Chicago Bulls Blurbs: The power forward situation, Jerry Krause and Point Jimmy Butler
In this edition of Chicago Bulls Blurbs, here’s some of the best Bulls-related content around the web, including some thoughts on the late great Jerry Krause, who passed away earlier this week.
This week was a strange, up-and-down week for the Chicago Bulls (and the week’s not even over with a game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night in Chicago).
The Bulls blew a 16-point lead against the Toronto Raptors in the second half on Tuesday, along with Robin Lopez throwing a punch at Serge Ibaka that resulted in an ejection and a one-game suspension.
Along with Lopez’s situation, Cristiano Felicio came in and landed hard on his tailbone and was knocked out of the loss against the Raptors. That resulted in Joffrey Lauvergne getting the start on Wednesday night in the second game of a back-to-back set for the Bulls … and the Bulls crushed the Detroit Pistons at home to take control of the season tiebreaker over their division rivals.
Sure?
Also this week, former long-time Bulls general manager Jerry Krause passed away at the age of 77. Krause was the architect of the greatest era of Bulls history, winning six championships in the 1990’s as the general manager of the Bulls.
Here’s the best of this week (so far) in Bulls-related content, starting with a must-read piece on Krause’s impact.
The history of basketball can’t be written without Jerry Krause – (@WojVerticalNBA)
You know the name and you know his ability to seemingly know things are happening around the NBA before anyone else. But, you probably don’t know that Adrian Wojnarowski is a damn good writer and interviewer as well.
His recent interview and piece on Jerry Krause is worth your time. He interviewed Krause inside his suburban Chicago home before his passing and some parts of it are rather eerie, but important to the story.
LOCKED ON BULLS, 3/23/2017: Jerry Krause Storytime With Sam Smith – (@highkin, @SamSmithHoops and @CodyWesterlund)
If there’s anyone that knows Jerry Krause, it’s Sam Smith.
Smith’s been around the Bulls organization for over 30 years and his stories are endless not only about the franchise, but about Krause himself.
It’s almost a 53-minute podcast, but it deserves a listen.
If the Bulls held on to that lead against Toronto, here was my extremely sarcastic recap – (@BullsBlogger)
Obviously, the Bulls didn’t defeat the Raptors to extend their winning streak over them to 12 games this week and thus ended the “Trashtors” label that our friend Your Friendly Bulls Blogger gave them long ago.
If the Bulls would’ve won, here’s what he would’ve said about that game. It’s hilarious.
Fred Hoiberg’s Conundrum: What to do with Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic – (@xvanwilderx)
Before Nikola Mirotic lit the Detroit Pistons on fire Wednesday night, our own Daniel Coughlin wrote about the conundrum that the Bulls have at the power forward position with Mirotic and Bobby Portis. (Remember, Mirotic is a restricted free agent this summer.)
Next: Bulls vs. Pistons: Bulls shred Pistons in second game of back-to-back at home
The Bulls found a way to punish teams for double-teaming Jimmy Butler – (@StephNoh)
A huge issue for the Bulls in the midst of Jimmy Butler’s best season to date: not being able to still run their offense when Butler is double-teamed by opponents.
The Bulls were able to break down and slice Detroit’s defensive attack on Wednesday night and Stephen Noh at The Athletic Chicago broke that down. It’s good.