Bulls Podcast #54

February 11, 2020 admin Podcast 00:35:01 Comments Off on Bulls Podcast #54

It’s the Bulls Podcast #54 hosted by Marcus Couch and Doug Thonus. We’ve got full Bulls vs Wizards Reaction, our State of the #Bulls, Fizzled out Trade Rumors and Game predictions for the coming week.

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:

  • Bulls vs Wizards Rundown
  • Bulls Trade Rumors that never happened
  • State of The Bulls
  • Game predictions for the coming week

We’ll be right back after this quick time-out.

 

Bulls vs Wizards Post-Game

The Bulls took on the Washington Wizards in a must-win scenario to get a small foothold to the 8th seed of the playoffs. Unfortunately, they got smoked, losing the game 126-114

Zach Lavine led the way for the Bulls with 41 points on 15-21 FGs, but the Bulls were not in a 126-114 loss to the Wizards at any point in the game.

Sato continued to play well against his former team, leading to the question, should we trick Sato into thinking he’s always playing the Wizards?  He needs to play this way all the time, not just showing off in front of his old teammates.

Daniel Gafford, who you heard in the intro of the show, DID NOT PLAY due to a coach’s decision. WHY?????

The All-Star break is upon the Bulls, who are 19-36, losers of 6 straight and sit in 10th in the East.

 

Bulls Trade Rumors

Denzel Valentine could not be moved.

It may not be the move that propels this team in the right direction, but it’s clear that small forward Denzel Valentine needed to be traded before the deadline this season. It’s not entirely his fault, both sides seemed to want to move on, but there were no takers.

Would have been nice to get back something for Denzel, but I think at most you were looking at a second rounder.  When the 76ers traded for Glen Robinson III and Alec Burks the Bulls probably lost their shot at moving Valentine.  Seems highly likely the Bulls would have taken 2nds for Valentine (even 1) so my guess is the 76ers just preferred those players.

Acquiring center Andre Drummond from Detroit.

We had a shot to get Drummond, but there was no interest shown publicly by the Bulls. It would have been a great story to grab both Andre and Derrick Rose, but that story is yet to be fulfilled.

This would have been an interesting move because Drummond went for basically nothing.  There are questions about how much he impacts the game, I mean Detroit was nothing special with him and Rose.   I’m not sure how much you’d have had to give up to make this happen but Porter + 1st might have gotten it done.   You’d then probably want to spin off WCJ for something else in a follow up trade (perhaps in the summer) because there’s no room with him and Drummond.  You’d have to be comfortable with what you think he will demand to keep him most likely because obviously this trade wouldn’t be about doing a whole lot this year most likely.  It might have bumped you up to the 8th seed and 35 wins, but where does it leave you in the future? Still, case can be made the resulting team (especially if you swung Carter for a good wing) would be a 45+ win type team, and the Bulls deifnitely have the personnel to play around a center that can’t shoot.   Low ultimate upside, but right now we’re no where, so it still would have given the Bulls a watchable team for awhile.

 

Malik Monk

The only player on this list that the Chicago Bulls could’ve traded for at the trade deadline this year that actually didn’t get moved is the Charlotte Hornets 6-foot-3 23-year-old shooting guard Malik Monk. Since Monk isn’t having his best year in terms of offensive production, the Bulls would be able to buy low on him.

So far this season, Monk is averaging 9.5 points per game, 2.8 rebounds, and 2.0 assists while shooting 43.4 percent from the field and 27.4 percent from beyond the arc. The poor trend in Monk’s numbers is his three-point shooting percentage. Monks three-point shooting percentage dropped off in each of his three years in the NBA.

The Hornets are effectively out of playoff contention in the East at this point, even more so than the Bulls. Monk would be a good way for the Bulls to bolster their current rotation deeper down the bench and still stay young and building toward the future. He’s a very athletic option that is starting to show more capabilities as a facilitator and a good shooter when he’s in rhythm. His defensive game hasn’t really come along yet, though.

Bulls and Hornets are in pretty similar places as a franchise, so how does a trade make sense for both teams?   Both teams are bad without anything to build around. Would you give up a future 1st for Monk? Would the Hornets trade him for a 2nd?   Are there any player for player trades that make sense? Maybe you could buy low on Monk, but it’s hard to see how a player becomes a good fit for us and a bad fit for Charlotte given that both are at rebuild places.

