2042-2043 Chicago Bulls Preseason Presser

[garbageman]

Hello Chicago Bulls Fans,

We're beyond honored to bring a record tying 6 rings to the city of the Chicago. First off, let me congratulate the Los Angeles Clippers on a phenomenal season and a series that thrilled fans, took our team to the absolute limit, and bored the shit out of Scott and Raby. That series could have gone either way, and we haven't faced competition that closely matched in quite some time. We've had tremendous success over the past several runs, and we wouldn't be here without you all cheering us on. We went into last year with a mindset that it was time to rebuild because we were facing maximum repeater tax, but when we had a path to trade for Delmar Lopez, we knew it was worth the risk if it meant bringing home another ring. Delmar was everything we could've hoped for and more...the first MVP to play for our team, and while we had to make some tough decisions in the offseason in order to maximize our chances this while keeping our future bright and our accounting above the books, we knew we wanted Delmar back again.

We were happy to keep Richard Hunt running the team's offense. He's done a tremendous job over the last several years, and he's helped us to 3 rings in the last four seasons, and he provides us an important jolt on both ends of the court as a premier scorer, facilitator, and two-way player.

Unfortunately, we parted ways with the third member of that big three core, Burt Gibson. Burt was an integral part of many Bulls championships team, and we will always appreciate his play for the city of Chicago. I also want to say that when we acquired Burt Gibson from the Mavericks, we gave both Michael Morley and Dudley Carner. The Mavericks have had Morley for multiple years, where he's posted over 20 points per game with a PER over 20 each of the four years they've had him. Those numbers are very comparable to Burt Gibson's numbers for us over the same stretch of time.

The Mavericks were struggling at the time and afraid of losing Burt Gibson in the offseason based on the trend of star players turning down supermaxes from struggling teams. Morley still had a season left on his contract at a bit less money than Gibson would have had to make.

We also sent them Dudley Carner, a 6'9 player on a rookie contract with incredible quickness and a versatile skillset that allows him to play any position on the court. They've got him on a nice contract for the next 4 years. The Mavericks, whose GM had been at the helm for about 18 seasons at the time, weren't in the tax that season, so the move gave them plenty of time to build and plan.

We wish Burt luck in Los Angeles and are excited to welcome Les Kim to the Chicago Bulls as a big part of this year's squad and hopefully for a long time to come!

We brought back some familiar faces from last season's championship run including Justin Todd, Jere Ratliff, and 4 time Bulls champion and fan favorite, Silky Johnson. Some new players we're excited to feature are Leonard Washington, who we signed with our MLE money, Ryan Adams, who we received in a Jessie Kavanaugh sign-and-trade deal with the Pacers, and Peter Harker, an athletic wing who we acquired from the Lakers.

Our roster's pretty well rounded out with some veteran post-UFA signings of Dominic Haber, Steven South, Nathan Aker, and 40 year old locker room leader and Bulls legend Wanderlei Silva.

We're looking forward to another season, and though the competition's tougher this year with more teams that could feasibly be considered contenders, we really hope we can make it back into the Finals and make a case for an unprecedented 7th ring to add to the collections.

And now for the most fun part of presser season, I open up the floor to questions!

[AngryBanana]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: you had a decent pre season, where your biggest weakness appears to be other teams ability to get to the charity stripe, do you have any plans on how to fix that for the regular season?


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[garbageman]

Chet Youbetcha, Dimmadome News: you had a decent pre season, where your biggest weakness appears to be other teams ability to get to the charity stripe, do you have any plans on how to fix that for the regular season?


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Not really. We don't put too much stock in the preseason. It's only 6 games, so there's plenty of room for aberration, and fouls are one of those areas where if that's our worst problem, we'll take it. Slowing down the pace and changing up our defensive schemes from the preseason gameplan should do some mitigation, but personally,I'm more focused on keeping our offense whirring while making sure our defense is as solid as it can be. Adding Jere Ratliff back to the starting lineup will be a stabilizing force because he's a defensive anchor who stays out of foul trouble.

Our biggest foulers are Justin Todd and Nathan Aker. If we put big men on the line, that's not going to kill us too much. Aker got a good look in preseason, too, but in the regular season, we're going to put Delmar back at PF, have Les Kim soak up more minutes at the backup spots, and probably have Aker playing slightly deeper in the rotation.

[MexicanMamba]

You hope this team can get another ring as mentioned, but looking at the roster it seems far more in transition than any of your past title teams. Do you see any particular problem areas you think you need to fix immediately?

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[ballsohard]

Scruff McGruff:
Why do you think your strategy hasn't caught on my more GMs of trading out players as they reach 28 for younger versions of themselves ?

[garbageman]

You hope this team can get another ring as mentioned, but looking at the roster it seems far more in transition than any of your past title teams. Do you see any particular problem areas you think you need to fix immediately?

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If you take a look at our starting lineup from last season, we still have four of our five championship starters. We did swap Burt Gibson out in a fair deal that was just as fair as the fair deal we struck to get him, and we'll miss his offense, but that just means more shots for Delmar Lopez, the most efficient player in the league, and Leonard Washington and Les Kim both proved they can score a lot of points in the preseason. I think that gives us options for a more consistent 2nd unit that keeps piling on the offense. We still have Silky to run that 2nd line, but he'll have stronger offensive teammates to work with.

I also think our depth is more carefully curated. After ho-hum 2nd and 3rd rounds of UFA, I think we made some solid pickups off the waiver wire to really bolster our team all around and make sure we won't miss a step if anyone goes down. Dominic Haber and Steven South are two really exciting players, and on many other teams, they'd be strong rotation players.

[garbageman]

Scruff McGruff:
Why do you think your strategy hasn't caught on my more GMs of trading out players as they reach 28 for younger versions of themselves ?

My strategy doesn't have that much to do with age. I traded to get Richard Hunt and Burt Gibson on my team when they were 28 or 29. I traded to get Delmar Lopez when he was 30. I traded for RJ Barrett and Grayson Allen in two consecutive seasons when each player was 31. A lot of GMs probably still hold on to an article kucoach wrote back in the day that basically simplifies to a mantra that no player over 30 is worth it.

But I think you have to look beyond that. If a player is extremely good at 30, he's not going to turn into an o/o pumpkin at 31 or even 32.

Windows are also not very long in this game due to the necessity of ducking in and out of the tax. Oftentimes a 2nd contract player on a max contract isn't yet going to be in their prime. Some GMs may want a younger player for a 5 or 6 year window for that player, but that oftentimes doesn't mean the team itself has that long a window.

[greepleairport]

Seeing how Les Kim had the best TC on the team, it looks like your coaching staff decided to spend a little extra time with him this preseason getting his rebounding in tact. How will this play into your rotation as long as Delmar continues to own the 4 spot?

[TheSyndicate]

With less competition for shots, as you mention, what's the top-end of Delmar's potential line looking like?

[garbageman]

Seeing how Les Kim had the best TC on the team, it looks like your coaching staff decided to spend a little extra time with him this preseason getting his rebounding in tact. How will this play into your rotation as long as Delmar continues to own the 4 spot?

To start with, Les Kim's going to probably be in a 6th man role to give our bench scoring a shot in the arm. He'll probably get a lot of minutes at C too since Justin Todd is slowing down and has a tendency to foul. We're excited to see what he can do. He'll get some solid playing time for sure.

[garbageman]

Seeing how Les Kim had the best TC on the team, it looks like your coaching staff decided to spend a little extra time with him this preseason getting his rebounding in tact. How will this play into your rotation as long as Delmar continues to own the 4 spot?

50 PPG. Enough to get in the top 9 all time.