Bulls Without Borders 🐂 Chicago Bulls 2025-26 Season Preview! 🏀 All-Star Panel!
Welcome, my friends. Welcome to the first ever episode of Bulls Without Borders. And man, it is an honor to have these gentlemen on here with me. Honestly, like I it this has been a project that we’ve been talking about for months. And it’s really cool that they were able to get on here with me. Really appreciate them. Of course, uh you know, we were supposed to also have Melissa uh formerly of Bulls on Tap and Jamal of Bull Central, but they were unable to make it tonight. They do give their condolences, but the gentlemen that are here are pretty awesome themselves. So, without further ado, I have to my bottom I have Hayes of Chicago Bull Central. Man, appreciate you being on. You want to tell the people where they can find you? I mean, if you guys don’t know where to find me by now, no, I’m just playing. This CEO Hayes at Bull Central Pod. But, uh, Phil, like what do you say? Your condolences. We’re not dead here, bro. Like, let’s let’s lien it up a little bit. Pick it up. Right. All right. Uh, yeah. Okay. My bad. No, no condolences. Uh maybe just like a salute or something. Yeah, we’re not That feels like that feels like that, too. I’ll work on it. I’ll work on it. But uh to my right, I got Troy of Whole Lot of Bull, man. And he also has something else that he does. And Troy, you want to share what you do for the people? Thanks for having us on, Phil. So obviously apart from um doing my Chicago pod, whole lot of bull, I also have my Australian basketball uh YouTube channel podcast, a whole lot of MBLs where I’m doing my best to try and cover the the entire league. He’s the best in the game at it. And uh I to my diagonal, I have my friend Neil of Cred UK. Neil, it is a pleasure to have you. and anybody who’s seen any of the hype videos that have come out for this project, uh, that’s been all him. He’s been he’s been killing it. So, appreciate you, Neil. Yeah, thanks a million. I’m delighted to be a part of this. Um, really looking forward to this going forward. Um, so yeah, like you say, I’m Cro UK for anyone that doesn’t know me, but uh, we’re all going to be Bulls without borders now, right? There we go, man. Absolutely. And uh yeah, going forward, for anybody who doesn’t know, we’re going to be doing uh monthly monthly shows. That way, you know, it feels nice and special when we all come together. I guess unless we have to, you know, if the Bulls go ahead and trade the house for Giannis or something, we might want to get together, but I don’t think that’s going to be happening anytime soon. So, we could probably store that one in the cupboard, but all right, man. So, let’s just, you know, let’s kick it off nice and good, man. Like, let’s How are you feeling about the Bulls this season? I’ll start with you, Hayes. How are you feeling about the Chicago Bulls going into 25 26? I feel like I’m one of the more positive uh Bulls content creators. Like I I I look at this team and I I don’t see a way that they’ve gotten worse personally. So I think that this is a team that’s going to be competing for a 500 or above record this year. Um I think that, you know, they’ve added some more defense. Not not enough. They still don’t have a lot of rim protection, which they do need unless no SA really steps up. But I’m in an overall positive place about this team. And let’s just hope that I’m still here in at the end of November cuz that’s sometimes where it starts crashing for the Bulls. But yeah, that’d be nice, man. It’d be really nice to play some meaningful basketball past November. But uh how about you, Troy, man? How you feeling, brother? Yeah, I think we’re I think maybe all of us as a as a small group, we’re probably all the positive guys in Bulls Nation cuz um yeah, I’m feeling good. But as Hayes just said, there’s no way and we’ve gotten actually worse uh for this coming season. Obviously Lonzo that Lonzo for a Cororo trade. You know, we’re going to have a guy who should be on the court for majority of the season unlike 70 games in four years. Shout out Ramen. She had a bit of a dig at me for that one. Um, you know, Martis takes another step up. Josh has another year and develops more. Kobe White, he has a full year in the same in the same role and he he can step up. And yeah, I don’t I don’t see any way in which um we’re worse. I I I fully agree. I mean, everybody, I would assume knows my optimistic self. So, uh Neil, are you going to make it a clean sweep of uh optimism for the Bulls? No, this Bulls team’s screwed. No, I’m joking. Yeah, I I’m the same as you guys. Like I mean I don’t see how this team has fallen under so much criticism in regards to a de decrease in in wins. I mean okay they may not have got particularly better or much better but they certainly haven’t got any worse. So I mean I’m I’m shooting for a 500 team this year at least. Um not way over that at all but around the 500 mark I think is is a pretty reasonable expectation. Okay. I like that. We we’ll we’ll get by the end of it. I want to do record predictions, but uh you know, I guess what what do you think need? What are you looking for? I guess we’ll start off with uh start off with Josh Kitty. So, obviously Josh Kitty just signed a four-year$und00 million extension. Um depending on who you are, that’s either the best thing that has happened to this team in a long time or the worst thing that’s happened to this team in a long time. So, I would say that we most all of us uh lean more towards the uh the former, but um Neil, we we’ll we’ll start we’ll go back in reverse order, man. Like what what what do you think of what would a good stat line be for Josh Giddy having signed this deal? What what what statline do you think would be would make him deserving of this contract? Um, I think he’s going to be not quite getting a triple double on average, but not far off it. I think somewhere along the lines of maybe 18 19 points per game per average with maybe eight or nine assists and rebounds is is pretty solid. And I think that’s what we we’re going to pretty much see from him. The question mark that’s over Josh Gideon, this is the thing that people people keep digging at, is that he only did it for 19 20 games at the end of the last season. But the reason why he was able to do it at that stage was because the dynamic around the team changed at that point for him and he was able to embrace that and play like himself. So I think we’re going to see a much closer closer version of that with Josh Giddy than what we saw for the first half of the season. Awesome. What do you think, Troy? Yeah, I think Neil’s hit the nail on the head there. Um, I think Josh is going to be closer to that player that we saw in that in that last, you know, 20 25 games of the season. I don’t Yeah, he’s not the player who What’s going on? You found yourself on Chicago. What the [ __ ] is happen? My bad, y’all. I don’t know what’s going on right now. Keeps reloading. My bad. You’re good, man. Um, yeah, I don’t, as we’ve all said before, Josh isn’t a type of player who’s going to try and go out and get his own points. like he can definitely do it, but he’s a guy who wants to set up his teammates and make them better. Like, you know, as Hayes has brought up the stat, he’s in the 98th percentile for creating wide open shots uh for his teammates. So, that’s that’s his bread and butter. And obviously, that’s his elite skill, unlike what some people want to some people want to say about him. Um, in terms of, you know, given just playing raw numbers, I think he’s going to be in that 16 to 18 point range. You know, 8 n assist, 89 rebounds. He’s going to he’s going to flirt with that triple double. May not necessarily get there. But it’s um probably more so as far as his offense goes. I think it’s going to be how does he draw out the defense as well? Like, can he be have some consistency on that three-point shot as well? and buy those workout videos on the offseason. Um, it’s it’s looking a lot better. Hold up, man. You can’t you can’t be excited about workout videos. You’re not allowed to do that. Um, sorry, man. I’m just playing. You know how people how people get with the I mean, what else are we supposed to get excited for, man? You know, the guys playing basketball. I mean, what how you feeling about it, Hayes? You know how I feel. I the the fact that people try to make this like it’s the worst deal ever to me are just I I don’t know what they’re caught up in. This isn’t a great deal for a starting level point guard. I think when you look at Josh Giddy, even when people say say the slow start, he got off to a slow start scoring. Absolutely. But when you look at how the the roster was set up at that point, he wasn’t that wasn’t his role was to do a lot of scoring. If you go in and look more, you guys know I’m a I’m a heavy analytics dude. Zack Lavine was on pace to have one of his most efficient and most assisted seasons ever. And that was because of Josh Giddy. At the start of the season, Josh Giddy most of his assists went to Nicolvous number one and Zack Lavine number two. So when you look at the start of the season they had statistically, while it did not lead to a bunch of wins for the Bulls, that’s part of Josh Giddy’s on ball creation that he brings to this team. So yeah, he he started off slow scoring wise, but that wasn’t his role. Guess what? If Modus takes the next step like a lot of people are hoping for scoring wise, he’s going to probably take a step back scoring, too. And that’s perfectly fine. Just Giddy’s amazing at creating shots. And that’s just that’s one of his what he does bread and butterwise. So I think a realistic statline for Josh Giddy and this is taking everything in in into consideration if modest like takes a step and you know even uh you know Kevin Herder keeps up the 15 points per game pace that he was on. I think a good stat line for Josh Giddy 188 and eight I think that’s perfect stat line for him. 18 eight and eight and I think that’s more than reasonable. He can go above that actually. I love that Hayes. It’s like you pulled that right from my mind. So, I’ve been saying that my my uh prediction for his averages is 18, nine, and eight. So, we we’re right there. I mean, honestly, you guys all hit that range. Um, but for me, I think yeah, like contrary to what you’d maybe say for a lot of uh NBA players, especially stars, like his points is probably like what I’m least concerned about. Like, it’s everything else that Josh Giddy does that that makes him valuable. And as long as he’s hitting his three-pointer at a decent clip, I don’t really care what his like what his actual averages like scoring are as long as he can, you know, as long as the defense has to respect that three. Um everything else kind of falls in place from there. Uh I I can we just say right here, right now, like in front of the people, like people that are saying that this is an overpay, you’re absolutely nuts. Like you’re you’re you’re crazy. I don’t understand. Yeah. I don’t there’s no basis for it. Um to say that it’s an overpay is to say that he doesn’t deserve to be paid like a starting point guard and I think it’s pretty clear that he’s a starting point guard in the NBA. Um, I mean personally I know I’m tired of talking. I love Josh Giddy as a player and uh I’m tired of talking about him because everybody keeps bring like everybody has something new and dumb to say about Josh Kitty it feels like every day and uh you know if John Hollinger says that it’s a good deal it’s a good deal. It’s usually a pretty good rule of thumb. you see uh the that Keith Smith um released that according to Spotra they’ve or that the information they’ve got now to 25 per year flat contract. It’s not as it’s not descending. It’s just 25 million a year. Does that um make any difference for any of you guys? No, it just means that the contract is going to become, you know, a better value contract as the years go on. They take the hit in the first year maybe, but as it moves on and as the cap changes, it’s going to be a better deal. Absolutely. Um I actually I’m surprised that there’s not more descending contracts in the NBA um for that for the for that reason. Like I guess a lot of teams don’t want to pay