The Cavs vs Bulls Series

[Zen]

Scary thing for me is that the Bulls have not 1, not 2, but 3 bigs that would each be insanely huge upgrades for us. Godamn, they are stacked.

 

[LeShaq]

Losing Andy really, really hurts us against the Bulls. Their front line had trouble with him.

 

[priceFTW]

Marc Stein put the Bulls at #1 in his power rankings.

They almost blew a 20 point lead agsinst the Pacers today but have been playing well and have displayed few holes of late.

They have the 5th best offense and 10th best defense.

They have two shot creators now, 4 bigs who contribute, perimeter defense, post offense, transition offense, interior defense, and a decent bench.

They key will be if Butler can keep this pace up and even if he csnt, Rose has nowhere to go but up. Butler has been playing 40+ minutes on the regular lately (44 tonight) so we'll see how fresh he is for the playoffs.

 

[priceFTW]

Rose 4-29 in the last two games. Gasol with 9 blocks tonight though. Edit: as soon as I typed that, Rose goes 5-9 in like 6 minutes.


When has a player (not counting rookie year to second year) gone from 10.6 ppg., on 52% TS in one year to 20+ ppg., on 60% TS the next? This is Butler this year. Guy takes 30 FTs a game and is going to be bigger factor in the playoffs than anyone imagined.

 

[CavsHomer]

Who would've thought before the season that Pau Gasol, written off by many NBA fans, would have a better season than Kevin Love in terms of defense, ppg, rpg, bpg and efficiency?
Many people said he was done, soft and just not the same player anymore.
But right now, he's playing fantastic basketball and is a major factor of Chicago's current success.
You could even make an argument that it was better for Chicago that they got Gasol instead of Melo...

 

[randymoss1881]

Who would've thought before the season that Pau Gasol, written off by many NBA fans, would have a better season than Kevin Love in terms of defense, ppg, rpg, bpg and efficiency?
Many people said he was done, soft and just not the same player anymore.
But right now, he's playing fantastic basketball and is a major factor of Chicago's current success.
You could even make an argument that it was better for Chicago that they got Gasol instead of Melo...

I don't know about the melo part. With melo they still have butler and Gibson starts with Mirotic now getting 30mpg. The only downfall is butler would leave in the off season but rose, melo, taj, noah, and Mirotic is still contending

 

[CavsFTW]

Who would've thought before the season that Pau Gasol, written off by many NBA fans, would have a better season than Kevin Love in terms of defense, ppg, rpg, bpg and efficiency?
Many people said he was done, soft and just not the same player anymore.
But right now, he's playing fantastic basketball and is a major factor of Chicago's current success.
You could even make an argument that it was better for Chicago that they got Gasol instead of Melo...

The difference is that the Cavs have gotten too cute with how they're utilizing Love, whereas the Bulls have kept it simple with Gasol. Rather than changing the system to include Love, they're trying to change Love to fit the system.

 

[priceFTW]

Just when you thought the Bulls were putting it together, they continue to play poorly or rather Rose does. 19-78 in his last 4 games. -5 total in the last 10 games while Aaron Brooks is +90. At this point, Butler is their best player and Gasol is not far behind. If Rose plays well at a, they can be a dominant team. As of right now, opponents are backing off and daring him to shoot.

 

[czvo]

Just when you thought the Bulls were putting it together, they continue to play poorly or rather Rose does. 19-78 in his last 4 games. -5 total in the last 10 games while Aaron Brooks is +90. At this point, Butler is their best player and Gasol is not far behind. If Rose plays well at a, they can be a dominant team. As of right now, opponents are backing off and daring him to shoot.

Rose isn't playing well in their last 10... and they're 9-1. They may be winning some ugly games, but they're winning.

 

[Birdy89]

Rose isn't playing well in their last 10... and they're 9-1. They may be winning some ugly games, but they're winning.

Butler turning into a full blown All-star has made Rose turn into a luxury instead of something you have to count on.

Landing Gasol for $7 million a year was the coup of the off-season.

He's averaging 18/11/2.2 blocks a game for less than half of what we are paying Kevin Love and they didn't have to give up a thing to get him.

They have had tremendous good fortune since last off-season as everything has went better than they could have ever dreamed.

 

[CavsHomer]

WTF is going on with Gasol?
Dude is playing like prime David Robinson.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

WTF is going on with Gasol?
Dude is playing like prime David Robinson.

Guy has always been skilled and his length defensively makes him better on that end than advertised.

Was a great pickup by the Bulls.

 

[Caffegy]

and to think that gasol wanted to join miami if Lebron stayed.

 

[*L-Train*]

it's too bad Andy isn't gonna be healthy. it seemed to me that he always had a chip on his shoulder when playing against Gasol. remember this play early in the season (Gasol was 6-18 from the floor in that game btw)?

 

[Kevin Ollie]

Really the only knock on Gasol the last few years has been that he hasn't been healthy. This is about how good he is, give or take. The key is that he needs to stay on the court.

I totally did not see Jimmy Butler becoming an absolute force on offense. Guy can suddenly shoot and he gets to the line like a superstar. If he keeps this up, I cannot see the Cavs beating these guys in a series. Which is the exact opposite of how I felt earlier this year.