Butler's career as a full-time starter coincided with the tail-end of Thibs' career with the Bulls, though. Wasn't there a lot of turmoil going on within the organization about resting guys and keeping them healthy not just for a playoff run, but a post-Thibs world?

Wasn't that also the time of the injury consultant that had the power to take guys out of the lineup on a whim? What was her name, again?

Butler isn't a top 10 player. He's just having a great season. Jalen Rose put up good offensive numbers on bad teams too.

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I think Julie Swanson

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GO BEARS!!!

Every metric and the eye test says you're wrong. This isn't a fluke either. It's been building. He's going to keep getting better.

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The Bulls of those years were set up pretty good. Krause blew it with some of his draft picks and Jay Williams injury set them back. If you keep Butler and attempt to sign another all star type of guy to surround him with that's a problem. I don't think Butler is interested in sharing the ball or spotlight with anyone. I also think he is comfortable with mediocrity as long as he is the man.

I think his lack of criticism for teammates and coaches this year has more to do with not having to share the spotlight more than it has to do with newfound maturity.

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Alright, well I'm not really gonna try to play armchair psychologist with him. On the court he's been inarguably a top 10 player and more like a top 6 player. Last year he was a legitimate all star. He's gotten better every single season and doesn't look to be stopping that trend this year.

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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

If he is a top 6 player then he should finish top 6 in MVP voting. If he is a top 6 player then he should be able to command a major haul in trade. Top 5 pick in a pretty weak draft isn't a major haul for a top 10 player.

He is on a solid run the past week but before that he was struggling mightily.

It's not psychoanalysis because you see it play out on the court. He also told Hoiberg to run more isos last season. Sam smith said he is an egomaniac and Friedell said that he isn't liked by teammates.

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He definitely wants to win. I think he was sick of Rose being a diva.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Struggling mightily? Two weeks ago he was still in the top 10-12 in almost every relevant advanced stat category and still having a great year. Just stop

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

In order for Butler's previous weeks to be considered "struggling," one would have to consider him a Top 10 talent.

http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/bulls/ ... -right-now

I am confident in my own thoughts on players. But when Wade is backing me up, I can feel comfortable digging in further.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

He had about 5 or 6 games where he wasn't shooting well. I don't know where you are get all of this advanced Stat stuff but if I could pull up a number of stats in which he doesn't do well.

When you talk about top 6 that is simply non sense I gave you 4 guys that are better at his position.

I could easily give you abother ten that are better right now. He had had a good run but even with that his shooting hasn't been good. Butler is a good not great player.

I just saw yesterday where the NBA TV guys were doubting whether he is better than Paul George who also isn't top 10.

You keep discounting everyone's opinion but if the vast majority don't think he is top 10 it is probably because he isnt. To say 3-6 is just silly too.
3rd-6th best player makes him a superstar. He isn't

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Pretty much none of that is true or worth responding to. Kind of hard to have a NBA talk with you if you don't know what advanced stats are or where to find them. And once again, Butler and Giannis don't play the same position so no you didn't name four players who were better at his position and you cannot name 10 better players right now.

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I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
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You have to get better. If Delladova and Snell both start then what position does he play? He guarded Jimmy Butler and Jimmy Butler guarded him.

I know what advanced stats are but I don't cling to them and I also debunked that garbage with the Irving Curry debate.

Here are Butler game logs for every game this season. It will not be difficult to ascertain the games I'm talking about.

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/jimmy-butl ... r-game-log

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There are very few people that analyze the NBA that have Butler in his top ten and if I were to pull the real +- it would blow your mind the guys that are in the top 20. I know that Stat will be discounted and a number Stat will be used which is more favorable towards Butler.

You can't use a computer screen to analyze Basketball all the time.

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Advanced Stat leaders.

https://insider.espn.com/nba/hollinger/statistics


Enes Kanter's advanced stats are better than Steph Curry's. This is why a lot of guys in the know discount this garbage. Look at who is number 2. You said that Butlers were better. They arent. Butler also isnt in the top 6 either.

https://insider.espn.com/nba/hollinger/statistics

Javale McGee is 24th. Javale Mcgee? It is a joke.

George Hill is 1 spot below Butler.

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LeBron
Durant
Kawhi

There's 3 no brainers at SF better than Jimmy. An argument could be made for Melo and George as well.

You didn't debunk anything. Steph is still better than Kyrie. Your problem is you cherry pick 3 or 5 or 7 game sample sizes and ignore what the player has done the other 99% of their career.

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I love you more than words can tell
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Know I haven't. Kyrie Irving started before Curry on the Olympic team also. He is the better player and everyone knows it now. It isn't cherry picking. There isn't a player who viewed the finals that believes Curry is the better player. Kyrie Irving is a big reason James returned to Cleveland.

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Just like a slew of picks and draft day deals didn't lead to anything for the Bulls in the late '80s, or for the Thunder in the late '00s.

The period I'm talking about led to the Bulls returning to relevance on the backs of those picks (Deng, Gordon, Hinrich, Chandler).

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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

Well...Chandler and Curry sucking led to Williams Hinrich and Gordon. Deng was a result of a future 1st round pick.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

You're trying to have it both ways vegan. You can't say the current Bulls are irrelevant but then also claim that the Kirk/Gordon/Deng Bulls returned the franchise to relevance.

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I love you more than words can tell
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Pretty sure Deng was a cash trade with Phoenix.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Enes Kanter is leading Steph Curry in PER, which a guy who took less than 200 of his ~700 shots last season from outside the paint is going to do compared with a guy who takes a thousand of his 1400 shots from outside the paint.

Here are a list of "advanced stats" (yes, there are more than one) in which Stephen Curry holds a sizable lead over Enes Kanter:

WS
OWS
DWS
WS/48
VORP
OBPM
DBPM

Yes, looking at one rate-based stat (as PER is) and calling that "advanced stats" may lead to some quirky results. Imagine that! You'd think basketball people would have seen that curmudgeony old baseball ding dongs get laughed at and embarrassed for their anti-stats approach, and embrace advanced stats much more quickly than their baseball equivalents did.

The PER Stat is one of the more important of the Stat based metric systems. They all have serious flaws in them. That is why simply basing all evaluations on advanced stats are problematic.

Any rating system which suggest that Javale McGee is a better player than Paul George is a bad metric system.

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LTG has always been fixated on starting. Remember his criticism of Taj. He's also a fan of small sample size.

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Starting typically denotes that a player is better. Players make a big deal about starting, which means that it is probably a big deal

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My problem with Keeping Butler is that I don't think that his game and style of play will be commiserate with winning even once the Bulls acquire better players. A guy that heavily dependant upon playing iso ball has to be great offensively in order to be able to pull that off. I don't think that he will acquiesce enough once they surround him with better players. I think Butler wants to win but I also think it is important for him to win as the main guy.

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wow. That was pretty weak. Olympic team starting lineups are always based purely on skill levels.
At least Taj finally has cred with you. He's much better now that he's starting.

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“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

He is playing better than last season but he still isn't really good. I'm hoping they allow him to walk at the end of the season too. His "better" is relative to Mirotic not Noah Gasol or Boozer.

Kyrie Irving dominated Curry in an NBA final series and I love the spin job currently going on right now. He changed the entire way that Curry is perceived. There isn't any Curry buzz this year and it is due to being destroyed in the Finals last season

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So you confirm the small sample size bias. Does the fact that Curry strained his MCL earlier in the playoffs factor in or is that just a Curry weakness?

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“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