I guess you keep trying, but if given the choice the top free agents will invariably choose the money. That's been the history. You can overpay for a 3rd or 4th option type and that's about it. Very few game changers ever change teams.

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You're right about the money. It's tough to leave those huge amounts on the table.

So if that's the case, you sure as hell better be able to draft which I think Paxson has done pretty successfully. My two big issues with him though are his red assedness and him falling in love with his own prospects.

Someone pointed out that the Bulls drafting has sucked since their guru left. Gar just drafts guys he has a connection to.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Cap Room means nothing. Everyone has cap room and the cap will continue to explode the next few years. It will go up atleast another 15 million next summer.

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I have more confidence in his ability to draft than I do ability to sign free agents and make trades. He definitely overvalues his own players.

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It means less when you aren't close to winning

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

It's not as dire yet. The main issue is that it seems they have no idea what they're doing. It's one thing to say you're committed to playing the younger guys, but turning around and pursuing Rondo and Wade undermines that idea. Likewise, it's hard to tell if any plan towards 2017 is a result of long-term thinking on the part of the front office or instead is simply how they're going to punt their failure yet again this off-season. I didn't want them to sign Barnes at all, but it would've reflected better on them if they got that deal done than failing and returning to the good ol' "we like our guys" mantra.

I see no kind of long-term plan or vision for this team aside from GarPax trying to do the bare minimum to procure the 8th seed and keep their jobs, with promises of even greater efforts in subsequent off-seasons.

so what are these plans then

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

It's looking more and more like this upcoming season will be a lost one. But to be fair to the Bull, free agency isn't over.

That is a good thing.

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I think that's the only way you get him though. And I'm baffled as to why we weren't even in on the conversation regarding Al Horford.

I'm glad we weren't. I'm not giving him $100M

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

You're anti Horford?

Because the Bulls are fucking awful and going nowhere.

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Don't think he's a difference maker or worth the money.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

they tanking the season?

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Hopefully.

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Getting pretty depressed reading the number of people on Real GM actually excited about the prospect of Rondo joining the Bulls. Then again, I figure these were some of the same people who were preemptively apologizing for GarPax during all of last season, so it's not like they're particularly basketball smart.

He'd be just as poor of a fit alongside Butler as Rose was. People seem to be just looking at his assist numbers without realizing how padded they were and how dependent they were on him being as ball dominant as Rose. Likewise it seems a number of Bulls fans are under the impression that he's still a good defender, which hasn't been the case for years now (and in fact he's even admitted to not giving a shit about that end of the court!).

Remember, you're talking about some of the most emotionally invested and least objective fans in the country.

Nvm he's been a coaching nightmare everywhere he's gone.

Nvm he hasn't been able to play defense in over 3 years.

Nvm he will never be able to hit an open jump shot.

... His assist number are great. We need someone to pass the ball to Jimmy.

Thank God I have the Twolves to watch up here this winter. I can't believe I just thought that, but it is my emotional response after being treated like a fool by this front office for too long.

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If and when they sign Rondo and somehow Wade, I cannot wait to hear Gar praise their "championship experience and leadership" 5 days after prattling on about their desire to get younger and more athletic. The thing that scares me most about Rondo (besides the whole not good at basketball part) is that he just did his one-year tryout contract this past season. He's going to try to get the Bulls to a 3 year contract

My only hope is that the Colangelo clowns give him an even bigger offer.

Why can't Sacto just take him back? Keep him in basketball purgatory with man baby Cousins for eternity.

Agreed it would be comedy gold to watch the Bulls front office trip over themselves to celebrate Rondo's Championship pedigree, and then deal with the subsequent locker room meltdown in December.

As much as it has been fun to laugh at the Sixers the past few years I actually would like to see their young talent start to flourish post "the plan."

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Here's a nice summation of the Bulls from Real GM:

"The Bulls are notoriously cheap and unsentimental, so there’s really no shock with how quickly their best core of players since the retirement of Michael Jordan have disappeared. Chicago traded away Luol Deng for a pick they still haven’t received and rid themselves of Rose and Noah in one week’s time. The Bulls remain typically competitive but never great with this modus operandi. A superstar free agent should never consider signing with Chicago based on this track record.

The Knicks and Bulls are two of the NBA’s three biggest market franchises and couldn’t be more different from each other with how they choose to function, which is probably why they’ve done so much business together over the years, dating back to the Jamal Crawford and Eddy Curry sign-and-trades of more than a decade ago, which is coincidentally how Chicago ended up with Noah in a pick swap to begin with."

Not a fan of the Bulls front office, but that's a bunch of malarkey.

They probably held on to Deng too long, and Rose and Noah haven't been worth much in 2 years.

Cheap and unsentimental?

No.

Stupid?

Yes.

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Well something is going on. Outside of Gasol,who the hell else has signed with this team since Jordan left?

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

There's definitely something wrong, but it isn't due to "cheapness or unsentimentality".

The knock on the regime previously was they fell in love with their own picks and we're reluctant to deal them. And they gave out tons of money to try and win.

Maybe people buy in to the spin that's put out there.

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Cheap part I also don't agree with. But you can't really be "cheap" when you have to spend so much money.

The in-house talent evaluation is bad. "Can't break up the core". Add to that the front office dysfunction. Not a real attractive destination.

The Bulls aren't cheap but there has been a lingering perception that they won't ever go for it if the opportunity presents itself. That's simply fallacious. They haven't lost out on the James's, Wades, Anthony's, Durants, of the world because they refuse to pay. They have lost out because outside of James, the others would rather stay with their own team. The system is rigged so that there won't be much player movement. Why is it really surprising once they decide not to leave?

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It's rigged now but people don't forget about the early 2000's when star players repeatedly chose other teams over the Bulls. We feel like the Bulls always finish 2nd. Kinda like the Sox. Aggressive enough to be in the conversation but never good enough to close the deal.

Off the top of my head here are the players in the past 15+ years that said no or the Bulls failed to get in a trade.

McGrady
Grant Hill
Jermaine O'Neal
Kobe
Gasol
Wade
LeBron
Marshmelo
Bosh

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

The Bulls are cheap and unsentimental at times and the complete opposite at others, but never appropriately.

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