Im going to be paying close attention to the Knicks, apparently they're trying to make some noise to get a few good guys but it doesn't seem to be working.

Well, LA Clippers is not having a good summer. DeAndre Jordan just left them to another team. They don't have a good bench already let alone another dominant big man at the 5 spot, and now LA is panicking on what to do. They are even trying to get David West when they were not interested before, which they will probably not get. This is an awful turn of events from them.

As for my Spurs, WE DID IT! We got LaMarcus Aldridge!! The future is set!! It did cost Splitter to Atlanta, Baynes to Detroit, and Bellineii to the Kings due to needing cap space, but Aldridge is a great fit for the Spurs. Now aiming for David West and maybe another forward/guard like Caron Butler, and we would be set for this summer!

Sounds like the Spurs are the team to beat. With a New Young core of Lamarcus Aldridge Danny Green and Leonard is going to be pretty tough to beat for several years to come. They have set themselves up nicely. Even though I'm not a Spurs fan, it's hard not to like the way they go about business and win consistently and do it all with class.

I second (or third) that. The Spurs getting Aldridge has rejuvenated a team that was at risk of falling of the radar when Tim Duncan retires. Now they've locked down the best free agent on the market and, as Jordan stated, have solid players to lead them to a title.

The biggest loser in this whole things (in my opinion) is the Suns. They gave up 3 players that accounted for $20M in cap space in order to get Aldridge on the team. And all they got out of it was a second round pick. Their attempt to get Aldridge failed, and they're now in a much tougher position now that he made his deision to go to the Spurs.

David West is a Spur now. Even though Clips lost Deandre Jordan and need another big man, there is one plus about them losing DJ. Their free throw percentage will surely increase because they got no more candidates for a Hack-a-situation. Blake Griffin even makes free throws so they just need a center that can shoot free throws and even if Big Baby Davis is signed on for next year, he can make outside shots unlike DJ.

I really think everyone should become a Milwaukee Bucks fan this year. They're going to be tough to beat. After last years playoff team gave the Bulls all they could handle we got a lot better. if Jabari Parker comes back healthy, and he didn't really even contribute much to the playoff team last year, plus we just signed Greg Monroe now too. Look out. Michael Carter-Williams will be better. We signed Khris Middleton to a long-term deal. Got rid of Irsan Ilyasova finally. No more Larry Sanders drama. And of course Giannis Antetokounmpo just keeps getting better. And growing. He can do it all and he's so young. And they all have Jason Kidd to guide them. My Badgers Men will crash back down to Earth probably this year, but the Bucks should make up for it. Can't wait. It's been a long time coming.

Alrightyyy! DJ is staying in LA after all. But there will be more missed free throws taken. Damn the Hack a player rule.

Look out NBA! The Milwaukee Bucks just got even better by signing Greg Monroe and ditching Zaza Pachulia. Don't get me wrong I loved Zaza, but he was never going to be anything more than serviceable. Dallas can have him. Monroe averaged a double-double last year and should be a good fit in Jason Kidd's system. Not to mention he turned down the Lakers and New York to come to Brew Town. Da Bulls missed their chance, now the Bucks shall rise!

The NBA has reached a decision that the conference seeing will now be determined solely based on win-loss record. This means that division winners are no longer guaranteed a top 4 spot, and it is now possible to see everyone in a division miss the playoffs (I'm looking at you Atlantic). I definitely like the fact that seeding is based only on record honestly, but should an entire division miss the playoffs (still looking at you Atlantic), it could make the playoffs a little less exciting (although that would create room for more intradivisional [if that's a word] rivalries to occur throughout the playoffs). What do you guys think of this decision?

It's less than two weeks until opening night. My Bucks are going to make some serious noise this year. It's about time! Derrick Rose better just retire now and LeBron is going to be sorry he came back to the central division. By the All-Star break they'll really be ready to break out of the pack since they plan to bring Jabari Parker back slowly. Plus, rookie Rashad Vaughn has been tearing it up in preseason at least.

I have been reading a lot about this Kristap kid on the Knicks and all about how good he can be as well as his injuries. His latest injury looks pretty bad and hopefully he can be at his full potential before the season starts because from what I have been hearing about this kid, he can be very good. Plus he's very tall, which I am insane plus. At 7 foot 3 inches, I would think he's tall even for a basketball player.

I'm excited to see how my Bulls are gonna be this year. With the new coach more willing to give mins to guys like Mirotic, McDermott and Portis as well as having a generally more uptempo offense, this might be a surprising year. IDK. We shall see. Excited for the season to get started anyways.

The NBA season is finally underway. I've been waiting months for this, and I'm glad it's basketball season again. Hopefully the Celtics can put together a respectable year and make their way into the playoffs again this year.

Jordanv78 :

You and me both. I'm a huge Bulls fan, and this year, I feel like we will be more offensive than in year's past.

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Today's game against the Cavs went better than expected, although we looked sloppy at times, and we have a lot of kinks to work out...

I'll start out by saying that I like that Noah is on the bench to start games. He's injury prone as hell, and we need to limit his minutes on the floor. It's a case of diminishing returns. The more he plays, the less his value shows itself. Rolling with Mirotic (who is one of the more impressive players of his ilk that I've seen) instead speaks to me that we're going to be high energy and constantly pushing the pace.

