Chicago Sports

Eight months to the day after Ryan Poles first detailed an in-house Bears study that determined second-year quarterbacks improved most when given a “dependability piece” at pass-catcher, the general manager finally brought in high-quality help for Justin Fields.

When Poles traded the Bears’ own 2023 second-round draft pick to the Steelers for Chase Claypool hours ahead of Tuesday’s harried NFL trade deadline, he made his first major investment in a receiver. And in Fields.

“I like the way Justin is trending,” Poles said. “And I think adding another big body who’s physical, explosive, great leaping ability, can stretch the field but also is violent with the ball in his hands — as well as a blocker. I think that enhances everyone around him.”

Enhancing Fields is the clearest sign yet that the Bears like what they see in their quarterback, who is almost halfway through a year-long tryout to be the face of the franchise.

“As a quarterback — and you all know where I come from — you can never have enough weapons and guys that help your quarterback gain confidence,” said Poles, who spent 12 years in the Chiefs front office, the last five alongside star Patrick Mahomes, before the Bears hired him in January. “I know a lot of the guys are starting to make plays for us. Adding another receiver is going to allow him to continue to grow and gain that confidence.”

Once Claypool gets settled, the Bears will also have one less excuse if Fields struggles.

Poles said last offseason that he wanted to give Fields help at receiver, then did so on the cheap, signing Byron Pringle, Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis to one-year deals and trading a future seventh-round pick to the Patriots for N’Keal Harry.

Claypool is different. The third-year receiver from Notre Dame is a physical specimen — at 6-4, 238 pounds, he owns the seventh-fastest speed in a game this season, having run 21.46 miles per hour in Week 1.

His first two seasons were almost identical; he caught 62 balls for 873 yards in 2020 and 59 for 860 in 2021. Claypool has caught 32 passes for 311 yards this season, but his yards-per-game average was down from 57.3 last year to 38.9. As recently as a week-and-a-half ago, he complained about the lack of Steelers’ deep passes.Since 2020, Claypool has ranks fifth in the league in both routes run and targets on go routes, per NFL Next Gen Stats.

Poles said he had no concerns, pointing to quarterback instability — the Steelers switched from Mitch Trubisky to rookie Kenny Pickett last month.

“There’s a lot of changes going on there,” he said. “So you have to just look at the scenario and put it all together. I think he’ll be fine.”

The Steelers don’t make many personnel mistakes, though, and it’s fair to wonder what they know about the 2020 second-round pick that Poles doesn’t. There have been questions about his maturity.

The first-year GM knows that he liked Claypool better than the underwhelming free agent receiver class that was awaiting him in March. JuJu Smith-Schuster, D.J. Chark and Sterling Shepard are, amazingly, the biggest names expected to be available.

“That’s part of my job and part of my crew upstairs, is, you have to do a little bit of forecasting and looking down the road,” he said. “I just didn’t feel completely comfortable with that. Not to say that there’s not good players there. I just didn’t feel comfortable with not maybe a little bit more aggressive at this point.”

He probably overpaid for the privilege. But Poles is giving Fields a weapon for the next year-and-a-half, at least. He can extend Claypool, who is on a rookie deal, as soon as this offseason.

“The contract definitely helps,” Poles said. “But just like everybody else, we’re going to take this season and see how everything works out, and go from there.”

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In some ways, it is remarkable Connor Murphy is still on the Blackhawks.

The five-plus years since his arrival in the Niklas Hjalmarsson trade have been some of the most chaotic in franchise history, yet he has weathered it all.

Murphy has witnessed three coaches standing behind the bench, two general managers watching from above and 114 other players appearing in at least one game. He has been through a couple jarring reverses in organizational philosophy and several massive renovations to the roster around him.

Yet Murphy not only remains a Hawk — he’s the third-longest tenured player on the team, and could be the longest-tenured by season’s end if Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews depart — but also remains pretty much the same player he has always been for the Hawks.

The now-29-year-old Ohioan certainly leans toward a defensive defenseman role, but he does chip in occasional offense with at least 10 points in every season so far. He blocks shots, delivers hits, breaks up passes, defends the blue line, holds up on the penalty kill and handles sizable workloads. And he’s a valuable voice of reason in the locker room, if not the most outspoken guy.

