Bulls Podcast #44

November 7, 2019 admin Podcast Comments Off on Bulls Podcast #44

It’s the Bulls Podcast #44 hosted by Marcus Couch and Wyse Black. We’re covering the Bulls wild week, Goodbye to PA Legend Tommy Edwards, Why Boylen Can’t Coach, Valentine and Gafford to the G-League with Bol Bol and Predictions for the upcoming 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 Say Goodbye to Tommy Edwards
  • Does Coach Boylen Care?
  • Valentine and Gafford Head to the G League to join Bol Bol.
  • Game predictions for the coming week

In celebration of Bulls Podcast Episode #44, we celebrate the number #44 throughout Bulls History

Paul Ruffner 1971, Tom Kropp 1977, Andre Wakefield 1979, Quintin Dailey 1983-1986, Corie Blount 1994-1995, Mario Bennett 1999, Dalibor Bagarić 2001-2002, Trenton Hassell 2003, Adrian Griffin 2005-2008,  Brandon Sampson 2019 and the most prominent in our hearts and minds is #44, Nikola Mirotic. He was the three point sensation that never was. We heralded his arrival in Chicago as the second coming of Ray Allen. Unfortunately he played with the court vision of Ray Charles instead.

Niko is out of the NBA now, making headlines this past offseason season by turning down over 30 Million to instead return to Europe and be done with the league forever. 

 

Tommy Edwards Steps Down as Bulls PA Announcer and calls it a Career

A number of generations of fans have had the opportunity to hear his voice during games at the Chicago Stadium and the United Center. But after three different stints with the team, Tommy Edwards has decided to step away from the mic.

The public address announcer said on Thursday that this coming Saturday’s Bulls game against the Rockets will be his final at the United Center, deciding to retire after 25 years of work for the team.

“My time with the Bulls has been a dream come true, and I feel so fortunate to have spent a total of 25 seasons with this iconic franchise,” said Edwards in a statement released by the team.  “I want to extend my sincere thanks to Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf, the entire Bulls organization and the world’s greatest fans for their unwavering support. I will forever be a Bulls fan.”

Edwards was behind the mic for games at Chicago Stadium from 1976-1981 and then again from 1983-1990. Sixteen years later, Edwards returned to the team to be the PA for games at the United Center and continuing in that role for 13 years.

In total, Edwards was behind the mic for over 1,000 games.

Now secretly, and not so secretly if you follow me on social, I want RAY CLAY to resume his former role as the Bulls PA Announcer. For those of you new to the show that don’t know who Ray Clay is, Let me refresh Your Memory..

Beyond being the voice of the Bulls throughout the Jordan Championship years, he’s also the guy you hear at the beginning and end of The Bulls Podcast. He was gracious enough to do that intro for us and we are keeping it forever. So if you’re on social, Tweet, IG, whatever.. Tell the Bull that you want Ray Clay to come back. We need that energy again. Energize the fans and the fans energize the players. It’s all full circle.

State of The Bulls: Coach Boylen Doesn’t Care

When we started the year. Things were looking really great for the team. It seemed like we had all of the pieces to do a substantial run into the playoffs this year. That was the goal that Gar/Pax, Coach Jim Boylen and the rest of the team repeated over and over. “Our Goal is to make the playoffs this year and we think we can do it..”

Well, things haven’t worked out so far this year. The excuse that Boylen doesn’t have all of his players healthy at the same time, is not the case this year. And despite having a full offseason with all of his players, and an incredibly easy schedule to start the season, the team has disappointed every Bulls fan on the planet with their terrible game performance.

With a lead dwindling away against the Lakers, Boylen did nothing. After the game, Boylen had such lame excuses. 

“I think (the players) need to take more responsibility for their preparedness. I think they need to take more ownership of their readiness to play. The head coaches in this league have never been expected to coach effort. Effort has to come from each guy.” -Coach Boylen

WHAT? Coaches don’t coach EFFORT? Every coach from T-Ball to Duck Duck Goose encourages maximum effort to the game. Suddenly we don’t coach players on their effort? Is this some sort of weird NBA coaching Millennial judo move or is Boylen just faking it til he is making it? I mean with Fred Hoiberg we KNEW he wasn’t qualified to be an NBA coach. Boylen has been in the league for a while on a lot of good teams. It just baffles me that he would say something like this.

