June 2, 2017
One year ago the Chicago Bulls traded Derrick Rose to the
Knicks. The team was now Jimmy Butler’s. This lasted all of one year. In a
stunning move the Bulls traded this prima donna to the Timberwolves to reunite
with former coach Tom Thibodeau. Not that Jimmy is bad player, he’s just not as
good as he thinks he is. He is not a player who takes over and wins a game. Just
to be fair, there are only a handful who could have done it with the teammates
he had. He’s not Michael, Wilt, Magic, Shaq etc. He is definitely not Lebron, which
is why the Bulls are not close to a championship with or without Butler...
There wasn’t much of a market for Butler, so the Bulls took the
best offer. The goal is to get young players, develop them, add a few
tweaks and maybe in a couple years become competitive. The players they received
from the Timberwolves were both lottery picks and have big upsides. Point guard
Kris Dunn was the 5th pick last year and is a work in progress. Zach Levine was averaging near 20 points per
game (39% on 3-pointers) until he came up with a
torn ACL. Being only 22 years old he
should be able to come back from this. I
love the draft pick, Lauri Markanen, a 20 year old freshman out of Arizona. Seven feet, shot 42% on 3-pointers and is
very athletic. These are the type of players Coach Hoiberg needs for his up
tempo offense. The big question is can the Bulls develop these players?
The only downside for the Bulls, even though he said I
didn’t want to play for a rebuild Dwayne Wade stays and steals close to the
tune of $24 million. The other regret is aside from Lopez, Nikola Mirotic and
the rest of garbage return for another year.
Scotty Bowman was pissed. The Blackhawks had been eliminated
in the first round of the playoffs two years in a row. He vowed there would
be major changes. What he could do aside
from firing an assistant coach? Well he
kept to his word with two gutsy blockbuster deals. The “bread man” 30 goal
scorer Arteni Panarin was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets to reacquire
Brandon Saad. The reasoning is Saad is a
better all-around player, while Panarin is more one dimensional. Toews now has
his left winger. I think the Hawks believe Kane can make goal scorers with
other line mates, maybe Schmatlz. The Hawks also gave up Tyler Motte and
received goaltender Anton Forsberg.
The second trade Niklas Hjalmarsson to Phoenix Coyotes for defenseman Connor Murphy
and Laurant Dauphin, a forward I don’t know much about. Once again, I think the Hawks wanted a more versatile defenseman
and they’ve always coveted Murphy. These players are young and add speed and size, something
that was lacking in this year’s playoffs.
Next up, get T.J. Oshie
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