In other words, Murphy isn’t elite at anything but is pretty good at everything. That’s a logical recipe for consistency in the NHL, and Murphy has certainly exemplified consistency.

But for the next four to six weeks, the Hawks might need Murphy to find some elite play within himself.

In the wake of Seth Jones’ thumb injury, he’s probably the best defenseman the team has. The Hawks placed Jones on injured reserve Tuesday and called up Alec Regula in a corresponding move.

“[Connor is] a calm, steady guy [who] gives you his all every night,” coach Luke Richardson said. “We need him right now especially. He’s going to have a little more responsibility in minutes. But he’s always in great shape — he has been the best in camp the last two years in physical condition — so he should be able to handle that.”

When Jones missed four games with COVID-19 last January, Murphy was thrust into a similar position. Over those four games, he averaged 23:30 of ice time — in which the Hawks surprisingly went 3-0-1 — but struggled to stay afloat possession-wise, finishing with a 38.3% scoring-chance ratio.

On Tuesday, Murphy downplayed the extra pressure Jones’ absence puts on him, noting he’s technically still on the second defensive pair alongside Jarred Tinordi while Jack Johnson and Jake McCabe form the first pair.

Johnson logged 24:20, McCabe logged 23:33, Murphy logged 21:26 and Tinordi logged 17:55 of ice time Sunday in the Hawks’ first game without Jones, although it wouldn’t be surprising to see Murphy start leading that category soon.

“It might add a little more load on power play guys who play those minutes that he does,” Murphy said. “But other than that, a lot of us stayed in our same routines.

“[Seth is] a special talent, and he makes such a big difference when he’s out there for us. It’ll be a big challenge for us defensemen to step up and fill that void and make sure we’re playing our best.”

Kevin Dean, the Hawks’ new defense-focused assistant coach, has worked with Murphy to improve his stick usage in particular, helping him take greater advantage of his above-average reach with poke checks and the like.

Complicating things further, though, is the fact Murphy still isn’t completely healthy and pain-free after missing much of training camp with a back injury.

He joked Tuesday that there’s “always something sometimes,” and considering the concussion he suffered in March and the two pucks that hit his face during this season’s opening week, he’s not wrong about that. He has missed some practices lately for continued maintenance.

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NEW YORK — Steve Nash is out as Brooklyn Nets coach after a disappointing start and more controversy surrounding Kyrie Irving.

The Nets announced Tuesday that they had parted ways with the Hall of Fame point guard, a day after they beat Indiana to improve to 2-5.

Nash made it to this season after Kevin Durant said he wanted him out this summer, but not much longer. The Nets have been another mess, with bad play on the court and bad headlines off it.

The biggest — again — was created by Irving, who posted a link to an antisemitic work on his Twitter page last week, drawing criticism from Nets owner Joe Tsai.

“Since becoming head coach, Steve was faced with a number of unprecedented challenges, and we are sincerely grateful for his leadership, patience and humility throughout his tenure,” general manager Sean Marks said in a statement.

“Personally, this was an immensely difficult decision; however, after much deliberation and evaluation of how the season has begun, we agreed that a change is necessary at this time.”

The Nets may move quickly to replace Nash. A person with knowledge of the matter said the Nets were in discussions with suspended Boston coach Ime Udoka — a former Brooklyn assistant who is not with the Celtics this season because he was found to have violated team rules by having a relationship with a female staffer within the organization. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because those talks were not revealed publicly.

ESPN first reported the talks between Udoka and the Nets. The Nets said a decision on the team’s next coach would be made in the near future.

Nash led the Nets to a 92-62 record and the playoffs in both full seasons, his first as an NBA coach. But they lost Irving and James Harden to injuries during their second-round loss to Milwaukee in 2021, then were a first-round flop last season after trading Harden during the middle of the season.

Much of the Nets’ problems during the latter season were caused by Irving being unavailable for most of their home games because he refused to get vaccinated for the coronavirus, as mandated at the time in New York City.

Nash handled it all as best as possible, but apparently not good enough for his best player. Durant said he wanted to be traded this summer if the Nets didn’t fire Marks and Nash, but Tsai stood by them and Durant eventually pulled back his request.

