Because we need a thread with Pau Gasol's name in the title

August Harper's Index:
• Portion of people living in Illinois who say they would move elsewhere if they could: 1/2

 

Illinois is a pretty big place. Once you get outside of Chicago, it's flat and corn as far as the eye can see. The towns are Mayberry RFD.

It's bitter cold and nothing to stop the wind in Illinois. The air smells like manure.

Chicago is a different question, not answered

Why would anyone want to live in NY or Boston but not in Chicago? They're big cities, cold weather, etc.

 

I'm going to let the "shitty city" thing pass.

I agree that Boozer got beaten up too much and too harshly. This said, the expectation I had for this offseason was that:

1) Mirotic would be added

2) One or more rookie(s) would be added and would be of limited utility in 2014-15.

3) Either Boozer's expiring contract or the cap space created by his amnesty would be used to add a key piece.

We're still waiting on Mirotic. I think McDermott will be an important rotation player pretty much from the get-go.

That leaves the Boozer thing. Maybe I was a bit hasty with my "awful offseason" characterization, but a returning Boozer, as strictly a backup center ('cause I don't want him taking PF minutes from Gibson and Mirotic), is a disappointment.

 

Why does The Chairman want to pay Mirotic to sit on the bench? I think Thibs will play Boozer over him. And the plan was for him to remain stashed in Europe so it would save even more money on the buyout, get him on a cheaper contract, and let Boozer's deal expire without amnesty expense.

 

First off, the Chairman is one of the more hands-off owners in the NBA. He trusts Paxson, Forman and Thibodeau to handle these decisions.

Thibodeau is no longer (if he ever was) a Boozer fan. Thibodeau has often said that you can never have enough shooting. Thibodeau has never had a legitimate stretch 4. I think Thibodeau will find minutes for Mirotic.

 

Thibs started and played Boozer even last season. He could have had him ride the pine.

We don't know how much the Chairman has to do with vetoing deals the actual basketball people want to make.

What else do you have?

 

Thibodeau didn't have Mirotic so it's pure speculation.

Most of what I've ever heard or read paints a picture of Reinsdorf as a non-intrusive owner. This is true for both the White Sox and the Bulls. I suspect that this is even more true with the Bulls now that he's turned a lot of the ownership duties to his son.

Let's face it, you've always had the horns on on Reinsdorf. I never have. Nothing either of us could write is going to change this now.

 

Hands off?

Wow. Where were you this whole time.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bulls/post/_/id/17453/mediocre-thibs-says-hes-proud-of-bulls

"Jerry with me has been terrific," Thibodeau said. "I don't have any problems with Jerry. There are a lot of decisions that have to be made that are tough decisions, they're not easy ones. And so you do what you think is right. You don't get them all right, but hopefully you get a lot more right than you get wrong. We've taken some hits so we have to navigate around what happened, and that's what we're doing."

...

"What I can tell you about what's happened recently is that we came into this season with a high payroll, in the [luxury] tax for the second straight year," Paxson said on "Waddle & Silvy." "With Derrick's injury and other things, we made the decision to move Lu and get under the luxury tax this year to give us some flexibility going forward. From the business standpoint, we felt like it was the right thing to do and you have to think that way. It's just the reality of the business."

 

Huh?

 

He's talking about Jerry making the decision to cut Deng loose.

Hands off. NOT!

He may be hands off when it comes to the end of the bench players, but he's all about the money and who gets paid.

I didn't post another story quoting him saying he wouldn't allow Rose to come back and play the one season he sat out.

 

Reinsdorf is involved in every major contract. He's not that hands off. Otherwise, he lets his people do their jobs.

 

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http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/234233/Bulls-Interested-In-Dwyane-Wade

The Bulls have been in pursuit of Carmelo Anthony as their primary free agent option. Wade would almost certainly be a cheaper acquisition for the Bulls.

 

I don't say The Chairman is cheap. I never say that.

Other people do, but I think they're wrong.

He's interested in the bottom line. Huge difference. He can spend lots of money (not being cheap) and profit handsomely for it. It's just that profit gets in the way of winning basketball.

 

http://grantland.com/features/the-nba-simmons-self-mailbag/

Nailed it. Regardless of how the homer town reporters spin it.

They operate like a small market team.

 

I used to be a Bill Simmons fan. Then he started to suck...really bad.

 

You mean he told the truth about Bulls management?

Here he was in 2010 again spot on:

http://www.blogabull.com/2010/4/29/1450648/marc-stein-and-bill-simmons-on-the

This is from this week's Bill Simmons podcast with Marc Stein. They got into some free agent talk, and Stein really hammers the Bulls front office as if it's common knowledge, and the once bullish Simmons agrees. Here's my best transcription:

[getting off a discussion of Cavs failing to blow Bulls out…]

Stein: With Rose and Noah, any free agent has to think, ‘ya know what?’…on one hand, the Bulls are such a dysfunctional mess as an organization, and I put the blame on Reinsdorf. He’s the enabler, the one who keeps Paxson in this role, and it’s just a mess, an absolute mess. So if I’m a free agent, I’m wondering if I want to hitch my ride to a Jerry Reinsdorf operation. But on the flip side, man, Rose and Noah, are pretty enticing.

Simmons: If you’re Wade, and they clean house and fire their coach and GM…

Stein: They won’t. Vinny Del Negro might lose his job, but if Paxson is fired I’ll be shocked.

Simmons: Well they’re idiots…

Stein: Even if Paxson is fired, Reinsdorf is still there. If I’m Wade, I’m not goin: I like Noah, I like Rose, but with the cap space that Miami has I like Pat Riley more.

[nonsense on Phil Jackson returning]

Simmons: Well I think it’s a shame, because I agree with you, the Chicago scenario can’t happen, because anyone (and Dwayne Wade’s wife) will tell him: you don’t want to play for that Organization, it’s too screwed up. But, man…[Go on to praise Rose and especially Noah more]

 

Bill wrote a great book. He's now become a network star. He's still what he's always been...a Celtics fan with a cool sense of humor.

 

I guess he blew it in those 2010 predictions. After all, we SCORED Boozer.

But he was right about Wade and the others.

 

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Please, please, please lose the bidding war this time.