2017-18 NBA Basketball

The Bulls players are playing just mediocre enough after losing ten straight to screw up their draft pick. The good news is Valentine and some of the other younger players are getting playing time. The two guys on the Bulls who got into a fight are both sizzling hot after returning. What a F'up organization. Jordan Bell they sold in the second round for three million is kicking asz for Golden State as Green and JD have taken a liking to the young player. Doug Mcbuckets who they took with their 9th pick was given to OK with Taj Gibson for a bunch of scrubs, yet Gibson had 23 points last night and Doug is getting better and better as the knicks improve. You could not F up an organization worse if you were actually trying.

The minutes are really helping to illustrate the player Valentine is. He's going to be a terrific pro... unfortunately it'll probably be after the bulls trade him. They did extend his contract at the end of Oct.

Draymond is 8th in the league in assists. I think the warriors are better without curry... the present day curry. They should trade him while he's still at peak value. He'd be a good fit w Houston... or Oklahoma... any team that just runs and guns and doesn't play much defense. But I doubt it'll happen.

I think the warriors are better without curry..

Pay closer attention.......Curry is a once in a generation player. His return only showed that he is special. Curry could turn almost any team into champions......he makes things happen.

By jacking it up from 35 feet? That doesn't lend itself to a synched offense... the same can be said of his defense.

He's soft.

http://www.nba.com/amp/bulls/features/his-second-year-nba-denzel-valentine-starting-play-his-strengths

It was a small thing last season, understandably overlooked amidst all the confusion with whose team it was, whose vets would do what to whom and who was next to be traded, bought out or released.

Chicago police quietly wrote out six tickets to Denzel Valentine for loitering, standing in the baseline corner and basically never moving. OK, it really didn’t happen, but it could have the way the Bulls and Valentine played last season.

“I was programmed from last year to just catch and shoot a three,” said Valentine. “Get yourself going from three and that’s how you are going to be inserted into the game. But that’s not my game at all. That’s just a piece of my game.”

As the Bulls Friday prepare to face the Indiana Pacers, who may be without injured star scorer Victor Oladipo, the attention has been on Nikola Mirotic, Kris Dunn and Lauri Markkanen in this Bulls run of nine wins in their last 11 games.

But the second year swingman from Michigan State has quietly been evolving as a vital spoke in the wheel that has the Bulls picking up speed. Valentine, who has been starting the last five weeks, is averaging 9.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists on the season, modest statistics though about double his averages from his rookie season.

Over the last five games with a double/double and nine points and a team best nine rebounds in Wednesday’s win over the Knicks, Valentine is averaging 12.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists and shooting a team best 53 percent on threes. For the season, Valentine is shooting 40 percent on threes, second only to Mirotic’s 47.5 percent.

But the strength of Valentine’s contribution is he isn’t being relegated to standing around attempting three pointers to get in the game. He’s been able to use his versatility as the college player of the year to further enhance the Bulls offensive flow.

“I give Denzel credit,” said Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg. “He’s not playing outside himself right now. Earlier in the season, if he wasn’t getting shots he’d take a crazy one. Now he’s letting the game come to him. He’s a guy we can play through because he gives us another playmaker out there on the floor. The thing I talk to him a lot about even when he was going through his struggles, he’s one of our better team defenders. He gets himself in help positions very well and that’s what’s kept him on the floor even when he wasn’t scoring for us. Now his confidence has been high because he’s gotten off to some good starts offensively with making shots. If he can continue to play with that type of rhythm, obviously, it helps us because of his ability to be a playmaker.”

The problem with the bulls is mediocre players. I like Valentine, but in the NBA he will never be a 14 point or over average, and even though Fred complemented his defense, it is average at best. A player like Valentine thrown into the Bulls awful management, has three other mediocre players vying for his position. Niko gets hot in streaks. He is having one of his streaks. When he gets cold, we will see if the Bulls are anything but a five hundred team. They have D leagues now for giving players playing time, but in Chicago they think tanking will get them a franchise player......well Butler was a franchise player, and Gibson was gold, and Doug was their high draft pick which they just gave to OK with Gibson.......no the Bulls will never put a great team on the floor until Gar Foreman and John Paxon are gone. Jerry is 85 and loyal to a fault with his White Sox and Bulls. It is good to have that type of loyalty in this dog eat dog world, but ten years of awful might suggest a change is due.

You underestimate valentine on both ends of the floor. He's a prober and problem maker... he's also tough and durable. It'll take a few more years to develop fully... then he'll be a near double double threat that will beat you one way or the other. He's also a very good clutch player... a team player... a winner.

Stay tuned.

If he gets traded or becomes a free agent, he might have a chance to develop, but with Fred as a coach and the dimwits making draft and trade decisions.....he does not have a chance.

From your lips to God's ears. Valentine to gsw for curry... and whatever the fair market dictates. He and draymond would anchor a dynasty... just plug and play players very good at specific skills. Ala spurs.

Curry would probably mirror rose.

You have started your new years eve party early........I mean I like Valentine, but you really have not watched him much the last two years. Mediocre. Potential looks good if he gets away from the Bulls.

Curry.....simply a generational player. I would like to watch him live and have been checking Indianapolis, NO, Atlanta, Memphis, Orlando, and Miami if I am able to travel this winter.

2seaoat wrote:You have started your new years eve party early........I mean I like Valentine, but you really have not watched him much the last two years.  Mediocre.  Potential looks good if he gets away from the Bulls.