Nash downplayed that before this season began, saying he didn’t believe the reports were entirely true and that they had quickly talked through their issues.

But things started poorly this season and Nash gave some his hardest criticism of the team during his tenure after their loss to Indiana on Saturday night, calling their defensive effort a “disaster” and saying he didn’t see desire or will.

“We have to look deep, deep inside ourselves and what we want to do, what we want to accomplish,” Nash said. “Do we want to give up on this because it’s been difficult early, or do we want to stay the course and start to build something?”

Much of that was ignored because the focus was on Irving’s combative news conference defending his tweet, and the Nets beat the Pacers in the rematch Monday to end a four-game skid.

But Nash’s tenure ended anyway a day later, hours before Brooklyn is set to host the Bulls (6:30 p.m., TNT). Jacque Vaughn will serve as acting head coach against Chicago.

Tsai alluded to the constant turbulence around the team in his statement thanking Nash.

“My admiration and respect for him grew over time as he brought hard work and positive attitude to our organization every day, even in periods of exceptional storm surrounding the team,” Tsai said.

Nash thanked the Tsai family and Marks for giving him the opportunity, calling the job “an amazing experience with many challenges that I’m incredibly grateful for.”

Marks chose his former teammate as coach in 2020 despite no experience in the job, citing Nash’s ability to be a connector of personalities as a player. Nash was a two-time MVP with the Phoenix Suns who ended his 18-year career third on the NBA’s list with 10,335 assists.

But his schemes were criticized as the Nets struggled defensively throughout his tenure and often didn’t show the ball-moving style of play on offense that his Suns teams did, instead relying on Durant, Irving or Harden to isolate.

Beyond the player changes, Nash also had to adapt to changes on his bench. Mike D’Antoni, the two-time NBA Coach of the Year, stepped down as his assistant after one season, and Udoka left to become coach of the Celtics.

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In some ways, it is remarkable Connor Murphy is still on the Blackhawks.

The five-plus years since his arrival in the Niklas Hjalmarsson trade have been some of the most chaotic in franchise history, yet he has weathered it all.

Murphy has witnessed three coaches standing behind the bench, two general managers watching from above and 114 other players appearing in at least one game. He has been through a couple jarring reverses in organizational philosophy and several massive renovations to the roster around him.

Yet Murphy not only remains a Hawk — he’s the third-longest tenured player on the team, and could be the longest-tenured by season’s end if Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews depart — but also remains pretty much the same player he has always been for the Hawks.

The now-29-year-old Ohioan certainly leans toward a defensive defenseman role, but he does chip in occasional offense with at least 10 points in every season so far. He blocks shots, delivers hits, breaks up passes, defends the blue line, holds up on the penalty kill and handles sizable workloads. And he’s a valuable voice of reason in the locker room, if not the most outspoken guy.

In other words, Murphy isn’t elite at anything but is pretty good at everything. That’s a logical recipe for consistency in the NHL, and Murphy has certainly exemplified consistency.

But for the next four to six weeks, the Hawks might need Murphy to find some elite play within himself.

In the wake of Seth Jones’ thumb injury, he’s probably the best defenseman the team has. The Hawks placed Jones on injured reserve Tuesday and called up Alec Regula in a corresponding move.

“[Connor is] a calm, steady guy [who] gives you his all every night,” coach Luke Richardson said. “We need him right now especially. He’s going to have a little more responsibility in minutes. But he’s always in great shape — he has been the best in camp the last two years in physical condition — so he should be able to handle that.”

When Jones missed four games with COVID-19 last January, Murphy was thrust into a similar position. Over those four games, he averaged 23:30 of ice time — in which the Hawks surprisingly went 3-0-1 — but struggled to stay afloat possession-wise, finishing with a 38.3% scoring-chance ratio.

On Tuesday, Murphy downplayed the extra pressure Jones’ absence puts on him, noting he’s technically still on the second defensive pair alongside Jarred Tinordi while Jack Johnson and Jake McCabe form the first pair.

Johnson logged 24:20, McCabe logged 23:33, Murphy logged 21:26 and Tinordi logged 17:55 of ice time Sunday in the Hawks’ first game without Jones, although it wouldn’t be surprising to see Murphy start leading that category soon.

