Deng is maybe "great" if you limit the pool to Chicago players. I could buy him being a local great player.

_________________
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

Yup.

And he doesn’t even have a cool name.

_________________

Butler is great. If you think he's anything less than that your standards are too high. There's more than 3-4 great players in the league.

If you wanna say Deng wasn't great that's fine but at his peak he was the best LeBron defender in the NBA and there was nothing he couldn't do on the court while playing the most minutes per game in the NBA. He was great.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

We sure Patrick Williams isn't Kawhi Leonard 2.0? Let me grab another beer and think more on this.

_________________
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I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

the Spurs liked him.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

You laugh but that's a great sign tbh

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Liked him a lot but the thing that separated him from getting to the next level was shot creation. That was a limitation. But again for what he was I'd take him. Maybe he could have been a championship team's 3rd best player.

_________________
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

He couldn’t dribble the ball.

_________________

No, not that either. You don’t become great by reducing the competition. He might be a top 25 Bull but that doesn’t make him great.

_________________
“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

There's no maybe about it imo. If Rose stayed healthy he would have been the 2nd best player on a championship team.

Deng was great.

_________________
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I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Ok, I get where you’re coming from then.


Don’t get me wrong, all the guys you listed were legit NBA players that start on a good amount of playoff caliber teams.


I’m just frustrated. The Bears have done jack shit these last many years, and the Bulls aren’t any good these days -and I’m not a baseball or hockey guy so Bulls and Bears are all I’ve got.. it’s frustrating

_________________
If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

I agree. I am willing to give him and AK the benefit of the doubt.

Maybe his college coach was an idiot. Maybe he is a late bloomer.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

This is just crazy talk.

There is a 0.0% chance LaMelo Ball ever becomes as good as Luol Deng was. You either lost your memory or your mind.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Is lebron injured in the rose-healthy scenario?

_________________

Loved him at the 11th pick maybe.

_________________
“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

I said he was close which means I could put him in there depending on what day it is.. but yeah, I do reserve the word ‘great’ for a very few guys tbh

_________________
If the rule you followed lead you to this, of what use was the rule?

I hear you 100% on this, although I like baseball more with each passing year (it's an old man game).

But they brought in a total outsider to run the team and hired a HC who was a HC before. Those things haven't happened in my lifetime I don't think. There's a lot of reason for optimism, and if not optimism, at least looking at the team with a clean slate.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Now we're just talking semantics I guess. Yes he's not a great player in the universal sense of the word. No argument. Amongst all Bulls players, he's probably top 7-10 historically. Maybe higher, again not sure about pre 1990s. Maybe that makes him a great local player, operative word being local.

_________________
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

That's fair but I don't see how you can view his impact on teams over the past three years as anything less than great. He was so great that the bum ass T Wolves had to trade him for nothing because the bums on that team couldn't handle that he demanded greatness from teammates.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Scott Skiles.

_________________
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

Again, I was a Deng fan but I also recognize what he was. Ball might not be as good but to say zero chance is silly. That’s not that high of a bar and I’m certain most “experts” see Ball as a better prospect than Deng following their respective drafts.

_________________
“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

I watched 30 seconds of his highlights. Looks bulky and slow with the ball. Whatever, at least it's not the ball kid

Really doesn't matter in the long run, that's just a mildly interesting debate tonight. Nobody gives a shit that Kawhi or Giannis were drafted where they were now. IIRC Damien Lillard and Russell Westbrook were considered reaches at the time too. None of this shit matters if they got a good player.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Deng’s career went about as well as you could’ve hoped. He was an excellent two-way player and it seemed like he maxed out what he could have been.

This guy...can’t even start at FSU? I know nothing about him so I’ll give the new brain trust the benefit of the doubt but it’s a bit uninspiring.

_________________

I knew I was forgetting someone. So yeah I think he's literally the only guy since Reinsdorf bought the team that qualifies. That's significant.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I'm not certain about that at all and, as I said, I think experts are wildly off on Ball this year and really most guys I trust don't like him as a prospect. I'm confident with my 0% declaration and disagree that you recognize what Deng was. You're acting like he was Bruce Bowen.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Are you drinking? And note I am not judging, but that last paragraph is absurd. Nothing he couldn’t do on the court...except dribble or create his own shot.

_________________
“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

Deng was basically a poor man's Paul Pierce with better defense. More of a slasher than jump shot artist but just trying to think of people.

_________________
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

The Bulls were picking 4th in a 3 man draft. So Bulls.

You described him as the best LBJ defender. Sounds like Bowen to me. Except Bowen was a much better defender. Deng was better all around but still not, nor ever, great.

_________________
“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance