Comments on: Chicago 104, New York 80 – Bulls ease to opening night win

By: Brad S.

Brad S. — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 18:23:58 +0000

I get that, but there is a lot of terrible guard play in the league. All of them are getting paid as well, and few of them live up to their contracts.

If, as a fan, you look at sports as a “champions or bust” proposition, then you will be disappointed a very high percentage of the time. However, if you adjust your focus to look for “decent entertainment”, a fan could get satisfaction from years with no championships. For me, last year was a great ride and I was very proud of how the team reacted, fought and transformed. Did they get the ring? No. But I was able to enjoy the season, nonetheless.

Sure, Kirk doesn’t take the Bulls to that “next level”. He’s a backup with little upside. But night after night I watch guys like J.R. Smith or Demarcus Cousins or Josh Smith constantly waste their upside because they make bad basketball plays. All I know is that the Bulls started playing this enjoyable brand of fundamentally sound basketball right around the time they drafted Kirk. Coincidence?

By: Avi Saini

Avi Saini — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 16:35:02 +0000

If I had to guess, entirely based off of my own bias against him, it’d likely be the contracts he receives. No one denies that Hinrich tries hard, but his production and play do not merit the contracts he’s received. A few years back the Bulls gave him the MLE which both hardcapped the team and prevented them from filling the massive void at shooting guard (remember that Jamal Crawford was available for the same price that same offseason and he had expressed interest in returning to Chicago). This year the team made a wiser move giving him the Bi-Annual MLE, however they could very easily have given him less and used the BiMLE to improve the roster elsewhere.

By: Brad S.

Brad S. — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:01:19 +0000

Soooo tired of hearing about Kirk Hinrich being bad. I see nothing to merit the constant blogger beat-down he takes. By my estimation, his stat line was better than Carmelo’s. Why do you praise McDermot’s “try-hardiness” but Hinrich (who has quietly given max effort for more ten years or so) is taken for granted and criticized?

He is not supposed to be the starter anymore, but he makes a great utility backup guard for this team and he deserves more respect than he’s been getting lately.