It’s Episode 8 and we’ve got our top bulls blogs to bookmark for the season, Zach Lavine says he’s back to his old self, More iTunes Reviews from you, the listener, Thibs is getting the “TimberBulls” band back together and more trades to think about with the ESPN Trade Machine.
Welcome to the Bulls Podcast, coming to you from BullsPodcast.com. This is where we’ll be bringing you the latest news, reviews, rants, rumors and opinions on the players, coaches and front office of the Chicago Bulls.
TOP BULLS BLOGS:
We want to pay some homage to some of the Bulls Bloggers out there that are keeping the fire lit for our favorite team. We appreciate all the hard work that these folks are doing and want to give them some recognition for their efforts. We have links to all of these in our show notes at BullsPodcast.com. These are listed in no particular ranking or order. We want to praise and support them all equally.
Pippen Ain’t Easy/Fansided
This is one off the long time favorite Bulls blogs. They have a ton of new content every day. Even in the off season, the content will never ran dry for Pippen Ain’t Easy. Daniel Greenberg and Luke Askew are a great tag team of Bulls Bloggers. Throw in Aymin Bakr in there and you’ve got yourself one of the top Bulls Blogs there is. We highly recommend it.
Blog-A-Bull/SBNation
Jason Patt, Paul Steeno, Vijay Vemu and Mark Karantzoulis (from BullsHQ) do a really good job of getting lots of Chicago Bulls content out there. It’s one of my favorites for sure. They do a really good job of getting lots of Chicago Bulls content out there every day. It’s been a blessing to read in this dry desert of an offseason and we’re thankful that they keep the Bulls content going without a let-up.
Hoops Habit/Fansided
James Gilmore is a great Bulls writer and contributor over at Hoops Habit. He’s a great writer with a lot of content about the Bulls on the site. It’s another great resource to bookmark when you’re looking for Bulls content. Make sure you follow him on social too, because he has some great insights that happen real-time. You don’t want to miss that.
Da Windy City/Fansided
Patrick Sheldon is a great writer on the Bulls over at Da Windy City. We’ve used some of his posts as topics on the show in the past. He’s always looking for the deeper topics, and we really appreciate that. It would be easy to just do the same stuff everyone else is doing, but Patrick does a great job of mixing it up. He’s certainly one to bookmark as the season goes on.
Is there a Bulls Blog that we missed? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram! We’re happy to add them to the list. Next week we’re going to feature some of the top Facebook groups for Bulls fans. We’ll even have a couple of the founders of those groups on next week’s show as guests, so make sure you stay subscribed for that one.
Zach Lavine says he’s feeling like his old self again
Fansided recently did a piece with Zach Lavine in which he said he feels like he’s back to normal again.
“I got my speed back, my jumping back,” he says. “Once you get off an ACL injury, you’re lifting and eating. So I got up to, like, 210 pounds. I’ve never been that heavy before. I’m not a post-up player. I’m fast, a more athletic guy. I got back down to the weight I need to be at [185 pounds], but still I feel strong. I feel really good, man. I’m excited for the season….” “Over the last couple years, I’ve been trying to get better and better and I feel like I’m at the stage now where I should be trying to reach accolades like an All-Star and things like that,” he says
This is exactly what we were hoping for out of Zach Lavine this year. With the 4 year contract he was given, we need him to be among the top players in the league. It looks like he’s working hard to become that kind of player, much to the delight of Bulls Fans everywhere.
Thibs is getting the band back together!
Timberwolves sign Luol Deng to a 1 year vet minimum deal following his buyout and release from the Lakers. Could this mean we’ll soon see Joakim Noah? Bobby Portis himself tweeted out that Noah might be back with Thibs before the season starts, much to the delight of New York Knicks fans. Is this just an obsession on Thibs behalf, or is there more to this than we think? The social nets have been going crazy with Thibs memes all week long. This could either be a genius move, or possibly just enough madness to get Karl Anthony Towns to join the REAL Bulls next year. I’m hoping for the latter.
BULLS PODCAST HOUSEKEEPING
New Bulls Fan Hotline from the Bulls Podcast!
We have a new phone number that I want you to put into your phone contacts right now.. That’s 312-626-5401. That’s the new BULLS PODCAST FAN HOTLINE. It’s important to keep that, because 1) We’re going to be posing a new question every week to you, the listener. So we want you to leave us your voicemail to give your opinions on the topic of the week so we can play them back on the show and give you our feedback. 2) Once the season starts, we’re going to be taking LIVE CALLS on that same phone number and do our own LIVE post-game show with the listeners. Just like your local sports talk radio station, we’re going to get full fan reactions after selected games.We’re really excited to include you, the FAN into the show, because as we always say.. We’re a show put on by two Bulls fans, for Bulls fans. This is YOUR show and we want you to participate. The number again is 312-626-5401. Give us a call!
YOUNG BULLS
We’d like to start a monthly “Young Bulls” segment on the show and have 2 teens join us on the podcast to talk about the BULLS. Any parents interested in featuring your youngsters? Great opportunity for kids who are interested in sports broadcasting. Most of us started our Bull Lifer realization when we were kids, so we want to let those fans have a voice on the show as well. We are a kid and fan friendly show for all Bulls fans no matter what age you are, so if you are interested in participating, or know a young fan with broadcasting aspirations, this is the opportunity that they won’t want to miss. Just go to BullsPodcast.com/youngbulls and fill out the contact form. There are a few questions in there that we will ask, and we will need to get permission from your parents if you are under 13, so we do prefer those 13 and over.
And there’s more…
We have a LOT more planned that revolves around this podcast. We are actually developing a ROKU channel right now, which should be ready to go once the first game of the season starts.
We’re also starting up a new 24/7 Bulls streaming audio station where we will replay our podcast, and others like Bawl!, Chicago BullsEye, Big Red Bus, Bulls Gold, Chicago Bulls Beat and our other fellow Bulls podcasts. More info on that one in a few weeks.
We’re also working on some season-long sponsors for the podcast, which I’m demanding that the fan get included on as part of the deal. For one example, there are a few Pizza chains in Chicago that I am talking to, and one thing we really want to do is give away free pizzas to listeners during our call-in segments, contents, etc. We have you, the fan in mind at all times. So we hope that you’ll remember us as one of your favorite Bulls content sources as we keep going. You may be a listener to the show and hear us do these section breaks that last for just 2 seconds and we come back. There’s a reason for that. We’re formatting the show to add sponsors. So rather that act all weird about it later, we wanted to build that into the show from episode #1. We promise it won’t be commercial-fest on the show, but we are going to bring some sponsors and partners to the podcast that will have great benefits to Bulls fans as listeners to the show.
And with that being said, we want to acknowledge some of our listeners..
Listener iTunes Reviews:
We are now on iTunes, and the last few weeks we have been getting our requests to everyone to leave a review for us on iTunes. You may not know that the amount of reviews and the review score is one of the main ways in which iTunes ranks a podcast in their directory. Right now we’re a new show, so we rank pretty low. With your help and a bunch more reviews every week we can certainly make a good run for being one of the top Bulls pods out there.
Here’s a few of the most recent reviews:
Remember, we are a new show and we do need your support in social media. We’ve made it really easy to find us with some special redirect links.
Twitter: http://bullspodcast.com/twitter
Facebook Group: http://bullspodcast.com/facebook
YouTube: http://bullspodcast.com/youtube
Instagram: http://bullspodcast.com/instagram
POTENTIAL CHICAGO BULLS TRADES 2018-2019 SEASON
Using http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine
Marcus Proposed Trade:
Bulls Trade Denzel Valentine (SF) to Dallas for Dennis Smith Jr. (PG)
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y6vlwye2
To me, this is one that would require us to give up a second round pick in addition to Valentine, but it would be worth it if Dallas was willing to do it. There will be a fight for cap space this season, and this would give Dallas a lot more room to work with when it comes to getting their future star to play along with Luca and DeAndre Jordan. The Bulls would be getting a nice point guard to come off the bench and relieve Kris Dunn. Heck, I would even throw in Cameron Payne if they would take him.
Dennis Smith Jr averaged 15.2 PPG, 5.2 assists and 4 rebounds in his rookie year last year. But now that Luca has arrived, he won’t see much playing time in Dallas. This would give him some great playing time in Chicago, and secure the Bulls rebuild with a 20 year old that could run our offense efficiently while being a great scorer in his own right.
Wyse Proposed Trade:
Bulls trade Denzel Valentine (SF) to Philadelphia 76ers for Zhaire Smith (SG)
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yblm8te2
How weird is it that we both traded Valentine for a SMITH? I guess Ish Smith is the only other Smith we’ve had on the show as I already traded for him once. I also looked and found JR Smith, Jason Smith on the Wizards and Zach Smith on the Hornets. I think the Bulls are due for a Smith soon. Hopefully not JR.
CLOSING:
Next week we’re going to have a few Bulls Facebook group admins join the podcast. I’m sure you’re going to love hearing some of the insight on what it’s like to run a group of avid Bulls fans in the thousands and some of the stuff that they’ve experienced. In two weeks we have Edward Schuler from Bulls Gold coming on the show to share his insights. We started our podcasts about the same time, so I want you listeners to get to know him and his new show as well.
Remember to subscribe to our show. Visit Bullspodcast.com/subscribe to get all the links to where we are. We are on iTunes/Apple Podcasts now, so we do want you to subscribe to us there and also give us a 5 star review and your feedback on the show as well. Just like in today’s show, we’ll read them out as we get them, so get yours in now to be on the next show!
Until then, Thanks for listening everyone, Go Bulls!