Chicago Bulls: Free Agency

By Flickr user Keith Allison - http://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/5576308358/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18304839

Free Agency: Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls made one of the biggest Free Agency moves in signing Dwyane Wade. This making them a much better team offensively and defensively than they were before. And before signing Wade they also added Rajon Rondo to the roster replacing the former MVP Derrick Rose who the Bulls traded to the New York Knicks. Rondo adds Defense at the Point Guard position and also adds another great defender to their team. Although all this may seem good, the Bulls have also lost some people as well like All-Star Pau Gasol, Former Defensive Player Of The Year Joakim Noah, and Derrick Rose as mentioned before.

Lets look at their Starting Lineup from last season and their projected starting lineup for this upcoming season:
Last Season:
Rose
Butler
Dunleavy/Snell
Mirotic/Gibson
Gasol

Projected Lineup:
Rondo
Wade
Butler
Mirotic/Gibson
Lopez

Looking at this, it really seems like they upgraded their lineup for the most part. They will be a bit weak with the big men, from Gasol to Lopez is a big downgrade and if Mirotic doesn't start to bulk up and work on his defense then the Bulls will get destroyed up front which is definitely going to hurt them. Lets see the Point Guard position from Rose to Rondo. Rondo doesn't have the shooting and attacking to the basket like Rose, but in my opinion this is an upgrade for Chicago considering Rose being injury prone and Rondo being a great passer and defender. Shooting Guard, Butler to Wade (Butler moving to the Small Forward position). Although Butler is still on the team, Wade is a top 3 Shooting Guard All-Time and proved he could stay healthy last season by only missing 8 games last season compared to previous seasons 20 games missed. Butler did have a better season last season than Wade, it still isn't bad having Wade at the 2 and still having Butler on the team. And the Small Forward position, from many people like Dunleavy and Snell to Star Jimmy Butler. This is their biggest upgrade to their lineup, Butler is one of the best Two Way players in the League which will help when he starts playing at his new position. It may possibly be tough for Butler to adjust to a new position considering some of the players he will be playing agains will be bigger than him, but Butler being one of the best defenders and scorers in the league it shouldn't be a problem.

So comparing their lineup to last years lineup, the Bulls have upgraded, but really how good can they be in the East? A lot of teams in the East have upgraded during free agency, but I think the Bulls will end up getting between the 5-7 Seed, depending on how healthy and how good they work together.

The (New) New York Knicks

By Keith Allison - Flickr: Carmelo Anthony, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29829656

Phil Jackson transformed a team. Now, the hype around the Knicks is big. Even though Derrick Rose isn't the best player currently, he sure has a really big name when it comes to basketball, so are the Knicks all hype, or are they for real.

First, let's take a look at the players they added and the players they lost.
They added: G-Justin Holiday
                    G-Derrick Rose
                    C-Guillermo Hernangomez
                    F-Mindaugas Kuzminskas
                    G-Courtney Lee
                    G-Brandon Jennings
                    C-Joakim Noah
                    G-Sasha Vujacic
                    F-Lance Thomas
With these guys added, you also throw in Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis, and Kyle O'Quinn

They Lost:   G-Jose Calderon
                   C-Robin Lopez
                   G-Jerian Grant
                   F-Derrick Williams
                   G-Arron Afflalo
                   G-Tony Wroten
                   And also possibly Lou Amundson, Langston Galloway, Kevin Seraphin, and Cleathony Early

With this being said, you can obviously see this is a different team. As of right now, they have only kept 4 of last years' players.

To start off, I'd like to propose the question of this team's health. How will they be health wise. Because out of the past 5 seasons...
Carmelo Anthony has missed a total of 99 games
Brandon Jennings has missed a total of 95 games
JoaKim Noah has missed a total of 104 games
Derrick Rose has missed a total of 163 games

All 4 of these players have proven to be injury prone in the last 5 seasons. But these injuries haven't just lead to missed games, they've also lead to a decrease in performance.
Carmelo Anthony went from averaging 28.7 PPG to averaging 21.8 last season
Brandon Jennings went from averaging 19.1 PPG to averaging 6.9 last season
JoaKim Noah went from averaging 12.6 PPG to averaging 4.3 last season
Derrick Rose went from averaging 25 PPG to averaging 16.4 last season

I'm not convinced that this team can win. Not with these 4 guys constantly having injury problems in the last 5 years. Can this team win with a guy like Kyle O'Quinn starting or Sasha Vukacic? This team could very well turn into the Memphis Grizzlies of last season or the 2012-13 Lakers. They don't have enough depth to insure them if injuries were to strike.

As you can see, this team is very, very questionable. Number one, we don't know how productive these 4 guys will be. Number 2, we don't know how healthy they'll be. And with more teams becoming more competitive, it's going to be hard if a couple player become injured.

Chicago Takes Down The Cavs On Opening Night

Chicago looked great in last nights game. Their offense hasn't looked that great in a long time. On the other hand, the Cleveland Cavaliers did not look like the championship team from last year and they look very concerning. However, this could just have been from LeBron sitting out most of the game and Kyrie Irving being out from injury. There were bright spots and some bad spot that we saw from both teams, so let's check them out

Nikola Mirotic Looks Great!
Listen, this guy is on my fantasy team, and he just gave me a big boost for opening night. So thank you Mirotic for that 19 points. One thing I noticed is that Mirotic looks better on his shot and he was showing off his handles. He was definitely not afraid to show Kevin Love that he can shoot the 3 ball. He did great attacking the rim, something that Mirotic wasn't known for last year. He gave us stuff we weren't expecting from him and it makes me a proud fantasy owner with this man on my team.

Kevin Love Looked Really Confident
Love really had a lot of confidence in this game and maybe it was a little too much. Anyways, it is good to see Kevin Love getting off a lot of shots, because he really wasn't shooting shots like this last year. I really think Love should have gotten the last shot of the game but didn't as LeBron got stuffed and then with a second chance Jimmy Butler stole the ball. However, Love shot 17 shots last night but only made 6 of them. I'm okay with him shooting like that because you know that he will be getting them to fall soon.

Mo Williams!
This man had 17 points and 7 assists. He was very good. I think many people forget that he scored 52 points with the Timberwolves and won an eastern conference and western conference player of the week awards last year. I think most people forget that he was an all-star back in 2009. Anyways, Mo looks like he will be great for this team and should be having games like this til Kyrie comes back.

Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler Struggled
Jimmy Butler couldn't seem to get a shot to fall and Derrick Rose couldn't finish at the rim. Rose shot just 36% on 8-22 shooting. Butler just really didn't look that well on his jumper. Hopefully, both of these guys pick up on the shooting and do much better in games to come. Another guy that didn't look the best was Pau Gasol. While he shot 1-7 from the field, he did have 6 blocks though and 1 of them saved the Bulls the game.

Other Points

• Tony Snell started in the game and he was anything but disappointing. He showed us his range as he had 11 points on 4-9 shooting and 2-5 from the 3 point line. He will be an interesting player to keep on eye on this season.
• Richard Jefferson looked great as he constantly drove and kicked to open players. He also had a great offensive game last night. He gave us 10 points in just 17 minutes. 
• E'Twaun Moore had a great game. I forgot this man was even on the team. He scored 11 points in just 14 minutes. He looked very impressive and the Bulls look like they have great bench depth. 

I'm concerned for the Cavs, they looked like they thought it was a preseason game and they could just not be ready yet. I just hope that they turn things around. However, the Bulls look really good, and they have a great roster. If they keep this up, they could be looking at the Finals down the road. I know it's just one game, but Fred Hoiberg and the Bulls look very promising.

Chicago Bulls Should Trade for Rudy Gay

"Rudy Gay Kings" by Mike - Flickr: (2013-12-21) Kings at Magic 21. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.

Rudy Gay is an offensive beast on a team that can't win. I'm pretty sure that Rudy wants to win. Everybody hates losing, unless you are Carmelo Anthony, but he just likes money. And we all know that Carmelo still doesn't prefer to lose, he just doesn't mind it. But Rudy has been on a losing team for a long time now. In fact, the only time Rudy Gay went to the playoffs, it was back in the 2011-2012 season and the Memphis Grizzlies lost in the first round. So my assumption is that Rudy Gay would probably love to be traded to the best scenario where he can win, and in my mind, that place is Chicago.

Mike Dunleavy has been sidelined for 8-10 weeks with a back injury, and now the Chicago Bulls need a starting SF. Who would be better to fill that role than none other than Rudy Gay. To me Rudy would fit perfectly in this role and would help the Bulls be a championship team. If they had him, their offense would have so many options, something that they struggled with last year. Imagine the lineup:

PG: Derrick Rose (starter), Aaron Brooks (bench)
SG: Jimmy Butler (starter), Kirk Hinrich (bench)

SF: Rudy Gay (starter), Doug McDermott (bench)
PF: Pau Gasol (starter), Nikola Mirotic (bench)
C: Koakim Noah (starter), Cameron Bairstow (bench)

Pretty good right. Now you are probably thinking, "Who will they trade for Rudy Gay?" Now this is the part where I tell you, The Sacramento Kings are pretty much giving players away. (ex. Nik Stauskas). But they won't just give away Rudy Gay. And the Bulls have to be smart about this. The Bulls have not that many players on huge contracts. And Rudy Gay really isn't on a big contract. They would be able to afford him easily. And here is the trade.