the top dollar right off the bat, but um it makes the contract a lot very tradable as it goes along like you said. Um so yeah, I I agree with everything you guys said. I’m excited to see now that he’s locked in. I was so terrified that he was going to be on a qualifying offer and that would have really that would have really been a downer. It would have put a a dark cloud over the entire season. So, I’m really glad they got the deal done. Um, so I guess we’ll naturally move on to the probably the second biggest, you know, piece of this team moving forward and eventually the biggest piece which is Matas Buzzel. So, Troy, we’ll start with you this time. Um, how are you feeling about Matas? Uh, do you feel like he needs to be like the secondary scorer this season or do you feel like um, you know, you just want to see his game develop and you’re not so caught up in in whether or not he’s the first or second option or anything like that? Definitely not caught up in whether he’s the first or second option at this point. Um, you know, maybe we look at him as a third option. I would prefer I just want to see him add things to his game this year like creating his own shot. Um cuz we know last year he was very um dependent on getting shots created for him. Most of those coming uh from Josh Giddy. But this year just want to see him like can he take guys off the dribble? Can he create his own shot? And next year, like um going into year three for Martis is when I want to see him take that jump into being like the second or even first option for this team. That that’s when he should explode hopefully. Okay. Okay. Hayes, what are you thinking? Yeah. Um for Modus, it it really depends on what a the development plan is for him. So like I don’t know if he’s going to jump right into being the second scoring option. that may rely still on Giddy for now until Modus kind of shows what he’s ready to do. Um, I do think he’s going to see uptick in in in shots available. But I I see them as they’re they’re going to want to work out and round off a lot of Modis’ game. So, I don’t know if it’s always going to be scoring. There may be times where he’s facilitating, which allows I Kobe if they’re on the court with him to operate off ball, which they’re they’re growing at as well. Also, like I got to see first how Billy plans and what the focus is for it because they may want him to work on his playmaking first before, you know, taking on a larger scoring load. Where I want to see Modis grow is attacking the rim and getting to the free throw line more. And I think while I I still think he’s going to be a little bit rough, I know he’s added a lot of muscle this off seasonason on ball defensively, but he can use his length to be in passing lanes to get steals, of course, block shots. That’s what he’s already good at. If we see a more active modalis on the defensive side of the ball and just see growth in in a little bit of all the areas, that’s the most important thing. Year three is probably where I see where we we see the big leap in Modest uh for responsibility and that type of thing. I’ll tell you what, I’m impatient. I can’t wait to see it because I I think that this dude’s going to be a baller, man. Neil, how are you feeling, man? Yeah. Well, the one thing that we know that Mattis isn’t lacking in is confidence, right? And if if you’re confident enough and you have the skill set to go with it, you’re going to make an impact. The question is just when with with Mattis, I think and like Hayes said, you know, a lot of the time players, it is the third year when they take that leap. And I don’t see Mattis necessarily being too far behind on that either. Um, but I do also think we will see growth in him this year. He’s going to be getting more responsibility. he’s going to be given more, like you say, playmaking on the ball. We saw that even in the in the summer league and so I think that’s going to be the expectation is to put the ball in his hands a little bit more. But I’m really excited to see how he develops more on defense as well because that’s the biggest hole that we have in this Bulls team is defense. And I think if Mattis can grow, that becomes contagious. Like good defense is contagious. And I think that if he starts to really push on the defense, you’ll see the rest of the team will start to make more of an effort. I’m hoping to see Aoro do something similar like really push on the defense and and that’s where we need to start making a bit more of a mark start putting a bit of fear into other teams because at the minute we don’t have that as the Chicago Bulls we need to start making other teams fear us a little bit on both ends of the floor I don’t know I don’t think I mean when Yuki Kamura is running down the court right at you man I’m just playing I uh you know hey come on man you know he he should inspire fear here in in folks uh on the transition, but you know um he just he just looks so nice. But uh I uh I would love actually to see Yuki on the break with uh with Matas in a real NBA game, but I digress. I um Oh, my bad. Troy, how you feeling, man? How you feeling about Matas? Did I already No, I already came to you. That’s my apologies. I came around. Um so gotta lay off the weed, Phil. Stop doing pregame weed, bro. I I’m I should watch what I say. I am not I I do not do drugs. God, that was real awkward. I uh just just snaking around that thing. Okay. Talking about a sensitive thing here in Australia at the moment. We’re good. Yeah, we’re all good. But uh I I I can’t wait to see what Matas has in store this uh season. I honestly dude I I haven’t been this excited to watch a basketball player like you know that we drafted since probably I I won’t disrespect him since Lori. Um I had a lot of you know confidence in Lori Markin at one point and um you know I I feel like he’s got everything that it takes. I mean, you guys all said it already, but I mean, really, it’s his combination of of skill, but also the mental makeup because the kid just like he he he clearly wants it and then him being a hometown boy and then him asking Billy to be hard on him and then Billy um Billy started, you know, my dad started calling him Captain Hook because literally you did one thing and he was he was pulling Matas in like real quick, but he took that, you know, let it slide off his shoulders and only improved and never complained. Um, I think he’s going to get the most out of out of his potential just because of how the kid is. And, uh, I can’t wait. I hope that I hope he puts LeBron on a poster this year. That’d be great. Um, might have to put that up in a on a poster myself if that happens. But honestly, other than them two though, I guess I’m gonna kind of switch gears a little bit here. Who do you think is more important to the Bulls going forward in the future, not only this season, but in, you know, seasons afterwards between Kobe White and Io Dunmu? And I’d like to ask, we’ll start with you, Hayes. He said, who’s more important? Yeah. Who do you believe is like, I guess, a bigger piece of the Bull’s future moving forward? I mean, I I the way I see it, they both are cuz they they’re yin yin and yang. Like they they complement each other. Well, this goes back to IO’s rookie season. Like, even though that wasn’t Kobe White’s best season, but they always had really good chemistry when they were both coming off the bench at that point in time before I moved into the starting lineup. So, I see it as them both. They have different responsibilities, but I’ll say this, IO’s responsibility as the Bulls probably best two-way player on this team um is just as big as Kobe as the number one scorer because not only does Io have he’s going to take on one of the biggest responsibilities defensively. We’ll see know Isaac Akuru wants to guard the best perimeter player, but we’ll see. And that IO’s kind of already proven and been Billy Donovan’s Billy Donovan’s most trusted guy to do that. And then I was still going to have a a pretty large scoring role on this team and responsibility on this team too. So I think they they’re both highly important to the Bulls future. Um and that’s why like I’m I’m one of the people that you know even with Casey Johnson lately saying like the Bulls can’t afford to keep both. Like look at the numbers. They can. And unless you have a replacement ready, you kind of need to unless you plan on this team taking a step back. I love that answer. Um Troy, we’ll we’ll go to you next. how you’re feeling about about Ile versus Kobe or I guess you don’t have to do it that way. If you think that they’re both vital to the Bull’s future, go ahead and roll with that. Yeah. No, I think they’re both vital to the Bull’s future going forward. Um, now if you I think as I’ve said before, if you have to go one or the other, like you got a gun to my head and pick pick one or the other, I’m going IO. U cuz just because of what he can bring on both ends of the court. Um, he’s that that two-way player that the balls really need. But okay, it it for for me it needs to be it needs to be both of them cuz Kobe can bring that spark offensively. Obviously, we know what know can score, but he’s he’s probably what the the best perimeter defender on the floor. And as people I think Hayes, you’ve said this before as well, like when you get to a certain stage in your team’s growth, I is the type of player that you absolutely need on your team, whereas Kobe’s more replaceable like in if that makes makes sense what I’m saying there. But um but yeah, I think I think they’re both important to the team going forward, but ultimately depends on what Chicago really wants to do with the future if they’ve got it worked out already. Okay, I love that. What do you think, Neil? Yeah, see I suppose if you’re talking about allstar aspirations, then Kobe is probably the guy that you’re gonna lean towards. Um he’s he’s you know technically he’s the current leader if you have to put that title on anybody on this team until maybe Mattis or Giddy take up that role. But you know so in that respect I would say Kobe is is important. But the thing with IO is he he’s probably our best two-way player on the team at the moment. And that’s the thing that really really makes me like IO is the fact that he is gonna make an impact on both sides of the ball. And you know, you don’t get that from Kobe, but then Kobe’s an electric scorer. So, you know, it’s hard to pick one over the other because they give you different things. And both things that they give you bring a different aspect to this Bulls team to uh to make it potentially going to be more successful moving forward. So yeah, I agree with everybody else that they’re both equally important, but they do bring you different things. Um, but if you had to make me choose, I won’t ask you to do the gun to your head thing again, Phil. That didn’t work out so well for Jamaran. But, um, I would say that, uh, I would say that throw the grenade instead. That’s hilarious. Nice one, Neil. I I I appreciate that. Um um I so I guess I’m I’ll give a little bit more of a spice here. Uh you know, I won’t cop out. I’m not saying you guys did. I’m saying to give a little bit of diversification here for for our listeners. I I really feel like we have to um I agree with you, Hayes, that we could sign them both, but I really feel like um if I had to pick one to be a bigger part of the Bulls fabric moving forward, I really think it’s IO. Um, it’s not anything against Kobe because the Duke can ball, man, you can really fill it up and he’s the only player right now who who stands any shot at averaging 25 points a game on the Bulls this season. But like at the same time, I feel like in 2025, scoring is more replaceable than ever. And it’s not a slight to Kobe. But I feel like once Matas takes like that step where he can be the guy at the end of games, um I I just really feel like I prioritize, like you guys have said, the the Swiss Army knife that IO is. I mean, he could do everything. Uh he’s he’s invaluable. He could play really positions one through three. He can even probably play the four. You know, Billy Donovan’s nuts. He He doesn’t care. He’ll do it. Um but you know, he’ll probably try to the four if you let him. Yeah. Yuki Yuki’s in