“It might add a little more load on power play guys who play those minutes that he does,” Murphy said. “But other than that, a lot of us stayed in our same routines.

“[Seth is] a special talent, and he makes such a big difference when he’s out there for us. It’ll be a big challenge for us defensemen to step up and fill that void and make sure we’re playing our best.”

Kevin Dean, the Hawks’ new defense-focused assistant coach, has worked with Murphy to improve his stick usage in particular, helping him take greater advantage of his above-average reach with poke checks and the like.

Complicating things further, though, is the fact Murphy still isn’t completely healthy and pain-free after missing much of training camp with a back injury.

He joked Tuesday that there’s “always something sometimes,” and considering the concussion he suffered in March and the two pucks that hit his face during this season’s opening week, he’s not wrong about that. He has missed some practices lately for continued maintenance.

Read More

NEW YORK — Steve Nash is out as Brooklyn Nets coach after a disappointing start and more controversy surrounding Kyrie Irving.

The Nets announced Tuesday that they had parted ways with the Hall of Fame point guard, a day after they beat Indiana to improve to 2-5.

Nash made it to this season after Kevin Durant said he wanted him out this summer, but not much longer. The Nets have been another mess, with bad play on the court and bad headlines off it.

The biggest — again — was created by Irving, who posted a link to an antisemitic work on his Twitter page last week, drawing criticism from Nets owner Joe Tsai.

“Since becoming head coach, Steve was faced with a number of unprecedented challenges, and we are sincerely grateful for his leadership, patience and humility throughout his tenure,” general manager Sean Marks said in a statement.

“Personally, this was an immensely difficult decision; however, after much deliberation and evaluation of how the season has begun, we agreed that a change is necessary at this time.”

The Nets may move quickly to replace Nash. A person with knowledge of the matter said the Nets were in discussions with suspended Boston coach Ime Udoka — a former Brooklyn assistant who is not with the Celtics this season because he was found to have violated team rules by having a relationship with a female staffer within the organization. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because those talks were not revealed publicly.

ESPN first reported the talks between Udoka and the Nets. The Nets said a decision on the team’s next coach would be made in the near future.

Nash led the Nets to a 92-62 record and the playoffs in both full seasons, his first as an NBA coach. But they lost Irving and James Harden to injuries during their second-round loss to Milwaukee in 2021, then were a first-round flop last season after trading Harden during the middle of the season.

Much of the Nets’ problems during the latter season were caused by Irving being unavailable for most of their home games because he refused to get vaccinated for the coronavirus, as mandated at the time in New York City.

Nash handled it all as best as possible, but apparently not good enough for his best player. Durant said he wanted to be traded this summer if the Nets didn’t fire Marks and Nash, but Tsai stood by them and Durant eventually pulled back his request.

Nash downplayed that before this season began, saying he didn’t believe the reports were entirely true and that they had quickly talked through their issues.

But things started poorly this season and Nash gave some his hardest criticism of the team during his tenure after their loss to Indiana on Saturday night, calling their defensive effort a “disaster” and saying he didn’t see desire or will.

“We have to look deep, deep inside ourselves and what we want to do, what we want to accomplish,” Nash said. “Do we want to give up on this because it’s been difficult early, or do we want to stay the course and start to build something?”

Much of that was ignored because the focus was on Irving’s combative news conference defending his tweet, and the Nets beat the Pacers in the rematch Monday to end a four-game skid.

But Nash’s tenure ended anyway a day later, hours before Brooklyn is set to host the Bulls (6:30 p.m., TNT). Jacque Vaughn will serve as acting head coach against Chicago.

Tsai alluded to the constant turbulence around the team in his statement thanking Nash.

“My admiration and respect for him grew over time as he brought hard work and positive attitude to our organization every day, even in periods of exceptional storm surrounding the team,” Tsai said.

Nash thanked the Tsai family and Marks for giving him the opportunity, calling the job “an amazing experience with many challenges that I’m incredibly grateful for.”

Marks chose his former teammate as coach in 2020 despite no experience in the job, citing Nash’s ability to be a connector of personalities as a player. Nash was a two-time MVP with the Phoenix Suns who ended his 18-year career third on the NBA’s list with 10,335 assists.

