RedDawg#8

Have to sub out offense for defense right here. We need a stop on this possession

The fact that the bench swung a 5 point lead to a 5 point deficit AND put us in the penalty in only 4 minutes of play is just astounding. Starters had their work cut out with no room for error.

100 piece in the 3rd coming just wait. We refuse to play defense why was Simons even open just then?

Why are we even playing him to drive at this point. Chase his punk ass off the 3 and make him dribble the basketball in to the lane. 2 is LESS than 3. Stop backing off this kid like he isn't on fire from deep

Trae got back every point he gave up. I'm like whatever at this point. Dude just put up an entire game's worth of production in one half. Insane

We bout to give up 70 first half points. Trash ass defensive effort.

Trash. Can we just face guard these guys. Get up in to the offensive player and make them uncomfortable. They are getting everywhere and everything they want out there.

Our offense is so elite that it really bails out the fact that we play next to zero defense. If we were just average on defense we would be a top 4 team. We don't force stops, teams just happen to miss shots.

Watching our "defense" makes me physically ill. This is unbearable the amount of shots that are hitting the bottom of the net.

2 is less than 3, not sure if the coaches or players have figured that out this season

Geeez, sometimes I wonder do these guys even care. Are we against starting well and not having to climb back all game long?

Yep, league has to take care of their babies first. Doesn't even look like they HAD to move our game either. https://www.bleachernation.com/bulls/2022/01/03/these-five-bulls-games-have-officially-been-rescheduled/

I don't think Trae misses the game this year, but not enough people are talking about him being a starter. They are looking at the standings and holding him down, using it to prop up other guys on teams with better records. He will likely make it as a reserve based on numbers alone. We have seen this story before, and honestly I'm more mad at our guys than the outsiders. We cannot continue to have these terrible starts to the season and expect to get praise and recognition from the masses. We may very well finish near the top of the East, but voting stops in a month. Most of the starters will be locked in well before that. If we are still a losing team or outside the top half of the East, we can't expect people to support our guys just because they are individually performing. We need to put together a full campaign from the beginning of the season to guarantee guys like Trae get voted as a starter and a 2nd Hawk makes the team at all. Just my opinion

True with OO. But he is an outlier, and he also had been saying for months that he was going to return earlier than planned. His aim was always December while the team kept saying January. I'd much rather keep my expectations lower and be surprised than getting antsy when I don't see guys back on time. Most of the time shooting around doesn't mean much. These guys have to get live full court reps in before they see a live game. OO playing in the G-League was a huge sign that he was ready to return. Once Dre starts 3 on 3 workouts is when we can start counting down. Because after that it's either 5 on 5's or the G-League and then he will be back in the lineup.

I tend to vote for Trae and another Hawk in the backcourt (Bogi, Kev) just to make sure I'm not adding votes to the guys he is in competition with. (Derozen, Lavine, Harden, Beal and Brown are his direct competition) Believe it or not, a lot of people are pulling for an All-Bulls starting backcourt for the ASG. I'm not giving either of them any extra votes. https://fadeawayworld.net/nba/2022-eastern-conference-all-stars-so-far-zach-lavine-and-demar-derozan-join-jimmy-butler-kevin-durant-and-giannis-antetokounmpo

Back on Dec 14th, Schlenk said he was 2 to 3 weeks away from returning to action That would be tomorrow based on Schlenk, who we all know is over zealous when it comes to injury timelines. What I have come to realize is that whatever timeline they put out to the public is usually just the time frame we can expect them to return to working out with the team, not to the gameday lineup. So my guess is that Deandre's ramp up period starts some time within the next week during the road trip or when we get back home. Which mean's he can start 1 on 1's, then 3 on 3's, and so forth. Apparently we don't get the chance to do a lot of 5 on 5's during the season, so that will hold him back a bit too depending on when we have time to do that. That being said, we have stretch of 11 Homes games and only 2 road games between Jan 12th and the 3rd of Feb. There is only 1 day off or less between each game, which means we don't get a ton of practice time for full court workouts. The only time we have 2 days off is when we get back from the road trip. That means he would get a full practice in if he has progressed to that, which may be too soon unless they are actually being honest with us. My personal guess is that we see his return on a home game between the 17th (Bucks) and the 24th (Bulls) of this month.

RIP #BETTY WHITE

Don't worry bro I did it before too lol

At least until Hunter comes back. I mean we technically never replaced Hill on the roster either as that swiss army knife defensive wing with size.

This got my blood flowing again if you know what I mean. So happy to see those guys return. They genuinely look like they have a new energy.

I don't want to get caught up in the semantics of good vs great vs generational. Roy was a talented player, but his best years did not even sniff Trae's sophomore season stat line. What Trae did in year 2 was not normal. This league has not seen many season performances like that let alone from a 2nd year guy. I don't care how much the masses try to reduce Trae to being on the same level as a Ja or Lamelo, this kid is outright special and is in rare air when it comes to production. The playoffs solidified his numbers as more than empty calories. And his performance in that run was borderline legendary. Trae is on the level of Iverson at this juncture in their career. And truth be told Trae is a tad ahead of schedule for that comparison too.

People just underestimate this kid. Look at the names on that list. If it was so easy, everyone would be doing it. He is only behind 4 retired HoF legends and 4 active future HoFers who have been playing an average of 15 years compared to Trae's 4. His pace is going to catapult him past every name on that list when it's all said and done.

For me, the biggest thing coming back is eliminating the all bench lineups. Whether Cam starts or not, he needs to get more minutes next to the starters than he does with the bench. Same with OO. Nates playoff solution last year was Bogi comes out first and back in with the second unit when Trae sits. Maybe some more of that. But I agree, More Gallo at big 3 than TLC getting 20+ minutes a game. It worked in the playoffs against Philly. The Cavs start 3 7footers and dominate the glass and are among the Easts top teams. Let's use our big lineup to help us improve on the glass. Maybe Gallo-JC-OO so there is more movement defensively and space offensively. Finally, OO needs to be on the floor down the stretch of games since he can actually hit free throws. Clint can single handedly kill a comeback attempt by getting fouled and going to the line, which limits our offense when we are trying to grind out teams in the half court. By losing his touch, Clint is no longer getting And-1's. It's just And -nothing and empty trips. Let OO do his thing, he is perfect from the line in 3 games, but is likely a 70% kind of FT shooter, which is miles better than what we are getting from Clint.

Imagine getting 6 players back at once and STILL missing 4 more including to key starters. Crazy. Glad we get to see these guys return. Hopefully Nate will be back soon. How long has Jent been out. Maybe he will return not too long

The next 20 games are very favorable if you ask me. The Suns are the only loss I would predict in advance. The Bucks, Bulls, Heat x3, Lakers x2 and Clippers are games that I can see us splitting as we get back healthy. I think 12 to 15 wins is reasonable. As long as we can get above .500 by the All Star break Im happy.