Bulls Podcast #38

July 3, 2019 admin Podcast 01:23:02 Comments Off on Bulls Podcast #38

It’s the Chicago Bulls Podcast 38 hosted by Marcus Couch and Wyse Black. We’ve got free agent signings Thaddeus Young, Tomas Satoransky and Ryan Arcidiacono, Full NBA League-Wide Free Agency Rundown and our Reactions to the Bulls Franchise Breaking News.

Welcome to the Bulls Podcast, coming to you from BullsPodcast.com. This is where we bring you the latest news, reviews, rants, rumors and opinions on the players, coaches and front office of the Chicago Bulls.

We’ve got several topics for this episode. Including:

  • Free Agent Signings from The Bulls: Young, Satoransky, Arcidiacono, Kornet
  • Our NBA Free Agency Rundown
  • Franchise Inside News – Where are we REALLY?

Bulls Sign Thaddeus Young, Tomas Satoransky and Ryan Arcidiacono

Right out of the gate, Gar/Pax and the Front Office struck with an early Free Agency signing by announcing the acquisition of Pacers vet Thaddeus Young. This summer was never going to be a splashy one for the Chicago Bulls. They weren’t going for the headliner signings, trying to lure big names like KD, Kawhi or Kyrie to Chicago in some kind of quick-fix attempt to shoot the franchise back to championship credibility.

When the Bulls acquired Otto Porter Jr. before the February trade deadline, they essentially declared the former Washington Wizards forward their major summertime pickup, just getting somewhat of a jumpstart on things.

Fast forward to June 30 and the start of NBA free agency, with teams looking to make huge splashes. Chicago did bring in Thaddeus Young for 3 years at $41 million to give the frontcourt much-needed depth. Next, on Monday, the team agreed to a sign-and-trade with the Wizards for point guard Tomas Santoranksy worth $30 million over three years. That makes two solid pickups for a team in dire need of some positivity this summer. On top of that, today we completed the free agent trilogy with the Bulls announcing the return of Ryan Arcidiacono for 3 years at $9 Million. All these signing were for 3 years with varied options, but this is our roster going forward for the next few years. Then today we got word of the Bulls picking up 7”1’ backup center Luke Kornet from the Knicks.

Let’s go over each of these signings.

Thaddeus Young: 3 years $41 Million

Thad Young confirmed the announcement by Tweeting to the organization. With this kind of message, it’s clear that Thad Young knows he has his work cut out for him. He seems like he understands the situation and is ready to put in the work with himself and the rest of the team to bring a winning franchise back to the City of Chicago.

Let’s break down a few of his stats:

Young, who just turned 31 years old last week, finished his 3rd season with the Indiana Pacers and was an unrestricted free agent. He’s a forward who has historically played both the 3 and 4 spots, though in recent years in small-ball lineups has drifted more to the power forward position. A stretch option in this role was a definite need off the Bulls bench, and presumably Young will play behind both Otto Porter and Lauri Markkanen.

The shooting has improved for Young in his career but still isn’t truly ‘stretch-4’ level. He upped his attempts and percentages the last few years, but still wound up at roughly 2 attempts per 36 minutes, and hitting at under a 35% clip.

Defensively, Young is generally used to guard the larger PFs. But he can more than hold is own against fellow combo forward options like himself.

And perhaps most importantly, he looks to be reliable, missing only 2 games the past two seasons combined. Plus he looks to possess that ‘good guy’ quality that John Paxson claims to value.

Tomas Satoransky: 3 years $30 Million

We talked about Sato back in March on this podcast, and it must be true that Gar/Pax listen to the show, because they went out and signed one of the guys we’re had our eye on for a while. In fact we encouraged you to watch him when we played the Wizards as a guy that we’d like to have over here.

Sato is going to be fun to watch as he runs the offense. Unlike some of our recent point guards, Sato is pretty big. He’s 6’7” and isn’t afraid to dunk it on anyone. He’s dunked on LeBron, Jimmy Butler, AD, KD and even our own Lauri Markannen.

Also, let’s not forget.. he has played most of his professional ball with a guy named Otto Porter Jr, who we also happen to have handy on our roster. In many respects, Otto Porter Jr grew because of time put in with Sato and other role players as he developed for the Wizards.

Go search Youtube for the Bulls Vs Washington Wizards game in March of 2018. Sato had 26 points and he and Otto destroyed the Bulls in that game together. Granted that’s when we were still rolling with Jerian Grant and Justin Holiday, but those two guys pretty much dismantled the Bulls as a duo.

So let’s break him down:

He’s a career .490/.400/.792 shooter. He picks his spots well, doesn’t force much – something the usage speaks to – and he’s more than capable of hitting an open jumper. The Bulls are going to love what he can do off the ball; the last two seasons he has made 44.4% of his catch-and-shoot 3-pointers. For context, Kris Dunn shot 29.4% on such shots the past two seasons. As was the case when the Bulls drafted Coby White, they have more of a combo guard in Satoransky than a true point guard. And that’s a good thing.

