FO (he said, she said ... my guy leaks this, your guy leaks that, etc.) .... but in 24 hours I've come to start considering if it isn't time to have Chuck Norris go in and roundhouse those fuckwagons in the front office a few times as well, including slapping the shitty glasses off of rich uncle Jerry Moneybags' mush.

God damned embarrassing all the way around, that much is for certain.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Of course he isn't. The gays aren't allowed in heaven.

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Proud member of the white guy grievance committee

It aint the six minutes. Its what happens in those six minutes.

What's most hilarious to me is the extent to which some of the front office apologists act like Thibs was the one that started the PR war or that GarPax weren't even engaging in the same tactics at all. Apparently the same guy who's such a nerd that he has no life outside of basketball is also a media puppetmaster, capable of controlling the national opinion and leaving the poor innocent front office as mere victims of his Machiavellian PR strategy. Hell some people act like the Van Gundy rant (and let's be clear, it's more likely that his rant was his own take rather than anything he was put up to) was the first bit of bad publicity from either side.

Maybe it's the case that GarPax look like clownish assholes not due to the Thibodeau camp unfairly portraying them that way but instead because they are, in fact, clownish assholes.

They are borderline making the Bears front office including George look competent. This is a reminiscent to the Hawks in the Pulford/Wirtz era.

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An unjust law is no law at all--St. Augustine of Hippo

Cause tried and true
I see the light in you
Oh, can you dig in my soul?
Could you smell my whole...
life?--Gener and Deaner

Who are the front office apologists? Seems the media is rightfully skewering reinsdorf and garpax. Ironically their unnecessary parting shot on thibs has probably taken focus away on the reasons why they fired him and, as others have said, consequently turned thibs into a sympathetic figure.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I think it's just down to Señor at this point, and we haven't heard him on the air yet. Maybe he's read the room a little on this one, but probably not.

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Probably. But as jorr and others mentioned, let's not conflate garpax's decision to fire thibs with the theatrics of the manner in which they fired him. Bernstein will probably whitewash the theatrics and/or argue thibs' peculiarities demanded such an explosive divorce.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

_________________
Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

I'm more concerned with should he or shouldn't he have been fired and not so much concerned about what was said at a silly ass press conf. I'm sure that Reinsdorf and Paxson probably thought they were engaging in a little damage control. I also think that it was their way of controlling the message. They have only served to inflame the situation even more. There are people that would be upset no matter what was said yesterday because they didn't believe that he should be fired.

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I didn't care if they liked him or not. I thought they were smart enough not to fire him until late March. I was assured that short of winning a championship he would be fired.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I believe if he could have gotten them to an NBA finals he would have been able to save his job. Maybe a conf. finals. Losing to Cleveland is nothing to get fired over either. Losing to Cleveland without Love, with only a symbolic Irving, and a not so dominant Lebron James is something to be fired over.

In addition was the disappointing regular season and first round series against Milwaukee. He lost 2 games and went to double OT in order to win a game against a garbage Milwaukee team.

The third seed came down to the last game of the season. Toronto had major injuries and were without their best player for probably 30-40 games and battled for the third seed nonetheless.

Two of the Cleveland games were blowouts.

I find it interesting that people can suggest there was no talent on this team. The Bulls were picked by many to win the East before there was any evidence of Butler's improvement. They were picked to win the East even as most people believed that Gasol was finished. The only person that truly played below expectations was Noah. Some would say Rose but I didn't expect to see an MVP Rose. Mirotic played above expectations and Brooks had a pretty solid season as a backup. They only won 50 games. Boston by comparison won 40. Milwaukee won 41. Look at the Rosters on both of those teams. There is no comparison with respect to talent level. This team underachieved and Thibs paid the price as he should.

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Not too bad for an autistic guy.

