What will the narrative be if the Bulls have a better record than last year.

Will it be
A. Hoiberg is a better coach than Thibs

B. The return to form of Derrick Rose and Joaquin Noah.

C. The development of Snell and McDermott.

D. The personnel moves of Paxson.

E. East is a weak ass conf.

F. None of the above.

Light em up Chicago!

_________________

G. The Jerry Reinsdorf ALS is a complete failure.

This team will be a 6th seed at best.

_________________

Mr. Reinsdorf.

The 2015-2016 Bulls are the WWF Corporation.

Jerry Reinsdorf = Vince McMahon
John Paxson = Shane McMahon
Gar Forman = Sgt Slaughter
Pete Myers = Pat Patterson
Randy Brown = Jerry Brisco
Fred Hoiberg = HHH
Adrian Griffin = Joey Abs
Ed Pickney = Pete Gas
Mike Wilhelm = Rodney

_________________

I guess it depends on who you ask. There's no doubt that the East has been historically down for quite some time now, which in my mind, helped James make his way to Finals year after year. And yes, I know the guy is an all time great. I'm not denying his talent, but there is no way he makes the Finals this many times in a row back in the 90's or 80's. It just doesn't happen.

Me personally, I think not having to put up with the daily mental grind of Thibs will be huge this season. If they're more successful then the credit will be given to Holberg. I'm convinced that Paxson will never get credit regardless of what he does or doesn't do. It's a strange phenomenon here in Chicago. The media as well as the fan bases love to put everything on the Head Coaches or Managers. They always seem to get all the credit or almost all the blame. Front Offices are never well liked here, though that is changing with the Cub. And the players, who should get the vast majority of the credit, never do.

This team is pretty much the like the Skiles-led teams, but with loftier expectations....45 wins, 4th or 5th seed at best, may or may not win first round. Basketball hell.

_________________

I notice that also. Certain types of coaches are also beloved.

La Russa. Ditka. Guillen. Zimmer. Thibs.

General Managers are typically hated.

I think in terms of the 90's Bulls the players received most of the credit. Phil received his share and Krause none.

I think this Bulls team will be better. I was a Thibs fan until this past yr. Coaching better talent exposed him as a coach. I could point to a number of playoff series and games where guys routinely made adjustments whether it be in stategy, personnel, or both. I never saw him do it. The Bulls gave Cleveland their toughest series other than GS yet they have no talent.

I'm interested in seeing what an offensive minded coach can do with the team. I'm also interested to see how the younger players will progress under Hoiberg. Golden State won the championship with two guys both in their third year, playing starting roles. They both received playing as rookies with Barnes starting every game as a rookie. That would never happen under Thibs.

_________________

Jordan most definitely. He's the one guy nobody could argue against as to why a team was successful.

From all the things I've read, Holberg seems to know offense so that should be a plus going forward. It's definitely become a three point shooting league and he really seems to value the shot. I for one hope Snell really gets a chance this year. I think the guy can be a player in this league if only he gets the opportunity.

On top of that, I think Dunleavey would be great coming off the bench for an offensive spark. At his age, the Bulls were asking him to do too much these past couple of seasons. This year, come in and shoot while playing okay D for 15 -20 minutes a night. Same with Hinrich. Give me 10 -12 productive minutes and it'll be welcomed. There's enough minutes for everybody in an 82 game regular season. There's no reason are top guys should be running on fumes come playoff time.

At this stage of the game Hinrich should receive mop up duty/injury detail minutes only. At one point he was garnering about 30 min. a game last season. Thibs was playing him at three while McDermott and Snell languished on the bench. There was no excuse for that. If injuries get him about 12 min. a game then that's cool but his role as the utility guy du jour has to end.

_________________

so what happens when Rose misses a 10 game stretch with some ailment? should be inneresting.....

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Hinrich is D league quality. I blamed Thibs for playing that scrub. I blame Paxson for signing that scrub.

The Bulls will win 46 games and be a 4th seed ...they wouldn't even make the playoffs in the West.

_________________

Linsanity

_________________

can they afford Linsanity?

_________________
Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Milwaukee won 41 games and Boston won 40 last yr. The Bulls will win over 50 games next season. They should have won more than 50 this yr. Far too many losses against inferior competition.

_________________

Unless there's a major injury, I just don't see them winning less than 50 -53. I don't get all the negativity when it comes to the roster.

Rumor has it that the Lakers are trying to work out a sign and trade involving Gibson for Hill and either Lin or Young or Clarkson. I would rather have Young or Clarkson but Lin is in the mix also. A few sites have it. I think yahoo was one of them. There info tends to be legit.

_________________

We have been in agreement for awhile on this one. I think it is a combination of loathing Reinsdorf, disliking GarPax, and loving Thibs.

_________________

Yeah, like you said in an earlier post, a certain type of coach plays in this town. Which makes the Pax hate all the more strange. Could you imagine if a coach grabbed a player by the tie and got physical with him? More than likely he would be applauded by a great number of people.

And that's not to say Paxson was right or it was okay for him to do the to Del Negro. It wasn't. And if you wanted to fire him over that I couldn't argue against it. I don't believe in yelling and screaming or getting violent to solve problems unless it's absolutely necessary.

Ditka used to routinely do it to Harbaugh and I never heard anyone hold it against him.

_________________

The Bulls won't be better.

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

The mere fact that it's you stating that they won't be better confirms that they will.

_________________

If Thibs only had a mustache .....

And Bernsie....

_________________

I'm no fan of Jerry ... Take away Jordan and the Bulls never win a god damn thing.

Pax is a bad G.M. -President

Thibs was a good coach, I hope Freddy is better..I doubt it.

I think the Bucks have as many wins as the Bulls this season.

_________________

I'm glad you brought up the Bucks. They fired their coach in order to hire Kidd, who had all of one years coaching exp. at the time. Isn't it interesting that the cavalcade of offers that were allegedly supposed to flood in for Thibs, haven't? It went from holding out for compensation to nothing. To the best of my knowledge he hasn't interviewed for anything. The market for Thibs was not as great as first anticipated. That's Paxson's fault also.

_________________

Last chance. I have the Bulls winning 55 games. What will the narrative/rationale be if the outperform last season? I'm trying to smoke out the revisionists wing of the party.

_________________

49 wins. Mirotic is good. McDermott is bad. Rose plays 65 games. And is above average but not good. Butler takes a slight step back.

_________________
Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Bulls will be bad.

Given the conference, experience on the roster, and the talent at Hoiberg's disposal, a top three finish in the conference means you probably have a competent coach. Can't see this team making the finals, so if Hoiberg does his job then the last team the Bulls should play this year is Cleveland.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY