Noa Essengue STRUGGLES in Chicago Bulls Summer League Debut | CHGO Bulls Podcast

Noa Essengue STRUGGLES in Chicago Bulls Summer League Debut | CHGO Bulls Podcast

What up, Bulls Nation? We are here in Vegas. Is your Bulls summer league live today breaking down the Bulls blowout loss to the Raptors last night. Our first look at the 12th overall pick, Noah Essen. Plus, Modest Puzzellis was out there doing his thing, flexing them muscles. Plus, a look ahead to tonight’s game against the Kings. All next. Heat. Hey, Heat. What’s going on, Bulls fans? You’re welcome in CGO Bulls summer league live. We’re coming to you from our beautiful Airbnb mode out here in the desert just a mile or so off the Las Vegas strip. I’m back bulls_p bet is big day pwl sports the perfectly qua will the godly already went for a run in the Vegas heat this morning will_ly on the controls on the side couch the one and only queen of them Katy Duffy we got also social media extraordinaire Emma our other queen hanging out gentlemen we are back in Vegas night one in the books game one in the books day two how’s everybody How you feeling? Feel great. Feel good. They bought $100 worth of fruit last night and has eaten most of it. $50 of it is gone. I’ve never seen this much fruit in my life. Oh man, you got to change who you hanging with, bro. We got to get some more people who eat fruit in your life, bro. Seriously. But he’s got ripped off. That’s true. But he did have a banana. I’m pretty sure hops are a fruit. So he had a banana and three strawberries and a couple bites of a cucumber last night in a salad. So we’re proud of him. We’re proud of him. Man, how you doing? How was that run this morning? It was really hot. I had to go before it got too hot cuz it’s already over 100° right now, but went for a little jog, then jumped in the pool that we have out back and it felt amazing. Put some fresh fruit real quick. Yeah, everybody hanging out with us in that YouTube chat. Go ahead, hit the like button. Make sure you also subscribe to the CIO Sports YouTube channel. Shout out to Alberto who just said, “I’m sorry y’all had to watch that in person. That hurt.” Uh, yeah. 116-72 was the final score of the Bulls loss to the Raptors in their summer league uh opener last night and that final score felt accurate like so go you and Emma booked it straight there. Our flight got delayed a little bit. You were there in time. Big Dave uh Katie and I walked in like midway through the first quarter. I think the Bulls were up five. It was like 24 to9. Yeah, it was close when we showed up. We’re like, “All right, Bulls are cooking.” And then the Raptors went on a 70-6 run or something like that. Like this was okay. It was rough watch. I feel like we have to start with Noah Essen. Sure. The 12th overall pick. Uh he had five points to seven turnovers. I think those are the two numbers that Bulls fans are taking away from it. Dave, what were your thoughts at our first up close look at Noah? I mean uh shout out to my man Roma who uh hit me up because he was like, “Man, you got to tell me what’s happening. send me what’s going on now with with Noah. I was like, I was all right. But I let him know. So, look, I I’mma take it this way. Watch. Like I said on the show to you, Will, like he was one of the people I wasn’t really I wanted to see him, of course, I wanted to watch him, but I wasn’t expecting much from him because he’s a project. I knew that from the beginning. I knew that going in. This is a project. But seeing it live like that and seeing all the flaws and things that he has to work on was really glaring. The most was dribbling that really and it’s not an exaggeration. Every time he brought the ball up, they took the ball from him. Every single time he brought it up, he tried to cross it. They took it from him and they went down the other way. Every single time. That was alarming for me. Uh the shots, I mean, they weren’t there. I knew he couldn’t shoot like that. I knew they weren’t there. I thought his defense was solid. I thought the way he moved his feet was solid. I thought the way he got uh from man to man each time on the defensive end was really good. So, I like that aspect of it. And the buckets that he scored were in transition. Like his first one was a breakaway dump. So, everything that we knew about him, I think we saw. But he is definitely got a lot of work to do. He was a minus 32. Like, he’s got a lot of work. He has a ton of work to do. He’s going to be in the G- League for sure. getting that together. But I’m gonna give him some grace because it’s his first one. And I mean, we saw uh Casaris Yakonis in his first game. He was trash and then this next game he was balling out. I mean uh Kanipple was was bad in his first one as well. Cooper Flag was five of 20 in his first one as well. He’s not that. I’m not saying he’s that. I’m just telling you what happened. But I am going to watch this second game and expect some sort of improvement for him. But it it wasn’t a great showing though. Yeah. And I don’t want to pile on to Noah who obviously had a tough debut in his 24 minutes. Um this team overall was terrible. And you can start with the Raptors defense which credit to them was incredible. Jamal Shed was like 94 ft hounding everybody who had the ball, getting steals. Um they just their their team was like there was one play where Lachlan Albrich had um the ball at like the pinch post. somebody I think it was Modis came off for a handoff, wasn’t there, and Jacobe Walter just came from behind, Blitz, took the ball, run out dunk, and it was just like that all game. Um, we could talk about how uh they reacted to their poor performance after, but like all this to say, I I don’t want to pile on to Noah here. He obviously was tough, seven turnovers, but the Bulls had 33 total turnovers, which I saw on Twitter was a summer league record. They almost had twice as many turnovers as they had made field goals. 33 to 17. That was a disaster. They They were 30% from the field, 27% on threes. They did get to the free throw line quite a bit. Uh led by Javon Freeman Liberty, but just a really bad game overall. Um and they I mean they had to wear it. That was that was Billy’s Donovan III’s main takeaway. But um you know isolating in on SN I just thought like he looked like he just was overwhelmed by the speed of the game, the physicality of the game and that’s to be expected. I mean he is really really slim. Even looking at him next to Modest, he’s skinny. His waist is much higher which I think is a sign of him not necessarily being able to like really dig in and guard the perimeter moving side to side. So I felt like that was kind of an area where I was a little showing a little bit of concern. He did have some nice defensive plays in terms of protecting the rim, sliding over, but overall just like it seemed like the game was going on around him and he was like a play or two behind. Not not like a step behind, but like a play a full possession behind. And again, 18 and a half years old, that’s to be expected. Um I think he will play better in today’s game. Can’t play much worse. Um but yeah, two for seven from the field, five points. uh did have a made three which was nice to see but just so many times where he was like trying to do too much off the dribble and it’s just like get the ball to a guard like you’re not there yet just get the ball to a guard you don’t have to force it you don’t have to take this you know pull up fadeaway mid-range jumper you don’t have to you know try to go between your legs and drive and and get the ball taken away from you and I think those are things that he’s going to have to in summer league strike a balance of trying to find himself within the offense but not do so much that he has these kind of games because these are debilitating we talk a lot about letting the young guys play, letting them do their thing, rolling the ball out there and like giving them an opportunity to play through their failures. I think there’s a line where that becomes detrimental and this kind of felt like it. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought, and you mentioned the team real quick, you’re right. They nobody played well. They honestly look unprepared uh to be out there to play. Like the Raptors just my goodness, the ball movement of them, the execution of what they did. Raptors had a system and they and they worked it and they worked it hard, man. So, and the Bulls, they didn’t feel like they had a system at all. Five NBA players out there, like they had a real rotation. It was Jonathan Mobos, second round pick early, Jamal Shed, Jacobe Walter, Colin Castleton, Jameson Battle, AJ Lawson, Ori Chamchi. So many guys that actually got minutes, major minutes for the Tanking Raptors last year. Yeah. Uh yeah, AJ looked great for them last night. Uh Tony Moy in the comments saying, “Noah needs 20 pounds of muscle.” Uh you know, just talking as you were about his frame a minute ago. wrote the believer saying no is a true project full of potential far from making an impact and our guy Rob always in the chat saying defe has potential offense needs a lot of work and reps with players he’ll be playing with going forward so his Wendy City teammates probably is what you mean by that look the I when we were talking about it on draft night breaking it down no was on my list of players I’d be cool with the Bulls taking it 12 because I keep thinking as a Bulls fan about high ceilings swings of guys because I’m not that interested right now as a Bulls fan in like like subtle floor razors of a team that looks like it’s heading nowhere other than back to the playing tournament. But the other side of that coin is you know that these projects are projects and they are going to take time. My first impression of Noah was a dawning realization of this isn’t just a project. This is a project. And I think I like added several syllables to the word project. I think it’s important to also note that like just because he was taken in the lottery does not necessarily mean that he’s going to hit. It’s just going to take a while. Like he could be a total bust. And I’m not saying that that’s going to happen based on one summer league game. I never want to jump to that conclusion. But if we’re going to say, you know, this guy had a great game, that must mean something positive for his career. you have to look at the other side and say this guy had a really really bad game and that’s not very encouraging. Again, it was one summer league game. There’s three more at least on this trip. Um I imagine he will play better, but like this was not a good start and I think it was his kind of like welcome to the NBA moment, but it was in summer league and like I think I think it’s going to be a real adjustment for him. But yeah, I I just want to, you know, put it out there that like just because he is a project doesn’t mean he will eventually pan out, right? Uh Mark V10 in the comments need to stop getting players with quote potential like Pat and Noah. Get the good players already. Stop with these projects. SMH. And you know that is the other part of this that Bulls fans worry about often is do the Bulls as an organization have a proper substantial system in place to develop these young guys that they’re taking swings on. And right now, I think the overwhelming answer when you look across the board of some of the young project guys that uh this front office has drafted is somewhere between not quite and nowhere near as far as contributing to winning at the NBA level. Uh our guy Joel in the chat said, “I thought Noah showed better IQ in the second half defensively, better defensive awareness. Felt like his role was limited. Like Julian Phillips, stay in your corner, play defense.” I did see some moments of Noah having what I saw to be you you said he was a play or two behind at times go and I agree. I also saw some defensive possessions where his offball rotations looked solid. He knew when to chip in and help when he was playing the lowman position. He was active. Got his hands in passing lanes. He was credited with three steals. Like there are some defensive instincts that I saw evidence of that made me feel at least a little bit better about his defensive upside offensively. Obviously there’s a lot of work to be done. Um but good news everybody. Modis was talking about his you know impressions of Noah’s first game getting to know the rook and he’s he’s telling Bulls fans and whoever else is listening not to panic and reminding as Dave you said not everybody has a great summer league debut including some great NBA players these days. Katie, do you have that one clip of Mus talking about Noah after the game yesterday? Let’s go ahead and take a look at that. What did you see in Noah’s game in the way he played? What did you see? Yeah, he’s a great defender first of all. He’s always um he’s got great defensive instincts. Uh offensively, he’ll be fine. It’s it’s his first summer league game. I mean, as you like you could see other guys like when played. It was tough for him in the first game. So, he’ll be fine and I don’t think anybody should be stressing about it. You hear that Bulls fans? M say I don’t think anybody should be stressed about it. It’s just one game. It’s just one summer league game. Um, you know, credit to Manis for speaking highly of the rook, his teammate. Um, and pointing out, you know, I didn’t, he said it about himself. I didn’t have a great first summer league game. We were here watching it. That is true. I think later on in his thoughts about uh Noah, he even said like, dude, Wendy and his summer league debut did not have a great game. So, it’s, you know, it’s one of those situations where you try to tell yourself as a fan to not overreact, but it was such a rough outing that it’s, you know, we cannot overreact about it, but it is, I think, a daunting realization, as you were saying, goat, about like this this a big project lies ahead to get this kid to be ready, NBA level ready, and we’re probably as opposed to Modis earning himself a substantial role in Billy’s rotation in the back half of his rookie I think Bulls fans have to come to grips with reality now that that seems far less likely with Noah Asen. Well, I just think it was just Bulls fans were just disappointed because, you know, they got a new pick, they got this guy and they’re like, “Oh, okay. Well, we know what Modis is and he came at number 11 and we thought he, you know, he he showed out a little bit, you know, in some of the league and you’re right, he struggled in his first game, but even watching Modis, you knew certain things were there and watching this, all you saw was the defense is there. I think that’s there, but everything else it was like, oh man, you really have stuff to work on and that was disappointing to Bulls fans. just watching the amount of turnovers, just watching him being out of position and a play behind. Like those things are what were disappointing to Bulls fans who are thirsty and starving for anything out there, man. So, I I understand why they came at it that way. I I I feel like there were some positive takeaway from his performance though. Um just in terms of like what he was willing to try. Like some there was a comment about Julian Phillips and like to me it wasn’t a stand in the corner and like catch and shoot threes. was like trying to make plays and I think that’s a positive sign for a player that young who’s willing to put the ball on the floor. There needs to be a balance there. He needs to improve on those things. But like I don’t think he’s going to be somebody that is strictly a catchand guy if he hits and if things do come together. He’s got some ball handling ability. He’s got some play creation ability. And I think that’s kind of what you’re betting on. These are bets. These are big risks. We’re obviously in Vegas here talking about um like slot machines and roulette and all that stuff. Like when you’re a company or a business that is like investing in a product, you’re taking a risk on it. That’s a bet that you’re making on this guy to pan out. And yeah, they have to have the developmental infrastructure