Third in the NBA scoring as of tonight. He's looking good. 32+PPG

No. All-star probably.

_________________
Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

I'll take all star!

I'm kind of impressed.

Star move at the end of the game. Glad he didn't settle for a bad shot like the previous possession.

_________________
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

He can take it to the rim at will in today’s game. Dude always looks gassed for some reason.

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

Is this guy for real or is he just the best player on a bad team? I am getting pretty excited that the Bulls have a real star.

And I wish people would stop saying Cam Payne (sounds like campaign). Just call him Payne.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

It's a bad team but he appears to have taken a step.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

It's be nice if he played even a little bit of defense. Just enough to be slightly below average at it.

But the offense seems to be for real. It's not just him on a hot shooting streak, he looks better attacking the basket than ever before.

_________________
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

He looks really good and fluid. I hope he can stay healthy. At this rate, the LaVine portion of the trade may be enough compensation for Jimmy with everything else being gravy. Plus they have LaVine locked up now.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Um, Lauri?

_________________
Elections have consequences.

You missed my point. Lauri and Dunn are the gravy. LaVine alone makes the trade worthwhile.

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

_________________
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

Bulls raped the wolves on that trade.

Now you're getting the hang of it!

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Until we win even 30 games in a season post-trade I'd hold off on declaring victory.

_________________
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 don't see how that is relevant. The Bulls got some stud pieces for a toxic asset that was out the door. I'm sure the Wolves(maybe not Thibs) would undo that trade in a heartbeat if they could.

Well it's relevant because it doesn't mean anything if we are just going to be the worst team in the league every year that Lauri is on a rookie deal or before Dunn is due for an extension. Lavine looks great offensively but it's been well documented how he is one of the very worst defensive players in the league, and the complete lack of defense everywhere on our roster is a big reason the Bulls suck.

Good stats are nice but until the players we got in return start winning games we didn't win this trade.

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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

Talent wise, when Lauri/Lavine/Dunn are all healthy the Bulls are easily a top 4 team in the East. They need to can the coach.

There's mounting evidence that all three will never be healthy at the same time for an extended period.

Also, they need at least two wing defenders before even sniffing top 4 seed. A high school team would drop 100 on these guys.

_________________
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

Firing the coach will fix many of the defensive problems.

I don't think it will. It will help, and Hoiberg is a very shitty coach, but you still have a roster filled with guys outside of Dunn and possibly WCJ that have never been good defenders and also don't have the athletic profile to be great defenders. Guys like Danny Green are available in FA and the draft ever year, the Bulls need a couple of them. Valentine, Holiday, Jabari, etc isn't going to cut it on that end of the floor.

_________________
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

Defense is attitude and effort. Jabari even played some defense late last night. You have a coach that basically admits in coded language he doesn't give a fuck about defense, coupled with the fact he is a true "beta" which means the players don't play hard. Will they be a great defensive team, no, but you don't need to be a great defensive team in today's NBA. You just have to not suck horrifically at it.

You have to have 2-3 really good defensive players in your 8-9 man rotation to compete in today's NBA. Houston looks to be taking a big step back after losing role players Ariza and Mbah a Moute. The right coach can bring the Bulls up from dead last in the NBA defensively to around the 23rd overall rank, but with the current roster they will never be even close to league average defensively. They need more there. As I said though, that's a lot easier to acquire than star offensive players. It's just disappointing they didn't do that this past offseason.

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

I've been watching Lavine on defense. It's not that he's not trying, he's just really bad at it.

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

What do you "competing"? Who is competing with Golden State? Anyone?

Sure. Boston can if they get their offense figured out with Hayward and Irving back. Toronto can if Kawhi keeps playing like he has been. Teams like that who can play smothering team defense by switching on everything and have superstar offensive players that can get theirs on the other end.

Last year should have showed anyone who was paying attention that GS isn't unbeatable.

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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

Didn't GS win the Finals in 4 games?

Yes but they were facing a bum team. They were down 3-2 in the WCF before the Rockets second best player got hurt. That's a pretty big asterisk.

_________________
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