I also like seeing Doug McDermott get in on the action. Obviously, last season was a rough one, but I think he has a place in a high offense setting, and with so many threats on the court, they might neglect him. He's got such a sweet shot, that it won't be long before they man him up and leave other guys more open.

Finally, I like how our team plays. It was a little roughshod for the first game, but that's fine, it's a work in progress, no team starts great with a totally different system, generally.

We were able to take advantage of a Cavs team that played poorly, but any time you beat the Cleveland LeBrons, it's a day to be celebrated.

legacyme3 : Glad to hear that there's another fellow Bulls fan on the site!

So far, I like the early returns of Hoibergs offense. His attack allows for quicker striking offense as well as to give Rose and Butler freedom to do a little more than when Thibs was coach. Gone are the days of walking the ball up the court waiting for Thibs to bark out an offensive call from the sideline. This team will run a lot more, which is great for guys like Rose and Butler.

I think the experiment of sitting Joakim has been good so far. 1) Because Joakim has a hard time staying healthy anyways and 2) Because he's a liability on the offensive end of the court. Don't get me wrong. I like Jo I just think he's better served as a guy that you bring in as a defensive stopper and limit his mins to like 20 on most nights. Then hopefully by playoff time you have him still healthy and ready to produce - which has been rare most years. Also, in the playoffs and in close games, teams know that they don't have to respect Joakim on the offensive end. They can zone off and double team off him because his jumper has no shot of going in most times lol.

On the other end, Mirotic has looked GREAT on offense so far, starting in place of Jo. Thing is, he's pretty bad on defense so far. But he's averaging like 18 points 9 rebounds and it's only game 2 of his second season in the NBA. He's looked great from deep and spreads the floor nicely for this team to open up space for Rose and Butler to drive to the hoop (Which is something they've needed for a long time) and he can play inside as well. Really he reminds me of a more athletic version of Dirk.

Pau has actually surprised me a little bit with regards to his defensive play up to this point. Even though he had a really bad shooting night in the opener, he had some great defensive plays that game and came away with 6 BLOCKS. None larger than when he rejected Lebron right at the hoop late in the 4th in a close game. He played a lot better on Wednesday overall and was more like his usual self.

When news hit of Joakim not starting, I honestly thought that Pau should have been the one on the bench, but articles I was reading said that no way would Pau allow that to happen. Reason I thought this was because Pau is not usually known as a defensive stopper either, but if he can keep playing like he has been the first two games of the season, Bulls fans are going to be pleasantly surprised.

I kinda feel bad that Portis isn't getting any playing time with how loaded the team is with Forwards. The kid was playing great and scouts have been raving about him. When Dunleavy comes back, I'm not sure how they are going to play all these forwards. Bulls would probably be better served to try to move one or two of them and try to get a little more balance on the roster but at least they have some depth if Joakims knee injury lingers or is worse than they are letting on.

It's still early in the season though so I'm not going to get my hopes up too early here. I know there's going to be ups and downs. I'm excited though that there is some new life into the team. Hopefully if Rose can stay healthy and Butler can just keep doing what he has been doing, the Bulls will be in great shape.

Jordanv78 :

You actually just reminded me Portis existed.

I really like him as a talent right now (although there were others I may have preferred), and am actually pretty happy that he's not being thrown into the mix right away.

I'm sure he'll get his minutes, but thankfully, he won't be put under massive pressure to succeed from the get go.

My Spurs are starting off well in my opinion. I know they need to have some getting used to with the newcomers in the team, but they seem to be getting better and better and able to play at a high level. They almost beat OKC and easily destroyed the Nets. There are some sloppy mistakes and hesitant plays, but it is expected. I can't wait to go to TD Garden tomorrow and see my Spurs destroy compete with the Boston Celtics.

Sort of been a Mixed bag for the Bulls this season. Really strange how they can find the motivation to play well against the higher ranked opponents, but has gotten beat up by some lesser opponents.

It's also a strange side note that the good offensive players (aside from Butler) are playing no defense and the defensive lineup can't score the ball. Gonna be a battle all season long trying to play all these big men on the roster. Especially since a lot of the NBA is going small.

I'm hoping that things start settling down a little bit once Hoiberg and the team have some time to Gel, but I'm not holding my breath.

I have a feeling that the Detroit pistons are going to make the NBA Finals because number 1 I'm from Michigan number 2 the whole team is young players and young players have more energy then old players like Tim Duncan. Minnesota timberwolves might make it too but its the west and the west is really hard like the Thunder and the Spurs but I think timberwolves would at least make it to the NBA Playoffs so that I think the Detroit Pistons and the Minnesota Timberwolves will make it to the NBA Finals.so thank you for reading this and have a good day

Unfortunately I wasn't able to watch the game, but the Pistons had an amazing quadruple overtime victory over the Bulls 147-144 last night. It was the first one since 2012, and only the third one in the past 25 years.

In other news, I like how competitive the East has been this season. First place and eleventh place are separated by a mere 5.5 games. And for the first time in what seems like decades, ALL of them could be in the playoffs if they were in the West. Even though there's still another 2/3rds of the season to go, I like that the East is finally winning instead of the lower playoff seeds hovering below .500 all season long.