to get him into place. But there is a huge risk with this. But I did like some of the things that I was seeing in terms of the process and what he was willing to try. And yeah, try. I think that’s the key word. Bulls fans can at the very least appreciate that even knowing that there’s a project ahead. Yeah. In the words of Samuel Beckett, ever tried, ever failed, no matter. Try again, fail again, fail better. Yeah. Let’s hope we see Noah fail a little better. We want that. What a quote. Seriously, that’s right, baby. Shout out to Samuel. Uh, also shout out to our BFF, Kimberly, who throws a super chat. What up, Kimberly? Saying this, here’s some cash for you to hit the slots instead of going to the Any Bulls watching? Well, we will be there because that is why we are here. We will be at the Bulls next game taking on the Kings later today, but we appreciate the super chat nonetheless. Will it go to the slots? We’ll find out. Uh we’re going to knock out our first ad break right here. We’ll come back on the other side and dive into what we saw from Manis and his second stint in summer league action. Plus, lots more ahead. Hit the like. Stick around. Ads. Today’s show brought to you by Sunnyside Cannabis Dispensary. Where? Sunnyside. It’s your one-stop shop for all of your cannabis needs and your home for judgment free cannabis shopping. A place where all kinds of visitors are welcome to explore, discover, and purchase a wide array of high quality products. Sunnyside is Illinois’s favorite dispensary with locations in the city, Wrigleyville, and River North, all the way throughout the suburbs, even down in Champagne, up in South Blo, and more. If you’re starting out, Sunnyside has expert guidance from their well-trained and knowledgeable staff to help you make perfect selections on a huge variety of brands and over 100 different strains to choose from. That’s right, I said 100. Love having options just like Dave and his fruit at the Vegas grocery store last night. 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You don’t even have friends who will get you money that quickly, but Cash App will do it for you. And that is what’s awesome. Terms apply. Terms apply. That’s money. Do terms apply. Terms supply. Rolling along here. CH Bulls summer league live hanging out on what day is it? Saturday. Saturday. Saturday early afternoon out here in Pacific time. Pack big Dave GOAT. Katie on the side controls. Emma in the building. Hit the like button for crying out loud. Throw us a super chat like our friend Kimberly just did. Before we dive back into our announcement of the Bulls game one loss to the Raptors, it is time to do a little game we call cards from the vault. sponsored from our friends at Arena Club who are changing the game in card collecting. Y’all buy, sell, trade, auction. Have everything in your showroom. Show them off. Trade them. Buy some slab packs. Right now, you can get 20% off your first slab pack or card purchase by going to arena club.com/chgo with promo code chgago. All right, Katie, I got myself a fresh lab pack earlier today. Are we ready for the reveal? Let’s check it out. The what, man? The reveal. Okay. Got you. If it’s another LeBron, I’m quitting. Not just like being an Arena Club user. I’m quitting this. LeBron, give me a mic. Give me a modest. Oh, wow. That is some Is that Paulo? Paulo. Paulo. Fresh off a new contract. Okay, I like that. Ooh, that is that is that is Ooh, I like the like gold bronze kind of exterior around him. That is a dope card. Okay, we know what that like the value of that is on the It does. Let me uh see if I check my vault. Check your vault. I’m going to check my vault, guys. How many things do you have in your vault? He’s going to check the ball. That’s right. Oh man, that is so fresh. That is real dope, though. Yeah. I also I love those Orlando jerseys. The one that he’s rocking right there. Okay. Bam. Estimated value 45. Uh $51. Nice. There you go. And how much was the value of that pack? Are we allowed to say? Uh I can’t recall. Uh well, for me, Shadita Club, it was $0 promo codes. You can use the promo code too to get yourselves started with that promo code cho. 20% off your first lab pack. Guys, I’m really happy to add this Paulo to my collection. Um, what was the LeBron one valued at? I think that one was like 85 or $90. So, you’re because LeBron you’re going to retire early on that. That’s right, baby. Um, but no, honestly, I love that I added that to my collection cuz uh Paulo like you’re collecting big wings who can playmate. This is true. It’s an archetype. And uh a lot of people were like, “Wow.” Like, shout out to our our buddy Jamal from Bull Central after the Magic signed all of their young, you know, main core pieces, all these new contracts. He was like, “Wow, that’s a lot of money.” I think he did the quick maths, like $800 million uh to a handful of the players. But like that Orlando team, they’re good. They’re on the rise. Pay your young talent to stick around, especially in small market like Orlando. And I just like I love Paulo’s game and like make aggressive win now moves when you know you have young players that are going to grow and get better. For sure. I I the Magic are not probably like a inner circle title contender, but like they’re going to be in the top four of the East now for the next four years for sure. I like if not longer. Early last this past regular season, there was a Bulls Magic matchup and Paulo was just kicking the Bulls rear ends in the first half, you remember? And then he like jammed up his shoulder and then Oh yeah. And then that led to his long absence for the first like couple months of the season, but in the first half of that game, he was working the ball. Oh yes. And if he just didn’t get hurt in that game, the Bulls might have had the number one pick. It’s true. I remember that. Well, cuz we were watching it live cuz uh I went there with Will Purdue blew up in uh Beim Mo Harris watching that and seeing it. It was Yeah, man. It was a whole different thing like in that second half. It was a whole different game. Giddy had a good game that game. I remember he did. Uh all right. I am more than thrilled to add Apollo uh to my collection, my vault at Arena Club. again, that promo code uh at arena club.com/cow is cso to get 20% off your first slab pack, changing the game in card collecting. Check them out. All right, with that, let’s pivot back to last night’s massacre at the Cox Pavilion. Um Modest second s in summer league taking on a more leadership role with this young group. We saw some of that in some of the, you know, the footage from practice that the Bulls shared on their various socials. go. You were able to get a look at their practices and Mis look his game last night not the most efficient. Four of 14 from the field, two of eight from three. But what I’m taking away from it is the aggression I saw from him as a if you want to call it secondary uh you know uh ball handler on ball creator. He brought the ball up several times tried to you know we saw him try to work some one-on-one. seemed like there was a little bit more juice to his crossover that we saw him try and bust out a couple of times. But just the physical aggression, I saw him lower his shoulder into guys when he was going one-on-one. And that led to seven of seven at the free throw line. His aggression playing one-on-one, attacking the basket, and knocking down his free throws. That is my big 1A takeaway from Otis yesterday. That’s my one, two, and three takeaway, Matt. Boom. And boom. Because that more than anything will translate to the league without a doubt. it will translate to the regular season. Him getting calls and him getting to the foul line. If you remember last year, he was getting calls like that. So, if he’s still getting them now in summer league, oh my god, he gonna be Jimmy Butler levels by the time he get to the season, man. And that is exciting. And that is where your points go from 20 to 28. That’s where they go from 25 to 32. Music to my ears because you get to that foul line. All great scorers, not you can’t name anyone that doesn’t get to the foul line. That’s what they do. They get to the foul line, man. So that’s what was exciting. I think that’s what the weight was for. Putting it on that was of course more physicality and things like that, but actually taking the the punishment and not being so tired when you get to that foul line because of the punishment you just took, but also he wants to dish some out as well. We saw that block shot he had, which was really awesome to watch, man. So yeah, we saw a little bit of everything from Modis. just gave you just an appetizer of what he’s got coming uh this season. And honestly, it was cool to see. Yeah. So, Modis, I thought, you know, it was like the signs of what’s to come. And to me, there was a big difference there from what we saw with Noah where it was like we didn’t see any like tangible outlines of what can this guy become. Whereas with Modis, just bringing the ball up, getting the team into their offense. uh a lot of the drives that he was getting. Again, I think we talked about this so much with Giddy with Kobe of being able to get to the free throw line, that being the driver of efficiency more so than even making shots. Um and you saw that with seven of seven from the foul line despite the four of 14 from the field. So, uh encouraging stuff from him in terms of uh willingness to take on more of a leadership role, of a ball handling role. That’s something that Billy Donovan the third has talked about uh over the course of this week in terms of working with the front office with the big club coaching staff to put him in situations where he feels comfortable with the ball in his hands. And that’s an encouraging sign. That’s what you want to see if you’re a Bulls fan who uh wants to see more of Modis and wants to see him take on a larger role. If you feel like he has superstar potential, this is what superstar players do. They playmake their 610 wings like who can put the ball on the floor and create offense. That’s what you want to see. Now, it wasn’t all good. No, it was not. We saw four turnovers. We saw a couple of those falls I feel like were a little bit uh you know say he’s like getting superstar calls, but he’s getting star summer league player calls out. Um so that’s good for him. But like he the the Raptors were really pressuring him up and making him make tough decisions and and you saw that lead to turnovers or tough shots. Um the three-point shooting like he missed a bunch of those. He was two for eight. That I’m not super worried about. I feel like he’s a better shooter than what he showed last night, but to me it was more about the driving and the creation and being able to get into the paint and make plays. Only one assist. You want to see more than that, but this is a work in progress. We we heard that from uh BD3 this week. Like this is the start of it, but there’s there’s the outlines there that I think he can build on where like you’ll you’ll see if he does better at this very thing, he’ll continue to improve on it. But uh whereas Noah, it’s just like we got to start from blank blank canvas. you know, the the turnovers weren’t great. You know, he had four, Noah had seven, the team had 33 and and only the one assist. He may have had a couple more if the team didn’t shoot 30% from the field. Yeah. Uh but yeah, obviously if you want as a Bulls fan to see in the future sometime down the road Modis being a legitimate onball creator in a halfcourt offense, then you would hope that he develops some of those passing abilities and using summer league as an opportunity to work on those skills. Uh but you mentioned some of the things that he and Billy Donovan the third have been talking about in the summer league practices goat uh and putting more of that ball handling responsibility onto Modis. You asked him about that after the game yesterday and I thought his answer was interesting. K, we have that clip from us. We can go ahead play it right now. After the game, the the experiment for you the coach talked about was secondary ball handling or primary ball handling. You know, how would you rate how how you did with that? Looked like, you know, they were up on you, you know, got the ball away several times. Yeah. Um, I’m a little rusty. You know, I haven’t played in a while. Oh, it’s no excuse. But, you know, being a primary secondary ball handler is like second nature to me. I used to play it when I was younger. So, right. Played at the point in high school, right? Yeah. So, it it’s not really anything anything new to me. Um uh I think it’s just going to get better with time and um yeah, I’ll be I’ll be ready next game. cuz that’s something you’re looking to embrace that you’d like to do more of and you feel like like you said you feel like you’re comfortable doing it that you can expand what you do by by doing that more. Yeah. Um as I said it’s going to come with time, more practice, more uh more games and I’m going to be more comfortable um you know moving forward. What specifically do you feel like you need to improve on there? Is it ball handling? Is it Billy was talking about like too many steps or like making quicker decisions? All right. Um Oh, no. I I like Yeah, I like to work on everything. So, everything needs to be sharp when I play. Um, defense, offense, shooting the ball, um, dribbling the ball. So, for me, it’s just I I work on everything. I think everything needs to be sharpened. I think everybody can work on something. All right, so that’s Bulls second year man Melis talking after the Bulls lost to the Raptors yesterday. First of all, shout out Sam Smith, the legend. I mean asking that first I mean yeah dude uh Goat and Sam Smith where is the buddy cop comedy script Hollywood like I’m I’ve been waiting on it for years now. Uh but so his answer to Sam’s question, he highlighted the fact that in, you know, his younger, you know, eras of playing that he did a lot of ball handling and played some point, but then, you know, one of those players who gets that crazy growth spurt after playing some point, you know, shout out young Scotty Pippen. And you can see maybe an evolution into being a point forward kind of player at the NBA level. And then when you asked the follow-up goat about like, you know, how he his answer is like working on ball handling. His answer was, “I’m working on everything.” Which like I I do appreciate as a Bulls fan. Like, and we’ve heard from Billy Donovan the third that he has been in the gym all summer long. Like he has been in there working his butt off and you love to hear that too. It’s like it’s not you want to hone in on Mus being like you need to get a better ball handling. You need a a tighter handle. And again, I mentioned some of the crossovers we saw him try to pull off yesterday. Obviously, you want him working out a well-rounded offensive game. If the hope is that at some point soon this dude becomes your 1A offensive weapon, whether or not it’s a Josh Giddy and or a Kobe White as your setup man, Modest is your killer scoreer. So, work on all facets of your game. What do you make of that answer, Co? Yeah, I think it’s like, you know, you even say like if he can be your 1A score, like they’re so far away from this. And like it’s not to say that Modus can’t get there. I’m very encouraged by his ball handling and just like what we’ve seen in glimpses from him. Like I mean, for years people were saying like, “Oh, we’ve seen flashes from Patrick Williams.” Like we we’ve never seen flashes like that from or we we’ve never seen anything compared to what we’ve already seen from Modest. Yeah. Um and so I am encouraged by that, but like he is struggling now in summer league as a secondary creator. So, if you’re talking about him becoming a primary 1A guy at the NBA level, we’re just very far away from that. And I think that’s why they’re trying to not overload him, not put him in a position where he’s the point guard, but, you know, bring him along slowly, but still give him more responsibilities, not leave him behind. And I think that’s kind of what this team needs to be the next couple years as they develop and as they kind of just try to reorient around some of these younger players. Um, there’s stuff there and that’s exciting. Uh, the ball I think the ball handling really needs to improve. He definitely got stuff there, but like the way that you know those Raptors guards were just hounding him and and making him uncomfortable, it’s clear that he needs to improve on that. But then also the physicality, I think like if there’s a guard trying to like, you know, press up on you and get under your skin, like just, you know, turn your back to him and then blow by him. And I think he’s got that skill there, but um he’s just like still learning the pace of the game. There was one play yesterday where he I think had a grab and go um and his defender was kind of on his right side and he just veered into him, pushed him out of the like almost out to the lane line um and then was able to get downhill. Like there’s stuff there where it’s like yeah, this guy knows how to do it. Um and I think it’s all all about sharpening all those skills um and continuing to add physicality to his game. Do you guys feel like he’s bigger? Like people are saying that. I don’t know how much bigger he looks. You can look at his neck and tell he’s bigger, bro. Bigger. I I noticed a bit of tone, not necessarily in his arms. His shoulders to me look like he’s added a couple pounds of muscle on his shoulder. Start here. He’s more toned. Like he was skinny in the beginning of his year. Uh we got to knock out a couple more ads right there. We will come back on the other side. Pick up this conversation. We could touch on a couple other players. We saw our our first glimpse at second rounder Lachlan Oldrich last night. A lot I see a lot of people talk about Yuki in the chat. Bulls fans new favorite. Uh we will come to uh come back and talk about all that and more. Let us know what you want to talk about in the chat. Hit the like button, hit the subscribe button, and hey, throw us a super chat so we can hit the tables later. It’s Vegas, baby. Barbecue, drinks, country music, all of that in full effect here in Vegas. No, in Chicago, Windy City Smokeout, that’s where it’s at, ladies and gentlemen. That’s where you need to be. It’s going on right now through the 13th of July. That is four full days of country music, y’all. Ice cold drinks and all that awardwinning barbecue that your stomach can handle. Does it get much better than that? Doesn’t get much more summer than that. Let’s check Matt Peek. It does not. There it is. Solidified and done. Come on out, y’all. Have a great time. You will have fun. Tickets are still available and see some of country music’s biggest stars like Billy Zimmerman, Old Dominion, and of course the one and only Dylan Gosset. They’re going to be lighting up the stage. Don’t miss out on the best weekend of the summer. Grab your tickets at Wendy City Smokeout. Adopath. Today’s show is brought to you by our friends at Empire. Just like your favorite team needs home court advantage, which the Bulls did not have at Cox Pavilion yesterday. Whoop. There was a Raptors chant late in the fourth when they were up 40 something. I was like, “Okay, there was a let’s go. Calm down.” Raptor. I think you got this one in the bag. But you also, as someone who has some sort of doicile, a dwelling, a home, a house, an apartment, you need flooring. You need homecore flooring advantage. And Empire can help you with that with their flooring experts, dedicated flooring professionals who focus on flooring every single day. Sometimes you’ll go to a big box store, wander endless aisles. They’ll probably have a flooring department of some kind. But whoever it is working in the flooring department that day, Dave’s friend Biff, he doesn’t know I was trying to think about flooring. 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I was just going to say before we move on to some of these other players, I just wanted to talk about like what you guys want to see next for Mattis. Like what’s the next steps? And um obviously the big thing with him is is he going to play again, right? That I believe our pal Colin in the chat was asking about that just a second ago. He did confirm when y’all were talking to him yesterday. He’s taking today off. No back for back to back. He said very confidently, I’m playing Monday. Yeah. And we also asked B3 about it. He said, “We’re gonna discuss it as a group.” So, of course, I think Modis is like gonna be more adamant about it, especially because he really wants to play. Um, I would not be surprised if they end up not playing him on Monday, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if they do. So, assuming he is back out here for summer league game three, what are you guys interested to see from him? Well, um, I want I want to see the handles be a little bit better, be a little bit tighter. Again, I will credit the Raptors for just how they came out and played because they had a game plan like and they were not gonna let Modis get into what he wanted to. And even if he got into it, they weren’t going to let him do it comfortably, right? And he mentioned that after the game, it wasn’t in the clip we played, but he talked about the physicality of the Raptors beating him up a little bit yesterday. Yeah, man. And you saw we were sitting, you know, close to the Raptors bench. Those guys were up and they were verbalizing and they were talking and even when Mis had a a baseline, had a guard on him. Yeah. You know, guarding him on the baseline, man, those guys were up and yelling and in his ear, man. It was great. Like, shout out to that team uh element, but I would like to see just a little bit more of the scoring. I want I want to see at least 25 points. Yeah, I said it. I said 31 in the first one. I want more from Modis, man. And I know he wants more from himself. This is why I’m putting this stuff on him. But yeah, man. I like the fact he gets to the free throw line. That’s great. To help defense, I mean, all that stuff I already know and that’s there. What the Bulls lack is shot creators. They’re going to need more shot creators. Not saying he’s gonna become that this season at all for all the reasons that go so eloquently stated earlier, but my goodness, we got to see a just a little bit more. I just want, and this is me being greedy about it. I just want to see a little bit more. Give me that crossover move, step back three, and I will, man, so I can yell, you know what I’m saying, in the crowd, man. Give me that behind the back move, getting to the to the rack with that pearl and that layup. I’m not asking him for things I haven’t seen him do. So, I just want to see that a little bit more. Maybe um I’m sure they’re gonna have him, you know, with the ball in his hands more trying to create and do all those things. When I want him with ball in his hands, I don’t want him for nobody else but himself, right? In the summer league. That’s what I want to see. And cuz, you know, leave that to the guards and the other guys like that. But that’s exactly what I want to see. Just more selfishness of him and yeah, just a little more stank on it. Yeah, I I’m right there with you. Like I I want to see more on ball creator modis and I want to see it better and uh more efficient on Monday if he does play and I hope he does. Like I was surprised when they sent him back out there midway through the fourth quarter of a game that like Bulls were down 40. Yeah. And then he had that kind of you know that scary fall where he was down for a few extra seconds and I was like oh dear God put him on the plane back and Mark were sitting right there at that baseline. I was like I think just had consecutive heart attacks. Um but like I hope he does play. I want to see that on ball aggressiveness. Um he was seven of seven at the free throw line yesterday. I love that. I want to see him go 10 of 10 at the free throw line. Yeah. Assuming he plays on Monday. Um you know I I also would love to see more of him being active on the defensive end. I think maybe with his increased offensive