at center, man. Get in there. You got this. But uh I uh Yeah, I I I feel like they’re both going to get resigned, but I guess I guess real quick, I’d like to know like what do you guys think is a fair number to sign them both for? Like off the top of your head, fair annual number. Um, Hayes, what do you got? Kobe, I Kobe’s if he has the season that that even if he scores 22 to 24 points per game, he’s getting to 30 million. And I’m not mad at that number for him if he’s able to do that with his rebounding creation, all that type of stuff. IO’s a little bit more interesting, right? Because like my first mind goes to IO like 15 to 18 millionish. That range is really good for IO. I think that’s a fair range. But then I say that and I then in the back of my head I’m like, but then that leaves him getting paid less than P will, right? That that’s that’s the thing that that throws off any reasonable value on this team is because like you look at that and you’re like, is he will he accept a contract getting paid less than P will? Probably. Um, but it’s it’s that part of it makes me think it can get a little bit higher than that. And if it does, if IO is looking for getting into the 20 million mark, and if he does, if he has another season where he doesn’t finish healthy, which he hasn’t done the last two years, then it could get a little rough, but I I’d say between 15 and 18 million is a sweet spot for IO for me. Okay. Um Okay. So, and you have for Kobe, my apologies, but 30 30 to 32ish million is I think we’re around Kobe’s going to be 30 32. Okay. Yeah. Okay. What do you think? Uh, Neil, what do you got? Yeah, I mean, I was going to say the exact same thing. Um, in regards to PW, how can you pay somebody like Iodumu less than Pill? You can’t. You’ve got to at least match that contract, I think. Um, now I know they all say that they’re friends and everything, but money divides people, right? So, um, excuse me. So yeah, I I would say you’ve got to be hitting at least 18 million for uh for IO just just to make that balance against what he’s surrounded by. Um Kobe, it really depends on the kind of season he puts down. Like if if Kobe has a slow start to the season, you know, another slow start where he has to then build himself up to to start playing at the level that we’ve seen him play at, then I think that could damage his value maybe potentially going forward. Um but then if he closes out the se this season really really strong that pushes him back up again towards that kind of you know late 20s early 30s kind of value. Um, so really for me it really depends on what kind of a season Kobe puts down and there’s a lot of expectations on him to get get potentially into the all-star um not as a fan vote but as a coach’s decision and if that happens then that essentially skyrockets it then you know into the 30 million plus mark. Okay. How you feeling about it Troy? You got you feeling about the same? I’m definitely about the same. Yeah. If Kobe has an enter or has a season where like he ended last season where he, you know, player of the month and just scoring 20 plus points a game, you’re definitely going to see him getting over that $30 million a year mark. It may even push 35 potentially. I know Hayes was just saying 30 to 32 if he that could potentially push 35. Um, as far as I goes, like again, I’m in complete agreeance with um with everyone on this one that and as H said that 15 to $18 million is around that that real sweet spot, but as we’ve all brought up that Patrick Patrick Williams contract that has just that has just screwed up everything for everyone else in this team because like if Patrick Williams is going to get $18 million a year, then um IO is definitely worth worth more than if that if that’s how we’re going to base the uh the contracts on. Yeah, it’s hard not to do that, too. I mean, players do that, you know, like it’s a respect thing for them. I mean, I think for some of them, it’s not even, you know, so much about exactly what they’re getting paid because they know they’re going to be well off, but it’s about like their status and how they’re looked at around the league and where they rank amongst their peers. Um, I gotta say, man, that PWorld contract is the gift that’ll never stop giving. It’s And uh it’s not a good one either. Um it’s a bummer that you know like you guys said like I 17 million per year sounds perfect like in my mind but then how do you justify that to him? Like I know that this guy who’s warming the bench over here is our 12th man like because I he stands a really big chance of being like the 12th man on this team this year and that’s crazy because he’s going to be the highest paid 12th man in basketball. But something I literally just thought of as well, like going just thinking back how much of the percentage of this the cap is with Patrick Williams contract. Hayes, this is something you may possibly know. How does it compare in terms of percentage of the salary cap with Cristiano Felicio’s deal? Oh god. Oh god. Oh jeez. I have to go back and look at that. I mean, right now Pete Will’s contract is right under 12% of the salary cap. How much was Felicio making? What? 11 million. It was it was 8 million a year I believe it was which doesn’t it sounds like it’s nothing today but like back then especially for a player of his caliber it was a 4year $32 million deal so it’s a lot of money to get splinters and and you know what this is also another great argument as to like the percentage cap why people need to look at the percentage of salary cap that players are getting paid as opposed to the actual dollar figure. Yes, they’re not keeping up. The average NBA fan is not keeping up anymore. No, they they they hear certain numbers and they’re they instantly assume that it’s like this is a you know how much Felicia was making 10% of the salary cap. [Laughter] Right under 10% of the salary cap at that time. So, it’s a very similar deal when you look at it that way, which is crazy. Wow. Um, how much of the cap is Josh Keyy’s deal? It’s like 15. It’s running. Yeah. What? 14 and a half to Well, now it’s at 25, it would be about that that 15. 16.2% of the salary cap. This this considering Josh Gay is probably triple the basketball player that Feli, my god, he got he gets more rebounds than Cristiano Felicio. That’s for damn sure. That’s crazy. Um that that’s I mean to be fair like he Josh Giddy outrebounded Bousvich after the All-Star break last season. Um pretty wild stuff man. He’s actually I looked up the numbers. If he averaged that for throughout the season, that 10.7 number, he’d be the best rebounding guard in the league. So I mean I think he’d be a top five rebounder in the league overall at that number regardless of position. So and you know the fact that people overpay. Yeah. Yeah. just off his rebounding and and passing alone, he’s worth 25 million. I had somebody tell me that if he was an elite playmaker, we would have been in the playoffs that he That’s not how that works. You got to have somebody that you’re playmaking for. Uh but so like to put this in perspective, right? I’m just going to put this in perspective. Just off assist, let’s just take the assist. Josh Giddy accounted for 17.7 points per game created off assist last year. There are players that score that per game that are getting paid $20 million. So shut up on on the Josh Giddy being an overpay thing. That’s just like Josh Giddy accounted by himself by himself for almost 30% of the Bulls offense by himself. It’s not an overpay. No, it’s not. And um I I I love that um from you, Hayes. And honestly, like I I wish I I I I I don’t want to talk about it anymore, but like, you know, people got to stop giving us reasons to talk about it. Um that’s the only reason it keeps coming up is because people keep opening their mouths and saying dumb things like he’s not worth 25. 20 million being a compromise, right, Hayes? Exactly. Oh my god. Petty Rose would almost So if Josh Giddy averaged 10 point, you said it was 10.7, right, Phil? After the Allstar break? Yeah. That would have made him a only .02 less rebounds 0.02 less rebounds than Rudy Gobear. It would have made him a better rebounder than Jaylen Duran, Alfenon, Nick Levich, Jared Allen, Bam Adabio, Evan Mobley. It would have been a better rebounder than all those. Better than Zack Edy if he kept that up for a full season. 7 foot6 player. Better better rebounder than the defensive player of the year. I mean, yeah. uh you know and people I I don’t understand why like the you know if you would give some of those like accolades that Giddy has to other people they’d lose their minds over it but because it’s Giddy it’s like oh well um if you if you watch him rebound he’s actually like literally boxing out and getting down there and like outrebounding dudes are much more athletic than him so he works for him and how many times does he box out a player and it actually leads to it to the Bulls getting the rebound just because he’s boxed out that too. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s it’s at this point I like I said anybody who just want like I’m and this is not to say the people that have the concerns like a legitimate question is okay is our city going to be able to how much are he’s going to be able to replicate over a full season after that what he did after the officer break that’s a fair question but for the people that say stupid stuff like he’s terrible oh well the OKC Thunder only became a championship team because he got traded smack your mama I’m sorry I know this is basketball without borders and not Chicago Bull central I’m trying my best to hold Petty. This conversation elicits Petty Roosevelt from me because why are people so stupid? Why are people dumb? Yeah, being smart is free. All the information that we all have here is free. We don’t like you can go out there and get it if you really want it. Y’all stupid. I love it. I’m sorry. All right, I’m done. No, let him know. No, please be yourself. Uh, you know, Ros, too. We need one of these episodes where it’s it’s not Hayes joining us. It’s Petty Roosevelt. You only get full Petty Roosevelt episodes when [ __ ] [ __ ] got to be really crashing down all around us. Like the last time I just did a Petty Roosevelt episode was I think when I went off on Nick No, it was Jordan Crawford. That was the last Petty Roosevelt episode, which was an epic episode. It hasn’t been sorted since. I mean, uh, if you if you suggest that we should trade, uh, Getty for Trey Young, uh, you can watch, uh, Troy’s head literally explode. Um, that was my, that was a good episode, a whole lot of bull. You guys go, it was from a few weeks ago if you if you are so inclined to watch Troy uh, loses marbles for about 20 minutes. Um, you know, it’s not suited for work. Let me just put it that way. The funny thing about when Troy does get in that like he still sounds so polite when he says it. So it’s like are you going off or you like are you trying to motivate us? Which one is it? Like and I had a few beers that night too and then that that thing [ __ ] pops up and I’m like what? Yeah. Yeah. It clearly it clearly uh was not your cup of tea. I don’t think you’ll be trading for Trey Young in any 2K games anytime soon if I had to guess. But uh real quick before we move on, I want to say what’s up, Melissa. Uh what’s up? We miss you and we can’t wait to have you on next month. But uh all right, so moving forward. So honestly, the bench is really really really the bench and starting small forward. Um are extremely interesting uh and has only become more convoluted recently with the out of nowhere Dalen Terry hype which I was not expecting whatsoever. uh really cool because for him to for him to become, you know, a vi a really viable and valuable piece of the rotation um would not only be great for the Bulls, but you know, people might not want to hear this, but it’d be great for Arturus Carnosovis. Um it would show that maybe he’s not completely uh brainless when it comes to seeing long-term potential in a raw prospect. Um, so with that said, I wanted to ask you guys, who do you think is going to win that starting small forward position, and we we know all of these players are probably going to get some sort of