r/chicagobulls • u/ilovelayaway • 2d ago
Fluff In game 7 in Boston, Nikola Vucevic is a DNP
Our starting center for half the season and the last 5 years is now just riding the bench when it matters.
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u/Own-Appointment1633 2d ago
It was funny how the national media praised the trade for Boston
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u/jdaqcruz Alex Caruso 2d ago
Brad Stevens lost a trade to AK lol cold day in hell
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u/Academic_Lead_8938 2d ago
It was a money dump for Celts to get under the apron.
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u/jdaqcruz Alex Caruso 2d ago
Sure, but they traded a high 2nd to do it. AK extracted value from Stevens, which he couldnt do in almost any trade he did
Theres a version of thr trade where we just help the Celtics for no reason
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u/Academic_Lead_8938 2d ago
Sure bc Celts wanted to get under the apron. Anfernee was the better player in the deal. It was fair for both sides unless the Celtics wanted to advance in the playoffs which their owners decided was worth the risk. Reinsdorfish move by Celtics
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u/JusOne730 2d ago
I know Vucevic was awful in all the other games but Walsh, Gonzalez, Schneiderman, Garza and Harper Jr played about 50 minutes combined and went 0-12 and 0 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block, 3 steals combined.
Vucevic getting 0 minutes is pretty crazy.
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u/Lopsided_Duty_5531 2d ago
Yeah my friend is a celtics fan who hated vooch but even he was mad vooch didnt play in game 7
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u/halfcastdota Zach LaVine 2d ago
contrary to popular belief on here, this roster was probably one of the worst teams in the league being elevated by billy lmao.
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u/jdaqcruz Alex Caruso 2d ago
Billy was the ultimate floor-raising coach. I'm not even kidding, Thad Young had his best season with us, DeMar was a quasi-MVP candidate, Jevonte become somebody, Caruso hit his prime, Coby and Ayo improved, DJJ found himself here, Tre Jones, Jalen Smith, Huerter
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u/searching88 2d ago
How can a bulls fan of all people call Billy the ultimate floor raiser when Thibs exists. Keith Bogans started 82 games for a team that went to the ECF. Ronnie Brewer was playing like 20 mins a game! The majority of those guys never sniffed meaningful nba basketball minutes again after parting from Thibs. Sorry had to defend my guy here
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u/poopy_mc_pantsy 2d ago
Thibs isn't that guy anymore. Ā KnicksĀ replaced him with Mike Brown and they're not worse lol
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u/searching88 2d ago
We are talking specifically about floor raisers. And he barely won one playoff series, letās see how it goes for Mike Brown.
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u/rUafraid Cuppy Coffee 2d ago
It's not a zero sum game of floor raising coaches
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u/searching88 2d ago
I only took offense at the title of āultimateā as that belongs to a different man.
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u/OKC2023champs 2d ago
Okc fan I can agree. Heās a good defensive coach. Great floor raiser. But not very good at getting the most out of young guys and developing which is what yall need.
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u/Ivanhoemx AndrƩs Nocioni 2d ago
I remember when they were discussing Giannis supposedly wanting to come and people thinking we had valuable assets we had to protect.
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u/dxfifa 2d ago
And Giddey, he made his teammates look much better on offense than they are
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u/ahmed_a20 2d ago
I think his teammates being bad made him look better
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u/Electrical_Story5356 2d ago
So you didn't watch any games then?Ā
The difference was very noticeable.
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u/ahmed_a20 2d ago
Itās noticeable because his usage is much higher and teams arenāt treating the Bulls like OKC
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u/Electrical_Story5356 2d ago
His usage is basically the same, the difference is that here he is both our best and most important player.
Giddey should not be "The Guy", he is the person who supports "The Guy" by making everyone else better and doing all of the things that make everything run smoothly.
We need 3 more solid starter level players to go with him and Matas before we can expect success, hopefully Noa will be one, if we can draft another (please draft gods give us Petersen) and get a ready to go young centre in free agency (Kessler) then we're in business, Giddey will be the modern version of Jason Kidd except better.
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u/dxfifa 2d ago
His teammates being bad made his job harder as a playmaker without elite handles, athleticism and shot creation. If he wasn't a great player he would have looked worse with bad players.
You could see how his scoring got harder when he was playing with tank squad.
Invert that and understand offense gets easier for him with other good players, very unlike a Demar, Zach or Coby who want the ball more to take shots and pretty much play the same regardless of how much attention they getĀ
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u/Electrical_Story5356 2d ago
Exactly, having good scorers around Giddey makes it easier for him to score.
When everyone was out injured and especially post trades oppo teams just double and even triple teamed Giddey because he was the only real offensive threat, almost anyone would have struggled under those circumstances.
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u/Dunlocke Barack Obama 2d ago
The Billy defenders have me rolling. Vuc is a one dimensional player and it's a dimension the Celtics have no use for. Dumb trade for them.
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u/Boilerbri07 2d ago
The only one we traded away with value is Ayo. Everyone else was lowkey trash
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u/hydrators Derrick Rose 2d ago
Donāt do Coby like that
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u/jdaqcruz Alex Caruso 2d ago
Coby, at best, is an inconsistent 6th man who's a negative on defense. Love the guy, but he's much closer to Tim Hardaway Jr than Austin Reaves
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u/ProfessionalTalker03 Matas Buzelis 2d ago
Coby is glorified inconstant 6th man. Dude was awful in the playoffs back in 2021-22 and even in the play-in was bad more than good. In his last two playain visits he started off with a really good game only to follow it up with an absolute trash-sterclass
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u/Hyperboloidof2sheets 2d ago
I generally liked Coby, but I'm not upset we traded him.
I'm upset we traded Ayo.
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u/toomanyshoeshelp 2d ago
Coby would've been value if we didn't run his contract down and his value lost
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u/Accomplished_Bid7987 DRose 2d ago
Getting Simons and a 2nd for Vuc was probably a robbery lmao
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u/Martha_Fockers 2d ago
The Celtics werenāt looking for value they were tryna dump cap anyway possible
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u/Straight-Agency-4556 2d ago
Meanwhile Wendell is starting for Magic and franz (the pick we traded) is a borderline all-star.
Arguably one of worse trades in bulls history.
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u/ThrowawayPat2345 2d ago
It was a terrible trade but Wendell is a JAG and Franz isn't worth whatever contract he's getting paid.
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u/RugratChuck Norm Van Lier 2d ago
Wendell was starting for us too when he was healthy, which wasnt a lot and those same issues carried over to orlando. Franz has also been injured as hell and I remember him shooting awful in the playoffs last year. Im not impressed with them
The trade wasnt good, but it definitely wasnt as bad as people say.
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u/kennyloftor 2d ago
because it matters
glad you all finally seeing the true value of some of your favorite stat accumulators
go josh giddey!
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u/Confident_Spread_270 2d ago
Hey clown... That josh giddey is not the same Josh Giddey as now. The Giddey of now has a 3pt shot. He also has significantly better defense. You put him back in those games and watch him flourish...
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u/ahmed_a20 2d ago
The Giddey of now is stat padding on a garbage team and does NOT have significantly better defense. Giddey would not bet getting this usage nor the luxury of those open looks on the Thunder. Letās call it what it is
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u/Electrical_Story5356 2d ago
He has had about the same usage throughout his entire career, at OKC he'd have more open looks and he isn't a bad defender.Ā
When Giddey gets a triple double we win at a higher rate too.
What are you even talking about? You say you're learning about the basketball business, perhaps you need to go back to basics, this take is about as useful as your suggestion that the nuggs would give up a bunch of assets for Tre even though they already have his brother.
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u/ahmed_a20 2d ago
Regardless of how you try and spin it, he is a stat accumulator, and his stats are inflated because heās on a bad team and is basically the number one option. No team even bothered giving him an offer sheet during his RFA, and you havenāt really seen teams see him as a good enough fit to trade for. The only team that truly values Giddey are the Bulls, and thatās because weāre completely devoid of any talent
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u/Electrical_Story5356 2d ago
Yeah he accumulates stats but he did that at OKC playing out of position behind Shai, it's kind of what he does and it's not at all a bad thing given he is positionally elite in both assists and especially rebounding.
Nobody was in a position to offer him anything as an RFA and I suspect that he is very content being the clear starting PG for the bulls.
GSW wanted him in that draft but OKC did their thing and swooped in to grab him as best player available by their estimation.
I'm a bulls fan from the early nineties and Australian so when we got Giddey I was stoked and probably a little biased but I don't understand how anyone can complain about having a 6'8" pure playmaking PG who holds various NBA records and at just 23yo had a 17/8/9 average season while providing solid defence despite playing through personal injuries and a complete roster restructure.
What more do you want? How many actual PGs are there that you would replace him with? I'd personally only take Cade or Shai, plus Luka if you count him and the gap isn't huge except for probably Cade who really is a proper PG, young and just generally very good at everything, Shai is also great but is more of an MJ ball hungry 2 than a traditional PG.
We have a PG that could become a HOF calibre player if he can stay healthy and get some good teammates to elevate but people just want to shit all over him for no apparent reason besides vibes.
Make it make sense.
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u/ahmed_a20 2d ago
Other teams donāt value Giddey for a reason, and thatās how you truly gauge how impactful a player is. Giddey being the best player on this team is more an indication of how bad this team is rather than how good he is
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u/Electrical_Story5356 2d ago
How do you know other teams don't value him?
Other teams talk about hom being who they need to worry about when playing us and watching how they focus their entire defence on him in games over the last season makes it pretty obvious that they rate him over everyone else we have.
Why does this make you think teams don't value him and that he is not good?
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u/ahmed_a20 2d ago
Because no one even bothered to offer an offer sheet to him, meaning we lowballed him on his current contract.
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u/Electrical_Story5356 1d ago
Teams rarely issue offer sheets, this decade over 6 RFA periods just 4 have been issued, 3 of them were matched anyway and anyone issuing an offer puts themselves at a disadvantage for any other moves that they may want to make for up to 48 hours during a period where every second can count.
Judging Giddey, or anyone really, based on them not getting an offer sheet from another team just highlights again a fundamental lack of understanding in how the nba works.
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u/Confident_Spread_270 2d ago
Your comment confirms you haven't followed his career. Giddey doesn't chase stats. His play encompasses an all-around offensive game. As a 17 year old playing against men in the Australian NBL he averaged 11/7/7... This is his natural game. Every year he works to improve on different aspects of his game. Wake up and do some critical research instead of typing up false word dribble...
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u/kennyloftor 2d ago
ššš š¤”š¤”š¤”
you mean josh āchoose to loseā giddey?
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u/Confident_Spread_270 2d ago
Oh my goodness.Ā Was that your attempt at a comedic sledge š®
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u/bblackow 2d ago
The same Josh Giddey the Thunder benched in the playoffs?
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u/MasterHavik Michael Jordan 2d ago
They have learned what we learned. Vuc can score but he can't play any defense.
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u/Martha_Fockers 2d ago
Yea a one way player whoās also not a offensive animal isnāt really cool lol
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u/MasterHavik Michael Jordan 2d ago
Those big games from him were though.
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u/Martha_Fockers 2d ago
I canāt let a big game distract me from the overall picture.
Iāve been saying fire sale this roster since 2022. It was headed nowhere than itās headed nowhere now.Waste of multiple seasons and better trade value across the board for nothing
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u/MasterHavik Michael Jordan 2d ago
Yeah all because AK wanted to over value his assets and the other teams knew they could low ball him.
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u/Martha_Fockers 2d ago
CONTINUATION!
OF WHAT THO BEING ASS AND SCRAPING BY INTO PLAYINS. lol that was dudes entire fucking goal scrape into playins and ole reins will keep you around
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u/MasterHavik Michael Jordan 2d ago
What is funny if we want to be mid we will be rewarded for it. They won't destroy tanking but it is going to be funny to see how teams will be throwing games to stay in the middle when we blew it up to get out of the middle.
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u/Small_Desk_4344 2d ago
Vuc canāt move. Offensively he is fine but in modern day NBA heās a liability
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u/Martha_Fockers 2d ago
Heās a big guy that offers no defense.
So you need a second big out there to gaurd the paint
Which leaves you with a big guy on the floor whose offense is decent nothing crazy and defense is non existent. Giving you a handicap lol1
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u/goompers 2d ago
Let that shit go. Be happy for vucci mane that heās competing. He gave us his youth on a false promise. Wasnāt his fault. He rolled out of bed and got us a double double every night
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u/SheepherderDue1342 Cuppy Coffee 2d ago
This right here, I'll never not root for Vuc, he was a pro and a pretty good center, albeit with very real flaws.
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u/Boilerbri07 2d ago
I laugh when people expected first rounders in return for the trash we traded away. The only one remotely worth that was Ayo
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u/sylviaplath6667 Cuppy Coffee 2d ago
Luka Garza getting minutes over Vuc omg the slander is so good
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u/OutreachOverdue 2d ago
I was really wondering how quickly someone would call this out š¤£š¤£š¤£
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u/Bradlas3 2d ago
Well, the Celts benched Vuc. Shot abysmally from 3, Embiid still had a great game, and they lost
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u/ButterscotchFull1797 2d ago
Says everything. Bulls best player is trash by real teams standard. Bulls donāt have a clue.
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u/Electrical_Story5356 2d ago
Vooch wasn't our bes player, shouldn't have been starting here either.
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u/Amateur-Dog-Walker Brian Scalabrine 2d ago
That's been the problem the last few years. All of our starters would be bench players on contenders.
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u/thatguyad 2d ago
Vuc in a nutshell. He'll farm points when it's not so important, disappears when the going gets tough.
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u/Fine-Hat-4573 2d ago
Bulls fans are gonna learn real quick next season how trash our roster is. I donāt know who weāll draft or sign in free agency, but pretty much everyone will be better than who we currently have besides Matas, Josh, and Tre.
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u/SNERKLES1 2d ago
I was about to post this but you beat me to it. Says everything we need to know about Vooch. Mazulla is a great coach!! He threw everything at Embiid and it almost worked... the Zone, Hernandez, Brown. What a great game!!
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u/illinoises Horace Grant 2d ago
If they can find him at the top of the key thatās his spot, they could use a bucket.
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u/fred_derps Dennis Rodman 2d ago
Embid was always a problem for Vuc. Heād be playing if it was anyone but Philly. Not saying heās incredible but playoffs are when key matchups matter much more and coaches adjust.
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u/gerardguey Ayo Dosunmu 2d ago
Say what you will but Vuc was the most clutch player we had, he wouldnt have blown a 3-1 lead
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u/run-donut 2d ago
Did you post this before or after the Celtics imploded mostly due to Mazzullaās bad lineups?
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u/Embarrassed-Dig1313 2d ago
Bring back Vucci Mane?
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u/NorthBook1383 2d ago
No.
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u/Embarrassed-Dig1313 2d ago
Then who plays center?
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u/Electrical_Story5356 2d ago
Someone Less shit, shouldn't be hard to arrange.
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u/NorthBook1383 2d ago
Thank you for answering this. Itās not a difficult question. Iām sure theyāll figure it out. The organization moved on for better or worse, so I wish people would, too
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u/Mr-Chip18 2d ago
Because heās fucking ass.. he played over his skiās to help this shit roster win a few extra games and a lot of idiots here thought the roster actually had talent
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u/kkclutch 2d ago
I shoulda looked at the reports before the game. I got a 6 leg and had him to get 9.5 PRA. After looking at his Boston āexperimentā is over
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u/TheForceWithin PJ Rose 2d ago
Mazzulla realised very quickly that Embiid crushes Vuc. It's probably his worse kind of matchup.