Boylen, who as usual had no issues hurling his own players under the bus, cited the team’s lack of preparedness. But curiously Boylen argued it’s the players who needed to take more responsibility for being prepared. It was the players who needed to take “ownership” of their readiness to play. If you ask Jim, the players need to give greater effort.

Aside from his brass balls in continuing to lay the blame at the feet of his players, rather than take any responsibility himself, what’s shocking is that his job is to motivate, prepare, and hold players accountable if they’re not taking “ownership” of their own “readiness to play.”

The only thing I can think of is that he just doesn’t care. He’s not going anywhere no matter what he does. Here’s the proof:

KC Johnson recently answered a fan question on Twitter. The fan asked if Boylen’s job was in jeopardy. KC answered with: “The short answer is no. The long answer is not only did the Bulls extend Boylen’s contract during the offseason, but ownership and management are also fully convinced he’s the right man for the job. In fact, I’ve rarely seen a coach as organizationally aligned as Boylen is. And I’ve covered a few Bulls coaches. Boylen isn’t going anywhere”

So Bulls fans. This is where we’re at. A coach that mismanages the most basic fundamentals of the game. He doesn’t coach effort, yet he demands wind sprints and pushups in practice. 

He talks a great game, but coaches a lousy one. It will be only a matter of time until Lauri, Zach, Otto and the rest of the guys just declare a silent mutiny and “just get by” as Bulls until their contract year comes. If we can’t get a coach to get maximum effort out of his players and run the game as an effective floor general managing the team, we will never make the playoffs. Not this year, not in the next 5 years.

G-League Additions

A few guys were just sent down to the G-League team, the Windy City Bulls who play out in Hoffman Estates. Denzel Valentine and Daniel Gafford will get some regular rotational minutes and practices in with the farm team. 

They will actually join Bol Bol, one of the most underdrafted players from the 2019 NBA Draft. The former Oregon Ducks five-star recruit and the Denver Nuggets big man was the 44th overall pick of the Denver Nuggets in the 2019 NBA Draft (although he was officially selected by the Miami Heat before getting traded to the Mile High City). Bol Bol was not cleared to play yet for the Nuggets, due to a foot injury lingering from his time with the Oregon basketball program, but he should be good to go soon to play with the Windy City Bulls.

If I lived in Chicago and especially out in the Western Suburbs, the Windy City Bulls would be a fun team to get into. Maybe even better than the regular Bulls as of late.

Last Week’s Game Predictions

Last week, Marcus Predicted we would go 0-4 and Wyse predicted 2-2. The Bulls did go 2-2 but Wyse only predicted the Atlanta Game correctly. Marcus was skunked completely predicting the losses correctly but underestimating the team’s wins.

So let’s at least predict our next few games for the coming week

Saturday November 9th – The Bulls host James Harden, Russell Westbrook and the Houston Rockets. 

Predictions:

Wyse: L

Marcus: L

Tuesday November 12th the Bulls host Bobby Portis, Taj Gibson, RJ Barrett and the struggling Knicks. Will this be the second mammoth game for Bobby Portis or will the Bulls give Portis an unwelcome homecoming at the United Center? The last place Knicks are 1-7 with the only win being against our Bulls.

Predictions:

Wyse: W

Marcus: W

Then Thursday, the Bulls jump on the big red bus and head north to Milwaukee to take on Yannis, Bledsoe, Middleton, Korver and the Lopez Brothers when the Bulls face the Bucks. Currently the Bucks have the 2nd best record in the East at 6-2. 

Predictions:

Wyse: L

Marcus: L

Wyse and I are in for a really big treat this weekend as we’re going to be on the Bawl on Bulls podcast with Big Dave and C-Dub. We both love Dave and Chris and can’t wait to get back on with the guys and break down the Bulls. 

Wyse Social Links:

 

 

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!