Still Gotta Come Through Chicago

The State of Bulls Nation Address

Good morning, Chicago, and happy belated birthday to the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan.

“You Still Gotta Come Through Chicago. Utah, Indiana, they still gotta come through Chicago. I don’t care what happens today. I don’t care what happened in the other series. Still Gotta Come Through Chicago.”

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The Super Bowl has come and gone. Akin to New Year’s Eve, it never lives up to the hype — and way too many people are involved.

If you’re genuinely excited for the Super Bowl, you: Don’t watch sports much, so it’s sort of a novelty experience for you; Your team is in the Super Bowl; You’re older and happiness is fleeting, so any chance at some company and maybe a taco dip is enough to get you going; You really want to get drunk on a Sunday; or, finally, a year has passed and so you once again forgot the impending doom that comes with the Super Bowl.

All of those are fine justifications. I happen, time and again, to fall into the last camp. It’s sort of like a woman who bears a child and then forgets how bad it is over time, so her husband is able to convince her to go through that god awful process again.

I forget what it’s like to choke down the last drops of a stale, warm beer as the fourth quarter starts. I forget what it’s like to be unable to catch a buzz from that beer drinking, because I’m full from the wings and pizza I stuffed down my throat, which I ate with such fervor that any bystander would be shocked to learn I ate the exact same meal the week prior.

I forget what it’s like, as I finish that final beer, to hear the first person declare they’re headed out. Which leads to another. And another. Until I finally drag myself out, and am hit head on with: a full work week ahead and the doggiest dog days of winter, with no football to offset any that pain.

This year, I opted out of that “party” scene to watch it with my Dad and brothers, which did numb that feeling — to a certain extent. Plus, my Dad called that — the four of us watching, eating pizza — a “party” to my mother, which is both adorable and quite sad at the same time.

Ah, and I forgot one other camp — the people that watch for the halftime show and the commercials. These people, again, are likely the type that are less interested in the game itself. I generally find the halftime show quite entertaining, while the commercials seem like, well, just expensive commercials to me.

Whereas the middle-aged white people may have turned their nose up at that halftime show two decades ago, putting it down with some veiled racist description like “it was just too street for me,” they did the opposite twenty years later.

Truthfully, I don’t know which is worse. Every person with a Twitter account felt obliged to write “BEST HALFTIME SHOW EVER!” less than 30 seconds after they finished, only stopping just short of saying “AND DR. DRE IS MY HOMIE!” or something else uncomfortable.

It was very reminiscent of the white guy in Get Out saying “I’d vote for Obama for a third term if I could.”

But I must say, I did thoroughly enjoy the halftime show. In what could have been a depressing realization of how long it’s been, most of the performers looked and sounded great for their age, which probably made us all (especially those a bit older) sigh in relief.

Now, 50 Cent’s appearance may have startled you for a second — and perhaps lay off that last wing or two — but one out of five isn’t too bad.

The time between Super Bowl and March Madness, especially for Chicagoans, is a time of purgatory. Spring air and meaningful college basketball still seems far away, while meaningful football is the furthest away it ever will be.

(Meanwhile, the MLB is hellbent on delaying the true sign that spring is sort of on the horizon — the beginning of spring training.)

It’s heightened by the anxiety that comes with getting to February 28th, when COVID restrictions are allegedly being dropped in Illinois. There’s a light to the end of that bureaucratic tunnel — we think, at least — but God only knows when a new variant will arrive and J.B. will waddle back to the lectern, donning a mask, declaring that he will be, again, looking after our safety.

Okay, I didn’t have to use “waddle” there.

But, if nothing else, I need the end of those restrictions to come so I don’t have to take that awkward 30 seconds in front of a bouncer to surf through my camera roll for my vaccine card while also grabbing my ID. For some reason, I just can’t perfect that process.

Yes, me embarrassing myself supersedes a public health crisis.

Regardless, going into the All-Star break, the Bulls are tied for the first seed in the Eastern Conference. I cannot put into words how thankful I am for that.