playing time, but like who who are your odd men out? I think that’s an easier question to ask than who’s going to play. Like, who who do you think is are the 11th and 12th men on this team if you had to guess? So, Javon Cart. That’s 15th. Um, yeah. No, he just as long as everybody understands, he’s not playing. Thank God. No, he’s at the end of the bench. Anytime I ever did like any fantasy GM stuff on my show, Javon Carter was last in the list of names that I listed out. Um, why couldn’t you just decline that player option, my friend? But, uh, yeah. Who Who are you? I mean, I know why he didn’t. I mean, he wasn’t He’s not getting that money anywhere else. Nothing. It’s money for nothing, right? Nothing. He’s chilling. Um, so who do you guys got as a starting small forward and then who are your, you know, player or two that are unfortunately going to just be left out of the rotation? Uh, we’ll start with you, Neil. Um, okay. So, unfortunately, I think Yuki is going to be one of the ones that slid down to the far end of the bench if he sees any tick with the main team at all. Um, which I know you don’t like to hear, Phil, because you’re big into Yuki Mania. He’s fine. Um, he’s fine. Yeah, we got to blow out some people so we can get some garbage done. Yeah, but um I I don’t know. I guess I I I can see Jaylen Smith getting left till the back end quite a lot again. I mean, it was the trend that was going on last season. I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if it continues. Um whether Brick will see any tick um is another one. Uh I know uh you’d rather see him on the floor, Troy, but I I’m not sure that he’s going to see too much certainly this season anyway. Um but the one the one that concerns me and the one that I want to see some floor time with is no SN. I really hope he gets an opportunity. Um, not that I want him to get like major time, but I just want to make sure that he gets some time on the floor so that he can develop like he needs to work on on his body for one because he’s, you know, he’s very slight, but uh that will come with time, but experience only comes from being on the floor. So, I want to I want to see him get some floor time for sure. Uh, real quick before I move on to uh, someone else, do you think that uh, Windy City Bulls, does that equate any does that do anything for you as far as floor time or you you really want him to get that time in the NBA? You know, I I want to see him get some tick in the NBA. Um, I I don’t disregard the Windy City. Um, I think that you can pick up an awful lot playing down there as well. I mean you are playing against other talented semi NBA players at least um if not full NBA players down there. So yeah, I mean that’s that’s all part and parcel of the development of it, but um the NBA just plays at a different level and everybody knows that and and that’s why players that play in the GLeague, they struggle to break through uh because it is a different level and and for that reason I want to see him get some real tick um on on an NBA floor rather than just a G- League floor. Fair enough. Uh Troy, what you got, man? I think uh Julian Phillips is probably going to get left down the end of the bench obviously with um the ballheaded you know who [ __ ] and just just because we’re on field I’m not sure how much we can really say so um and plus that’s that’s how he’s phrase so I’m not going to completely steal it but yeah I think um JP I if what’s been if what Casey Johnson’s come out and said about Dalon Terry and if he’s had this monster off season, maybe he plays his way into the rotation, you know, Isaac Kakoro being here. This is where if Dalon Terry steps up, Isaac Kakoro, we all know what he what he can and possibly should bring to this team. That’s where I see Julian Phillips possibly being on the back burner a little bit. I dare say they’re probably going to try and give Patrick Williams another another opportunity which Yeah. Why? Um I I personally think 80 million a year. That’s why. Yeah. Straight. And that and that’s that can be the only reason why they do give him another opportunity to to show what he’s got because um there’s really no reason to give Patrick Williams any more tick. Sorry Neil. I know that’s been your boy for for years now with the in the rear view mirror. Don’t worry. He’s in the review area. Yeah, he’s done. Patrick Williams Island is now deserted. You were the last man standing. I I think I think I might have been actually like I I went hard for him one last time last season. It was the se the game we sat everyone against the Cavaliers at the end of the year. Pat Williams came in and you know obviously everyone was sitting so he he actually did pretty good that game and I my big dumb optimistic self got on this show and was like he can still play. he could still contribute. And then the playin happened and now I’m never ever going to have hope for Patrick Williams again because he was out there doing the Tony Snell. He was just getting cardio, you know, getting cardio on an NBA floor, which if that’s the thing, if we’re allowed to do that, don’t put me in the game, coach. But uh I What do you What What do you think? Uh what do you think, Hayes? Are you So the way the way I view it is I the Bulls the the starting five to end last year was so strong of a finish that I do think Billy Donovan’s going to give that starting five a chance. So I do think Herder is going to have every chance to start at the three, right? So if that starting five stays the same, Giddy, Kobe, Herder, Modus, Vu, uh we know that Trey Jones is definitely going to be getting minutes. We know IO’s definitely going to be getting minutes. We know Zack Collins definitely going to be getting minutes, right? So that’s eight right there of your probably 10man rotation. Auru I Auru I definitely see getting minutes as well. So that’s nine out of your 10. So that means you’re you’re getting everything from Patrick Williams, Julian Phillips, Dalen Terry, uh Jaylen Smith, those four guys are all fighting for minutes in that 10th spot. And that’s really all that’s available to them there. Unless somebody does hit a crazy leap like Dalen or Julian did hit a crazy offseason leap and they come in more ready to go and can leap frog some of those guys. But I think the rotation is pretty going to be pretty straightforward and I do think Jaylen’s going to find it a hard time to make minutes. Of course, um you know all the two-way guys, we never really play our two-way guys a lot, so they’re not going to play. And the the wild card in all of this is how ready is no Eston by the end of the season. We know that at the start of the season he’s probably going to get some G-League. Like even M has played a little bit there. uh he showed himself to be so good they called him right back up. Um but if Noah’s if Noah’s defense and that’s the thing I think I know his offense is going to be a project. If his defense comes along early that’s going to kick those guys further down the the totem pole. So I think that that 10th that battle for the 10th man in the rotation spot is going to be a hardfought one going into training camp. And I don’t know when’s the last time we’ve been able to say that. So that that should hopefully put the team in a good spot. It’s a good problem to have. Yeah. I gotta be honest, I can’t remember the last time that we attack Mina. Um I think maybe she was upset about the Felicio. Uh she said she said she will not allow Felicio slander, which you don’t have to allow it, but you do have to accept it. I don’t think that that sentence has ever been uttered. Uh I gota respect that Remina, but uh not mention Lonzo Ball while Reina’s watching either. What was that? Love you, Mina. Vad not mentioned Alonzo Ball deal while while Mina’s watching as well. Love you, Mina. Um, yeah, I mean, yeah, don’t talk. I mean, there’s another deal, too, that we probably shouldn’t bring up, but uh I I So, overall, I agree with you, Hayes. Like, I can’t remember the last time the end of the bench was like actually this interesting. Before it’d be like, you know, whatever. Um, you know, Ronnie Brewer, whatever, Richard Hamilton, Keith Bogens, you know, you’re talking about the shooting guard for the last version of this Bulls team that was actually fun and had had hope. Um, so yeah, it’s really interesting to me because I feel like honestly I have Denton Terry being the odd man out. I I not because I don’t I thought he took a step last year, but we added people at his position that that you know, like you guys said, like how ready is Noah Essen? Um and then you still got Julian Phillips, Isaac Coro, and Patrick Williams that are all right there playing that same position. Um I mean in wear as well. So if I had to pick the starter, I feel like it’s going to be IO um at the three. Not because he is a small forward, but it’s because uh he’s our best two-way player. And I I feel like but I really it’s gonna be hard for them to not play Kevin Wer in the starting lineup based on what Hay said because a lot of people don’t know this but he led our team in plus minus for the uh end of the season like after the All-Star break he averaged a plus 8.2 uh plus minus a game which is pretty good man. Every game he played he was a plus eight on the court and uh only Josh Giddy was like close to him with a plus 7.1 or whatever it was. So, um, it’s going to be hard for them to to to not go off last season’s results, but I think think I if I had to guess, I’m going to go with IO just because I think he’s the best player and I think Bill Billy’s going to put the best five players on the court if I had to guess. But Isaac Aoro stands a really good chance. I’m excited to see him play defense. Um, I think he could like all of a sudden we have a lot we have some decent perimeter defense like prospects like Dalent Terry and Julian Phillips are both pretty decent defenders. Um, you got Io, you got um, you know, Isaac Aoro. Uh, you know, if Matas taking a step would be really helpful. A lot of people um, I don’t know if they realize that he was top 15 in blocks per 36 minutes last season. So, uh, yeah, we just don’t have that rim protector, man. And, uh, you know, Busousvich has literal lead in his shoes. So, uh, there’s no rim protection to be had there, but I guess, how do you guys feel about, you know, I I I come to Vousvich. How do you guys feel about him coming back? Do you feel disappointed that the Bulls didn’t make a trade uh to get him up out of here? And do you feel like uh this team can benefit from his presence? Uh we’ll go with you first uh Hayes. Yeah, they definitely benefit from V. Like there’s no doubt about it. As much as Voo gets slander for his defense, which is warranted because he is not a great defender, Voo was still key to like Vu was the Bulls half court offense for a large majority of last season and you need that. So yeah, Vu still definitely helps this team. Um does he hurt it in some aspects too? Yeah, I mean that’s that’s kind of by design though that they didn’t bring him here to play defense. So hopefully Modis does take him and our perimeter defense does get better. Um but Vu definitely helps his team. Um and he helps it quite considerably. We’re a better team when Nick Lavusovvich is on the court and that’s just what it is at this point. Well said. What do you think uh Neil? Yeah, I mean at the end of last season um when I did my reviews of the players and and grades, Vuchic came out as the the MVP of the season of the bull season for me. I mean, he’s solid. You know what you’re going to get. He’s a double double machine. And Vu is a great NBA center. He’s not a great defensive NBA center, but you know, he he shoots from distance. He works well in the post. He works well in the mid-range. He can facilitate. There’s a lot of positives to be said about Vu. However, I think with this team, we need more defensively and we’re not going to get that from Vu, unfortunately. But the biggest thing is you’re talking about the disappointment. I actually think Vu is pro possibly the biggest disappointed person out of everything because I think Vu was really ready to go. It’s not that he’s not happy with the Bulls and it’s not that he’s not going to produce for the Bulls, but I think in his own head he’s ready to move on and that hasn’t happened for him yet. Um so I think it’s it’s an inevitability at some point that the Bulls are going to move on from Vu and Vuch is going to move on from the Bulls. It’s just a matter of when and how. you say that I I don’t know how much you see me. I I I really do think there’s a possibility he gets an extension if he’s not traded by the trade deadline. I really think that Yeah, I heard you saying that on the on the last pod you did actually. Um and yeah, it could it’s definitely a possibility. It can definitely definitely happen and it may be what we’re presented with. But at the same time, if if there’s not a good enough deal out there for the Bulls to get something from him, then that is probably the way it will play out. But if a deal can get done and if they find some way of getting it done, then I think they will. I think they’ll move on for both the Bull’s sake and for for Nicole Viches. Uh before before I go ahead, uh Troy, what do you what do you think about and his impact on the Bulls? disappointed that he’s still here in like in terms of the makeup of the team. Yes, I think it’s time to move on from from Vuchic. But as Hayes said, like he’s a perfectly fine center. He’s he’s just not the rim like shot block and rim protector that we need. Like V as he is, we we knew what we were getting when we traded for him. Like he’s he was never going to be a rim protector at all. He’s gonna get you 18 20 points a game, you know, 10 to 12 rebounds. You know, you know what you’re getting with V. It just seems like and he’s definitely g he definitely brings a lot to this team. Just I think what the balls in this iteration of the team now needs from it center spot is more of a a defensive minded shot blocking center. But hey, I can’t be mad at I can’t be that mad at V for what he does because we know that’s who who he is. But yeah, I would like to, you know, I know Hayes has brought up, you know, probably it’s probably going to be uh if we can’t trade him at the deadline, don’t be surprised about that extension coming and then maybe they do the same thing like they did with Lonzo, trade him um right as the off season starts. Um, yeah. I’m I’m not mad at him coming back. I’m not thrilled about it, but I’m not mad at it. Okay. Okay. So, not going to be buying any boots jerseys, though. No. Okay. I I gotta admit so I was pretty uh disappointed at first, but I’ve come around um I mean being quite honest like you don’t find like people like Vu who average or you know his shoot if his shooting splits are 50 40 80 and he’s got the post game he’s got. There’s very very very few centers in NBA history that have those shooting splits and have an elite post game. So it’s a real shame that the man can’t protect the rim. I’ll tell you that like it’s really a shame because he probably gets over hated but it’s because his defense is so bad. I mean it’s really bad. Um I think Felicio might be able to drop a 20 spot on him. Maybe that was a little too far but uh you know he he he doesn’t you know he’s definitely not scaring anybody from you know taking the taking the ball down the lane and trying to challenge him at the rim. So, um I really it’s a shame that we were so close to Mwatch, but I do like SNK. So, um yeah, I I see what’s that was that close to Ma Watch. I I thought it was for sure like live because they traded for they traded for what’s the space? Um Mark Williams and so I’m like, “Oh, they just traded for a center. No way. They’re selecting one.” And then they Oh, yeah. When they I thought I thought Phoenix was gonna pass him. I knew who was it after them. Um Houston. Us. No. Who was after? Who was after There was one one team between us and Phoenix. Was there Houston? Maybe it was. But I knew that whoever was before us wasn’t going to take my watch. And I’m like, as long as he gets past this pick, he is theirs for us to take. And I was getting excited and then when Adam Silva said, “Come on.” I’m like, “Oh, damn.” I couldn’t believe it. I crashed out. I crashed out live on the stream. But I uh look, Phoenix, take it back. Trade us Malawatch. You guys don’t need both of those guys. Come on. I honestly think I wouldn’t be surprised if no SC is the better player. I really wouldn’t. Ends up being that way. And I hope that’s the case. So I really hope I think I I mean I I was shocked by how big SN was. Like so I know that you you see the heights and he’s actually the same height as Lachlan Orich and um yeah you know I I I met them both at Bullsfest and it was shocking to me like I knew that Essenay was tall but for some reason he gives off a different vibe even more so than because he’s just so like he’s just got that I don’t know that really athletic looking body like like he he has a chance to be really dangerous man. Um, I’m really excited to see what SN could do because if him and Matas really if they both max out their potential, that’s a really dangerous uh tusome in the front court. Um, real quick, do you see uh Billy trying to utilize Noah as a small ball center at all? I’ve heard that that I’ve heard rumblings of that. I just want to know what you guys would think of small ball center Noah Essen. You’re probably a year or two off from now. Eventually, yes. I do think eventually, yes. No, is going to fluctuate between like the three, four, and five. Four and five maybe more in in three or four years. He got to put on some weight, but I think that’s eventually, but right now, I I don’t think that he’s ready for that. He’s stronger than what people think, but I don’t I I think when you’re when you are facing off against the Jared Allen, Evan Moley’s, those type of players, you’re going to see very quickly that uh that he’s going to have to put on add some strength here. that’s going to have to be his focus before he can play center long term. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. So, uh, you know, we’re we’re we’re getting to the hour mark. I don’t want to keep people too long here. So, we’re going to go back around. I’m going to ask everyone um for record predictions. I want to know what you think. I want I want to be different than normal, boring, just one record. Let’s do ceiling and floor. like where you think the ceiling is for this team and where you think the floor’s at and then we’ll we’ll quickly rifle through these questions. Um I also do want to say before we uh get to the closing here. Uh look everybody that’s watching first of all if you’re on YouTube please it would be awesome if you guys dropped a like on the video but also please uh subscribe to Bullets Without Borders that channel right at the bottom. The only reason we’re not live from it today is because you had to request access to be live. Hey So that was on me but going forward we’ll be meeting on there uh so that all of our platforms can be uh properly shared you know amongst amongst one giant dominant uh organization but uh all right boys floor ceiling uh Troy we’ll start with you what do you think for the Bulls this season so if everything goes right um it’s not something I’ve done a deep dive on Yeah, I’ll be I’ll be perfectly honest on that going through going through the schedule. But let’s just for the for the Yeah, but just for the fun of the conversation, if everything goes right for the Bulls this year, 45 to 47 wins, if everything goes right, if everything goes to absolute [ __ ] then 30. Oh, that would be rough. That That would suck. That would be sad. I uh and that’s with everything going to absolute [ __ ] Fair enough. Uh Neil, what do you what do you got? Oh, I think you’re muted, bro. I’m going to be a little bit more reserved at both ends of the scale. Sorry, I mute that cuz I was pulling out a draw here. Um so, I’m going to say the low. Uh, I’m going to go with 38 and 44 at the lowest end because I really don’t think that they’re going to crash out like a lot of people are saying that they’re going to. Um, and the ceiling I’m going to keep it quite reserved as well. I’m going to go 44 and 38 the other way. Okay. But my actual prediction I think is going to be 42 and 40. Okay. Best case scenario for the Bulls, the high end that I’ll go is I’d say 43 wins. I think that that’s if if they get out to an early enough start and take advantage of just everything ahead of them, they have a very difficult start to the season and it gets a little bit easier. So, I I think that’s that’s the high end I’ll go. Barring catastrophic injuries, like I’m talking about barring Kobe and Giddy play like 30 games each, I’ll say the lowest that I see the Bulls going is maybe 36 wins. Okay. Um, so I’m going to live up to my I guess um, reputation for being super optimistic. I think that the that the peak that this team could reach, I really think that they can be 48 and 34 and that’s being very generous. I think it’s being very generous. I’m not going to say 50 wins. That’s a really good team. But I think if everything goes right, I feel like then you’re saying Josh Kitty is a star. Like he’s officially like he he stamps it. He’s a star. Um like he’s averaging close to a triple double. Matas takes a leap. Um your your lineup’s jelling. You got a bunch of youth and you’re running teams off the court. Um I think you know Sam Smith brought something up in an article the other day um that I thought was interesting. you said that that the Bulls were the pace that they play with was actually making teams quit last season, especially towards the end of the year. And uh it’s pretty awesome, man, that we’re like capable of running people out of the gym that much. And with how deep we are, we really should be. Um there’s no reason not to get a fresh pair of legs out on the court if a guy like Julian Phillips, you know, is left out of the rotation on a normal basis. Um I think though the floor, I think there’s a lot of variance with this team. So I think that the floor could be, you know, very much 30 34 and 48. Is that is my math correct there? I could see that as well. We’re five game, you know, that’s well under 500. So my actual prediction, I think I’ll I think I said before that I was going with 45 and 37. I like that. Um, it’s still pretty optimistic, but I think the Bulls are ready to take a take a turnaround this year. I really feel like we are. And I I think it’s going to be more than just a few more games than last year. I think I think they’re going to show what they got. I think Slayer asked in the chat how old this team is without Nicole. Our average age without him is 23.9 years old. That’s crazy. That’s wild. Crazy. Yeah. Very young. That would put us like the if off the top of my head like the third or fourth youngest team in the league if we didn’t have V on the team if I’m just like with like you the Utah and the Charlotte and Brooklyn’s. So last season the Thunder that’s nuts. The NBA champion Thunder were the youngest team in the league at 24.14 years old. So 23 would actually make us the youngest team in the league. That’s crazy. And so that’s why when people are, you know, when they when people try to say that this is the same old Bulls, it’s it’s not actually like we haven’t done this since the baby bulls, since, you know, Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon and Noone and them boys. It’s been a long time since the Bulls actually made a youth movement like push this much. And the most exciting part to me is like the guys that have the most potential. They’re all the youngest people, you know, like Matas is 20, man. Um I I still can’t get over that. He’s old enough to poster LeBron in in the NBA, but he’s not old enough to go get a course light from the store. Um you know, just to keep, you know, Getty’s 22. Um I think Aoro’s 24. Uh Kobe’s 25. Wer’s 26. I know Dalen Terry’s 23. Um, no is 18. I mean, it’s nuts, man. There’s hope. I think that’s If there’s one thing people take from this podcast, I would love for them to take away that there is reason to have hope for the Chicago Bulls. So, all right, we’re going to go through these uh questions here to end the show. Uh, Rob, I apologize in advance because you have a lot of messages here and if I missed one, then I apologize. Rob be yapping, man. Yeah, that’s why Rob Rob’s