But his schemes were criticized as the Nets struggled defensively throughout his tenure and often didn’t show the ball-moving style of play on offense that his Suns teams did, instead relying on Durant, Irving or Harden to isolate.

Beyond the player changes, Nash also had to adapt to changes on his bench. Mike D’Antoni, the two-time NBA Coach of the Year, stepped down as his assistant after one season, and Udoka left to become coach of the Celtics.

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Bears general manager Ryan Poles said part of him was “bummed” about the outcome, but said trading linebacker Roquan Smith was a result of the two sides being close to agreement on a contract extension before the season began.

“We came up short and couldn’t find common ground,” he said Tuesday afternoon.

The Bears and Smith, he said, had a “difference in value.” Poles admitted that Smith not having an agent made negotiations more difficult for the Bears.

He eventually decided that he’d rather have the draft capital from the Ravens instead. Monday, Poles agreed to trade Smith to the Ravens for their 2023 second-round pick, 2023 fifth-round pick and veteran linebacker A.J. Klein. The Bears are paying all but $575,000 of Smith’s remaining contract, which expires at the end of the season.

Smith wanted around $100 million over five years, the contract given the Colts’ Shaquille Leonard. He “held in” during training camp and issued a public trade demand, accusing Poles of failing to negotiate in good faith.

He said it was “highly unlikely” the Bears wouldn’t have been able to agree to a new deal with Smith. The two sides did not negotiate during the season, he said, but instead gave their last and final offers in August.

The Bears could have kept Smith on the franchise tag for the next two years and paid him about $38 million total. Poles decided against it, though.

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Bears general manager Ryan Poles said part of him was “bummed” about the outcome, but said trading linebacker Roquan Smith was a result of the two sides being close to agreement on a contract extension before the season began.

“We came up short and couldn’t find common ground,” he said Tuesday afternoon.

The Bears and Smith, he said, had a “difference in value.” Poles admitted that Smith not having an agent made negotiations more difficult for the Bears.

He eventually decided that he’d rather have the draft capital from the Ravens instead. Monday, Poles agreed to trade Smith to the Ravens for their 2023 second-round pick, 2023 fifth-round pick and veteran linebacker A.J. Klein. The Bears are paying all but $575,000 of Smith’s remaining contract, which expires at the end of the season.

Smith wanted around $100 million over five years, the contract given the Colts’ Shaquille Leonard. He “held in” during training camp and issued a public trade demand, accusing Poles of failing to negotiate in good faith.

He said it was “highly unlikely” the Bears wouldn’t have been able to agree to a new deal with Smith. The two sides did not negotiate during the season, he said, but instead gave their last and final offers in August.

The Bears could have kept Smith on the franchise tag for the next two years and paid him about $38 million total. Poles decided against it, though.

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The Bears are finally bringing in some proven wide receiver help for quarterback Justin Fields.

They acquired Steelers standout Chase Claypool for a second-round pick hours before the 3 p.m. trade deadline Tuesday. The Bears are trading their second-rounder, not the one they acquired from the Ravens on the same day for Roquan Smith.

“I thought it was important to add another impact player for our offense to go along with the guys that we currently have in the receivers room right now,” general manager Ryan Poles said Tuesday afternoon. “I like the way Justin is trending, and I think adding another big body who’s physical, explosive, great leaping ability, can stretch the field –but also is violent with the ball in his hand as well as a blocker, I think that enhances everyone around him.”

Claypool fell out of favor with the Steelers after they drafted him in the second round out of Notre Dame in 2020, but should provide an instant boost to the Bears. He has 32 catches for 311 yards and a touchdown this season. Darnell Mooney is the Bears’ leading receiver at 364 yards, but no one else has more than 165.

Claypool, 24, was a force in his first two seasons: In 31 games, he caught 121 passes for 1,733 yards and 11 touchdowns, plus he ran 24 times for 112 yards and two touchdowns.

Poles said last offseason that he wanted to give Fields help at receiver, then did so on the cheap, signing Byron Pringle, Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis to one-year deals and trading a future seventh-round pick to the Patriots for N’Keal Harry in July. Claypool represents by far his biggest investment at the position, and at just the right time — the Bears believe that their pass game is beginning to make steady improvements to go with the league’s best rushing attack.

