Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
Bulls Therapy and a Bears Search Whirlwind
Good morning Chicago! Happy Friday. Let’s get the weekend rolling with another edition of SGCTC. And when you’re done, get someone to subscribe:
Last week was one of the most widely-read newsletters of all time. It’s hard to put into words the gratification that brings. So thank you all for that, and thanks for coming back again.
Having said all of that, let me begin with some gripes.
The Bulls lose a couple of games and, whaddya know, here come the personal attacks.
Hey man, the Bulls suck. Hey man, this Bulls team can’t win in the playoffs. Hey man, the Nikola Vucevic trade was a disaster. Hey man, why are Ball and Lonzo out? Hey man, colossal isn’t a big enough word to describe your head size. Hey man, you owe nearly $40,000 to a college for no discernible reason so that money you saved doesn’t even matter. Hey man, where’d the hair go on the back of your head? Hey man, you spend two of your precious waking hours on apps you don’t even enjoy. Hey sir, please put your mask back on. Hey sir, you’re too drunk to be here. Hey, get the hell out of the bar, now.
All of this because the Bulls lost a few games??? Enough!
A (1st place!) team has a few bad showings and the sky is falling. If you didn’t want ebbs and flows in your favorite NBA team’s season, you should’ve been born earlier to see the 1995-1996 Bulls or you should have stopped watching basketball after they beat the Super Sonics.
The Bulls get off to a hot start, stumble, and now all of a sudden everyone’s an expert.
And meanwhile, the Bears are searching for a general manager and you hear grown men with full-time jobs walking around saying absolutely insane shit like “I really liked Edward Dodds.” Man, you don’t even know some of your immediate family members enough to say you “really like” them. Now you’re running around telling people you love a guy named Ed because an article said he liked Quenton Nelson in the 2018 draft.
Yeah man, so did I.
If you read one article and decided the Bears needed this guy at general manager, you probably also shaved your beard for the first time in four years when you heard that it could prevent you from getting COVID-19 in March 2020. And you probably looked like a schmuck with a hairless double chin after.
Grown ass men talking about “I love this Kwesi Adofo-Mensah fella.” Shut up, bro.
But anyway, we’ll get to the GMs that I like later on…
Jokes aside. We all know what we’re rooting for, and it’s the same thing half of you root for two to three times per week: and that’s to get lucky.
After all, there’s a greater chance of federal agents actually tapping Drake’s iPhone (keep hearing clicks when I’m talking on the iPhone… just stop, man) than George McCaskey and Ted Phillips getting both of these hires right.
It all went downhill after Happy Friday!
Let’s bring this back up.
Eventually. Eventually we’ll bring this back up.
We can start with the bad that’s transpired over the last week and a half.
The Bulls won nine games in a row and then:
Lost to the Nets on national television by 26 points
Lost to the Warriors on national television by 42 points
Lost to the Celtics, 114-112, after being up 112-106 with just over a 1:30 to play
Lost to the Grizzlies on national television by 13 points
You can’t sugarcoat that. But you can offer obvious caveats. The Bulls were missing some, or all, of these players during those four games: Derrick Jones Jr., Zach LaVine, Javonte Green, Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball. We’ll throw UIowa alum Tyler Cook on there for fun, too.
Do you still think this Bulls team can make a playoff run?
Yes, of course. In what world were the Bulls going to compete with the majority of those above teams without a combination of the above players? In no world, is the answer.
But before we get to the rosy stuff, let’s continue with the bad, and then segue quickly into the good.
Lonzo Ball is having surgery on his knee, and will be out six to eight weeks. He was dealing with a meniscus injury, and the treatment for that can be tricky. Essentially, he could have tried to rehab on the fly (which he did), but if none of those treatments took, he’d have to get surgery. And so here we are.
The surgery is not near the level, obviously, of an ACL or more significant knee injury. I’d rather rip the band aid off now than continue doing a half-ass job of applying neosporin.
For some reason, when this type of injury news comes out, it actually soothes me more than it concerns me. The Bulls know exactly what’s wrong, and at this point, they have a clear plan and timetable for return. For me — and, I imagine, Billy Donovan — that’s much better than the unknown.
The same went for Derrick Jones Jr., who had a nasty-looking knee injury seconds into the Nets game (which hurt, because of his ability to kind of guard Kevin Durant). He’ll be out for 2-4 weeks with a bone bruise. I saw people upset about this news after… did you see the injury? If that happened to me I wouldn’t have moved for the next year. Two to four weeks is manageable, and again, favor the knowns over the unknowns.
… and the latter is sort of what we’re dealing with in regards to LaVine. We know now that LaVine was dealing with some knee discomfort prior to that awkward play in the Warriors game where he came up gimp and immediately fouled to get out of the game. The good news is that an MRI showed no structural damage, but there is still no real timetable for his return.
The Bulls injuries have severely hindered them this year, and especially over this stretch. But I believe their game plan after these injuries has been good, for the most part. And that’s this: immediately shut guys down and wait until they are fully recovered for them to see game action again.
After all, the Bulls will take their bumps without these guys now, and it could affect the standings. But the standings won’t matter in the end if these guys aren’t healthy come spring. Let the next-man-up mentality hold for now, and hopefully we don’t have to see any of the next men up come playoff time.
No matter the injuries or the opposing teams, what mattered is how the Bulls bounced back.
Three of the worst Bulls losses of the season came on national TV, which means the haters and losers — of which there are many, remember — will be out in droves. And that goes back to my intro: I need my gals and gals — YOU — in my corner. We need to weather this storm until we get our full squad back. And though it got better Wednesday night, I regret to say, the Bulls-Bucks game tonight has been moved to ESPN.
For now, let’s take a look at the silver linings.
This offers an entry into the perspective we all need to have, and that’s that Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets came into the United Center and beat the Bulls, and were super, super fucking excited about it after.
Let us not forget where we’ve came from and where we’ve been.
Plus, the Nets beat the Bulls for the first time all season in that game. There were people who actually get paid to write about professional basketball tweeting things out like “this is what happens when All-Stars plays superstars” and “the Bulls are just overmatched against these top-tier teams.”
It begs the question whether they have watched any other games outside of the nationally televised ones.
And it’s likely they missed the game Wednesday, against a team that has ironically become a media darling in the Cavaliers.
With Caruso back but no one else, the Bulls adjusted and played a great game against a pretty good team. This time, it was the Bulls playing spoiler to a win streak, as the Cavs lost their first game in six tries.
Everything about this game was different.
In the previous contests, the Bulls had lost their way. A middle-of-the-pack team in the NBA averages about 14 turnovers per game.
Against the Nets, the Bulls turned the ball over 17 times to the Nets’ 9.
Against the Warriors, the Bulls turned the ball over 14 times to the Warriors’ 7.
Against the Grizzlies, the Bulls couldn’t seem to throw a pass without it being intercepted or tipped. And turned the ball over 18 times.
Their season average is 13.
This isn’t all that hard to figure out guys. Not only was it just plain sloppy basketball (which Billy Donovan let us know he was aware of, and rectified), but we were also missing… three guys that handle the basketball and three other guys who take it away the most from other teams!
(Javonte Green, one of the latter three, will be returning not against the Bucks, but likely in the following game.)
What happened in the 117-104 win over the Cavs? The Bulls turned the ball over just 9 times.
And with Caruso back, the defense had an energy about them that they hadn’t had for a while. Not only was Caruso +18 in his limited minutes, but the Bulls are a top-5 defense this year with him, and a bottom-five defense without him. (The obvious caveat is that the Bulls have been missing other key defenders during Caruso’s absence as well.)
And for another silver lining. While Bulls guards have been out, it’s allowed others to blossom.
Second-rounder Ayo Dosumnu is one of the best rookies in the league this year, full stop. He’s been turning in 8-shot nights where he has 18 points.
On Wednesday, he had 8 assists as well. He’s averaging 18 points, eight assists and shooting nearly 80!% in the three games since he’s been starting. This offensive ascent has taken place all while he’s wreaked havoc on some of the best players in the NBA across from him, like Trae Young and Ja Morant.
Coby White had four steals, doing a little role reversal with Ayo, and has turned in double-digit scoring efforts in 13 straight games — finishing at the rim as well as he’s shooting from beyond the arc, a major 180 from his early days in Chicago.
Nikola Vucevic — who should have been placed immediately in the “bad” category — got his powers back from the Monstars, turning in a desperately needed 24-point, 12-rebound effort on over 50% shooting. That was helped by his post scoring early on — where he shot 8-9 inside the paint — and of course, a monster three at the end of the game as the crescendo off a beautiful pass from DeMar DeRozan.
Speaking of DeRozan. I’ll say it again: this is why you go get the guy!
I said before the year that he’s the ultimate floor raiser — he makes your team serviceable, at the very least, when he’s out there. He enables the Bulls to stay afloat no matter the circumstances, and the Bulls are a staggering 18-3 when he eclipses 25 points.
Even when the Cavs went with a bizarre — and kind of awesome — 3-2 zone to throw off DeRozan, he was able to adjust and make the right passes, turning in seven assists.
So even if the Bulls lose to the Bucks tonight, I urge you to take a deep breath. This team has a good coach, and he’ll adjust, as will the players. In the meantime, we’re getting our energy guys back in Green and Caruso.
Chop wood, carry water. Trust the process — but not the one they trust in Philly.
Other notes:
— Devon Dotson, the undrafted free agent the Bulls signed last year out of Kansas, did not make it. It’s clear his size was going to be too much of a deterrent for Artūras Karnišovas (I copy paste his name because I still can’t trust myself to spell it on the first try). Instead, AK opted to sign Malcolm Hill to a two-way deal. The Belleville native is a 6-6 forward, which is more this front office’s style than a fourth-string, small guard. He’s turned in some pretty good minutes thus far.
— Matt Thomas, otherwise known previously as the white guy at the end of the bench, has been the wet boy that we were promised. He’s shooting 42% from three.
— We’ll start talking trade targets next week, as the deadline approaches on February 10th. The Bulls are in need of another wing and a back-up center that knows how to catch a basketball and lay it in (so, not Tony Bradley). But more so, they need that center to be a better rim protector than what we have now.
— If you see any “reports” about who the Bulls may trade, I’d take it with a grain of salt. This front office is as zipped-up as I’ve seen. I listened to an interview Karnisovas gave on 670 The Score, and it was anything but entertaining. Now, he could be a charismatic guy, what I’m more getting at is that he’s not going to let you know… anything. He sounded like the guy on the other end of the line in “Taken,” eastern European as all hell and not willing to give any information. Good luck getting it out of him.
LETS GO BULLS!
If you missed my head coach wish list tiered out last week, make sure to read that here.
An abbreviated version:
Top tier
Brian Daboll, Doug Pederson, Brian Flores
Maybe, but I have questions
Jim Harbaugh, Todd Bowles
Not excited about it
Ryan Day, Byron Leftwich, Matt Eberflus, Nathaniel Hackett
Absolutely not
Leslie Frazier, Dan Quinn
After only a week, I’d like to make some amendments. First, we can take out Harbaugh and Day, as it seems there’s no traction there.
Secondly, I’d like to upgrade Eberflus (Colts D-Coordinator) — who is already set up for a second interview Monday — to “Maybe, but I have some questions.” After thinking about it, “not excited about it” was too harsh, as my reasoning was only that I didn’t know all that much about him. After reading more, at the very least, he seems like a strong head coaching candidate*. The same goes for Leftwich. Leftwich with Fields may be intriguing, and he has coached offenses that did not rely heavily on Tom Brady and a million talented wide outs.
I’ll keep the top tier the same, though it seems Pederson is probably out. It also seems like Flores wasn’t as much of a non-Belichikian-caricature as I thought during his time in Miami, and rubbed at least a few people the wrong way. But who doesn’t.
At this point, Daboll would be my no.1 candidate, while Frazier would be my no. whatever-is-last candidate.
Unfortunately, the Bears do not read my tier lists on SGCTC.
I wrote this last week:
One thing that I think is imperative to remember during this process is that in recent history the Bears have always tried to find the opposite of who they just fired. Lovie Smith was a defensive mind who cared too little about the offense. He was replaced by the inexperienced Marc Trestman, who cared about the offense and literally nothing else. Trestman was replaced by the straight-edged, experienced, defensive-minded John Fox. Fox was then replaced by a first-time head coach and “offensive guru, risk taker” in Matt Nagy.
If that pattern follows, the next guy will be one with head coaching experience who has experience on the defensive side of the ball. Of the above candidates, that would include Dan Quinn, Todd Bowles, Brian Flores, and Leslie Frazier.
The Bears, in all of their predictability, are apparently big on Frazier. Not only does he follow the pattern explained above, but he’s also as stale of a hire as you could imagine after I guess what was a “flashy,” “more risky” hire in Nagy.
Well, I think Frazier would be a risky hire because the Bears would continue sucking. I have no doubt he’s a great dude and a fabulous defensive mind, but he should not even be on the list of candidates for the Bears.
But of course, his 1985 affiliation gets him in the door. His unsexy background will get him to the second round.
During Frazier’s time with the Vikings, he posted a 21-32 record. In the year they succeeded, his second year, Adrian Peterson won the MVP. They lost in the first round. More importantly, Frazier’s defense was just average in 2012. But in 2011 and 2013 — in which he went 3-13 and 5-11 — his defenses were near, or at, dead last in the NFL.
As I’m sure you are, I am done with head coaches who cannot even get the best out of the side of the ball they specialize in. There’s a reason it’s taken Frazier this long — he’s 62 — to get back into the head coaching carousel.
Even if it somehow worked out, hiring Frazier would be a disaster. Because it would be an indictment on the entire Bears process. Please, Bill Polian, pull it through for us, buddy!
As for GMs, I think I’ve made myself clear. I’m not a reporter, I don’t talk to these guys, I’m not in league circles. So I’m not going to wax on about the candidates I like.
I will say this, though. The candidates, as a whole, seem to be a good group — with a mix of backgrounds in scouting, cap, and analytics.
What’s a more reasonable question to consider here is whether the Bears would like to pair a head coach with a GM candidate from the same team.
This is possible with Flores and Reggie McKenzie, who have both interviewed (Dolphins). It was possible, and could still be possible with the Colts, between Eberflus and Dodds (no longer in consideration — EDWARDD) or Morocco Brown (still possible), the latter of which is the head of college scouting. A new entrant into the mix could be Jeff Ireland, the Saints assistant gym, and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen (who just interviewed).
Finally, it’s possible with the Bills — either between Daboll or Frazier, and then Joe Schoen, the assistant GM.
Admittedly, this is the one I favor, but it’s obvious which mix I am partial to.
As you can see, there’s a ton of possibilities for that route. The objective should still be to hire a GM before a coach (no one has hired a coach yet), but given that some coaches are already moving on to a second interview, that seems unlikely. Perhaps they’ll be able to work with ownership on a list of finalists instead.
But in theory, I think pairing two guys with shared history on other teams — especially with a team like the Bills — is a decent idea. The Bills have revamped their roster into a behemoth contender in just a few years.
If the GM search has still not concluded by next week, I just may have to open up the flood gates and start talking about loving random guys I have never even seen pictures of.
Until then… we wait.
Comment your thoughts below, on either the Bulls or Bears. Have a great weekend… STILL GOTTA COME THROUGH CHICAGO and LETS GO BULLS #LOCKIN
Laughed out loud twice at the beginning part haha. Random Bulls question for you: Are you nervous about the media making the Bulls DeRozan’s team and not LaVine’s team? Seems to be going that way after back to back buzzer beaters and MVP chants from the crowd. Would LaVine be ok with being the #2?
Let the haters off the bandwagon Ange! Bulls will be fine and will make a run in the playoffs. Ayo Dosunmu is one of the biggest draft steals in decades. Watching Trae Young completely change his game with Ayo on him was awesome to watch. He was half as aggressive as he had been. He is also getting better offensively every game.
I 100% agree with you on the Head Coach hire. If you don't dominate the job you are in, you shouldn't be considered for a promotion.
As you said, this decision is in the hands of lady luck. I am hanging my hat on "even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometime'.