responsibilities yesterday. We didn’t see as many of those defensive coming flying out of nowhere from the weak side modest defensive moments. Okay. That we saw, you know, his rookie year. Uh, I think he did have a block. Maybe a couple. Maybe a couple. Yeah. Yeah. And it was like right after the windmill dunk when he had that swat of a block. So, you love to see that big sequence like that. But, yeah, I’m, you know, just more confidence on ball. And, uh, you know, he he tried to, you know, create for himself a lot and get to the rim yesterday, which I love. I also would not mind, I know it’s, you know, taboo in the NBA these days only for the select few who are elite at it. Shout out Dear. I kind of want to see Modis develop a mid-range game. If we’re talking about hanging a lot of hopes on Modis’s offensive development and this Bulls team getting better because he gets better, show me a little bit of that ball handling. Try and cross somebody over and instead of driving every time, putting your shoulder down every time or kicking out, just step back and and pull up from 16, from 18. I want to see if that can be a part of Modest’s game moving forward. No, that’s a great point because like I said, there’s no great score. He doesn’t get to the line. There’s no great scorer without a mid-range. Yeah, they got to have a mid-range hand. That jump shot got to be there. However they getting it, it has to be there for sure. Especially even if it’s not like a, you know, sideep fade away from the elbow. It can be like the floater. Yeah. And like Steph is just like the best at that because teams are so afraid of giving up the three and the back door that that’s often times really open for him. So I totally agree. I think it’s a great point, especially when you talk about the modern NBA and it’s like layups, dunks, and and free throws and threes. Um I I absolutely think there’s a space for that. You saw like the turnaround jumper from that, you know, mid base uh baseline area yesterday. He’s got that. Um for me, I think it’s all just about like doing some of the things that we’ve seen flashes of more consistently. I think it’ll be easier if he does play against I believe it’s Indiana in game three uh to do that against them as opposed to, you know, Jacobe Walter and Jamal Shed and these guys who are really good defensively. Um, but yeah, it’s just can you start to string together some more of those possessions to where it becomes a consistent part of your game and not just a flash anymore? And that’s something that again he’s so far away that it’s gonna take time, but like incremental progress day by day, game by game. Those those are important things. So, um, I’m glad you mentioned the windmill dunk and the block. Like the highlights are great. I think that gets people really excited, but it’s about the little things that you do in between those plays that keep you consistently uh, earning minutes because that’s really I think it’s still going to be part of uh his growth and development to continue to carve out a role for himself and not just he’s got the starting job now it’s his forever like he probably hasn’t but like can you make sure you’re playing 32 minutes a game I’m sorry I I can’t help but roll my eyes at that and and not you saying it go but Billy and anyone else in charge of decision-m with rotation and minutes next season if Modis is not playing 30 plus minutes a night out of the gate I don’t know what the hell they are doing I I don’t want to hear about earning your spot anymore with Modis. He did that when his minutes gradually increased in the second half of last season when Patrick Williams got benched again. Other people go down. Mis steps in, starts 20some games down the stretch and earned every single one of those minutes with his play, with his production, with his effort on both sides of the floor. I’m done. I’m done talking about modest earning minutes. He earned them. Second team all rookie. He earns them. Mhm. Pat, would you like to try to earn some minutes back at some point? Like, you know, shout out to our pal Joe who had some clever tweet about Pat’s job being safe for now still because of Noah Essen and how he played yesterday. When it comes to Modis, no, that man is in your starting lineup game one of 82 come October. 30 30 minutes minimum. I agree with that. But we’ve also seen guys lose their role. We’ve se you just said it with Pat. So, he’s got to continue to get better and grow. And I’m not saying that he shouldn’t get those and that he doesn’t deserve it. I think he’s earned it. But it’s about contining on his laurels of what he showed us in the back 30. He wants to get better. It’s not to say that he’s not going to. Um I love Modis’s work ethic. I think sometimes when he speaks he can be a little bit cliche because he says the things that you expect a young player to say in terms of like I know I need to get better X Y and Z things, you know. I’m not making excuses for myself. This is how it is. Like he says all that stuff, but I really think he means it. Like he genuinely wants to get better. He gen genuinely spends time in the gym. He has been in the gym. Um and I think he will continue to get better. So it’s just about actually producing and not just theoretically can you eventually do this. Like we need to see it on the court. And I think the more he does that stuff in real time, the harder it’s going to be to ever take his spot away from him again. And again, I think he should get it, but like he’s got to he’s got to keep fighting off the competition. Yeah. No, he has to. And for me, it’s not a ton of it, though. I was going to say like there’s not a ton there. Like I I I agree with everything Matt said. Like this would be a 30 minute a night thing for him immediately. Like he should be handed those minutes. He earned them. Like Billy and Billy, as we talked about, one of the things we like about him is he he didn’t give it to him. He put him through the ringers, you know, to get that. Some games we thought he should have been out there playing. he didn’t play or or did get out there for a quick few possessions then got the quick hook like Exactly man like 20 up by 20 fine go ahead and get two minutes modest and you know we’ll do it like that and then some games he was like you know what we’re going to let you get 20 let’s see what you do you know Billy was like that with him there’s nothing else to prove for me anymore cuz one he’s earned it and two there’s nothing back there so give him all that leeway in that space to go ahead and try to get better man like yes game one to game 82 health willing he should be out there for sure yeah 14.8 8 minutes per game pre-allar break last year. 26.7. Can you get up to 30? Can you get up to 32? Come on. And make that part of the rotation and not just, well, if he’s playing well, we keep him out there, but if he’s not, then we give him a quick hook. Like, he’s got to be playing 32 minutes. He’s got to be I want him out there. And even if he’s not playing well, Will, I want him out there. He gave Patrick that grace. Patrick was being trash when he was out there and he still was getting a ton of minutes out there playing. No, he gets that grace. He’s earned it. go ahead and let that young man play and then we’ll figure it out from there. Uh Colin calling in the comments also asking for a modest floater and the Vu push shot from just outside the restricted zone. Would love that too. Uh Vu has mastered that that little mini you know mastered and then also like in his full career had had stretches where it’s like dude Vu is the shot 13% from the restricted zone today. But again, it’s just like I want modest developing and that’s why I liked his answer to your question go about specifically his increased onball responsibilities for summer league round 2 is like I’m focusing on all elements of my game and as somebody who is hoping and hanging hopes on him becoming a star that’s the right approach become become a threat from everywhere on the floor. What I kind of was trying to get him to talk about was what specifically