“As a quarterback– and you all know where I come from, you can never have enough weapons and guys that help your quarterback gain confidence,” Poles said, referencing the Chiefs, “I know a lot of the guys are starting to make plays for us. Adding another receiver is going to allow him to continue to grow and gain that confidence.”

Claypool has 1 1/2 years left on his contract. Given the trade capital the Bears gave up, they could look to extend his deal this offseason. That might make more sense for the Bears than trying to sign free agents from an underwhelming class in March.

Poles admitted the weak class played a part in him giving up a prime draft pick for Claypool.

“That’s part of my job– and part of my crew upstairs– is, you have to do a little bit of forecasting and looking down the road,” he said. “I just didn’t feel completely comfortable with that. Not to say that there’s not good players there. I just didn’t feel comfortable with not maybe being a little bit more aggressive at this point.”

With Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett throwing him the ball this year, Claypool has been the league’s No. 82 receiver, per Pro Football Focus. His and speed will be unique in the Bears’ locker room.

At 6-4, 238 pounds, Claypool has reached the seventh-fastest speed in a game this season, running 21.46 miles per hour on a 12-yard carry in Week 1. That’s faster than any Bears player, though Fields is ranked 10th.

Since 2020, Claypool has ranks fifth in the league in both routes run and targets on go routes. He’s caught 20 balls on go balls, which ranks eighth, and ranks in the top 20 in receiving yards and touchdowns on such plays.

The Bears have been the biggest player at the trade deadline this year, dealing defensive end Robert Quinn to the Eagles and Smith to the Ravens.

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The Bears are finally bringing in some proven wide receiver help for quarterback Justin Fields.

They acquired Steelers standout Chase Claypool for a second-round pick hours before the 3 p.m. trade deadline Tuesday. The Bears are trading their second-rounder, not the one they acquired from the Ravens on the same day for Roquan Smith.

“I thought it was important to add another impact player for our offense to go along with the guys that we currently have in the receivers room right now,” general manager Ryan Poles said Tuesday afternoon. “I like the way Justin is trending, and I think adding another big body who’s physical, explosive, great leaping ability, can stretch the field –but also is violent with the ball in his hand as well as a blocker, I think that enhances everyone around him.”

Claypool fell out of favor with the Steelers after they drafted him in the second round out of Notre Dame in 2020, but should provide an instant boost to the Bears. He has 32 catches for 311 yards and a touchdown this season. Darnell Mooney is the Bears’ leading receiver at 364 yards, but no one else has more than 165.

Claypool, 24, was a force in his first two seasons: In 31 games, he caught 121 passes for 1,733 yards and 11 touchdowns, plus he ran 24 times for 112 yards and two touchdowns.

Poles said last offseason that he wanted to give Fields help at receiver, then did so on the cheap, signing Byron Pringle, Equanimeous St. Brown and Dante Pettis to one-year deals and trading a future seventh-round pick to the Patriots for N’Keal Harry in July. Claypool represents by far his biggest investment at the position, and at just the right time — the Bears believe that their pass game is beginning to make steady improvements to go with the league’s best rushing attack.

“As a quarterback– and you all know where I come from, you can never have enough weapons and guys that help your quarterback gain confidence,” Poles said, referencing the Chiefs, “I know a lot of the guys are starting to make plays for us. Adding another receiver is going to allow him to continue to grow and gain that confidence.”

Claypool has 1 1/2 years left on his contract. Given the trade capital the Bears gave up, they could look to extend his deal this offseason. That might make more sense for the Bears than trying to sign free agents from an underwhelming class in March.

Poles admitted the weak class played a part in him giving up a prime draft pick for Claypool.

“That’s part of my job– and part of my crew upstairs– is, you have to do a little bit of forecasting and looking down the road,” he said. “I just didn’t feel completely comfortable with that. Not to say that there’s not good players there. I just didn’t feel comfortable with not maybe being a little bit more aggressive at this point.”

With Mitch Trubisky and Kenny Pickett throwing him the ball this year, Claypool has been the league’s No. 82 receiver, per Pro Football Focus. His and speed will be unique in the Bears’ locker room.

At 6-4, 238 pounds, Claypool has reached the seventh-fastest speed in a game this season, running 21.46 miles per hour on a 12-yard carry in Week 1. That’s faster than any Bears player, though Fields is ranked 10th.