my dude, man. Rob’s good Rob’s good people. He’s good people. He is sir. I appreciate how much he interacts. I You know, it sucks when you ask for comments and you get chirps. So, I appreciate you, Rob, but oops. Didn’t mean to put that up. Um, so would you guys would you guys see Billy staggering Giddy and Kobe often? Like Giddy gets subbed out then IO goes into play with Kobe. Something like that. Uh, we can fire through these as quick as possible. I say we could definitely see that. What do you guys think? Yeah, I I can I can see that. Um, Billy likes to tinker around with his rotations as we all know anyway. It’s sometimes hard to understand exactly what he’s trying to achieve when he does. Um, he hates I could absolutely see that. Hates Jaylen Smith. Yeah. Yeah. I uh I think his player efficiency rating last year was like 18.7. It was the highest on the or second highest on the team behind Busousvich. And yet that man couldn’t get couldn’t sniff a minute of playing time. Uh you guys agree, Troy Hayes? Yeah. I mean, somebody’s going to get staggered. Like there there’s always a stagger guy. I I I mean, ideally, I would like to see Madis get an opportunity to be the stagger guy at some point the season with the bench just so he can like kind of run the show. But they’ll definitely do some staggering of Josh getting Kobe White. Yeah, 100% agree with Isa. Awesome. Do you So, you think there’ll be times when uh when you say staggering Josh Ky and Kobe White, do you think they’re still going to play Kobe at the one here and there? Because I feel like Trey Jones will probably be in, right? No. I mean, positions don’t mean anything for Billy Donov. We’re going to see we’re definitely going to see some lineups where Trey Jones, Josh Giddy, Kobe White, and I Duma out there. So, pick your spot. They’re just playing like we’re going to see some of that. So, uh, they’re going to get there there’s going to be minutes regardless, but I do think for for the credit like the Josh Kitty, Kobe White, Trey Jones lineup was actually pretty damn potent for the Chicago Bulls before he went down with the injury. So, you’re going to see some of that and the lineups are going to get a bit crazy from a traditional standpoint, but um, yeah, we’re going to see some crazy lineups out. Yeah, and there’s nothing wrong with it. I mean, um, people there’s still some people that are really really tied to position like the way that it used to be with basketball and, you know, a point guard was just a point guard and stuff like that, but nowadays, man, it it’s really positionless. It really is. Troy, uh, you were talking before, did you guys? Yeah, I I Yeah, I think um, yeah, we’re definitely going to see some like the minutes being staggered and all that. Um, but yeah, again, it’s positionless basketball. It doesn’t really matter. I think when Josh is on the court, he’s going to be one probably doing the majority of the ball handling. Obviously, you know, Kobe Martadison, you know, if he gets staggered with like the likes of Trey Jones, um like they’re definitely going to have ball handling time as well. But yeah, it’s it’s Billy Donovan. That’s all that’s all I can say. It’s it’s Billy. He will um put together the Frankenstein monster. I for this team I’m glad that we have like for this roster like composition I’m actually glad that we have Billy. Um I might not have felt that way always before but um there’s a bunch of guys on this team that actually do deserve playing time even if it’s not every night. So it’d be it’s you know like Julian Phillips to me is crazy. Like I think he’s got a lot of potential as a role player. Um but he’s like good luck getting to see the floor my man. Like good luck. Uh, so we got the next question from Slayer Phil, just to cut you off. Sorry, mate. Um, I think Hey, as you just mentioned the little private chat there, you got to head out. Yeah, I got to head out. Fell pick my daughter up. I will see you guys next time we do this. Thank you for having me. It’s great show. Uh, y’all make sure y’all subscribe to the channel. Even though we’re not streaming over there today, y’all go subscribe to it because there’ll be a lot of good content coming there over the course of the season, y’all. All right, fellas. I’ll see y’all soon, man. Thanks. And then there were three. This isn’t this that’s not right. All right. All right, guys. Uh we’ll we’ll we’ll finish out strong here. Do you guys think deciding a Josh Wick Giddy will help PE will come out of his show? Uh I’d like to hope, but that’s you. Good. If you want to hope for it, I don’t blame you. It’s not a bad thing to hope for. It’s not a It’s not inherently wrong. Uh but you’re Please brace yourself for disappointment. I I don’t go. You No, you go. You go. I I don’t even think a chicken palm will uh help PE will come out of his shell. A chicken palmy, man. What do you I don’t think I don’t think nothing’s the only thing that’s going to get Patrick Williams out of his shell is Patrick Williams. That’s that’s it. And he’s not doing that. You know what? I I will say like none of us are going to have hope for him. But what what I will say is like that Patrick Williams has the athletic ability and the talent and everything that you need for to come out and ball. like it’s entirely possible. I I’m not going to say it’s even he’s capable of coming out and literally being our best two-way player, except he’s not going to do that. And so, and that’s the frustrating thing with Patrick. Like, he’s got all the he’s got the the physical build. He’s got enough basketball talent to be a really good NBA player. I’m not going to say he’s going to be like a star or anything like that, but he he has the ability to be a really good at least role player in the NBA. It’s all up here. It’s all up in in his head. He just cannot whatever it is that’s going up up there, it’s just not going to click for him. Yeah. I think that’s the frustrating thing, isn’t it? Everybody had so much hope for Pill and everybody every year they were like, “This will be the year he turns a corner. this would be the year that he gets out of his own head and gets out of his own way. And it just hasn’t happened. And this is his sixth year that he’s going into the NBA. I mean, it’s getting to the point now where it it’s time to [ __ ] or get off the pot. You know, you need to do it now or else you’re just going to be considered a wash for the rest of your career. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, right now he’s on a on a one-way track to be uh being covered by a whole lot of MBL um in, you know, a solid three years. Um he’s not even on not he won’t he won’t even be on a whole whole lot of MBL because he’s going to be in China. Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s rough, man. Um you know what’s crazy is that he’s probably going to dominate wherever he goes. Like he’s going to end up being like the probably like the best player in that league or whatever. Um, for whatever reason though, he gets on the court in the NBA and he can’t do it. Yeah. Like you see him do stuff sometimes like he’ll hit he’ll isolate once in a great while and hit like a really nice crossover fadeaway jumper and you’re like, “Wait, what? Where’d that come from?” Um, he’ll do something and you’re just like, “Oh, here we go.” Oh, okay. No, no, don’t worry about it. There was one time last year where he like literally he got the ball. I think it was in that Cavaliers game where I hyped him up after and he just decided like he was dribbling and they’re they’re guarding him past midcourt and he decided to put his head down and like exploded at the rim. He got fouled and almost postered this man. And the way that he did it was like so explosive and so impressive and it’s like there’s maybe 10 guys in the NBA that could just do that. But where is that every play, dude? It just drives me nuts. But that’s probably the most talking about people all year. But yeah, just a a quick little shout with beer five in the comments. Shout out Javon Freeman Liberty, former Windy City Chicago Bull. He is he is over here in Australian playing for the Brisbane Bullets. Uh they they took an L last night and Javon Freeman Liberty had a couple of opportunities to win the game for Brisbane, but uh did not happen. And uh they they played my Adelaide 36ers uh tomorrow afternoon here in Adelaide. So, I’ll get to see JFL in the flesh. Cool. That’s what’s up. That’s what’s up. Y uh you know, tell him that we said hi. No, I’m just playing. But, uh yeah, he could he could score the basketball, man. I’m surprised he’s not in the NBA. He should be in the NBA. He’s a he is an NBA caliber scorer. Um you know, he’s not going to be the star of any team or anything, but the man can fill fill it up. So, all right, return back. Correct. Uh, sorry, just to just to correct Rob on that one. Uh, Jir Young, uh, he’s not with Perth Wildcats. He He’s back over in the States, I think, or he’s gone to he’s gone somewhere else, but he’s not in Miami Heat. Oh, he’s in Miami. Yep. Yes, he’s Which really bothers me. He’s probably going to end up being a really good player. If the Miami Heat picked him up, then he probably is good because my my experience with them is whoever they sign ends up being good. So, um, this happens. But we got Yuki. We got Yuki out of it. All right. So, Yuki Mania. Yuki Mania is running wild, baby. All right. Slayers got another one here. How strong do you think the Bulls bench unit could be in comparison to the rest of the league? This is where we actually can win games. I think we can be a top five bench unit. Um, because we don’t have stars on this team, but we’re super deep. We’re Indiana without without Hallebertton and and Seakum. Like that’s how I look at the Bulls right now. Like we we’re developing Halburn and Seakum and Giddy and Matas although I think that they’re probably Matas is probably the alpha in there. Um I mean Kobe Whites I guess scorers the caliber of Seakkum but um yeah I think we could be a top five bench unit. What do you guys think? I I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with with depth. My only uh issue is going to be having that much depth in on the bench and then having a coach who we know likes to play, you know, eight, nine in his rotation max. I think with the way they’re looking to play at pace, uh high speed, run and gun, quick transition, Billy’s gonna have to extend slightly just to give fresh legs. I think he’s going to have to be looking at 10, maybe even stretching to small minutes for an 11th player on a rotation just to allow that pace to continue because I mean you don’t want guys to get burned out. It’s an 82 game season. They’re they’re all really really well conditioned, but in order to play at that level for that length of time, you’re going to have to you’re gonna have to spread it around a bit. For sure. Uh, as long as Zion’s not a part of the conversation. I guess that’s a valid statement. But damn, have you seen Zion? He has lost all the puppy fat, man. He is looking really really My my problem with Zion is that has he already done too much damage to his body and that despite the fact that he’s got him he’s lost all that weight, is it too little, too late now? Maybe. But the way he can contort his body for a big dude, now he’s gonna be doing it at what a quarter of the size that he was. Um I think Zion is going to be really impressive this year, man. Um I person Sorry, Phil. No, go ahead. Go ahead, Troy. No, I I just I just need Zion to prove he can be healthy for like two years and like not not to say he can’t miss games at all, but the these massive chunks of the season where he’s basically missed most of if not the entire season, I need to see him healthy for two full years before I believe in Zion Williams Williamson again. That’s fair. That’s fair. That’s super fair. Um do you know my argument only would be uh I would love to sign him in free agency. I would love to sign him in free agency. The problem is that you those guys usually never hit free agency. And if you’re gonna have to acquire him via trade, um it’s it’s tough. It’s like you almost have to take a chance on him now while he’s still probably cheap because if he does ball out, then