Comments on: Chicago’s injury rotation

By: luvabullnj

luvabullnj — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:55:11 +0000

Sorry Braeden. Props to Braeden. Just noticed the article was not written by Matt.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:04:26 +0000

Awesome breakdown! Gets me a hankerin’ to watch some NBA and the Bulls… Hardwood Classics is great, but it sucks to know how it ends.

By: Steverba

Steverba — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:00:47 +0000

Matt, why don’t we, as fans, try to do something about the lockout? Perhaps someone of your caliber could start a petition of fans who would be willing to forgo attending ANY NBA games next year if this season is cancelled due to a lockout. This could send a powerful message to both the owners and players, that indeed, there is an invisible third party in these negotiations, and we aren’t willing to play dead. We can make our voice heard, the voice that pays their salaries and funds their arenas. WE WANT OUR SPORT BACK.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:24:10 +0000

Really good stuff here.

By: David

David — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 07:15:23 +0000

great article

By: luvabullnj

luvabullnj — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:24:43 +0000

Props Matt for a beautiful breakdown of the Bulls season. Feels good knowing your team has depth to weather the injury bug at most positions and still have a great chance at the playoffs.

By: luvabullnj

luvabullnj — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:19:26 +0000

Daron Williams generated a lot of buzz earlier in the summer about players signing overseas. And there was a lot of press about the NBA losing it’s big stars to Europe and even China.
But you knew that was going to be more talk than reality. Overseas markets can’t afford the salaries the stars command and the stars can’t risk an injury that would jeopardize their big payoff from the NBA.
But where I thought the players would gain big leverage over the owners with the overseas option was the rotation to the end of the bench players. They are the ones who can’t afford a prolonged strike/lockout because they don’t have the financial security that the stars have from their big paychecks. But by being able to sign overseas, the players making minimum salaries can now afford to hold out longer by signing overseas.
And guess what? That’s exactly what’s happening. Check out this growing list of players signing overseas with some notable names such as JR Smith, Kenyon Martin, Kirilenko, DeJuan Blair, Nicolas Batum and of course a devastating loss for the Bulls: Brian Scalabrine. Looks like Denver and New Jersey look to be the most affected with Denver loosing JR Smith, Kenyon Martin and Wilson Chandler (no opt-out clause) to China as well as Ty Lawson, Gallinari and Mosgov signing contracts overseas.
http://hoopshype.com/overseas.htm

If they don’t reach an agreement today, watch for a mass exodus of 6th to 10th man on every team.

Wonder if there are plans to offer Euroleague, South America or China league passes by the broadcast networks.

By: luvabullnj

luvabullnj — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:52:25 +0000

Here’s hoping for the Amnesty Clause, otherwise known in Chicago as “Bye Bye Boozer”.

For the most part I believe the just expired CBA has worked well. And I lean slightly in favor of the players for one simple reason. In the five (six?) years the current CBA had been in place, the players salaries grew in lock step with basketball revenues. However, the cost of operations grew at a rate 10% to 20% greater than basketball revenues. That by itself can account for the $300 million in losses the owners are crying about. That to me is mismanagement by the owners and the players should not have to pay for it.
That said, there is one very major (fatal) flaw in the now expired CBA. The guaranteed long term contract. The Bulls have saddled themselves with a BIG BAD contract twice now when the opportunity presented itself to sign a big free agent. The onerous $60 million contract given to Big Ben (Wallace) and now the $75+ million contract give to “GymP Bag It” Boozer. So I hope the “Amnesty Clause” does get implemented and I hope the Bulls do use it on Boozer and not Ronnie Brewer. In my opinion Ronnie Brewer has more than earned the $4.5 million or so he’s making per year and I have no doubt he’ll earn the $9 million remaining on his contract.
The Bulls would do well to rid Boozer’s contract and use it to obtain a quality shooting guard with ball handling skills. As far as filling the need for a low post scorer, focus on getting Nikola Mirotic here as soon as possible. Or put together a package to obtain Kevin Love from Minnesota in a trade.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:06:08 +0000

I think there will be a deal reached this week. There are a lot of owners who would lose a boatload of cash if the season went down the drain. The owners have a lot of divisions amongs themselves and until that gets resolved, no deal can be reached.
One interesting thing that may come out of the new deal is the ability to cut one player and not have the contract count against the cap. My guess is that Boozer would be cut and the cap spaced freed up would go to getting a guard.
If I was a rookie, I would sue the NBA to get out of my contract (only if a high pick), leave the union and play overseas. That may push things forward if all teh bottom-feeder team lost the top picks for nothing all of the sudden.