11/14 | Bulls @ Suns - (W, Boozilla! 28/14/3; Jo trolls Suns announcers: 21/12/5/2)

[ChiBulls4Life]

Anybody think the loss of our bench is completely overrated? JVG was on ESPN talking about how much our bench got worse, but I really don't see it.

It's sad how desperate some of these analysts get just to get a story to share. It's been 8 games into the season, i'm sure they'll change their attitudes during the middle of the season.

[Madden King]

Ok, so what did Noah do to the Suns announcers? I didn't see all of the game.

[Bulls_fan90]

He dominated their team in every facet of the game. They also took exception to his gun salutes.

They mad

[TopsyTurvy]

It's sad how desperate some of these analysts get just to get a story to share. It's been 8 games into the season, i'm sure they'll change their attitudes during the middle of the season.

I'm not so sure anyone is really reaching considering if the Bulls didn't get some solid performances from their starters, they likely lose this game.

Looking at the bench production over the past couple of games, it's easy to see that a majority of the Bulls productivity falls on the starters:

Bulls: 74 minutes, 24 pts, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks
Suns: 104 minutes, 42 pts, 22 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks

Bulls: 75 minutes, 18 pts, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks
Celtics: 80 minutes, 27 pts, 8 rebounds, 8 assists, 0 steals, 1 block

Bulls vs Minny - skewed due to injury.

Bulls: 58 minutes, 14 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 0 blocks
Thunder: 70 minutes, 29 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 1 block

Bulls vs Magic - Nate's production won the game.

It's not much of a stretch to look at the production, particularly on the offensive end and suggest that the Bulls bench is worse. There is no real consistent offense coming off the bench leaving players to come up with streaky performances to cover for the starters and that's the real scare for this team - another starter missing extended time due to injury.

I will take a longer look at bench scoring averages and compare to last year for a closer look. I also understand how relative the minutes played are (for example: I would like to think that the fewer bench minutes the Bulls run compares just as favorably as the opponents proportion of bench minutes against Bulls starters).

[xxcubs22xx]

Anybody think the loss of our bench is completely overrated? JVG was on ESPN talking about how much our bench got worse, but I really don't see it.

Definitely. JVG doesn't know what he's talking about. I think our new bench has gained some dimensionality in comparison with last years bench. Watson, Brewer, Korver and Asik all had their limitations. I think although at first it looks like we took a step back, in the end we do have a better bench this year. Guys still need to jel a bit

[jpro611]

Yeah, what did Jo do to the announcers? I was too busy post padding

[Ray_R]

How did the suns get luis scola again? Great game by booze cruise. Finally a game I watched without distractions. I'm looking forward to west coast weekend on wgn.

[jpro611]

Houston amnestied Scola and the Suns won the bid

[DaBulls311]

Mayo looks to be stepping up into his star potential thus far. Shame we couldn't sign him.

Our FO messed up big time. $ 2 mil more and we could have had Mayo instead of Marco.

JR Smith is also ballin it up, as is Jamal Crawford.

[Shammyguy3]

Mayo never gave the Bulls the interview they had scheduled with him. He took the Mavs offer as soon as it was set on the table (signed the same day he first visited them). And, the Bulls had a hard-cap set, so the only way to acquire Mayo was through a sign & trade with Memphis who we all know deliberately refuses to deal with Chicago.

[CubbyBlue2009]

I wish we could get OJ next year, but if he continues this he will get a lot of money. I personally think it'd be worth it, but whatevs.

[ChiBulls4Life]

Mayo never gave the Bulls the interview they had scheduled with him. He took the Mavs offer as soon as it was set on the table (signed the same day he first visited them). And, the Bulls had a hard-cap set, so the only way to acquire Mayo was through a sign & trade with Memphis who we all know deliberately refuses to deal with Chicago.

on top of that Cuban basically gave him an ultimatum of either sign the contract now or we're not goint to come back to you later. It's one of those unfortunate things where having a later interview hurts but whatever.

I think Memphis despite their feelings towards Chicago may have done a s&t cuz they were never keeping mayo so i figured they would at least take something back for him.

[ChiBulls4Life]

I wish we could get OJ next year, but if he continues this he will get a lot of money. I personally think it'd be worth it, but whatevs.

It's gonna be intersting. The Chicago FO has liked him for a long time so I'm wondering how far they'll go to get him when he's a UFA.

[HesterJordan23]

I wanted mayo so bad

[ChiBulls4Life]

I wanted mayo so bad

A lot of us did. But right now it's just whatever. Hamilton isn't exactly a slouch imo.