Without further ado, I bring to you the All-Star break State of Bulls Nation address.

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The State of Bulls Nation

My fellow Chicagoans…

It is with great pleasure, as the leader of the SGCTC community, to bring you this year’s State of Bulls Nation address.

Here were my parting words in last week’s newsletter, following a win over the Hornets:

Final schedule before the break: T-Wolves tonight, OKC Saturday, San Antonio Monday, Sacramento Wednesday. Let’s take all four and head into the break without half our team, still on an upward trajectory.

The Bulls had lost three of four prior to the five-game win streak that now leads us into the All-Star break. They were struggling, and frankly, who could blame them?

With the Eastern Conference standings being so tight, I was concerned the Bulls would fall to a few beatable opponents on the brink of the break, marking a turn for the worse.

But according to DeMar DeRozan, Billy Donovan — that slick son of a bitch — gathered up the troops before Charlotte, and told the Bulls that good teams push through these struggles and win games they’re supposed to. He made it a goal for them to win each of their final five games.

Clearly DeRozan was listening. As you’ve probably heard by now, he broke an imaginary Wilt Chamberlain record for most 35-point games in a row with over 50%. shooting. Now, is that a completely made up record for the Bulls social media to utilize? Yes.

But it’s incredible anyways that DeRozan — in the year 2022 — is eclipsing anything that Wilt did back in the ‘60s and early ‘70s

Wilt’s records aren’t meant to be broken, whether it’s basketball or the number of women he allegedly slept with (anyone broadcasting this number regularly is likely a psychopath or hiding something).

DeRozan has turned in one of the most impressive scoring stretches I’ve ever witnessed. It’s also been an extraordinarily efficient scoring stretch, and it has not gotten in the way of his team-first approach.

In fact, in his 40-point night against the Spurs the other day (8-8 shooting to kick off the fourth quarter), he made two incredible passes that led to buckets for the Bulls down the stretch.

His “clutch” numbers are out of this world. But what’s even more impressive is that he has 16 assists to only 2 turnovers in those “clutch” moments this year, a fact mentioned by Zach Lowe on a recent podcast.

In a January newsletter, I went over the best non-Jordan seasons in Bulls modern history. At the time, my approach was still measured. For instance, I ranked Derrick Rose’s MVP year and Scottie Pippen’s 93-94 campaign over DeRozan’s 2021-2022.

I won’t relitigate that now, and the context of each season (plus defensive impact) still matters. But it’s impossible to ignore how historically great of a season this is turning into for DeRozan.

If it wasn’t for three human versions of the MONSTARS in Giannis, Jokic and Embiid, he’d have a real shot at MVP this year. The reality is, it’ll be a win if he cracks the top four in voting.

Kevin Durant @KDTrey5

Thank you for setting a great example and playing the game with supreme skill @DeMar_DeRozan

The DeRozan-led five-game winning streak is impressive in any context, but considering that: Zach LaVine has missed the past three games, and five of the last eight; that Lonzo Ball has been out since January 14th; that Javonte Green has been in and out of the lineup; and that Alex Caruso has played in only two games since December 20th, it’s all that more spectacular.

Good news has surfaced in regards to almost all of those injuries. Ball is expected to return in mid- to late-March. Patrick Williams will almost certainly see game action before the playoffs arrive. Derrick Jones Jr. — a very important, but underrated piece of the Bulls roster — unexpectedly returned to the lineup this past weekend. In lieu of undergoing extensive rehab or surgery on the finger he hurt while rehabbing from a knee injury, he decided to play with a splint (and pain).

Alex Caruso will begin “shooting and dribbling” after the All-Star break, which begins today. Zach LaVine, who has had nagging and terrifying knee issues, has been cleared by yet another specialist to play. There is nothing particularly wrong with his knee. (Now, if he would just sit out the All-Star game — I have no idea why he’s so hellbent on playing in it.)

Things, as they say, are looking up. We were due for a win in the injury category.