Bulls trade: Tony Snell, Mike Dunleavy, Taj Gibson, E'Twaun Moore, and a 1st round draft pick

Kings Trade: Rudy Gay, Kosta Kufos

C'mon, this is a great trade. The Bulls haven't really been able to put together Tony Snell, and I think the Kings would love to have him. These guys would be great for the Kings to look through. And Kosta Kufos would be great down low for the Bulls as he is known for his solid defense.

I really think that this would be a great trade for both the Kings and the Bulls. The Kings know they won't win this season, so why not bring in some people to develop. The Bulls offense would improve a lot with Gay in the mix. Imagine how much stress it would take off Rose, Butler, and aging Gasol. This would really help them gather some wins and help them reach the finals.

Fantasy Friday: Point Guards

Point Guards are necessary to a great fantasy team. They can provide assists, steals, and great 3 point shooting. The best fantasy point guards grab rebounds and average a great amount of points. So who are the best point guards in fantasy land. Well, here they are.

10. Goran Dragic: You will see him get more assists this season with the Heat and hopefully shoot the same. However you will probably see a drop in points with Dragic. Would be a good guy to have on your team though.

9. Mike Conley: A good offensive player but you can't forget about his offense. Great guy to have as he will give you steals and will give you assists as well as the points.

8. Kyle Lowry: I don't think his PPG will go up. I do however think that his assists numbers will rise. A thing to be concerned about is his turnovers as he averaged 3 in the playoffs last year. Another thing to note is that his 3 point percentage is dipping down to 33%. Kyle Lowry is a very streaky shooter, something to be concerned about.

7. Derrick Rose: The former MVP averaged over 17 PPG last season and should be noted that he does great in every other category, but with many past injuries, Derrick Rose could come with a price. Should you take Derrick Rose? Well, that's up to you.

6. Damian Lillard: While Damian Lillard averaged 21 PPG last season, that number is expected to rise. He will probably be one of the top scorers in the league. This man is a great 3 point shooter to top it off. So why is he ranked so low? Damian Lillard is very inconsistant. He had 28 games where he scored under 18 points. Also, he averages only 6.2 Assists. He isn't the best point guard for fantasy available.

5. Kyrie Irving: Kyrie averages about 21 PPG and shoots the ball really well from deep. While he isn't very well in the assist department, he can play great defense, getting 1.5 Steal per game. Kyrie is a much better defensive player than he is given credit for. You shouldn't have him as your main offensive focus, but you should have him for some defense and offense.

4. Chris Paul: He is one of the best fantasy players. He can score, pass, shoot, steal, and commit few turnovers. However, after a season with no injuries, I have a feeling that Paul will fall and his numbers will drop. If he is available at the right time, I would take him though.

3. Stephen Curry: We all know Curry. He can score, and shoot the ball. He will provide you with some steals, but he will score and shoot. You will not be short of 3's if you have him on your team. Yes he will provide some assists and a couple rebounds, but again, he will score and shoot.

2. Russell Westbrook: He was an amazing fantasy player last year. Almost averaged a triple double. Averaged over 2 steals per game. Your saying, "Why isn't he number 1?" Well, 3 reasons. Westbrook averaged 4.4 Turnovers last season. He shot under 30% from 3 point range. And to top it off, when Durant comes back, Westbrook's numbers are sure to drop. Don't get me wrong, he is a great fantasy player, he just isn't the best point guard. But this is the person who is...

1. John Wall: Shocker huh. John Wall averaged a little more than 17 PPG but it was all the other numbers that made up for it. 10 assists per game, 4.6 rebounds per game, 1.7 steals per game, and 0.6 blocks per game. Wall's numbers, I would assume, will climb even high this next season. I think he will probably get up to 20 PPG this next season. That is why J-Wall is number 1.

Cavaliers VS Bulls (game 3)

Final Score: Bulls win 99-96



Bulls lead series 2-1

I have to say, the officiating wasn't that great in this game. LeBron fouled Butler on that 3. Butler traveled on the reverse layup. LeBron fouled Derrick Rose with about 4 seconds left as he knocked it out of bounds. But the ending was great. I saw Derrick Rose put up the last shot. Then I exploded. "OH MY GOODNESS!" I yelled about 23 times. I'm sure the whole neighborhood was all like, "what's happening over at Aaron's place." "someone probably dunked it." Yeah, well guess what. That wasn't a dunk people. That was a game winning shot. But the game winner wasn't the only thing that won that game. It was everything that the Bulls did leading up to that. Let's take a look at what the Bulls did to have that game tied to those last 3 seconds.