Maurice Harkless

A move that would be more under-the-radar for the Chicago Bulls than trading for D-Lo would’ve been trying to snag small forward Maurice Harkless from the Clippers. The Clippers went from trading Harkless from one slipping team in the East to another.

Instead of sending him to the Bulls for that often discussed return of Young, the Clippers sent Harkless to the rapidly slipping New York Knicks for a return of standout power forward Marcus Morris. As one of the better floor spacing and tougher big men that was on the trade block in the NBA this season, Morris could be a good fit with the Clippers.

Landing Harkless from the Clippers would be a nice deal for both sides. Harkless could be a better fit with the Bulls right now than Thad Young, despite all the thinning depth in the frontcourt. But the Bulls are also thin on the wing. Hutch is about all that head coach Jim Boylen has left as a true small forward in the rotation.

However, Harkless would provide that heavily-desired two-way wing presence in the Bulls starting five. He’s having a down year, but a change of scenery might be exactly what he needed. Landing with the Knicks was just not the ideal move for Harkless’ NBA career.

So far this season, Harkless is averaging 5.5 points per game, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists while shooting 51.6 percent from the field and 37.0 percent from beyond the arc. His shooting percentages are at least holding together this season.

Harkless is a value contract but only has one more year left under contract.   I guess what it comes down to is what would you have given up for him? There are already rumors the Knicks might by him out which begs the question whether he’d stay here.   He’s maybe a 5th or 6th best player on your team in the future at best? Also, how do the Bulls trump the offer of Morris. I’d have been all over a trade of Young for Harkless, but it doesn’t seem likely that was on the table and is hard to see what else would have gotten a deal done vs the one actually done.

State of the Bulls – Are we playoff bound??

As much of a trash-heap that this season has been so far, there is actually a really good chance that we can sneak into the 8th seed and make the playoffs this season. But should we march for the playoffs and fulfill the goal of the season, or is it time to rev up the tank for another season and hope that the ball bounces our way in the lottery?

Bulls have a chance to win out the rest of February & tie for 8th with the Magic based on their schedule and players coming back from injury.

Some out there have expressed a hopeful projection that the Bulls go 6-0 & the Magic 2-4. It could actually happen.

The Magic’s Upcoming schedule includes games agains the Pistons, Mavericks, Nets, Hawks, Timberwolves and Spurs.

While the Bulls have a relatively easier schedule with games with the Hornets, Suns, Wizards, Thunder and Knicks. Completely do-able that we can run the table and go undefeated for all of these games… Granted that’s we get some of our guys back.

Bulls need to get healthy, and then we have to see if they get better when they’re healthy.  That is the first thing. Do you believe when we get healthier that we’re much better because it felt like we were getting there then everyone got hurt.  Are we going to see December Lauri when he’s back and solid play by Carter and Gafford? Can Otto give us anything?

The Bulls have real legitimate big questions even if healthy.  They should be good enough to win much more than they are if that happens, but we haven’t consistently seen that prior to the injuries so it is hard to hope too much.  Also, the Bulls just seem doubly cursed by injuries.

Deciding factors:

  • Otto Porter may just shut it down.
  • Lauri may not return in Feb.
  • Wendell Carter may not return in Feb.
  • Who knows what will happen with our guys that are not injured yet.

Let’s predict our next few games for the coming week

Bulls vs Hornets

Thurs 2/20 @ United Center

Marcus: L

Doug: W

 

Bulls vs Suns

Sat 2/22 @ United Center

Marcus: W

Doug: W

 

Bulls vs Wizards

Sun 2/23 @ United Center

Marcus: W

Doug: W

 

Bulls vs Thunder

Tues 2/25 @ United Center

Marcus: L

Doug: L

 

Bulls at Knicks

Sat 2/29 @ NY (MSG)

Marcus: W

Doug: W

CLOSING:

Doug Social Links:

 

  • Podcast Site: ChicagoBullseye.com

 

Marcus Social Links

 

 

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

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!