Coby White was the main candidate to be traded at the deadline. When the Bulls stood pat, here’s what I wrote, as one of the “inalienable truths” about the Bulls (lack of) moves on that day:

Not trading away anyone with reinvigorate this team. Trades sometimes invigorate teams that feel like they need help. This will be the opposite. Every player, from the front-end to the back-end, that thought there was even a chance they’d be traded, now has rid themselves of that anxiety. This team will grow closer because of this, and will re-focus harder than they ever have before on the rest of the season. Bank on it.

Since the deadline, Coby has shot 64% from three, or 21 of 33. He’s turned in 22-point, 16-point, 24-point, and 31-point efforts. He’s playing the best basketball of his career, right now.

And he just turned 22 years old.

Nikola Vucevic has been fantastic of late. During the five-game win streak, he averaged 24 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists. All the while, he’s played pretty serviceable defense. The only thing lacking is his three-point shot, and hopefully, in time, that will come.

I also have written repeatedly that the Bulls would, whether through trade or the buyout market, find a backup big to take a load off Vuc and get Tony Bradley the hell off the court.

On Wednesday, a report surfaced that the Indiana Pacers would be buying out Tristan Thompson, and that he would be signing with the Bulls.

Here was what I wrote last week (lots of call backs today, I know):

Now, we turn to the buyout market. Here are some targets the Bulls should be looking at. The no. 1 priority is another big not named Tony Bradley.

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— Tristan Thompson. He’s a moron but fits the profile.

All of us remember Thompson absolutely torturing the Bulls in that Cavaliers series in 2015. He’s far from the player he was then, but is still a far better option than Bradley. He’s a bruiser, too, and instantly makes the Bulls chances against teams with skilled bigs — like the 76ers — more favorable.

This year, Thompson has averaged about 6 points and 5 rebounds on 15 minutes per game.

Here is where the Bulls sit today.

— Atop the Eastern conference, but with not much room between them and their peers (the fifth-seed Bucks, for instance, are just 2.5 games back)

— 3rd in the NBA in offensive rating

— 20th in the NBA in defensive rating

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why the Bulls defense has dropped from top-5 early on in the season to 20th now. They’re missing their best players on that end.

Thompson will help on the margins, but with their full team or not, the Bulls need to tick up the defensive effort if they want to make a run in the playoffs. The numbers do not lie: Teams with defensive ratings outside of the top-10 or 15 do not fare well in the playoffs.

For now, let’s enjoy the State of Bulls Nation as it stands today. Enjoy the week off from sweating out games, I know I will (I also may not know what to do with myself).

Until then,

LETS GO BULLS!

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Quick hits

• To add on to last week’s newsletter, here’s another erotic, anti-Nagy quote from the new Bears Offensive Coordinator Luke Getsy: “I laid it out for these guys in this offensive staff, that this is the mindset that want to have: We want this thing to be ours… This isn’t gonna be somebody else’s or a copycat of somebody else’s. This is gonna be ours. We all have our experiences and we’re gonna put them together and we’re gonna build this thing together.”

• Zach LaVine will also participate in the three-point contest this weekend

• I can’t wait for Matt Thomas and Troy Brown Jr. — God bless ‘em — to stop playing meaningful minutes

• The Cubs and the Sox seasons are likely to start late as the owners jerk around the players in the lockout. This is disappointing for a lot of reasons, but for White Sox fans, it’s especially disheartening. It’s reminiscent of when the Bulls made their run in 2010-2011, and then a lockout struck before the 2011-2012 season. As a fan, it’s just a momentum killer.

• When (if) these morons get a deal done, we’ll dive heavy into baseball previews to kick up the warmth in these newsletters

• Happy birthday to two subscribers, Jacobi Werner — aka ATL Jacob, SouthBeachCobi, Cowboy Cobi — and Will (Bill) Reynolds. Last year at this time, we engaged in a wonderful party to celebrate you two. As we walked out, we declared “COVID is over.” I promptly got COVID and was bed-ridden for 14 days. Here’s to another year under the sun! Cheers!

Thank you for reading the newsletter — and have a fantastic weekend. Drop a comment below…