In a nutshell, he’s  High efficiency, Good 3%, Great turnover rate, 6’7″, defends across all perimeter spots, great off ball, 27, and has not been hurt for almost a decade. Just like Thad Young. He’s versatile, a work horse, and has incredible stamina and longevity throughout the season.  

Ryan Arcidiacono: 3 years $9 Million

Archie’s hustle and hard work payed off. The once G-league player has a legitimate NBA contract with the Bulls. He’s hard-nosed and fundamentally sound. A great player to keep around and have in the Chicago Bulls community.

Luke Kornet signs 2 year deal (undisclosed)

Luke Kornet averages 4.1 3s in 16.8 minutes. At 7-foot-1.Go look on youtube for the 4/1/2019 Bulls vs Knicks game where Luke Kornet had a career high 24 points and 3 blocks where the last place Knicks destroyed the fellow-tanking Bulls.

Here’s where we are with the current lineup:

  • Tomas Satoransky/Coby White/Kris Dunn/Ryan Arcidiacono
  • LaVine/Valentine/Blakeney
  • Otto/Hutch/Thad Young
  • Lauri/Thad Young/Luke Kornet
  • WCJ/Gafford/Felicio

Then we round it out with the other bench players:

Shaq Harrison

Walter Lemon, Jr.?? Will he make the cut?

This means we got rid of: Brandon Sampson, Robin Lopez, Luwawu-Cabarrot, Wayne Seldon, Rawle Alkins.

What is up with what I see on NBC Sports Chicago though? 

  • Where are we at with moving Dunn in Free Agency?
  • Can we get Felicio to go with him and possibly eat someone else’s bad deal for a decent player with a year left?
  • Is this a breakout year or the breakup year for Antonio Blakeney?

NBA Free Agency

So let’s break down some of the headlines in NBA Free agency and talk about some of the former Bulls deals, and some other happenings with NBA free agency. For me this was the quickest 3 days in NBA free agency signing that I’ve ever seen. It seems like a lot of NBA player agents out there wanted to cash in and hit summer vacation early this year, as there were a lot of done deals within the first few hours of free agency.

Is it me or does this feel like you’re just playing on random players on teams shuffle in a game of NBA 2K right now?

  • Derrick Rose to Detroit – 2 Years $15 Million
  • Jimmy Butler to Miami Heat – 4 Years $142 Million
  • Robin Lopez joins brother Brook in Milwaukee on 2 year deal $9.7 Million
  • Patrick Beverley stays in Los Angeles – 3 Years $40 Million
  • Taj Gibson – 2 Years $20 Million
  • Bobby Portis – 2 Years – $31 Million
  • Nikola Mirotic leaves NBA for Europe
  • KD and Kyrie to Brooklyn Nets with DeAndre Jordan
  • Al Horford to Philly, Simmons expected to sign Max
  • Kemba Walker to Boston
  • Isaiah Thomas Going to Washington to replace Satoransky
  • Klay stays a Warrior with Max Deal
  • D’Angelo Russell signs with Warriors
  • Ricky Rubio to Phoenix, 3 years $51 Million
  • Kawhi to the Raptors/Lakers/Clippers???

Where are we as a team now? Before we answer, I want to read an interesting Tweet storm from somone with some reliable information on Twitter. And that is BULLS NBA BUCKETS (@ronawsumb) TWEET about Nick Friedell

Heard Nick Friedell on the radio today, one of the smartest NBA media guys around. Really understands the game. Made some interesting points about the Chicago Bulls and expressed what I have kind of been  struggling to put into words. 

Basically the plan is to be the “try hard Bulls” once again. Gave them a D- for the free agent signings calling them good pros but players that really don’t get you anywhere. (perhaps a bit harsh there but I get his point). 

Best case you get near .500 and maybe sneak into a first round series. Isn’t that where they were when they decided that was unacceptable? (Me talking I think it’s financial. They had maybe 10,000 fans at a lot of the spring games. Concessions way down and twisting arms to renew season tickets.) 

His main point is you win with stars, elite talent, and if you don’t have that you ain’t going anywhere. Chicago is just hoping Lauri Markkanen can become that. (Me-hard to accomplish when Zach LaVine will be launching 20 shots a night) While other teams are much more aggressive and find ways to get players like that. 

Thought they are wasting time with Boylen who is not a long term solution at coach, but he fits the “Bulls on the chest we try hard” mantra. Made the point that a team like Golden State who he covers operates completely different than the Bulls.  

Interesting comments I thought.

 

Wyse Social Links:

 

 

Marcus Social Links

 

 

Everything show related you can find @bullspodcast. Please make sure you are connected with us everywhere we are.

Also remember to check out our compilation website where you can get all of the Bulls Podcasts from every single Chicago Bulls show out there over at http://bulls.fm

If you can’t remember any of these, you can check out our show notes for this show over at our website, which is BullsPodcast.com where we have all the links we mentioned in today’s show.

Until next time, Thank you for listening everyone, Go Bulls!