Rose, Noah, Butler and Taj were injured for large parts of the season. Even Gasol missed time. Rose played well a handful of times the entire season and playoffs. The Bulls definitely overachieved this season. They were picked because we all thought they would be healthy.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Forget Rose. If the Bulls had Noah and Taj from the year before to pair with the Gasol we got this year I think the Bulls would have been fine.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I think what was troubling was their tendency to lose to sub par teams. I want to look at the losses to sub .500 teams. Truly bad teams. Its seems like they lost about 10 games to really bad teams. It carried over into the playoffs. Milwaukee was a .500 team and they struggled against them.

That was the first sign that the players were not playing for him.

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So apparently Thibs wanted Draymond Green while GarPax stood firm and drafted Teague (lol), which was kind of how this all started.

If Reinsdorf wanted there to be open dialogue between President, GM and Coach, then he should have given Tom Thibodeau full run of personnel decisions.

Paxson and Forman have time and time again made bad signings, trades, and drafts.

Tyrus Thomas draft
John Salmons trade
Jamal Crawford trade
Drew Gooden / Larry Hughes trade
Carlos Boozer signing
bad contract extensions
Ben Wallace signing

Maybe Thibodeau had every right to tell them to fuck off with their thoughts.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Players ...Rose....didnt want Teague...

Have said it in the past.....I would talk to players all day before I even watched a game. Let the guys on the court tell you who is good....they know.

Bottom line.....Thibbs wasnt in the FAMILY CLUB!

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Gar "John...I really like this McDermott kid"
Pax"me too...we should see at least 20 of his gmes next year between us in person"
Gar" We need to trade up to get him...."
Pax "Agreed"
Gar "We got him!"
Pax "Yes...High five"

Gar "John....Thibbs doesnt like McDoug"
Pax"I dont care, tell him to play him!"
Gar "he said, maybe"
Pax" FUCK!"

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Biggie, why would you let Beardown have your log-in information?

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Host of the weekly "We Fish ASA" podcast
Weekly columnist for the Northwest Herald
Bi-monthly columnist for Illinois Outdoor News magazine
Former host of The Outdoors Experience on WIND and The Great Outdoors on CLTV
http://www.wefishasa.com

I feel you on most of those transactions. However there's also this:

Noah at 9 in the draft
Butler low 20s
Gibson low 20s
Mirotic 20s
Productive benches ever since Thibs was hired
Lack of dead weight on the cap after Wallace was moved

They've got one of the deepest teams in the league. They've made mistakes but the roster is thus far pretty solid. The only thing holding them back is something no one.could control: Roses knees

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Noah isn't a world beater, and they should have drafted Marc Gasol instead.
Jimmy Butler was developed by Tom Thibodeau.
Taj Gibson was given a bad contract extension.
Nikola Mirotic will probably be decent, but he has had one up and down year so far.
Thibodeau turned guards on their way out of the league into successful bench players.

I think you're on my side based on these points.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

I don't know why I'm saying this but you are better than this. Whenever a guy develops it's because of Thibs. Whenever he doesn't it's bad drafting. Noah at nine is a helluva pick. A lot of people missed on Gasol. Spencer Hawes went 10th remember.
I don't recall you saying that Taj's extension was so bad last yr. I fought that battle alone. Jimmy Butler displayed ability and was a productive player the moment he began receiving consistent playing time. Don't know how much Thibs had to do with that.

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Fear not - Taj Gibson is still better than Josh Smith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3w96p3T4Uk

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

No one and I mean no one believes that right now.

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We will find out very soon if the rejects Paxson signed every year were actually good or if Thibodeau made them good. I think it's clear Thibodeau played a huge role in elevating their game. Most have sucked once they left. The ones that haven't (Korver Belinelli) credit Thibodeau for helping their game.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I didn't think anyone would ever try to argue Thibodeau's X's and O's and his development of players. Almost everyone that has come to Chicago on those "flyers" have had career seasons under Thibodeau. That stopped being a coincidence once it became a theme.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Not that I disagree with this or IMU's last post but I don't get the point of pointing out Thibs' coaching prowess - it's well understood to most everyone except LTG for some reason. He was fired for reasons that have nothing to do with his knack for coaching up the players, especially nondescript ones like Augustine

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY