I was shocked by last night's performance and extremely happy. Joakim Noah gets the game ball for me. You can see a ton of improvement in his game and hitting the weights this summer instead of the ganja has definitely helped. He was a beast of the offensive glass, and his screens he set were much better than anything I saw out of him last year. And he even knocked down a jumper .

Tyrus looked like shit in the first half, and I was ready to jump on the i hate Tyrus bandwagon for the year after only two quarters. But something just clicked and he played a great 2nd half. In fact, I would say he was the entire reason the Bulls opened up that lead in the 2nd half. Luol Deng played a solid game and looks a little bigger this year as well. Salmons had a bad night but it was okay because of everyone else who stepped up.

Taj also showed some good flashes after a nervous first few minutes on the floor. My only complaint was about some of Vinny's substitutions. He pulled Noah in the first and third quarters after only 5-6 minutes. Both times Noah was dominating the glass and stepping up defensively. I thought he could have kept Joakim out there for a few extra minutes each time.

I'm sorry but I won't take the Bulls seriously until they fire Vinny Del Negro.

I think they will win 50 games this year in spite of having a clueless coach.

I'll know management believes in this team the day they bring in a real coach.

Kurt...

Kirk...

Scott Skiles is an offensive genius. He got a team with half the talent of the current squad out of the first round. His plays were non-stop action, pick and roll, lots of Knight-style movement w/o the ball. Creative stuff. The reason he's gone is Pax drafted rookies who were too dumb to learn the system and Skiles gave up. He may have a decent year with the Bucks despite having zero NBA talent outside of Redd to work with.

Scott Skiles is an offensive genius. He got a team with half the talent of the current squad out of the first round. His plays were non-stop action, pick and roll, lots of Knight-style movement w/o the ball. Creative stuff. The reason he's gone is Pax drafted rookies who were too dumb to learn the system and Skiles gave up. He may have a decent year with the Bucks despite having zero NBA talent outside of Redd to work with.

Hopefully Del Negro has 2.5 future hall of famers on his team to make up for how much he sucks.

im not so sure about all that. he had a lot of talent too, and that talent didnt like to play for him. 'offensive genius'? maybe with his x's and o's, but what good did that do for him when he was unable to translate that into something his players could follow?

Who wont make it? Pierce? All 3 are future HOF'ers. But they are all past their prime and Rondo is developing pretty nicely under him. I dont credit Doc for winning the title, but he certainly didnt mess up along the way and game by game he actually outcoached Phil in the Finals. Also kept him team together and playing above their talent level without KG down the stretch last season.

Scott Skiles-the perfect guy to turn around a franchise with limited talent.

I'm not sold on Ray Allen.

Garnett for sure.
Pierce sealed it with his finals performance vs. Kobe. He was borderline.

I've never really ever considered Ray Allen a top 5 NBA player in any year. I think he belongs in the really, really good for a really, really long time hall of fame.

please name me his "talent".

hinrich, gordon, deng, tyson chandler, eddy curry to name a few. its not like the bulls were shit, skiles got a lot out of them, yes- but look what vinny has. a bunch of kids just like skiles, and our offense is 2x better then it ever was with skiles. so what if vinny cant draw up an inbound play as good, those only get you so many buckets.

Derrick Rose is way better than anyone Skiles had.

He's has as good a career as Reggie Miller. Maybe better. And considering it's the basketball HOF, not the NBA HOF, I think he will definitely get in.