Chicago Bulls: No More Dancing

[thecoolestjedi]

Arturas Karnisovas is named VP of basketball operations for The Chicago Bulls and with his hiring has come a new GM. This new GM is a young man from the Chicago area and a unknown in the NBA world, Terry Brooks has taken over GM duties in Chicago. This hire has drawn many curious eyes from around the NBA, but Brooks has come in as the man to lead the new Chicago Bulls era from 2019 onwards, but what exactly can he do to bring this once storied franchise success again?

[thecoolestjedi]

Our goals for the season don't seem too realistic, this Bulls team is nowhere near ready for a playoffs run let alone a deep run in the playoffs and the only big stars this team will ever touch will be through the draft or developing Lauri and Coby, so I'm not expecting much to come from that, but its something we will pay attention to. I see us at the back end of our rebuild, trying to find a way to fit all the pieces of this player puzzle together.

[thecoolestjedi]

The roster isn't much, but its young and e have alot of potential to take out of these guys. I don't see myself giving up on these players and can't fathom making this rebuild turn sour, so I think our best bet would be to hunker down and try to play for the 8th seed in this conference, but even then are we good enough for that? Draft needs are definitely at Small Forward and getting some depth at the shooting guard position. We might see Denzel Valentine make his final appearance for us this season in some sort of trade, looking to acquire draft capital in return if we can manage.


Lavine is going to be our number 1 option this year and I'm thinking of having him and Coby play alongside each other in the starting lineup since Thomas won't be the most effective option out on offense fro us. If we can get 25 a game or more out of Lavine,I'll count it as a win.


Operation keep Lauri happy and look to him getting us a double double every night for the rest of time. In Lauri we trust and believe.

[thecoolestjedi]

Our starting staff looks like this and while I don't expect much out of team this year from a success standpoint, I do look to our Head Coach to develop our team and also instill some sort of veteran spirit upon a truly young team.
I'll give Boylen this year to stamp out his own culture on these guys and making sure we got the right number of guys competing night in and night out. Old management would have been okay with Jim being about as useless as possible, but here I expect big things.

[thecoolestjedi]

In to January 1st and the NBA looks like this, some surprises here and there, but here we are at 14-22 and not much going on for us at all. Looking through some stats and our roster, I look at Valentine and see a measly 7.0 points in 20 minutes of the bench from him which I wasn't a big fan coming in and was looking to move him regardless, but this kinda forced my hand earlier than usual. The NBA team that looked to accept my offer of a trade happened to be The Atlanta Hawks who shot over a second round pick to us and in exchange picked up Denzel Valentine. We are two games back of the Hawks for that 8th spot, but I don't expect us to grab a playoff berth here. Looking at the team and our scoring, its been all Lavine and Lauri for the most part, so I wouldn't expect miracles.

Chicago Bulls Receive:
2021 Atlanta Hawks 2nd Round Pick

Atlanta Hawks Receive:
SG Denzel Valentine


Our Team stats as we look at us in comparison to the rest of the NBA, Our steals, assists and 3 Point Percentage are about the only thing to write home about and the rest could do with rapid improvement.

[thecoolestjedi]

Okay what you could do is look at these standings and go, "We didn't make the playoffs in the East". However I prefer to see it as a pretty good season with the team we have, I mean only going 34-48 and only a few games off that 8th spot is actually pretty surprising alongside other results in the East. I mean we got a pretty poor record sure, but our goals were literally impossible with a team that was a lottery team the year before and some terrible bench signings. I don't expect to be fired in this climate, but you never know how Jerry could respond. Our main goal is getting off Otto's contract, drafting a Small Forward and resigning Lauri.

[thecoolestjedi]

The 2020 NBA Playoffs have come and gone and this result is about the most standard you could think, but how we got to this point may not be. Never expected the Magic to come out of the East and Dolan's Knicks actually made the playoffs, so there is some hope in New York after all with those Free agent signings of last year. If only we could have snuck into those playoff spots, I just know we could have given a team or two a run for their own money, but its all okay. The most important event is the draft lottery for us.

