I am unfurling the white flag

It is not flying yet but I am getting it ready to go to the dry cleaners. Man this is horrible. You have a team meeting called by Wallace, who does not play hard and Adrian Griffin; who never sees the floor. I am not saying that what Noah did was right but come on who is running this damn team? They are not playing hard, losing to bad teams and make the Knicks look functional. The tail is wagging the dog. You need to break this crap up. Noah needs to play, Thomas needs to play, Thabo needs to get on the court and we need to see our "core" of Hinrich, Gordon and Deng stand up. All we've heard is they are "untouchable" and our "core" well stand up and say something! Show something! If we had just pulled the trigger on the Garnett trade we could very well be leading the Eastern Conference but no. We are in the basement and lottery bound, we deserve better than this

More random Bulls thoughts

In todays Chicago Sun Times columnist Jay Mariotti's column about the Bulls sums up their situation. They need a coach and a superstar. He mentions Jeff Van Gundy who I think would be a great coach and has finals and playoff experience so he will not be out coached in the fourth quarter of games. And the rumor has it Pax has talked with Houston about Tracy McGrady. According to ESPN trade machine McGrady makes $18,257,750 a year the package would have to include Wallace and Duhon or someone like Thabo, Gordon and Noah and maybe even a pick. Or it could possibly be Hinrich and Noce however I doubt this scenario gives the Rockets enough to bite. The only issue I have with McGrady is health he has been called "half man, half a season". If we dealt Wallace that would open the floor for the development of Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah who I believe are the future. This may allow us to move Deng to the shooting guard position and play McGrady at small forward with Noah and Thomas splitting time at the four and move Joe Smith to center. Then Gordon comes off the bench for Hinrich and Thabo for Deng. However this probably will not come to pass even though the Rockets are playing better without McGrady. Toronto is also looking to trade for a point guard due to the injury of TJ Ford however I think this is unlikely because one they are in our division and in the playoff hunt and two the only thing on their roster that would be of interest to the Bulls is Chris Bosh and that is a pipe dream.

New Hampshire Primary

My friend GB4 had a post on his website (http://www.bigheadhiphop.com/) from a blogger named Jay Smooth about Obama's win in Iowa. Now I live in Iowa but I did not caucus. Anyway Jay Smooth goes on to say in this video post that people are not honest with themselves when they say that they are ready to vote for a Black man to be president and they fall back into their comfort zone. I believe that is what happened in New Hampshire the last few days people told the pollsters they were going to vote for Obama and when they got into the voting booths they fell back into their comfort zones. I am tired of the imperial presidency we had four years of G.H.W. Bush then eight years of Bill Clinton followed by eight more of G.W. Bush. Do we want four to eight more of another Clinton? Do we remember the scandals of the Clinton years? I tend to be more conservative and in 1992 I voted for Clinton because I felt he had a message of change and I was excited. I am feeling that way about Obama too because I think he would bring a new voice to politics however I am afraid we are not ready as a nation to bring about this change and it would be a shame because we deserve better. You can see Jay Smooth's video on his blog http://www.illdoctrine.com/ .

Random thoughts on the Bulls

I am not surprised by the recent spark they are playing with since the dismissal of Scott Skiles it was to be expected. I am wondering if Jim Boylan will keep the job after this season and if not who are they going to bring in? The unemployed; Rick Carlisle, Jeff Van Gundy and Doug Collins are Skiles like, Hubie Brown is old so who else is there?

Second thought I want to see more of Tyrus Thomas, Noah and Thabo. I think that Thabo will work his way into the two guard position to help take the pressure off of Hinrich guarding taller two guards and will also make up defensively for Gordon when he is on the court with him. Tyrus I think will eventually be the starting power forward he is the most athletic player on a team that lacks athletes. I also think that in the end we will be the winners of the draft day trade. And finally Noah he is growing on me but I think eventually he maybe included in a trade for a post presence which leads me to my last thought...

Trades. I have been playing around on ESPN Trade Machine and I am finding two problems. First off the machine rejects a lot of them due to salary issues; although I was able to get a Noce, Noah and Duhon for Pau Gasol to work. But after looking further at other teams rosters I don't see a whole lot out there to help us; other than problems and bad salaries for cap space. If a team has a young big man who shows any talent whatsoever they are not letting them go for our poo poo platter.