Well, Derrick Rose got to the free throw line and he had a great game overall. He scored. Jimmy Butler did great too. Also, Derrick Rose kept Kyrie Irving to 11 points and 3-13 shooting. That is great. Joakim Noah didn't score or shoot well, but he did great on rebounding and defense. That's all you can ask from him. The whole team did a great job of limiting the Cavs to 39% shooting from the floor. Nikola Mirotic had a great game as he had 12 points and 8 rebounds but his defense was the biggest thing. He had a defnsive rating of 88.4. That is great. Aaron Brooks is still struggling and he really needs to pick it up on offense. He shot 1-7 from the field and 0-4 from 3-point range. They also controled the rebounds as they had 54 while the Cavs had 39.

The Cavaliers have a lot to change. With Kevin Love gone, they don't have a big to really spread the floor. Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov seem to clog up the paint and it becomes harder for guys like Kyrie Irving and LeBron James to make shots in there. They obviously could use Love right now. Especially against a match-up like Pau Gasol. LeBron needs to calm down a bit and stop taking too many shots. He was just 1-7 from 3 point range. And let's face it, LeBron isn't the best 3-point shooter. He just needs to get his teammates involved more. Not to mention, LeBron had 7 tunrovers. J.R. Smith had a great game. He shot 4-8 from 3-point range and 2 of those were in the last 2 minutes. Clutch. One thing that the Cavs did great was forcing the Bulls to shoot contested shots. The Bulls shot a total of 63 contested shots! They only had 27 uncontested. That is great contesting by the Cavs. The Cavaliers need Love. If this team even beats the Bulls, they need him for the next round, because without him, they will have lots of troubles.

Cavaliers VS Bulls (game 2)

Final Score: Cavaliers win 106-91



Series tied 1-1

Is this a rewind. Deja vu? I think it could be. The Bulls always seem to win game 1 then lose the next 4 when they play LeBron in the playoffs. Well, it could be a coincidence. And here how the Bulls can make it so the rewind doesn't happen.

The Bulls need everybody to perform much better. Let's take a look at the individual performances of all these players.

• Pau Gasol: 11 points, 3 turnovers, 4 rebounds, and 3-8 from the field
• Joakim Noah: 4 points, 4 shot attempts, 0-2 from the free-throw line
• Jimmy Butler: 18 points, 2-7 from 3pt range, 1 assist, -26 plus/minus advantage
• Derrick Rose: 14 points, 6-20 from the field, -13 plus/minus advantage
• Aaron Brooks: 4 points, 1-8 from the field, 0-4 from 3pt range

And those were the worst. They can't have that. They can't afford it. Kirk Hinrich played great shooting 3-3 from the field and 2-2 from three point range. He was only played for 12:18 minutes though. That is just disappointing. You obviously need to play him more. Some things need to change for this Bulls team.

This Cavs team was amazing. Yes, LeBron and Kyrie had a combined 54 points but I want to focus on Iman Shumpert and James Jones. Shumpert had 15 points while he shot 4-7 from deep. James Jones had17 points off the bench as he shot a surprising 5-9 from 3-point range. However, James Jones didn't win them the game, he just kept them in it. The team had a plus/minus advantage of -1 when he was on the floor. So he obviously just helped them stay in the game. If he wasn't there though, the Cavs would have lost the lead because their bench would have played so bad. Again, I'm still waiting for this Cavs team to play Marion more. He is very skilled and they need to use him. Other than that, this team is playing great. If they win their next 3, I will start thinking that it is impossible for the Bulls to win a playoff series against LeBron.

Cavaliers VS Bulls (game 1)

Final Score: Bulls win 99-92



Bulls lead series 1-0

Bulls had full control in this game and the Cavaliers better step it up. Let's take a second on what the Cavaliers need to change for game 2.

Cavaliers will still not have J.R. Smith and Kevin Love for game 2, so they absolutely need to put Tristan Thompson into the lineup. They also should play Shawn Marion more. He is a skilled player. Why did they get him? Was it so they could have someone to play the nights they were resting LeBron? No, Marion is a great player. LeBron also needs to play better. He had 19 points, 15 rebounds, and 9 assists. Sure that looks good, but he only shot 9-22 from the field, 0-3 from 3 point range, and had a total of 6 turnovers. Let Kyrie handle the ball. He is a much better decision maker than LeBron. I hate it how this team has one of the best Point Guards in the league with the best handles and can pass and they don't even use him. They also need more from their bench. The bench only had 16 points. They didn't play well at all in this game. They need to play better.