[thecoolestjedi]

NBA 2019-2020 Season Awards:


ALL NBA 1st Team:


ALL NBA 2nd Team:


ALL NBA 3rd Team


ALL Defense 1st Team:


ALL Defense 2nd Team:


ALL Rookie 1st Team


ALL Rookie 2nd Team:

[thecoolestjedi]

NBA Draft Lottery 2020:


The results of the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery have been decided and Minnesota has jumped into the second pick in the draft with many more deserving teams biting the dust. The Sacramento Kings get the first pick, so lets see what they grab.

No real breaking trades to report on, but instead lots of trades of bench players and second round picks flying around and thats about it.

NBA Draft 2020

Sacramento Kings
1. Nate Durham C Michigan State
Terrible pick by The Kings here for the first overall pick especially considering their roster. While the Kings need a big man to pair with Bagley, they reached for Durham here who would fall probably in the later spots. The best thing about Durham is his offensive ability, but his defense is raw and going to be exposed by the great big men out West. Durham has no real durability and will face injury problems for most of his career as well not being ready to start for them now.
My Grade: F

Minnesota Timberwolves
2. David Dennis PG Syracuse
A good pick here from Minnesota, they need to help their backcourt with Culver being a future piece for them and getting a Point Guard defend, pass and score inside will help out Mr. Towns on his eventual quest to get a ring in Minnesota. The only glaring issue with Dennis is his lack of outside shooting, but that can and probably will evolve over time. Really good pick from Minnesota that addresses a need and one of the best available.
My Grade: B

Miami Heat
3. jimmy Taylor SF Creighton
This pic made zero sense and continues to make zero sense with them having Jimmy Butler under max contract and essentially grabbing one of the 3-4th best SFs in the draft class. Jimmy Taylor won't play many minutes and will probably find himself going down to the G-League. Have no clue what Miami wanted here
My Grade: F

Washington Wizards
4. Neil Jones PF Texas
Decent pick by the Wizards, I would have settled on a SF, but Jones is a offensive 4 and will grab buckets off the bench from the first season until he grows more comfortable alongside Rui or maybe starting over Rui and moving Rui to the 5. Wizards make a safer bet here then going after some of the more talented and more mysterious SFs.
My Grade: C

Charlotte Hornets
5. Cortez Kimm SG Florida
Is Jordan actually still making decision in Charlotte because this was an actually good pick from one of the worse drafting teams in the NBA, maybe even NBA History. Kimm is a scorer and will get the Hornets buckets when Batum eventually leaves from his terrible contract. I expect to see him put up ROTY numbers down there in Carolina and look to him to be a future stud.
My Grade: A

Toronto Raptors
6. Jonathon Smith PF Connecticut
Don't know how to feel about this because Smith is a great talent, but at the same time Pascal plays for the Raptors and idk if I would move him to Center. Smith is a threat from all places on the court with some good defense to help him out, but he will face trouble developing if he rides the bench behind Pascal for too long. Still think this was a case of trying to frontcourt their way to a second title.
My Grade: C

Atlanta Hawks
7. Kyle Jones SG Gonzaga
Another terrible pick in this early first round and this time it comes way of The Hawks. With over 60 million in cap space, you would think they would make smart choices or try to flip a package for a player to help out Trae and Collins, but instead they go after a decent Shooting Guard who projects to be a bench player on a competitive team. Trae please leave Atlanta and take Collins with you because this was a terrible pick.
My Grade: F

Chicago Bulls
8. Jimmy Jones SF Florida
One of the best pure shooters in this draft and one of the best potential SFs in this draft class. I picked up Jimmy so that he could ride the pine behind Otto's large contract, but he is also not that great of a defender and may struggle as a third option or fifth depending on how Coby and Wendell develop. We used this pick to plug a hole in the future and I don't expect to attract much in free agency in reality.
My Grade: C

[hansmellman]

You still going with this dude? Great presentation and look forward to season 2!