Curry.....simply a generational player.  I would like to watch him live and have been checking Indianapolis, NO, Atlanta, Memphis, Orlando, and Miami if I am able to travel this winter.

I'd meet you in Chicago. But I'm planning my winter trips now... so don't waffle too much dorkapotomus.

You waffle when you hurt so bad at times, you just want to curl up in a ball and die, and then the next day you are feeling good enough to take the grandkids to a movie. So all I am doing is looking at the schedules and seeing if we travel, if I can catch a game. Financially, we just got whacked bad as a Industrial building in my retirement fund had a closing scheduled for Jan. 5th, and they walked because they wanted a250k credit for a new roof on a 50k square foot industrial building. Now my partners are going to cut our partnership draws which allowed me a comfortable retirement. It may be two years before I get another capital draw, but we will have new ac units and a new roof, and the partners do not want to sell now because it is a 9 cap building with good tenants. So, even if I feel better, it looks like our traveling may become a budgetary issue. If I got my share of the building in my SEP retirement fund after the sale, we were going to shut down the business.........still going to do it in June, but the loss of that retirement income for two years until the roof is paid sucks.

2seaoat wrote:You waffle when you hurt so bad at times, you just want to curl up in a ball and die, and then the next day you are feeling good enough to take the grandkids to a movie.  So all I am doing is looking at the schedules and seeing if we travel, if I can catch a game.  Financially, we just got whacked bad as a Industrial building in my retirement fund had a closing scheduled for Jan. 5th, and they walked because they wanted a250k credit for a new roof on a 50k square foot industrial building.  Now my partners are going to cut our partnership draws which allowed me a comfortable retirement.  It may be two years before I get another capital draw, but we will have new ac units and a new roof, and the partners do not want to sell now because it is a 9 cap building with good tenants.  So, even if I feel better, it looks like our traveling may become a budgetary issue.  If I got my share of the building in my SEP retirement fund after the sale, we were going to shut down the business.........still going to do it in June, but the loss of that retirement income for two years until the roof is paid sucks.

Hate to hear it.

Taking the Amtrak South from Chicago is a stark reality.

The old steel plants between the wars boomed and today steel is being produced in once war ravaged nations, and the American steel industry has become much smaller. That train ride is a ride through historic boom times gone bad.

I voted for my NBA all star team. I voted for Butler in the West, but how does Butler have a chance with Curry and Hardin...........I think if people appreciate defense he has a chance.

I would take butler over either Hardin or curry or Westbrook or Thomas or Irving... etc.

I am a real Butler fan. His mother abandoned him at about eleven. The kid bounced around in West Texas and families reached out to help him. He got his chance to play college ball and never stopped working on his game.

During the Olympics all the veterans and young players migrated toward him. He is a country music fan and takes chit from other players, but they all know his back story. A lot of the backlash against Curry is that his dad was NBA and he lived a soft life. I think that is unfair. However, no matter how much poverty some of the players lived, they had a parent or parents. I have become a Timberwolves fan because I like thibs, Gibson, Crawford, and Butler.......all ex Bulls. Butler is good for the NBA. He is the pinnacle of the American dream where hard work and dedication are rewarded. I still would take Curry if I had to pick between the two.

I saw curry choke two years ago. He didn't even have the courage to stick his chin out and take it square.

Everybody loses... winners go down swinging... every time.

Curry is the best shooter in NBA history. He is a generational player. He will get ring after ring. He plays team ball. To have KD and Curry on the same team is going to be a long time before somebody else gets a ring. James cannot win. He destroys TEAM chemistry, but he does get his stats. The mailman returns.

Timberwolves win again. Bulls lose again. Valentine had a pretty good game shooting threes, but the team is lost in mediocrity and has nobody who can step up in the fourth quarter and win a game. Now Dunn the sophomore player who the Bulls got in the trade with the Timberwolves is complaining about thibs.....yea.....thibs has a good nose for talent, and Dunn is just one more mediocre player who does not play defense.

The Cavs are horrible on defense. Boston is good. The results will be more pronounced when a five footer is playing guard for them. What a train wreck.

Celtics who are playing great defense play the Timberwolves on ESPN 1......I am very happy to get this game live. It will be time to see if the wolves are for real or wanabees. I love the Celtics defense. Multiple tough defenders. Kyrie was the best defender the cavs had, and he is doing a great job with Boston.

Niko is demanding a trade from the bulls. It is still ten days before he could be traded, but I would love for him to reunite with Jimmy and Taj on the Timberwolves. He can rebound, and he can shoot the three. His defense is getting better, but he has improved each year. I would like Jimmy at the point, niko, taj, wiggins, and towns......that lineup would be very difficult to defend, and defensively they would smother most teams as wiggins gets better and better on defense.

2seaoat wrote:The Cavs are horrible on defense.  Boston is good.   The results will be more pronounced when a five footer is playing guard for them.   What a train wreck.

Kyrie is so much better with the Celtics.

Kyrie is so much better with the Celtics.


I just saw the best team defense led by kyrie as they beat the Timberwolves and held them to less than 90 points. The number six offense in the NBA. I am starting to believe that they will win in the East. He has transformed that team and when they get their first round draft choice next year, and their all star wing back from a broken ankle.......they are going to be deep and very good. James will be looking for easy answers to his problem next year......but nobody can play with James and win.

The rumor mill keeps talking about LeBron going to Houston. They don't play much d anyway.