5 NBA Stories You Need to Read

I'm not sure it's even worth previewing tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Just know that the Bulls have looked awful recently.

The Bulls sign D.J. Augustin

I think this will be a great signing, though it may take him a while to get some playing time. Welcome DJ!  

The New Pippen

Jonathan Lowe over at Grantland does an excellent job profiling Andre Iguodala. I have a new found respect for AI 2.0, and I'd love to see him win a ship with Golden State this year.

Is Anyone Willing to Pay for Omer Asik?

We know the answer is yes, but will the rest of the league agree? Him going to OKC is actually quite scary for the rest of the NBA, in my opinion.

Gilbert Arenas: #TheReturn

Gil was one of the most exciting players to watch in the early 2000's, but I personally think his career is over. Still, it'd be fun to watch him gun up shots off the bench for a contender.

Lakeview Man's 'Legendarily Awful' Fantasy Football Score Nearly Impossible

 This has nothing to do with the NBA, but I can't help but laugh at this ridiculous story. 

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Tuesday's Game Reinforces Bulls' Chances

With tickets available for about $30 (thirty bucks!), myself and a few friends head over to the UC on Tuesday. The buzz in the crowd was noteworthy; I thought it was the "cool" thing to hate on the Bulls right now. Sam Smith touches on the issue nicely, but it seems to me like the typical negativity and pessimism of Chicago fans.

Perhaps the best part of the game was booing Evan Turner. I've never seen a hometown player garner as much hate, even more than Dwyane Wade post-Heat forming the super villains. I saw his family after the game and was surprised to see them hanging out after the game. Ballsy, but I guess his brother or something was about 6'8.

Nevertheless, the game reinforced what we already knew: Philadelphia is not good at all. We stopped Spencer Hawes and LaVoooooooooy Allen (future Hall-of-famer based on this series), and made their guards beat us. Personally, I enjoy seeing Andre Iguodala taking three's, fadeaways, and, well, anything that isn't a fastbreak dunk. The decimated Bulls are better than this Philly squad, even with Asik not running back on defense.

I suspect tonight will be more of the same suffocating defense and struggling offense. Let's just hope Luol remembers who to play like its 2005 again. As always, #freemikejames, but I think we might also want to #stoplavoy.

Dispair...Nah we got this

I don't mean to be an eternal optimist...okay I admit I'm a permaBull...but I really don't think we're out of this series.

Game 3 shook me literally so badly that I couldn't write about it. I was depressed. I was angry. I haven't seen a team Thibs team lose their fight like that. For a second I thought maybe LeBron had joined us.

Game 4 wasn't much better. Even though we controlled the tempo, you never really got the feeling we would win. Omer Asik filled in valiantly for Joakim, but it didn't matter. CJ and JL3 were...meh. Mike James sat on the bench, and we started the #freemikejames campaign. So far I think we have a follower. Maybe.

I can't help but wonder how differently things would have played out assuming we had Ben Gordon instead of Carlos Boozer (motivated Ben). We'd be able to score easily with BG bombing 3's in the clutch. But instead we have Boozer flailing like Dwyane Wade looking for fouls and brick city from Rip, Ronnie, and co.

Our main hope for game 5 is that Philly is awful. I mean, they are really fucking bad. I don't know if anyone but maybe Jrue Holiday would even get burn on a playoff team. So far we've been destroyed by CJ's poor defense forcing Asik to stay at home to help and leave Spencer Hawes open for 20 footers. Spencer HAWES is killing us. That's not a good thing.

I think we'll be fine, and Philly should eventually beat themselves.

#freemikejames and go Bulls!

Initial Pre-Season Reactions

When I looked at my notes for this post, the one thing that stuck out is that Omer Asik is absolutely terrible. As I told fellow contributor Corey Hickman, his top potential is 13th man off the bench. He doesn't put his hands up on defense, he looks more scared than girlfriends around centipedes. He can explode, but he compliments that explosiveness with the ability to airball fade-away hook shots like nothing we've ever seen. He would exceed my expectations if he could even be better than Dalibor. WOW.

Other observations:

• Derrick is ready to take the leap to top 10 player in the NBA, if he's not already there. Such an improved jumpshot.
• The defense is swarming. Tommy T's got even Lu playing D!
• Luol is much better in this offense. I'm hoping this year I don't have a heart attack every time he puts the ball on the floor. Shoot it Lu, but please do not dribble.
• Korver can play. Not defense, but his offense is superb. Can you imagine the drive and kicks? Either he'll score 15-17ppg or Rose will score 30 if they don't collapse on him. 
• Whoever starts in the backcourt opposite Rose is 100000x better than Pargo or Kirk. Make that 1000000000x. 
• I am getting hot and bothered thinking about Boozer in this offense. Yes.

Welcome Omer Asik and Ashton Kutcher

Damnit, I think I meant Kyle Korver, but sometimes its hard to tell.

Korver inked with the Bulls for 3 years and $15 million. He brings with him a career 41% 3 point shot, and a sizzling 54% last year. Can he play defense? Well...um...no, but he can play up on shooters and hope Noah can provide good help.

He also completely dissed MJ and the Bulls, which was absolutely hilarious. He was a Lakers' fan. He told us that, "Michael Jordan was selfish, and I hated the Bulls."

Omer Asik?

He's huge. 7 feet, 255 lbs. And Turkish. He's a big-time rebounder and pretty decent scorer in the Turkish basketball league, and he can allegedly block shots quite well. The next Dalibor? Maybe. But who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and he'll grind out and Erick Dampier-like niche.

Speaking of which, Michael Jordan compounds his resume of stupid basketball moves by swapping Tyson Chandler for Dampier and Matt Carroll. Maybe the Bobcats need some good outside shooitng, but reacquiring Carrol does not really make this team any better. I suspect its better than the horrendous deal taking on Reggie Evans and Jose Calderon that MJ recently cancelled.

I'm still holding out hope that the Bulls can get any point guard not named Keyon Dooling.

I'd much rather take a flier on Shaun Livingston (Peoria-Richwoods) or even former Crane Tech and Kansas star Sherron Collins.