are things that he is working on and not just like I’m like more granular, more of the details. What kind of drills is he doing? What kind of things is he specifically focusing on? Right. Um because I think that’s how you not like I’m not holding him accountable, but like I want to know how he’s holding himself accountable, right? Yeah, I think that’s fair. Uh all right. All right. Well, so before we take a quick look ahead to uh tonight’s matchup with the Kings, we can briefly touch on a couple other names that Bulls fans were intrigued about on the summer league roster. Their second round pick uh from draft night at number 55 after trading down with LA. Shout out #cashconsiderations. Congratulations, Jerry. Uh Lachlan Olrich who played um championship level basketball in the NBL before coming over to the draft. uh one of his teammates, what’s his name? Hickeyi Hingi, whatever. Hickeyi, uh is also on this summer league squad. I gotta say, and this is not me just like needling the side of the Aussie Bulls faction of Bulls Nation. I love and appreciate y’all. You know how I felt about Josh Kitty over the past year. I’m not trying to antagonize anybody. My first impression, and just like Noah, it’s a first impression. My first impression of up close look at Lachlan Olrich and his minutes yesterday. Doodoo. Literal doodoo. Katie Katie said it for me. Just go ahead, please. He looked like he had never touched a basketball in his life. Allergic to basketball. Respectfully. And I literally was just about to say I wasn’t going to let anybody into the conversations Katie and I were having, but she just kind of let you in there about the conversation we were having about what was going on with this young man. At one point I turned to Dave and I said, “Yeah, that’s a 55th pick right there.” That’s exactly what you said. And that’s what it is. You know, like he did not play well. What was it? Uh, two points, 0 of two from the field. Of two from the line. No, two of two from the line. Uh, two rebounds in 22 minutes. Don’t forget four turnovers and five fouls. Yeah. Like you could see the outlines of like what they want to do with him. Like they had him running some handoff plays. He actually like brought the ball up once or twice. um you can see some of the skill set that’s there, but yeah, I mean, he just was totally overwhelmed by, again, multiple NBA players on the opposing team. Um this is the 55th pick in the draft. These are not guys that you expect to be productive. Um but like the Bulls were talking him up as someone that they were going to like run offense through and we just didn’t see that. So, um again, you give him maybe a little bit more grace. He is 21 years old, not 18 and a half as compared to Noah. So, he maybe should be a little bit more polished. He really struggled. Um, but I think he’s the kind of guy that will show he has a little bit more next game tonight. Uh, just because I think he he’s like more comfortable with who he is and his skill set as compared to Noah who kind of has to find his way of how he can be effective and productive uh and make an impact on the game. Yeah, he kind of knows exactly, you know, who he is. That that’s absolutely true. Like and I’m going to give him grace too without a doubt. Like it’s your first game over here doing it, but you know my man Lacklin was lacking. Like like it was lacking, bro. like it wasn’t all there for him. It was certain plays and certain things happening. We were just like, “Oh, I don’t know, man. I don’t know.” In the shots that I was seeing taken, but it wasn’t without it wasn’t me saying, “Oh, this dude doesn’t know how to play basketball.” You know, I didn’t say that. Like, he didn’t look out of position to me on a bunch of things that he was doing. But his hands though, man, I don’t know what it is. Like, he was struggling with with the ball in his hands or when they were passing him the ball or anything like that. Couple of pieces of plywood where hands should be. Literally wrists and then there’s nothing else. Like they’re just gone. Look, mom. No hand. You said lag. Laglin is lacking. I appreciate that. If you go with the pronunciation of Lachlan, my thought was like watching him play made me think of those sad Sarah McLaclin videos with the dogs that have been illreated. Donate now. Donate now to some sick hungry dogs and maybe for Lachlan Olrich to get some better hands. He’ll be back. He’ll be better. I don’t want to angel over here. I don’t want to sound like I’m killing him. Like, he’s young. I get it. I’m more so killing the front office for trading back at this point. Like, that’s who I’m blaming, right? But cash, Katie. Here in Vegas. You know what you could do with $2.5 million on the roulette table? You could double it or lose both. That’s right. Too big you can do. But yeah, he he’s gonna I expect to see a little bit better out of him. Um but yeah, like it it was bad. It wasn’t it wasn’t great, but he get like Katie said, he looked like the 55th pick. He looked like a second round pick who’s going to need development himself. Um but yeah, game two, we’ll see what he does because he’s going to get more time to get out there, especially with Modis not playing in the game. You’re definitely going to get more time out there on the floor with uh Noah. Yeah, Emanuel Miller, one of the other two-way players, did not play hidden ankle. Uh so we’ll see if he gets back in there today. Jamir Young, uh the other two-way player in addition to Alan. Uh two of five, six points in 18 minutes. Pretty disappointing stuff from him. Uh Javon Freeman Liberty was the guy who was doing pretty much all the offense that was happening for the Bulls. 21 points five of six from the field but 10 of 13 from the line. So he can really score it. Yeah, like I’ve said this before and it’s just so weird to me that they get these like 25year-old 26y old guys on their twoe contracts who aren’t even like productive in summer league and have no upside. It just doesn’t make sense to me when there are a couple guys like Caleb Grill had some moments I thought he like you know he he’s a good shooter like you can run some offense through him as a movement shooter he kind of struggled and had a bad turnover there but made two of his six threes. Uh, Yuki, what you guys think of Yuki? He was one of six from the field. Didn’t play well. He said it was the worst game he’s ever played. Oh, wow. In his life after the game, but huge contingent of uh Japanese trying to get his uh answers. And he think in English. Impressive. He’s I mean, he’s listed at 5’8. I think he’s 5’5. 100%. I was like I was like significantly taller than him, but he’s That’s my boat there. He’s a great like person, great energy, um, and a great leader and, you know, he speaks pretty good English. Like you could see he was like trying to take on a leadership role as somebody who has NBA experience on this team. And he said it, Billy Donovan said it, um, Modis said it that he kind of calmed things down a little bit when he was on the court. So, didn’t score efficiently. Um, but he’s kind of interesting player. like I I’d be more willing to give him a chance than Jir Young or you know Emanuel Miller just because he’s younger and has like more ability to impact the game. Okay. Today today um I I you can feel like he can control an offense. Uh that’s what I got from you felt him more than you felt either of those other guys. Like I understood he was his like you saw the mind working and his IQ working and the hard work that he was putting in on the defensive end because great steal just like somebody up in the middle of the paint. They was sending because they were sending those screens at him, you know what I mean? He was fighting through as you should, you know, when you have a smaller play on you, but he was fighting through all of them. And he’s, you know, definitely have a toughness about him. And I was telling Katie, I was like, “Dude, this is that new fan favorite right here.” I was like, “This is the new Archie.” I was like, “This is the fan favorite.” You could see it