Since 2020, Claypool has ranks fifth in the league in both routes run and targets on go routes. He’s caught 20 balls on go balls, which ranks eighth, and ranks in the top 20 in receiving yards and touchdowns on such plays.

The Bears have been the biggest player at the trade deadline this year, dealing defensive end Robert Quinn to the Eagles and Smith to the Ravens.

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The Chicago Bulls travel to Brooklyn as betting underdogs to face the Nets following the departure of Head Coach Steve Nash.

Our 3-4 Chicago Bulls head to the east coast for the first night of a back-to-back against the 2-5 Brooklyn Nets. Looking to bounce back from two consecutive losses, the Bulls will have to wade through a bizarre situation when they play the Nets tonight.

Today’s news aside, Brooklyn has already become a lightning rod for the media, and I won’t dive into the current narratives and backlash surrounding Kyrie Irving, but given the 2-5 record, it is tough to deny that the ongoing situation is not a distraction.

Factor in today’s news of Steve Nash’s departure, along with news of Ime Udoka potentially moving from his suspension in Boston to this head coaching vacancy, and you have a massively uncertain situation.

I do have some faith in the Bulls tonight on the spread or moneyline, but you just don’t know how this Nets team will respond to the coaching change. While everything going on here is incredibly distracting, certain teams respond better to coaching changes than others. Nonetheless, I’ve got a best bet today that is looking to get us back in the win column and get us to a nice 6-2 start to the season! Best of luck and GO BULLS!!

2022 Bulls Best Bet Record: 5-2

Zach LaVine Over 23.5 Points (Sportsbook odds may vary)

The Chicago Bulls enter Tuesday’s game with a handful of injury designations to note, including the pick of the day, Zach LaVine. In his case, reports indicate that he is probable to play tonight and may sit tomorrow, as the team continues to tread lightly in his progression from his knee injury. It appears they will continue to split his time when back-to-backs arrive on the schedule.

Beyond LaVine, the Bulls list Andre Drummond out, with Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu listed as questionable. Ben Simmons and Seth Curry have been ruled out for Brooklyn. According to reports, Ayo Dosunmu returned to practice Monday, giving some optimism that he may suit up.

Regardless of the injury designations, and the circus that is surrounding Brooklyn, this Chicago Bulls squad should see plenty of scoring opportunities against a bad Nets defensive unit. Entering tonight’s game, Brooklyn ranks 25th in effective shooting percentage and 29th in defensive efficiency. An absent Ben Simmons also removes an element of their defensive size and length that might have otherwise caused issues for the Bulls.

Brooklyn’s defense has been especially susceptible to opposing star players, and in most cases their opposing team’s top two scorers. Through seven games, the leading individual scorer in each game for Brooklyn’s opposition has an average of 35.6 points per game scored, with four of their seven games having seen an opposing player score at least 37 points. Brandon Ingram’s 28 points on opening night is the only case of a Brooklyn opposing player posting an individual team high below 30 points.

Demar Derozan currently stands as the Chicago Bulls leading scorer at 25.9 points per game, but that number dips to 19.75 over four games with LaVine in the lineup. If the trend continues with LaVine seeing equal opportunities, or even a higher volume of opportunities than Demar within games in which they both play, you can expect this to be a huge night for LaVine, and potentially his first 30 point night of the season.

This isn’t to suggest that Derozan can’t also have a great night, as I mentioned Brooklyn has given up a ton of points to not only one big point scorer in every game, but has seen a few games with two monster performances.

Last Monday, in Brooklyn’s 134-124 loss to Memphis both Ja Morant and Desmond Bane tallied 38 points each. LaVine and Derozan obviously have their differences to those two, but you could absolutely convince me that the Bulls duo could both be in for a huge night.

The biggest difference to that duo, and why I like LaVine to have a better night than Derozan, is the three point defense of Brooklyn. The Nets rank 27th in three point percentage, and with Derozan’s lack of volume, you would feel better that Zach might be a better candidate to pour in some threes to pace this Chicago offense.

Give me a 30-point outing from LaVine and a Bulls win to boot! Let’s see some red and GO BULLS!!

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