Bulls lose in double OT

I was on Blog a Bull ( http://www.blogabull.com/) last night before the game and I mentioned I had a bad feeling about this game and someone replied way to think positive. I believe that was a valid reply since it is a site by a Bulls fan for Bulls fans. But the Blazers had won 14 out of the last 15 so I was a little pessimistic. At one point the Bulls were up by fourteen points and I thought that they had this one. Boy was I wrong Kirk went cold, Deng was sidelined by Achilles stiffness, Noce could not buy a bucket and we had no answers for Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge, Jared Jack, and Travis Outlaw. I could not believe my eyes we were being beat by Jack and Outlaw I live with getting beat by Roy and Aldridge but man alive we had no answers whatsoever. Aldridge would go to the perimeter and forced Wallace to come out and guard him basically taking away his help defense inside and either dump inside forcing Wallace to shift down to help out or hit an open jumper. Roy just torched Hinrich all night I can't believe we passed on him. I believe in that draft a big man was the mandate and we had Aldridge but traded him for Tyrus Thomas who I believe would develop if he ever sees the floor. On the bright side Ben Gordon continues to light it up, he scored 32 last night followed by Joe Smith with 31. The biggest disappointment for me is the blown fourteen point lead this team has no killer instinct. If you look at the Lakers, Celtics and Pistons in the 80's and the Bulls dynasty of the 90's they had that instinct when they had you down it was over. However those teams had Magic, Kareem, Isiah, Dumars, Bird, McHale, Michael and Scottie and no one on this current roster is in that rarefied air.

Iowa Caucuses

I am glad that they are over. For months I've been pestered incessantly by the various politicians to vote for them. If thy had just left me alone I might have actually caucused however the Bulls were on TNT last night and I thought to myself which was more important? The Bulls won that contest. I think that the caucus is overblown and in reality Mike Huckabee, the Republican winner, has no chance whatsoever of winning the nomination let alone the presidency. I like Huckabee but I would not vote for him, Obama on the other hand I think has a better chance to be the Democratic nominee. If he can carry over some momentum going into New Hampshire and then into Super Tuesday he has a very real chance of defeating Hillary. On the Republican side I am not so sure. I had predicted a Giuliani/Huckabee ticket and I think that in the long run Rudy will pull it out. There are too many question marks among the other candidates Thompson will be out after next Tuesday and may not even be awake, Paul is a nut case, Romney is a Republican John Kerry, and Huckabee would just get shredded in the general election. If Huckabee somehow does pull this off Obama or Hillary; one of these two will win the Democratic nod, may as well start looking at new drapes for the Oval Office. This leaves McCain and Rudy. If it is McCain I get the feeling it will be Dole 96 all over again, the I've been around forever you owe this to me campaign. Rudy may not be perfect but I believe he is the Republicans best choice.

2007 A year of Chicago Sports disappointment

It all started with the Bears loss to Indianapolis in the Super Bowl from there we went to the NBA playoffs. Which in retrospect I was pleased with the sweep of Miami and for a fleeting moment thought we may beat the Pistons but it was not to be. Then came baseball season and it was bad. The Sox stunk and then we get beat out for every free agent in the world even Aaron Rowand would not come beck to the South Side. Then to top it off when Detroit trades for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis Kenny Williams says "Detroit is in a better position to compete with us". Kenny you will always have a special place with me because we will always have 2005 but the clock is ticking. Everyone in our division has gotten better and all you have done is traded a great starter, Garland for a shortstop who is at the age where their skills start to diminish. This brings me to the Cubs. Jim Hendry says Fukodome is the missing piece to the puzzle. What? You have a starting rotation that has one stud Zambrano, a good pitcher in Lilly and three question marks. I predicted that they would be swept in the playoffs and I was right Jimmy I think you may need to rethink that. Then football season began and we expected the Bears to be back at it but we fell to the curse of the Super Bowl losers. We trade Thomas Jones and find out that Cedric Benson could not produce we knew Grossman could not produce, the defense gets banged up and our offensive line needs to be fitted for walkers. Now we have basketball season again and the Bulls who some have predicted to win the Eastern Conference are not playing up to expectations. They are only two games back from the eigth seed but I think we expected better than this. The players get Skiles fired and they get the predicted shot in the arm that comes with a new coach but they need to turn it around now if they want to get into the playoffs. Anyway I am depressing myself so I will end it here.