immediately that Bulls fans would gravitate directly towards him. But he’s got some game, though. He definitely has some game. The shot wasn’t great at all, but nobody shot was great on on that Bulls team. But we’ll see what he does cuz again he’s going to get another opportunity to bounce back especially not with Mod and not just a fan favorite but you can tell like a like a teammate favorite you know uh there was one moment where he had a nice play and Modis was getting some rest minutes and he was like oh Mus was up on the bench like up off the bench rather like yelling and cheering him on like you like. So you know really cool story we’ll see if Yuki gets himself another shot at the actual NBA level. Nice to have him on this squad for the Bulls at summer league this year. Um, and he’ll get some uh, you know, he played 20 minutes off the bench yesterday. We’ll see what he gets today. And speaking of with our remaining time, let’s quickly take a look at what the Bulls have on deck. Sacramento Kings are their opponent for game two. Shout out to the Kongs, Demar, Zack. Uh, AK’s here. I’m guessing the Kings front office is here. Where’s that vouch for Domas Sabona swap, y’all? I’m waiting on it. Player for player. Katie’s begging for an emergency pod. I know she is. Okay, just to clarify, I’m not begging. I just said I had a feeling it was going to happen. In our bones. In her bones. In my bones. The bones don’t lie. Uh so, uh gentlemen, the the Kings edged the Magic 8481 in their first game on Thursday night. Um Mason Jones had 17 for them. He is basically their team’s Javon Freeman Liberty Journeyman in his mid to pushing late 20s. Had a couple of sins in the NBA. Has played professionally overseas. He had 17 and five dimes. But probably more interestingly for NBA fans looking at the young talent in Vegas this week, it was Nate Clifford uh with 17 points as well. He went five and 12 from the field, six to 10 from the free throw line. So when you’re talking about a Bulls that uh a Bulls team that did not look good at all defensively yesterday and as you were saying Dave, like the Raptors got in their offensive system, they ran a few different sets and they just ran them and ran them and ran them. And the Bulls defense, if you can even call it that, couldn’t do much to stop it. So if you’re talking about if you’re Billy Donovan in the third, is it containing Nate Clifford first and foremost today? Yeah. Like again, like I said, I’ve always liked Meek Clifford, especially watching him on on film, man. Like in this, he’s a one-on-one guy. That’s what he is. And so if the Bulls don’t have anybody to stop this dude one-on-one, he’s going to score like all day long. Like that’s what he does. Plays with a real fire. Plays with a real intensity out there. He’s trying to win everything. I don’t care if it’s a game of Yatsi, bro. Like, he’s trying to win all the time. And I think you’re definitely going to see that uh in this game. I don’t know what he shot. I don’t think he shot super great was like five to 12. But he got to the line, you know what I mean? Again, what great scorers do and it shows his aggression and is what he does. So, I expect more of that uh from him today, especially as you said about that Bulls defense and how they were lacking. Yeah. And a good opportunity for Noah. Obviously, we won’t see Modis today, but like can Noah just be the guy that’s on him, right? And with Mus not out there, great point. Did he get more reps where, you know, as much as he struggled is a part of, you know, some offensive sets? Yeah. And if so, hopefully, oh, dear God, will it go better than it did yesterday? Yeah. But in terms of things that the Bulls need to work on, it’s just like control the controllables. I mean, they cannot turn the ball over. Can you cut your 33 turnovers in half? Can we start there? I mean, they’re just I mean, we were talking about this this morning, Matt. When you talk when you think about like an average trip down the floor, you’re getting a shot, you’re getting, you know, if you shoot 45% from the field, you’re getting point um nine points per shot. Um if there’s a turnover there, you’re getting zero. Mhm. Right. And then you’re also giving them an opportunity to transition, which is like 1.1 points per shot. So you’re just like hemorrhaging points when you turn the ball over like that. Um you cannot win a game if you if you double a team up on turnovers. it’s just going to be impossible. So, if they like I’m not super concerned about the wins and losses, but like it makes it hard to evaluate these guys when they turn it over every possession. So, obviously that’s a big one. I don’t know what that will look like without Modus. Maybe Miller plays it and he can step back into that role. He’s been productive in the G-League. So, I’m curious to see what he looks like. Older brother of Leonard Miller on the Timberwolves. Um so, we’ll we’ll see about that. But to to me, it’s just like can you be a little bit more in control of the game? Can you not be so frazzled um and bamboozled by the Raptors defense? They were run a muck by that. Led astray. They were led astray. Hoodwin bamboozled. Shout out Malcolm X. Uh all right. So before we get out of here real quick, we saw some Bulls vets uh pull up and show their support uh yesterday as they often do especially the first game. Kobe White in the building, I sumu in the building. They were sitting chatting with Billy Donovan senior courtside for a minute. Also the Bulls trade acquisition, Isaac Coro was there as well. Will we see a Lavine and or a Demar sitting courtside repping and showing love to the Kings? If we see Demar, I might cry. Katie might cry. I might cry in the stands. I’m not kidding. I miss so much. That dude does put out just a lot of positive vibes into the universe. You’ve never heard me say anything positive before. I said so many nice things yesterday. That’s crazy. Um but yeah, I think they’ll be there. I think the Bulls guys will be there, too. I hope so. If if if they are there and you’re walking around in those, you know, media credentialed areas and you see them, tell them tell them we said what’s up. I will. And much love. Uh with that, we will get out of here for now. Show one down. We will have another one tomorrow, same time, 2:00 p.m. Central, noon here Pacific, same place, our living room. Call Empire, owner of this Airbnb. Uh in the meantime, follow Goat for some updates_glly. read his stuff always dieards only for this other league content all cow.com take advantage sign up to become a diehard today big bow bwl of course on bulls we are cers bulls and we are of course could not be out here doing what we’re doing without the incredible work and help of the tireless efforts queen Katie of the controls queen Emma of the socials uh we’re gonna take a little break maybe dip our toes in the pool get some Vegas sun and then we will be heading to Thomas and for the Bulls 5:00 p.m. Pacific, 7:00 p.m. Central tip off against the Kings. Talk to you throughout the rest of today and see you tomorrow for the show. See you. Be good. Love y’all, man. Peace.

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The CHGO Bulls crew is LIVE from Las Vegas, breaking down the Chicago Bulls 116-72 loss to the Toronto Raptors. Noa Essengue, the Bulls 12th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, struggled in his debut. He scored just five points while committing seven turnovers. Peck, Big Dave and Will Gottlieb discuss just how “raw” of a talent Essengue is. Plus, Matas Buzelis didn’t have the most efficient night, but did attack aggressively with a perfect 7-7 mark at the free throw line. The guys also give first impressions of second round pick Lachlan Olbrich, and look ahead to the matchup with the Sacramento Kings.

0:00 Welcome to the show
3:15 First impressions of Noa Essengue
19:00 Cards from the Vault
22:55 Matas Buzelis returns to Summer League
47:15 First impressions of Lachlan Olbrich
51:35 Remaining Bulls roster wrap up
54:55 Bulls-Kings preview

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