Hot Topic - Tyrus Thomas

I posted this earlier today: This Should Ruin Your Monday: Bulls will not extend Tyrus Thomas.

Which for some reason elicited about 483 responses on my facebook status. Now you can have the joy of seeing what was said:

Kmart
This was my issue with the Ben Gordon situation. It wasn't so much that we chose not to re-sign Ben, but the handling of the entire situation from start to finish pretty much killed my faith in the franchise. The writing for this has been on the wall for a few years now. Sitting Tyrus in key moments in games, forcing him to come off the bench, agressively shopping him on the market, low balling him with early contract extentions, and benching him for the rest of the Celtics series after his breakout Game 1 (most of the time while Brad Miller was dying on the court gasping for breath)

In one way or another this is pretty much exactly what they did to Gordon, all while throwing money and the good soldiers Luol and Kirk.

The Bulls drafted BG and told us that he was a short offensive scorer who might have trouble on defense. Then spent the next 5 years complaining about his defense and how short he was. The Bulls drafted Tyrus and told us how raw and untrained his basketball game was, then spent his entire time with the organization complaining about how he was too raw and had zero ball IQ. ... Read More

The fact that this organization sees nothing wrong with letting Top 5 draft picks walk for nothing baffles me. I hate the Bulls.

/rant

DC
letting BG go was the right decision. You can't overpay players like that...especially in the current economic conditions of the NBA. Why do you think the Celtics are balking at signing Rondo for the max? $12 mil for BG is a foolish contract that would handcuff the Bulls.

Saying the front office knew they were getting a limited player so ... Read Moretheir decision to not overpay that limited player years later after his inability to add any dimensions to his game shouldn't be a poor reflection on the franchise, if anything it shows improved judgment...I'm sure they're all relieved he didn't take the big contract when it was originally offered.

As far as TT is concerned, I'm not pleased at all about this decision. On a team lacking big men, you can't give up your most athletic and explosive player. He hasn't made the leap he needs to yet, but I wanted to find out if he could in a Bulls uniform and not find out on the Sportscenter Top 10 in a different one.

Pezza
Since you dont allow comments on your posts (cuz you know they arent that good and dont want people calling them out haha) ill do it here...

As much as I like Tyrus Thomas, It was the right decision not to sign him now. Based on his career numbers, the Bulls would have had to low ball him and his big ego would have been frustrated leading him to have a bad season. You are absolutely right the Aldridge contract would have been highly scrutinized as the men were traded for each other and the fact of the matter is, TT has never broken out from a 10-6 season.

Not to mention he is rumored to be a problem on the bench. We all remember his "disappearing act" and several noted tardies to practice. It was also rumored he was part of the coup to overthrow Scott Skiles. Is that really the kind of player you want on a WINNER?... Read More

I love TT but show us youre worth the money. Go out there and play for it. There's no reason to throw big money at an unsure thing -- especially after what happened with Luol -- especially going into the biggest free agent pool ever -- and especially coming off an exciting playoff run which saw TT on the bench for most of it.

I hope Tyrus can play this out and earn a 4-5 year ride with the Bulls but history is not in his favor. The Bulls have not had much success with the No. 4 overall pick and have cut ties with many of the players in this slot... see Eddy Curry and Marcus Pfizer

Kmart
So you can't overpay for players like BG, but you can overpay players like Luol Deng, Ben Wallace, and Andres Nocioni?

Last I checked you won championships by having the best team... not the least amount of overpaid players.

I'm not trying to lobby that the Bulls should have matched BG's 5 year $55 mil offer. Not in the slightest. I'm simply trying to understand how we are getting better as a franchise by letting our top 5 lottery picks walk for nothing?... Read More

If they didn't want BG long term and they didn't want Tyrus long term they should have traded them both for someone they wanted instead of sitting on the fence and watching them walk out the door.

Pezza
we are getting better because we formerly made terrible picks... tho TT was taken in one of the worst drafts ever with only Roy and Rondo having any success... and are now admitting it.... Wallace was a terrible move, I think the ego of Pax wanting to stick it to Detroit cuz he hated Dumars got in the way there, but Luol was a fluke... everything ... Read Morepointed him to being great, increasing numbers and younger than LeBron but the man got hurt and hasnt been the same since... plus, its hard for him to score when his game is 15 foot jumpers and TT is taking tho shots instead...

and your point about TT, hes PERFECT trade bait this year with an expiring contract and the ability to help in the short run, plus whoever he gets traded to (if he does) will be the team that can say "oh the bulls didnt want you and we did, sign with us for a little cheaper and we'll take care of you" which makes him more valuable. Again, i like where the Bulls are sitting as Tyrus's fate is in his own hands, which is exactly how sports used to be...

DC
Those were bad contracts but just because we made bad decisions in the past with extensions/free agents doesn't mean we should just do it again. Especially for a player that, despite his offensive gifts, was a clear detriment to the team.

I agree you win championships with players not cap space, but I definitely feel the Bulls are a better team without BG. It will help Rose being able to run an actual offense instead of dealing with the blackhole that BG was. Salmons is a bigger, better defender coming off of a career year...and his acquisition was what spurred the Bulls into the playoffs, not BG's scoring ability/porous defensive skills. It was addition by subtraction.

I think you're too hung up on lottery pick status...Kwame Brown, Adam Morrison, Darko Milicic were all high lottery picks. If you can't play within a system and contribute it really doesnt matter where you were drafted. BG has panned out better than them, but the fact remains the team wasn't going anywhere with him on the team. ... Read More

I think the main difference I see is that Thomas was drafted on pure potential and I'd like us to sign him to realize that potential...so i agree letting him walk away is a mistake at this point. With BG we knew what we were getting, drafted it anyway and let it go when it was no longer helpful to the franchise.

As far as trading BG, you can't assume there was any market for him in the trade market with teams clearing space for next summer. Why would teams trade assets to the Bulls for a player they are going to have to pay a huge contract for the following year? getting sub-par players in return for BG isn't going to get us to the Larry O'Brien trophy any faster either.

DC
Unless they just wanted his expiring contract this offseason...but there werent many marquis names available...

DC
in other news the bulls have exercised options on two lottery picks...http://www.insidehoops.com/blog/?p=4925

Pezza
carroll, youre really coming around, props to you on these posts! maybe u were always there but for some reason i recall you liking BG... anyways... D-Rose and Noah are where the franchise is at so thats the bigger news either way... Both winners and both more proven than TT

DC
i wavered back and forth on BG because he can fill it up like few players in the league...but i just couldnt take it anymore. Of course I'm not like you who thinks Hinrich is a stud. And don't confuse any of this as me not wanting to resign TT....I absolutely do.

2J
Yes, it sucks we let BG walk ... but isn't that a moot point? He was overpaid and everyone should be glad we don't have him AND Luol at max or near-max deals. Luol's deal sucks, but might be moveable at some point in the next year or 2 (unless he clicks/gels with D-Rose and returns to old form).

Letting TT walk is something different (even tho... Read More it was similarly mis-handled from a front office standpoint). The thing everyone is overlooking is that we drafted an athletic freak that we knew was a project ... similar to what the Magic did with Superman (I'm not comparing the skill-sets, just the "project" aspect). The Magic then hired Patrick CH-Ewing to work with Dwight, and who is the Bulls bigs coach who is developing our young, raw players?! PETE MYERS!!!

Everything about this seems premeditated in a way ... from doing nothing to help TT develop for the past 3 years, to drafting 2 guys to replace him this year. It's another bad situation, and if we planned on letting TT walk, we should have traded him when his value was highest (think Boozer or Amare or Bosh).

Pezza
i do too, but at a reasonable price and i just think his big (or maybe just precious) ego will see reasonable at a higher number... i love the man and want those mid ankle white socks to be a staple of the bulls

Pezza
right, just what we talked about earlier, instead of bitching hes RAW, coach the man.... and pete meyers, im still laughing that a below average 2 guard coaches bigs haha

DC
You realize that a "reasonable" contract for a 23 year old athletic freak is going to be a lot of money right? He might even be making Kirk Hinrich money (speaking of overpaid/bad contracts).

Pezza
we all know hinrich only got that contract because pax thought he was signing himself...

Pezza
i retracted to 2J (a little) on my trade bait statement and agreed we get 50 cents on the dollar for TT... i guess i was still hoping the hinrich/TT for Batum trade might still be out there as the trailblazers would have a short term backup plan for greg oden and money to spend next year while the bulls rid themselves of hinrich money and get a young, big guard

Kmart
DC - Good points. I understand what you are saying, and I agree that BG being gone will be better in the long run. I'm simply playing devil's advocate. And at the same time explaining why it shouldn't surprise you that they've given up on Tyrus.

As Blogabull says the Bulls philosophy Step 1) Cut payroll. Step 2) Profit.

Pezza - I fail to see how TT is perfect trade bait this year. If he's an expiring headed to a contender for the short run, they will not be giving us any real substance in return. At best a late draft pick. Which to me seems like getting 10 cents on the dollar.... Read More

The best we could hope for would be a sign and trade, which also seems highly unlikely going into the summer of 2010.

Kmart
I think any trade involving Tyrus to Portland kissed the baby when they inked LmA to $65-70 million last week.

This is going to suck. Expect an interview with Gar saying something along the lines of "Signing Tyrus is one of our top priority's this offseason" then you will know he's gone for sure.

Kmart
Your 2010 starting lineup: Derrick Rose, Joe Johnson, Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, Joakim Noah.

Mediocrity never looked so good.

Pezza
joe johnson??? salmons is here to stay

DC
oh man i hope we get Batum: http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/9993/nicolas-batums-shoulder-surgery

Kmart
Salmons... doubtful.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-bulls-confidential/2009/08/some-tame-john-salmons-and-aaron-gray-rumors.html

Kmart
I just re-read this... "A source close to the Chicago Bulls organization told us yesterday it looks like the Bulls will not extend Tyrus Thomas before the Oct. 31 deadline"

Offering an extention to an unproven RFA before the deadline would be idiotic - especially someone as raw with as much to prove as Tyrus. These are the only facts he's reporting.

The rest "AND I ASSUME he also meant they will let him walk next off season when he becomes a restricted free agent."... Read More

Pure speculation. A lot to assume, and a bit of a reach here. Let's all take a deep breathe and pretend like we never read this... I actually want to try to enjoy this season.