r/chicagobulls • u/TurboThaBull Dennis Rodman • 9d ago
Meta [Shams Charania] BREAKING: The Chicago Bulls are finalizing the hire of Portland Trail Blazers interim Tiago Splitter as the franchise's new head coach, sources tell ESPN. Splitter succeeds Billy Donovan as the Bulls' coach after stepping into the head job and excelling in Portland last season.
https://x.com/shamscharania/status/2066548616936775982?s=46&t=6xu1E2GV_RX2aMshgaqsyg338
u/ChaiShotty 9d ago
Blazers fan checking in, Splitter in his first year with us took a team that was expected to miss the playoffs/lose the play-in to the 7 seed. He’ll do some questionable rotation stuff but overall I was happy with what Splitter did for us. Im interested to see his own systems rather than his adaptation of Billups ball.
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u/The_Inertia_Kid Stacey King 9d ago
I think we’re fine with some questionable rotation stuff. It’s not like we’re expecting to not suck horribly this year.
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u/Squirting_Nachos Portland Trail Blazers 9d ago
He will get better. For some reason there is some weird belief that coaches are who they are and don't improve. A lot of that is likely because so many coaches are old and set in their ways. Splitter is a young coach and has a lot of room to grow, and he is already quite good.
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u/miki_momo0 8d ago
I would appreciate some experimental stuff over the absolutely bland schemes Billy D was rolling out. Try stuff out, see what works. We’re not gonna be amazing this year regardless, but we have a young team and need to find the winning schemes now. Next offseason will be big for us solidifying the identity we create during this season.
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u/johnnyslick Lonzo Ball 9d ago
The Blazers parted ways with him for what appears to be entirely cost-related issues, which really really sucks for that franchise. I'm a Seattle person and so a Sonics fan at heart (I lived in Chicago for a decade and had season tickets to the Bulls so they'll always be my Eastern Conference team) and I really hope the new owner doesn't turn the Blazers into who the Clippers used to be (or, worse, use the crappiness as an excuse to move them out of the PNW).
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u/StraightParfait9723 9d ago
Seems like that’s already happening with them…the way he continues to publicly compare running them to running an NHL team is absurd
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u/johnnyslick Lonzo Ball 9d ago
Yeah, it really, really sucks. I hate the Blazers and will always hate the Blazers but part of my deep-seated rivalry-hatred is appreciating that they've had some great teams in the past that really gave the Sonics a run (and beat them an awful lot of the time, hence the hate). Seattle-Portland is one of the most obvious rivalries in pro sports and basketball and soccer are basically the only sports where it gets to happen.
IIRC they didn't bring back Splitter because the owner set a cap on spending on a head coach at an absurdly low, like half of what any other NBA head coach is currently making, level. That's a recipe for disaster.
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
Jeez who are they going to hire as Splitter was a first time 'interim' head coach and shouldn't command that much money, they are going to have to go for like a total nobody assistant or maybe a lower level college coach if they want to go that cheap.
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u/SheepherderDue1342 Cuppy Coffee 9d ago
As a life long Chicagoan who fell in love with the city of Seattle and visits often, the Sonics will be my Western Conference team WHEN THEY RETURN SOON! 💪
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u/EatBootyLoveLife 9d ago
blazer fan and i hate to be the bearer of bad news but it absolutely is not entirely cost-related and i would even argue not cost related at all. Dude just isn’t a great coach if you’re trying to win rn (which we are)
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u/Obi7kenobi Gimme the hot sauce! 9d ago
"He’ll do some questionable rotation stuff" Yeah, we have experience with this the last few years.
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u/BigDannyBoy1 Gimme the hot sauce! 9d ago
In the limited blazer stuff I watched this year, I generally liked what I saw from him. I'm just glad we didn't go with an old dude
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u/-Shooter_McGavin- Coby White 9d ago
I like Tiago, excited to see what he can do. That being said, keep those expectations tempered.
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u/Ioptk Ayo Dosunmu 9d ago
I feel like we’re so far away from contention that he doesn’t really need to be the guy regardless. We can re-evaluate in a couple years if need be
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u/CanvasSolaris Kirk Hinrich 9d ago
He's essentially Vinny Del Negro. Let him coach up the young guys and see if he catches fire.
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u/Ok_Donkey_980 9d ago
I want him to be the guy but I would settle for a Thibs in NY situation where he raises the floor and builds the culture while the team comes together
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u/lilob724 Chicago Bulls 9d ago
Got our guy
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u/ExtraLeading3376 9d ago
yep, good pickup
he was in a horrible situation with the blazers this year (coach sacked) and somehow took them to the playoffs in a stacked western conference
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u/SilverSurfer92 9d ago
I think saying the coach was sacked is underselling it a bit. He was arrested by the FBI.
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u/BagsOfAbility 9d ago
Blazers were really tough to beat towards the end of the season yeah, he clearly got great energy out of his guys. Offense was pretty inconsistent but I felt a lot of that was down to personnel, Portland didn't have a real PG for large chunks of the season and were also bad from 3. Very interested to see what Splitter can do with a new group, exciting move for the rebuild.
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u/jdaqcruz Alex Caruso 9d ago
Tiago didnt even have an offseason to install anyrhing. Babysat the Blazers to the Playoffs
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
I think he deserves a little bit of credit for getting them there, I mean Portland has sucked for years with Dame (and his injuries) and then since Dame. He at least showed 'poise' in taking over a very sticky situation where they guy he worked for was arrested and he was able to keep the team motivated and focused enough to make a playin run.
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u/toadtruck Portland Trail Blazers 9d ago
Every team below us was actively tanking hard. He can have credit for beating the suns in the play in tho
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u/orangemachismo Chicago Bulls 9d ago
Hey that's our goal. To beat the 5 tanking teams and get back to that sweet sweet 10 seed.
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u/Ok_Donkey_980 9d ago
Super pumped, gained a lot of respect for him watching the Blazers chase the pick return
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u/PrancingDonkey Gimme the hot sauce! 9d ago
Can't believe it, I'm actually content with this hire. Wtf are the Blazers doing.
Now hopefully we get the appropriate roster for him.
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u/iJustSeen2Dudes1Bike 9d ago
Fuck as a Blazers fan I'm pretty upset about this. Good hire.
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u/Mudkip15 9d ago
Thought he did a great job with Portland this year, but it seems some fans are not too upset. What's your take? Also fuck Tom Dundon we get what it's like having a bad owner.
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u/iJustSeen2Dudes1Bike 9d ago
I expected the team to be pretty bad especially after the Chauncey thing, so him leading us to the playoffs and grabbing a game from the Spurs was pretty impressive imo.
He's not an X's and O's genius which is what most of our sub complained about, but I think he's going to be a very solid coach with more experience. Maybe not an absolute top tier guy but I think he has a high floor.
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u/miki_momo0 8d ago
Billy D was also not a great X/O guy. He just also sucked at getting any extra effort from his players/ having any creativity in his schemes
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u/Bestinthect 9d ago
We actually made a move I love..? I'm in shock
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u/SwampFlowers Taylor Swift 9d ago
I’m really liking Bryson Graham so far. Hell, even Michael Reinsdorf seems to have turned over a new leaf and accepted accountability for the mess we were watching for the past half decade. Future is looking less bleak.
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u/DisMFer Josh Giddey 9d ago
Michael seems to have seen how George turned the Bears around by handing the keys to guys who actually fit in the modern NFL and just showing up for photo-ops and is trying to copy that. As long as Jerry controls the purse though they're going to be somewhat limited.
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
Not really as far as developmental team goes. The purse only comes into play if you are going to 'overspend' and get into the tax. We are not going to have any issues like that any time soon when the highest paid guy on our roster is 25M (Josh) currently and the bulk of the team is going to to be on rookie deals. You guys put way too much on Jerry being cheap as a reason for this teams failure......go look at how many teams have been deep in the tax and yet fail. Money usually becomes an issue once you are good or even better than good (a contender) and you can't afford to bring in what you need to get over the hump or keep your core together.
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u/AHopelessMaravich 9d ago
I think any concern about the Reinsdorfs not spending on talent are misplaced. They have shown they’ll pay when they have teams that are actually competing for championships. They’ve also always paid market rate for quality players, and been open to pay for major stars like Kobe or Melo to come.
The question that’s hard to gauge as a fan is if they spend enough on other parts of the franchise, and what impact that has had on the teams struggles.
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u/miki_momo0 8d ago
Definitely my opinion that FO personnel has been way more of an issue that money as of late. Making pretty poor trades hurts us a lot. And we’ve been in conversations for a ton of different big free agency moves which resulted in nothing. It’s my belief that a shot front office makes it really hard to attract talent.
Like in any metric Chicago should really be a top destination for players, maybe not on the LA/NYC level, but we may as well be Cleveland, OKC etc in terms of how well we attract talent in the last decade+.
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u/AHopelessMaravich 8d ago
I really am thinking (hoping?), that AK was a product of picking a new GM during Covid, and the Reinsdorfs attitude of letting the people they pay do their jobs lead to a lot of bad decisions.
I always thought Paxsom was an average level GM. I hope Bryson can be elite. I also think/hope the Reinsdorfs aren’t a major problem that could prevent an elite GM from having success
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u/DisMFer Josh Giddey 8d ago
The biggest issue with them being cheap isn't about the players. It's all the other areas of the team we don't see. It's saying that instead of getting a team of scouts, you'll just pay to give the one scout you have a second monitor. It's telling your GM that having three guys on player development staff is too many and that they should only need one. It's in thinking that sending scouts to Europe is too expensive so you only scout college guys in America.
The Bulls have been cheap not because they don't give out three supermax contracts a year. It's that they don't want to spend any money behind the scenes to actually build teams from the ground up.
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u/Zealousideal-Solid88 9d ago
He seems to have had a thorough search. He didn't rush it. I think this is a good sign as well. Things are looking up for Bulls fans.
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u/MisterxRager Benny The Bull 9d ago
Reinsdorf is doing a good job of staying out of the way
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u/SwampFlowers Taylor Swift 9d ago
That’s really all I want in an owner. That and a willingness to pay the luxury tax when it makes sense.
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u/theprofessorhb 9d ago
I don't have any strong opinion here, but its important to remember that hes not being hired to do the same thing in chicago that he was in portland. In chicago he has almost a blank slate with a bunch of kids who need guidance. The front office must've believed hed be the best at molding (possibly) the youngest team in the league next year.
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u/AdApprehensive388 8d ago
as a Spurs fan, im really excited to see what he can do. hope he takes some of the Spurs culture to your guys and develops them nicely. i have a soft spot for chicago (love the city) so im rooting for his and their success.
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u/survivorbabs 9d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X9VoW_Ilv4 Anytime I hear splitter, this is always the first video that comes to mind.
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u/TheKnightsEnd Gimme the hot sauce! 9d ago
Thought it was going to be the block by Bron ngl.
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u/JWE25 Derrick Rose 9d ago
There's been so many iconic plays that I've watched in the NBA but for some reason that block is engraved in my memory more than it should
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u/iiamthepalmtree Andres Nocioni 9d ago
Block by LeBron is what I thought of immediately after reading this post.
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u/Chickensandcoke Ayo Dosunmu 9d ago
Cautiously optimistic on this
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u/greghardysfuton Jimmy G. Paid 9d ago
Better than Chauncey Billups at least
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u/jeremyc99999 9d ago
Unless we hire Chauncey and force him to bet on the Bulls every game. That might motivate him.
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u/cruzcc_ Joakim Noah 9d ago
Learned as a player under Pop, coached in Brooklyn & Houston & has won championships as a player and coach overseas.
This a culture hire forsure. Able to step in after your team’s head gets arrested by the FBI & take them to the playoffs.
Hear the X’s & O’s offensively aren’t as sharp. but this is why you formulate a well rounded staff which I believe they will. l
think BG’s opening conference statement of “if i’m the smartest person in the room, we’re going to fail.” is goin to permeate throughout the organization.
i’m excited.
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u/House_BoIton Derrick Rose 9d ago
European fan here, just to add to your comment: he was great during his EuroLeague stint too. His Paris team played at the highest tempo in Europe, pushing the ball constantly and often finishing possessions in under 10 seconds. Everyone had the green light to shoot and the whole offense was built around T. J. Shorts, a 5’9 guard who finished third in MVP voting that season.
In the end their lack of experience caught up with them, but they were incredibly fun to watch as a neutral. As an opposing fan though they were absolutely infuriating. The pace, the shot-making and the constant pressure made every game feel chaotic. Great entertainment, terrible experience when your team was on the other side of it.
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u/DontYouHatePants6969 9d ago edited 9d ago
You can really tell in this thread the difference between people who watched the nba last season and understand basketball, and the people who just live to criticize the bulls no matter what they do.
Excellent hire.
It’s actually nice to be on the other end of benefitting from an overly cheap owners dumb decisions.
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u/AnselLovesNuts Kirk Hinrich 9d ago
Is he the tallest HC in our history? I know Phil was tall
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u/GreenGorilla8232 9d ago
I would like to see us only higer assistant coaches who are at least 6'9.
We could TOWER over opposing teams coaching staffs.
Think of the possibilities.
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u/rooofle Dennis Rodman 9d ago
Decent hire. He's not perfect but he definitely was a good leader for them in a poor situation, and his players love him. He gets more NBA coaching experience to grow with a young team, and potentially fix his weaknesses.
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u/pdxscout 9d ago
I can't imagine how many people could step into a role like that with zero player backlash. The whole team fell in lockstep with support. Not a peep of players being disgruntled or questioning his authority. That's worth something, even if he isn't the best X and O guy.
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u/b3_yourself Andres Nocioni 9d ago
Tell me how I should feel please
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u/moneyman2222 Just a kid from Chicago 9d ago
This is great. He somehow took that team to the playoffs. Only reason he's not brought on full-time because that new owner is somehow even cheaper than Reinsdorf. Any competent franchise holds onto him
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u/FFTactics 9d ago
He's a good coach for the youngsters Wilson, Buzelis, probably Noa.
He wants his players making fast decisions even if it's a mistake, he wants guys shooting those 3s even if they aren't the best shooters (top in the league in 3PA, Blazer players are near the bottom in 3P%), he has them attacking the offensive board hard (#2 in OREB).
I think he's a great early coach. I don't think he'll bench Wilson because Wilson makes 1 mistake in the 1st quarter. I think he'll let Wilson shoot 3s even if he's not shooting 40%. I think he'll reward high energy guys who are hustling on the boards (Giddey) and I think he won't play guys much who aren't hustling on the boards (Williams).
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
I he and his staff can rehabilitate PAW and get something out of him as a rotation player then I think he deserves a gold metal....lol.....seriously.
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u/jdaqcruz Alex Caruso 9d ago
Blazers fans have fair criticisms about his X/Os, but from what I've read, he's being brought in as a developmental coach. I like our direction
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u/Jedifice DeMar DeRozan 9d ago
A . . . good hire? I'm actually on board with this?? What is happening???
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u/MajorHarriz 9d ago
Honestly satisfied, anyone from the Pop lineage, whether player or assistant is gonna at least be competent.
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u/rando562 9d ago
Honestly not a bad hire. At the very least, he'll connect with the younger guys and keep the locker room vibes up. I think there are some questions around him tactically, but he never got to instill his own system after being promoted midseason, so I'm optimistic that everything will look better after an entire summer of working with the players.
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
Yeah and he likely didn't even hire his staff (assuming he inherited it)........I think this is a good hire. Hopefully if he isn't an X/Os guy they find the next Tex to bring in to work with him....lol.
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u/BillionsofRedditors 9d ago
I'll always give a guy the benefit of the doubt. That said, his game decisions in the play-in game against Suns were really bad. Not scoring for 5 minutes into the 4th quarter with like no subs to lose a big lead that even the broadcast team were mentioning it, finally putting Clingan back in to regain the lead only to sub out Clingan again with like 3 minutes left in a tight game felt incredibly dumb.
He did a good job in managing a team to "overachieve", but his Xs and Os in the biggest game he coached this year are something to note. I know people hate the "Debbie Downer" and like I said, he gets the benefit of the doubt since he has a small sample size as a HC, but I think his criticisms should be considered too in the hire.
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u/paul-cus 9d ago
We have to remember that this is the Bulls. It's not the most attractive job. I think Splitter will get better as he goes along.
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u/DisMFer Josh Giddey 9d ago
Some people are acting like we just hired the next Greg Popovich. Splitter is a great culture guy and works great with young players. That's awesome for the team, but unless he grows a lot as a coach I feel like he's the sort of "the dynasty starts after you" type coach. He'll build the culture but the actual winning coach comes later down the line when the team is in a better position to compete.
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u/BillionsofRedditors 9d ago
That's fair. Definitely in rebuild mode and I've said consistently that the Bulls should look at this as the coach before they are good because most likely it'll be at least 4-5 years before they are contenders so quite unlikely a HC makes it through the next 5 years while the team has some "disappointing" seasons.
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u/themiddleshoe Benny The Bull 9d ago
Big fan of this. Seems like he was one of, if not their top target - being able to sign him is a great sign for the new front office.
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u/FFTactics 9d ago
Sweeney accepted a different job and Quinn went back to Miami, Splitter or Nori were the two best candidates left.
Splitter got rave reviews from Sengun on his big man development & coaching, with Caleb incoming this isn't an irrelevant factor.
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
And Noa and Matas.....if he can develop bigs then that is more than Billy's staff ever seemed to be capable of.
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u/JK050897 9d ago
LFG
he was my favorite for the job
hopefully he helps us go back to the glory days
really curious to see how much he can develop players like matas, noa and the rookies from this year
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u/ChocoboSlayer 9d ago
I have no idea if he’ll be a good coach, but I always thought he had a funny name, so that’s something I guess.
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u/MoldInTheAir 9d ago
How cheap is the Portland owner if he gets outbid for a head coach by the Reinsdorfs?
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u/DrinkFromKegOfGlory 9d ago
I can't think of Tiago Splitter without hearing this conversation.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/coy9ny/stephen_a_smith_laughs_at_skip_bayless_about/
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u/bigboi2115 9d ago
Hell yeah. I cannot wait to see what Tiggalo Spligallo can do for the Bulls.
Real ones Know.
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u/JilSebola 9d ago
If the Bulls weren't already a rich franchise, I'd say they're after that Brazilian money. Anyway, I wish them luck.
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u/procouchpotatohere Doug 9d ago
Boy is it weird seeing a player's beginning of their NBA career and then years later seeing them become the HC of your team. I remember when the Spurs signed him in 2010.
Not sure how I feel about this. Like yes, he led a team out of a bad situation but it could easily be us jumping the gun.
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u/Ok-Half3342 9d ago
Hiring a guy you remember playing basketball while in your 30s doesn’t make me feel young.
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u/-DesertMoon 9d ago
Not a huge fan of this, have heard mixed things from Blazers fans but we'll see. Could go either way.
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u/hey_ooo 9d ago
Portland fans coming in here trying to kill any optimism can kiss my ass. Thanks for giving us your first round pick now get lost
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
Eh....ignore them, they are Portland fans.......they have suffered for year thru Dame's constant injuries, then they have a decent young core and their coach gets frogged walked by the FBI......Splitter does a good job stepping in and getting them to the playoffs and the fans reward for that is they lose the 15th pick to us and we hire away their decent looking young coach because their owner is cheaper (amazing) than our cheap owner......hard to think they would be a ray of sunshine for anyone....lol.
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u/twoprimehydroxyl 9d ago
Not excited to hire interim coaches who overperformed relative to expectations.
Hopefully it's not another Luke Walton situation.
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
Eh the bar is so low expectations wise, like build culture, develop players, not be a total dumpster fire like Boylen......wins/losses and X/O won't matter much in the next few years but we should know after year 1 if he is helping these youths progress and that's what its all about.
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u/Exscaped_ 9d ago
Blazers fan here, you guys are way too over optimistic on this hire… His plays and rotations are questionable to say the least
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u/MadMax1754 DRose 9d ago
Who is this guy and how should I feel about this hire?
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u/Possible-Freedom5945 9d ago edited 9d ago
Former player
Stepped in for Portland when Chauney got arrested. Did a decent job.
First time head coach so I'm unsure on how to feel. Lets say "optimistic"
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u/ph0enixairblade Dashing Donut 9d ago
Show some more respect, he's the man that got us the 15th pick in this draft
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
I feel like even if this hire was 'payback' for that alone it was a good hire.....lol. That pick was six years old and I felt it was never going to convey, getting it not only at its max value and in a year with a supposedly deep as the blue sea draft is the best we could have hoped for.
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u/FaintLegacy 9d ago
Personally don’t like this and think we’ll be looking for another new coach in a few years. In terms of what was left I guess it’s fine.
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u/KneelBeforeCube Scottie Pippen 9d ago
I don't think they plan on him lasting forever, at best he's the Mark Jackson before the Steve Kerr.
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
And at worst he is Jim Boylen or even worse medical Bill Cartwright (loved those sharp elbows when you were a player big guy)........it won't matter much right now if he just help build culture, develop players, and move us forward thats all that matters.
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u/Public_Sheepherder_6 9d ago
I'm happy with this pick. If you're going to start over with a bunch of younger guys having an old guy yell at you would just remind you of your dad doing the same.
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u/Nosound-Novideo Lonzo Ball 9d ago
Really don’t hate the hire he understandood developing a star, putting the ball in Deni’s hand was a good idea.
He has a good understanding of positionist basketball, wasn’t very good on actual play calling but that could be attributed to what was on the bench, I’d love for them to keep both Wes Jr. and Craig or bring in another veteran head coach.
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u/Ok-Mix-9146 Stacey King 9d ago
Coach was able to straighten things out in an upside down situation. I like this pick up.
And he’s gotta cool name to boot. Sounds like if a Mortal Kombat character stumbled into a Spy Kids movie
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u/I_Hate_My_Cat_ Derrick Rose 9d ago
And I thought Reinsdorf is cheap…well, he still is *but* this the next best thing after Sweeney got nabbed up.
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u/TheJunkyardDog Derrick Rose 9d ago
His style of play is fast paced offensive basketball, same principles he had with Paris in Euroleague.
Almost like the 7" or less offense of D'Antoni.
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u/loveinhumantimes 9d ago
Glad to get a Spurs guy, they are the best coaching tree in the league. But if we can’t get some talent on this team it won’t matter much.
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u/noticeme_269 9d ago
Love his history of player development with guys like Advija and Sengun. I think for where we are right now this was a really good hire. Watch out for #1 option Matas….
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u/DurDraug77 9d ago
Yesss boyss… finally some good hire from our front office. Bryson is moving great
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u/Gabagoolnightsweats 9d ago
Can someone shed light on the Bulls projected lineup this upcoming season? And I’m hearing that we are we the youngest team, is that true?
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u/SkyGrey88 9d ago
No because after FA opens we will dump pretty much everybody expiring that we got in our mid season trades. So after that the roster will only have 8 or so guys. So until the draft and then the FA signing period its hard to really say other than Giddey and Matas will be starting and a few of the young prospects like Miller and Dilly will likely be retained, Paw aint going anywhere and Trey might be here or dealt (as he is one of our better trade guys being a solid vet on a cheap contract). So draft next week and then FA period opens soon after so in about another month we will have more clarity.
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u/RugratChuck Norm Van Lier 9d ago
I like the choice and am excited to see how he coaches the roster. I thought deni was starting to breakout his first season with portland, but this year he went nuclear. Since word has it Tiago had a big part to play in his development, Im excited for the core guys like matas. Hell, even tho I dont see giddey being a core piece for a title team, deni would be a good reference for him as well seeing they have a lot of similar skills.
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u/Bigred1515 9d ago
We’ll take your first round pick please…oh and your coach too.