you’re you’re going to empty the cabinet for him. So, um I don’t think I take the chance on him now, but man, it’d be exciting. I I can get my head around it, but I don’t know what I’d even be willing to give up for him to be honest with you. I’d rather get I think I’d rather get maybe this guy. Yes. Walker Kesler. Walker Kesler. Um thoughts on Walker Kesler real I mean baller. That’s my thoughts. He’s a baller. Yeah, I think Kesler Yeah, I think Kesler will probably um fit well into what the Bulls are are trying to do in terms of setting up their the roster with young players with experience um as AK has been wanting to do. Plus, he fits that that type of center that the balls need um at at the position instead of the likes of V cuz Kesler can still get his own buckets down there. He’s not he’s not going to spread the floor like U Vic does, but in saying that, he brings the the rim protection, shot blocking that V doesn’t. So, which one do you find more important to what your team is trying to do? The three-point shooting or the rim protection? And I’m going to go with the rim protection. Plus, rim protection is something that you either have or you don’t have. You can’t really teach that, but you can work on your three-point shot. Very true. Very true. And uh I mean honestly we’ve got guys that could shoot like we I don’t think that you know I don’t think I think we we’re not hurting for you know three-point shooters but we’re very very very much hurting for interior defenders. Um, I would love to get Walker Kesler or if it’s like on the board at all or able to happen, I would love to get if not if not Jaylen Duran Duran, I would like to get Isaiah Stewart from them from the Pistons. I like both of those players. Now Stewart’s under contract for three more seasons. So, you probably have to trade for him, but they’ve got a bit of a a jam like in that rotation and he’s averaging a block and a half a game with limited minutes, which is pretty good. Um, we just need something. It’s It hurts when it’s Vu, Zack Collins, and Jaylen Smith. You’re like, who’s like there’s not a So, like Josh Giddy’s probably more likely to block a shot than than any of them are. Um, so I Yeah, I’m I’m desperate for some rim protection on the Bulls. Walker Kesler would feed families. He’d be great. The best shot blocker we have on the team right now is Mattis, and we’ve only seen him for one season. Yes. Yes. And also like when the best shot blocker on your team is also the like probably like the lightest the lightest guy in your front court like it that’s probably not a good thing. Um yeah and when it when it’s also your rookie as well like that’s never a good thing either. Like when your rookie is your leading shot blocker and he spent majority of the season coming off the bench and especially at the start of the year with very limited minutes. Yeah, that’s that’s not good. We should have kept Andre Drummond. I’ll maintain that. Like I I loved him as a he could have been a stop gap starter, man. Like I mean I know he wasn’t great offensively, but he did the little things, right? I love Dre, but unfortunately Billy didn’t. You know, there would there would be stretches where he wouldn’t even play him for two or three games. And you know, okay, you got chaos with with Drummond, but you also got rebounding and a little bit of rim protection and he was he was a a defensive force and um yeah, I I like Drummond and I was sad to see him go. Dre was a lot of fun even in the bad chaotic ways. Mhm. Yeah. See, you sit him at the right time and you bring him back in again. But what Billy would do was he’d see the chaos starting, he’d sit him and that that would be it. You wouldn’t see him again. With a player like Drummond, you you’ve got to try and stagger his minutes in a way that just as the chaos is starting to come into his game, you sit him, you let him take a breather, and you bring him back in again and let him build it back up again. But I don’t think Billy really understood what to do with Dre. Yeah, it felt like there was a disconnect there. Um, yeah, Billy’s really good about getting along with the like with the young guys. For for whatever reason, he has a problem with like older established vets. Like those that’s where he seems to not always connect. But the team as it stands right now, they seem to love Billy. Um, talk speaking about people coming out of his shell. That was the one time I’ve seen people come out of his shell um in the in the locker room is when they celebrated Billy being named to the Hall of Fame last year. He led the the the backstage like crew and cheering for Billy. I was shocked to see Pew Will in that situation. But uh from Infinite Streams United 224 quite a name my friend. Is this Bulls team now a three combo Giddy Matas Kobe now or Matas IO Noah for the future be best for us? I think what I’m I think you’re trying to name like what what we’re going to move forward with. Um, I mean, why not all of them? You can honestly like the Bulls moving forward is probably that five. Giddy, IO, Matas, uh, Kobe, and um, Noah Essen. I mean, you could say that either IO or Kobe might be not might go, one of the two, but we could resign them both. Uh, and in the future if it’s actually possible to play Noah as a small ball center and he’s not bad at it, like if it’s pos like you could deck that’s your five uh your fiveman death lineup to end games if he is able to put on the mass to play that position. But and who’s to say he doesn’t get a bit taller, too? I mean, he’s only 18, you know. Wow. He could still end up being he could still end up being his own foot. Yeah, that’s actually crazy. I’ve never never considered that. Like the fact you could draft someone that young to the fact that they don’t they’re not done growing, right? I mean, men tend to grow, keep growing up to the age of 21, 22 years old. So, yeah, exactly. I was about to say the same thing. Yeah, he could quite easily add another inch, inch and a half, two inches onto his vertical, man. That would be that’d be awesome because the dude’s already like um he’s he’s already he’s freakishly like long and tall like like he like bent over to take his picture with me and I was like dude you’re you’re you really you’re really stressing out the fact that I’m 5 foot seven over here man. But I think uh let’s see here. I don’t I think that’s all of our questions. Rob’s excited for Lachlan and Yuki at some point in a blowout. I’m super excited to see I I really hope that we get to see a little bit of Yuki. Um it’s I don’t know if he’s he’s ever going to be part of like a competitive game because the team’s just so deep, man. But if we have an injury to like Trey Jones, I could see that possibly happening. Um, so I hope see a world where Yuki doesn’t see floor time purely because of jersey sales. Yeah, he is a lucrative commodity for the Japanese NBA market and I am sure there are people up in the hierarchy of the Chicago Bulls without naming any names that are well aware of that. Excuse you. That wasn’t that was a terrible cough you just had. I know. I don’t know what come over me. For some reason, it sounded like it was actually a really big loser cough, too. I don’t know. Yeah, it’s springtime over here now in Australia as well. So, it’s allergy season. So, uh Charlie Rhinto, excuse me. Oh, these allergies, man. Yeah. Terrible. It’s terrible. Um I hope that that I hope that you guys both improve in your health. Um because yeah, it sounds like you’ve got, you know, I’m not even going to dance around it, man. Jerry Rinorf, man, he’s uh he’s something else. I guess I’m dancing around it. I I’m not going to I I have very strong feelings and they’re not going to help anybody if I share them right now, except maybe me. But as I said the last time that we all got together as well, like go to the um or at least the NBA Australia store and who was the first jersey you see available to purchase? Yuki Karamura man like my guy here Loy the the my fellow Adelaide guy. You have to get that custom made. Yet we can get Yuki Caramora. You can just buy it straight from the ball. So Ryan Dorf knows exactly what the hell he’s doing. Of course. Of course. Oh, playing Bulls fan. My friend, he is sign he has a a roster spot. Uh Yuki Yuki has a two-way deal, so he technically Yeah. What he’s saying though, like is that Yuki will get signed to a a standard NBA contract. I mean, it’s entirely possible, but I don’t think that Javon Carter is going to be waved because that would involve Rhydorf uh paying somebody to not show up to work, and that’s something that he does not believe in. Um I think I think Javon Carter makes like five million, six million. I think it’s six and a half. It’s too much. Whatever it is, it’s probably six six million too much. He’d literally have to make half a million dollars for Rhysorf to be like, “Ah, okay.” Or be Dwayne Wade, which, you know, that’s Dwayne Wade. But unfortunately, nobody on this team has the has Dwayne Wade pull where they’re going to get themselves a nice early uh waiver. But man, I feel bad some of these guys are showing up and we’re about to dip. You said you did make it soggy uh pineappled, but we’re we’re we’re pretty much at the end here. Do you have a question? You have a question? We’ll answer it before we sign. And after the show’s done, just go back to the start of the episode and um watch it from the start. Yeah. I mean, I would definitely do that. Even if you sat here and watched it already, just rewatch it. I’m just playing everybody that did show see how beautiful faces. That’s a great handle, by the way. Soggy Pineapple Gaming. I love it. He uh I appreciate his support. Uh he uh he’s on Twitter. That’s literally his name is Soggy Pineapple. Uh let’s see. What does Rob got here? I like Lachlan’s endurance and mobility over Boo, but need to get him a better shot from three down the road. Yeah, I think uh I think he could be a solid backup. I mean, I know Slayer actually you like this Troy in in one of my recent episodes. I I had been doing like a question of the day thing and I asked who would you like to see the Bulls trade for at center if they were to uh trade for someone and his answer was I’d like to see them develop Lachlan. I was like that’s there you go. There you go. He’s like that might be my Aussie bias creeping in. I’m like I you got to rep for your country man. And and hey not just my Aussie bias but my hometown bias as well. Locky’s um you know everyone knows I’m from Adelaide. Um, I’m up in the the northern area of Adelaide. Lock is from down the south. Down south. I love that. Okay. I mean, his passing ability is really nice. I like his passing ability for sure. And he’s definitely got an athlete body. Yeah. Watching when I got to watch Lucky play with um now obviously for the uh my fellow Australian guys are in the chat here. Um I don’t know if they know if any from from Adelaide or not. Uh but when Locky was playing for the West Adelaide Bearcats uh in the NBL1 Central, uh you can see, yeah, he’s he’s a smart player. He he’s not going to be one who forces uh his game. Um but when he knows he can he can take it, he he’ll do it. Love it. I mean, he should uh at the very least it’s it’s cool to see a center that I’m interested in at least like f you know hopefully finding a role even if it if it’s just as the backup. Um I’m glad that we have a guy like that on the Windy City Bowls because like last year our two-way players did not really inspire a lot of confidence. to think it was like other than Jir Young who I I I felt like he could play at the NBA level but like EJ Miller it was like EJ Liddell and Emanuel Miller I not I mean I don’t see them having you know real futures in the NBA but it could just be me. You know what I got to bring him up you had to do it didn’t you? I did. Hi Ker. Casual freaking Kella question, but I’m going to say hi. It’s not happening. He’s retiring as a Chicago Bull just to make your life a living. Jersey will hang in the rafters. Yeah, just like that. Ker, it’s going up in the rafters, boy. Yeah, it’s gonna get and color. Yeah, he’s gonna we we need to get him a front row seat when Josh Kitty gets his Ring of Honor induction in 20 years and that that uh that that finals