The Bulls handled this game well. Joakim Noah needs to step up a little. He didn't have a single point and had 4 turnovers. Mike Dunleavy played really great. He shot 5-6 from the field and 3-4 from 3-point range. Pau Gasol played really well as he had 21 points, 10 rebounds and shot 10-16 from the field. Not to mention, Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler had great games as well. I really think that it is smart not to play Nikola Mirotic in this round. They do need their bench to play well though. This Bulls team will start to get tired through the round and they need to have a bench that can produce. They did look okay in this game though.

That's all from this game. This will be an interesting series. Let's see who will win game 2.

Bulls VS Bucks (game 5)

Final Score: Bucks win 94-88



Bulls lead series 3-2

Bucks are not out. Don't count them out. Jason Kidd knows what he's doing. He won a series last year with the Nets. Let's breakdown what the Bucks have to do to win their next two games first.

The Bucks played great. Michael Carter-Williams played probably his best game ever. He had a near triple-double with 22 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds. What stood out the most though was on the defensive end. The PG had 3 blocks and 1 steal and kept Rose to just 13 points. They could clean up the turnovers a little bit as MCW had 4. In this game it just seamed like the Bucks just wanted the ball. Everyone on the team averaged over 4 MPH. The other thing is that when the bench was on the court, their offensive pace stepped up.

I hate how everyone is saying Derrick Rose is looking like an MVP candidate again. He had 2 semi-good games in the playoffs. All the others were somewhat okay. Let's put it this way. If Kevin Durant had a 13 point night shooting 0-7 from three point range, would that be an okay night. No, that would be a horrible night for him. Rose couldn't do anything right and he had 6 turnovers. So stop criticizing MCW for having 4. Next was Nikola Mirotic, Tony Snell, and Aaron Brooks who showed minimal effort on the court. The whole reason to have a bench is so they can produce while your starters are resting and can bring effort. They need to show some more effort out there next game if they are to win. It was just a poor game for the Bulls. They have to change something here and soon. 

Bulls VS Bucks (game 2)

Final Score: Bulls Win 91-82



Bulls lead series 2-0

Wow, game two was intense. Come on guys, you got at least 2 more game together. You wouldn't think that by watching the first quarter, it would be like that. The Bulls had only 11 points in the first while the Buck only had 16. It was a slow game to start. Let's take a look at the Bucks to start off.

The Bucks have to have more production. Middleton did great. He had 22 points, but others need to have more offense. Giannis "The Greek Freak" Antetokounmpo shot 2-11 from the field and had 6 points. You can't be missing wide open layups in the playoffs. What I really liked with this team is that they had great cuts, ball movement, and spacing. This was a problem with this team. If they evened it out, this would have been a closer game. Rebounding. The Bucks were out-rebounded 48-64. You need to get a body on someone. You can't allow these second chance points. They need to rebound better.

The Bulls just need to keep performing. Derrick Rose picked it up in the second half but he need to score and shoot well. Butler made up for it in this game though as he had a total of 31 points. I honestly think a great way to beat this Bucks team would be to outscore them. The Bucks don't seem like they can score that well, and if the Bulls take off with points, the Bucks won't be able to keep up. Like Jason Kidd said, the Bucks game is playing at a slow pace. If you play at a fast pace, that will throw their game off.

Bulls VS Bucks (game 1)

Final Score: Bulls win 103-91



Bulls lead series 1-0

This is tough. This Bucks team is going against a great offensive and defensive team. Not to mention that Derrick Rose is back and he is healthy. Him and Jimmy Butler had a combined total of 48 points. The other part the the Bucks lost badly in was rebounding. The Bulls had a total of 52 rebounds while the Bucks had 41.

One thing that the Bucks could do better is use Bayless a little more. He had 11 points and lead the team with assists with 5. That is pretty good. One thing the Bucks did great with though is getting steals. Kris Middleton got a total of 4 steals in the game. When I was watching the game, I saw both teams going after the ball all the time. If it was going out of bounds, someone would get it.

The Bulls really need to limit their turnovers. All their starters had 2 turnovers except for Rose who had 4. It might not be a problem right now, but it could be a problem later if they meet the Cavs in the second round. They need to make the easy passes. I saw Rose take a lot of gambles with his passes, throwing skip passes sideline to sideline.

The Bulls can't rest. Jason Kidd is going to try to find a way to beat this team and the Bulls need to be ready for that. They need to keep the momentum going. They can't stop.