Archive for June, 2011

NEW YORK — Saying you’re going to do something and then actually doing it are two entirely different things. Take, for  instance, how the NBA Owners and the NBA Player’s Union were going to “talk” and try and reach and agreement on the expired CBA. They said they were going to try and reach an agreement. Then the NBA as a league was saying they are expecting a lockout to occur starting officially at Midnight EDT on Friday. Those fears have now been realized. Deputy Comissioner Adam Silver said the two sides have failed to reach an agreement on a [...]

NEW YORK – Representatives from the NBA Player’s Union will meet with Commissioner David Stern and the owners today to try and feel out where everyone really stands on the upcoming NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement. The two sides are meeting in a sort of last ditch effort to make progress and give David Stern a good excuse to extend the deadline Midnight EDT. If no agreement is reached (and don’t expect one to be) and Stern doesn’t see a reason to extend the deadline(which he actually might), then as of Midnight New York time tomorrow, the league will have officially locked out the players. [...]

Okay so now that you have all had the weekend to mull over what transpired at Thursday night’s draft, let us talk about it. First off, the obvious: Jan Vesely’s girlfriend or whatever she was. I’ll be a man and admit it, yeah she was really hot upon first seeing her, but after further review I’m going to have to go with giving her a 7. I think a lot of the hub-bub about her was centralized around the fact Jan looked about three seconds away from pulling the classic swipe everything off the table and make sweet, sweet love move. How [...]

NEW YORK — The Bulls held onto their 30th overall pick in Thursday night’s draft and took Marquette small forward Jimmy Butler. Butler, unlike his Serbian counterpart in the Bulls draft, will sign with the team and is reportedly going to be inserted into the rotation. Butler played his college ball at Marquette, becoming a starter in his junior year. He’s not a huge name coming out of college but he fits the Bulls style of play nicely. He doesn’t, however, fill the need for a shooting guard and his mid-range game doesn’t solve the need for outside shooting. Regardless, [...]

NEW YORK — The Bulls didn’t actually select their first guy in the 2011 NBA Draft, they traded for him. Tracing Nikola Mirotic’s draft night is almost like Seven Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon if seven degrees is three and Kevin bacon is a 6’10″ Serbian small forward. Mirotic was originally selected by the Houston Rockets at the 23rd overall spot but was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the rights to Donatas Motiejunas and PG Jonny Flynn. Minnesota then turned right around and traded him to the Bulls for the rights to Norris Cole whom they then turned around and [...]

NEW YORK — After making the trade to get big man Serbian Forward Nikola Mirotic, the Bulls selected Marquette Forward Jimmy Butler with their 30th overall selection. Butler will play the small forward position as he did during his four years at Marquette. Butler moved into the starting lineup during his junior year in the 2009-10 season. He averaged 14.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, and earned All-Big East Honorable Mention honors. His season was highlighted by duel game-winning shots vs. UConn and St. John’s, helping Marquette finish 11-7 in the Big East and earn its 5th consecutive NCAA tournament [...]

NEW YORK — Chicago started the night with two number first round draft picks and manged to make a trade to move up giving just one of those first rounders away. Chicago basically moved up to the 23rd slot to draft the big man from Serbia. Mirotic is a 6’10″ Power Forward who is most likely going to spend a few more years in Europe, which would have made the selection by the Minnesota Timberwolves a puzzling one. Once they moved him to Chicago for the 28th and 43rd overall picks, it became a savvy pick for the Bulls who have the [...]

There is one aspect of Thursday’s draft that Bulls fans can universally appreciate: the fact they don’t have to really care about it. Unlike the NFL draft which is without a doubt a deep seven round affair, the NBA draft has long been the opposite. Take this year for example, where many critics and analysts are calling it a one player deep draft. But as many times as we have heard that, so many times has a one player deep draft turned into something special. That being the case, calling the 2011 a one player deep draft is sort of an arrogant [...]

Moment #6: Bulls Sneak Attack the East The story is well known by now: the Bulls entered 2011 with no real expectations and ended up flying out of seemingly nowhere to fully arrive as an elite Eastern Conference power. But the story, at least to Chicago fans, never gets old. The Bulls lost out during the offseason on all three of the Big 3 free agents and were therefore written off as nothing more than the eight seed they were in 2010. But they added Carlos Boozer and quietly amassed a Bench Mob that would emerge as a force to be reckoned [...]

The Bulls will use this offseason to try and improve on a squad a lot of people have said has already peaked. The glaring hole in the Bulls lineup, as it had been all year, remains at the shooting guard position. Keith Bogans is alright at times but he’s just not fitting, as I stated earlier in the year. Ronnie Brewer is an improvement on Bogans, but he’s not starting quality. The Bulls are defensive team, and they clearly were using Bogans for his defense, but their Achillies Heel in the postseason proved to be a lack of flair on [...]