MVP award. Yeah, there we go. I mean, Giddy winning a championship in the city would be wonderful for for for my Yeah. What? This podcast so good. this podcast would go crazy. Yeah, there’s there’s definitely some people that should hope that that doesn’t happen, but it’s that’s a shame because they’re Bulls fans, right? But they’ve dug themselves quite deep of into a hole um of of of hatred. And there’s no reason to hate. Don’t hate, appreciate. I can tell you one thing. If Giddy leads the Chicago Bulls team to a championship, I can guarantee you I’ll be on the first plane to Chicago. And I will be staying there until the party stops. Guaranteed. I’ll find my way there, too. Dang. Okay. Okay. I don’t care if I have to [ __ ] swim. I’m going. Hey, guys. We get Don’t swim, Troy. We’ll get you there somehow. But, uh, yeah. I mean, my my my my mother’s house is like 30 minutes from from downtown. I mean, don’t have to pay for like that crazy uh you know, for crazy boarding, you know. Come stay at the mom. Yeah, you get some uh Okay, chill. Chill, bro. Sounds like there’s a backstory there. Maybe you should enlighten the listeners. I’m good. I think uh I think everyone um can read between the lines and if you can then dang Rob thinks Noah’s gonna grow to 7 foot one. It could happen. That’d be wild. He’s a small forward. He’s going to be like Scotty Pippen but taller. Scotty was a point guard and then grew, you know, into a small forward. We’re getting the We’re getting a small forward who grows into a center. That’d be wild, man. That’d be incredible because then he could really play the center as long as he was bulky enough. Like honestly, he’ll have the opportunity to bulk up. And like honestly though, wait, what were you gonna say, Troy? Oh, I was just going to say go scroll down to Asogi Pineapples Gaming’s last comment. Like don’t do that, dude. Like that thing will be worth money if Josh Giddy wins a ring. So true. This is something that a a person with a screen name who that says the soggy pineapple. This is a perfect like comment for for that screen name. I love it. Um yeah, you might Yeah, just hang on to it for a while. That’ll make some money. Uh but getting back to Noah real quick. Like in terms of his building up the muscle and stuff, I don’t think he’s going to be one who’s going to be a huge guy. He’s still his body frame to me looks like he’s always going to be that long lanky type of person who does put it but he get he’s going to be a lot stronger than what he looks because I don’t think he’s going to be able to put on mass muscle if that makes sense. Yeah. I mean and like to be honest with you I think that the whole argument about like a guy being too thin that kind of went out the door with the way that the NBA has evolved. Um, you’re not allowed to do a lot of the stuff you used to do as an enforcer. Um, you know, the days of like Jason Williams on the Nets, you know, I read his autobiography and he’s like his whole job when he was growing up in the league was like to give five really good fouls and that was like that was his thing. Like they put him in the game. He knew he had to earn five fouls, meaning like he was going to put someone right on their rear end. And uh that’s the game that I grew up loving. But that game’s kind of gone, man. It’s it’s really not a thing. And so if you can’t bang down low like that anymore, you don’t really need to be like that that that big. You really don’t. Um I mean, Kevin Durant, I thought he was going to have a lot of trouble. He famously didn’t get any reps on 185 right at the combine. I believe he it was him. He he had zero reps uh at the combine and people were like, “Oh my god, he’s going to be so weak, so thin, he’s not going to be able to play at the NBA level and he’s gone ahead and had one of the greatest careers of all time.” Even though Even though I hate the way that he’s done his career, he’s a homie Hopper, but uh loyalty matters. He got LeBron to thank for that. So true. Yeah. Yeah. LeBron basketball. The thing with Noah though, right, when he was playing in M in Germany, he was getting to the free throw line a lot. I mean, he’s obviously able to make a a strong menace of himself down low. So, you know, he’s not weak. He just he just needs more stability and strength going forward in the NBA. That’s all. Doesn’t need to bulk. He’s not weak mind. He’s not weak minded either. No. And that’s the big part because the aggression. Yes. As long as you’re willing to Yeah. to to fight, you know, if you’re if you’re passive and you let people bully you, then sure. But you can get you can get around all of that with with with a high IQ and just knowing knowing how to position yourself and everything. So I I I I think no will be just fine. Um, everybody, I appreciate everybody that’s joined. Honestly, a lot of people have joined in the last like 10 20 minutes and sorry that you guys missed most of the show. Maybe uh this is I don’t know. I don’t want to keep Neil up too late on most nights, but maybe we’ll consider this for our start time next time. We’ll see. Maybe it’s like 1:00 a.m. there, isn’t it? It is just gone 20 to 1 in the morning. Yeah. Yeah, man. So, 12 It’s 12:43 a.m. 9:13 a.m. here where I am, right? I appreciate you guys uh for both for both coming. For anyone that just showed up, uh Hayes was here earlier, uh he had to bow out and take care of some family stuff. And then Jamal from Bull Central and Melissa uh are a part of our team as well, but they were unable to make it due to circumstances out of their control. And so they uh wish that they could be here, but they’ll be here in the future for sure. Uh honestly, I think that’s all I got. I think um Do you guys have anything that you want to sign off with? Troy, you got anything? No. Well, not as far as the Bulls are concerned. No, I think I’m just looking forward to the season getting underway and we got media day uh next week. Uh, is Noah the same size as Chad? I think he’s like an inch shorter. I think Chad’s like 71. Uh, yeah, he’s 71. So, he’s like three inches shorter than Chad. But, I mean, Chad’s a good What’s that at the moment? I’m still out for growing a bit. Yeah. I mean, that’d be that’d be crazy. Hometown boy like like I Forest, you gota support Root Form. That’s a fact. But we’re, like I said, for everybody who wasn’t here earlier, we’re going to be doing these podcasts monthly. Uh, Bulls Without Borders. Let me bring up the uh channel again. If you’re here on YouTube, please leave us a like on the video. That’s highly appreciated. And this channel right here is where our episodes are going to be coming from. Uh it was my mistake why it’s not tonight. Um we uh I forgot you had to request access on YouTube to go live. So um going forward we’ll we’ll be coming from Bulls Without Borders with everybody as a you know all of our channels as a collaborator. And I just want to say thank you to everybody that signed on to do this cuz like I um real quick I had just like, you know, I had this uh dream of getting, you know, the most uh positive and respected and and and cools content creators from all over the world. Um you know, as long as they could speak English and talk to me on here. Uh I I had a dream to to to put that together and honestly I didn’t. Um, I’m I’m shocked at the at who said yes. Um, I’m humbled and I think it’s amazing and I think we’re going to be like whatever this was, it’s only going to get better and we’re only going to get more efficient and if um yeah, I I’m really excited to see where this all goes. So, appreciate you boys. And uh if anybody uh you guys should be following these both both of these guys, Troy Whole lot of bull or whole lot of MBL. Those are both of his channels. And then you got CredUK. Is that is that it on Twitter? Cred UK or my own account is Neil Cred UK. And Neil is two L’s. There you go. And on the comments of this video, I’m also going to post both of their Discord links. I would encourage you to join both of them. Uh they each got a server and they’re both awesome. So, um I think that wraps us up everybody. My name is Philip Charles Vanderhden IV. I know I’m such a jerk for saying it every time, but you would too if you had that that full name. And as always, I’m seeing red more than ever, baby. Thank you guys. Until next time.
The Chicago Bulls fanbase is GLOBAL – and we’re proving it with the Bulls Without Borders 2025-26 Season Preview Summit! 🐂 From Chicago to Ireland to Australia, four diehard Bulls fans and content creators are coming together to give you the BEST season preview you’ll find anywhere!
Representing the United States, we’ve got Philip Charles VanDerHeyden IV from Just Another Year Chicago: Bulls and Haize from Chicago Bulls Central. From Ireland, we welcome Neill Dunne of See Red UK. And from Australia, we’re joined by Troy Wingate of Whole Lotta Bull. Together, we’re truly Bulls Without Borders.
The dedication is REAL:
For Phil & Haize, this goes live on September 26th.
For Troy, it’s already September 27th in Australia.
For Neill, it flips from the 26th to the 27th live on camera!
That’s how committed we are to covering ALL things Chicago Bulls.
This preview is PACKED with everything you need heading into the 2025-26 NBA season:
Josh Giddey’s playmaking brilliance and why he’s the new heartbeat of the team
Matas Buzelis bringing Chicago’s future into the present
Coby White’s continued rise as the leader of this squad
Billy Donovan’s challenge to maximize this new-look roster
AND how the Bulls stack up against the East in one of the most exciting seasons in years
This isn’t just another preview – it’s a worldwide Bulls summit. The 2025-26 Chicago Bulls season starts HERE.
Like, comment, and subscribe to join the conversation with fans from across the globe. 🌍🐂
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Bulls Without Borders Official – @BullsWithoutBorders
Phil / Just Another Year Chicago: Bulls – @JAYCPhil / @JAYChi_Bulls
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Troy / Whole Lotta Bull & Whole Lotta NBL – @wholelottabull / @WholeLottaNBL (@Bullls_Troy on X for Troy’s personal)
Haize / Chicago Bulls Central & Locked on Bulls – @ChiBullsCentral / @LockedOnBulls
Jamaal / Bulls Central & And One Hoops – @BullsCentral / @And.One.Hoops1
Melissa – @MsMeliss
14 comments
This is a dream come true.
I can't wait until Melissa and Jamaal can join us as well.
I feel like the six of us can represent Bulls Nation to the utmost!
We will plan our October episode within the next week or so. Once we lock which Friday is most open for us as a group, we will let you know via our socials!
All of our YouTube handles are in the episode's description; make sure to subscribe to everyone because these guys are the best of the best!
Last but not least, I'd love to hear any of your comments/feedback/criticisms!
We want to be the go-to group for Bulls fans, so if there's any way we can cater more to the people, I'm all ears! #SeeRed #BullsNation #ChicagoBulls
What do you guys think about that 18 yr old euro league player, Miikka Muurinen? The bulls should’ve drafted him
Lot of concerns for the teams expected to outperform the Bulls.
The AAAA Team❤️🔥Let’s Go❣️
The team will make up any shortage in talent with young blooded hunger 🔥See Red😍
Haize setting the mark. Actions and outlines will speak louder and prove you right💯
Thank you for the Global perspective gentlemen!
HEY EVERYONE! The account that is making this comment is going to be where all of our future episodes are streamed from!
It is the OFFICIAL Bulls Without Borders YouTube channel, and I've pinned this comment with the JAY Chicago: Bulls account so that you know it's legit!
If you want to make sure to catch us while we're LIVE moving forward, make sure you click the icon to the left of this comment and SUBSCRIBE!
Don't forget to click the Alarm Bell after you click Subscribe in order to set the notification frequency to 'All' so that you never miss a Bulls Without Borders Super Team-Up!
❤❤❤
We have mentioned this before, Billy is a good choice now with a young team to build a hustle/high energy culture. He is not the coaching answer three seasons from now.
Dopest team-up ever 💯
Lets Go!! #1 super team
Love this
Jalen Smith needs too start