Dougie's Busy Summer

A forgotten man during much of his rookie season, Doug McDermott is looking to change that.  With a new head coach in Fred Hoiberg comes a new philosophy and McDermott will get the full experience of that in training camp.  Until then, he'll settle for the fruits of his own labor, part of which came during Summer League action.  Averaging 18.8 points on 48.8 percent shooting over five games, he was named to the All-NBA Summer League First Team.

It's common for incoming NBA sophomores who didn't fully blossom as rookies to play a second straight year in the Summer League.  McDermott fits that description like a glove.  Last year, he found a little bit of playing time early until knee surgery sidelined him long-term.  He never regained his place in Tom Thibodeau's rotation and averaged just 8.9 minutes over 36 games.  Most of the time, he saw the floor when a game was well in hand.

I aggressively advocated for the Bulls to draft McDermott and I was happy that they traded their two first-round picks in 2014 to get him.  I was looking forward to the reigning national player of the year creating some memories as a rookie.  Instead, Nikola Mirotic made the All-Rookie Team and McDermott was left far behind in the dust.  A couple of co-workers, who heard my constant lauding of the Creighton product, told me in jest not to advocate for the next Bulls draft pick.

So McDermott has to make me look better as well as himself.  He's already taken steps to build up his strength in the weight room.  Soon, he will be training with Jimmy Butler in California and be taking part in a high-level skills camp in Las Vegas.  Working on both his body and his game shows how aware he is of his disappointing rookie campaign and won't feel sorry for himself.

With Hoiberg still settling in, it might take another year before McDermott becomes the player we hope he can become:  one who can create his own shot and open opportunities for others.  Then again, we have no way of knowing how deeply Thibodeau's offensive philosophy (if there really was one) became ingrained in him.  Perhaps the lack of playing time made him miss things more regular players were prone to pick up.  If that's true, McDermott's real rookie season might be coming up.

Hoiberg needs offensive players to listen to his mainly offensive strategy.  McDermott could be the perfect project for him.  If all goes well, McDermott's success or failure could depend largely on what Hoiberg himself provides.  While Hoiberg has to worry about the other players, he might just focus on developing McDermott as much as looking for chemistry between Butler and Derrick Rose.

Now is the time for McDermott to show he didn't max out in college.  Hopefully, the guidance he receives from professional personnel will do him some good.  Of course, he has to be the one to provide his own results.  Those will determine if he has a long NBA career or will be looking back more fondly on his glorious college days.

Moving Down the Dial

Both being owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, the Bulls and White Sox have often gone hand-in-hand.  The Training Academy in Lisle immediately comes to mind.  They once shared a TV program on Fox Sports Net Chicago that talked about the organizations.  During Reinsdorf's ownership, they have both had their games broadcast at the same time on WMAQ and later, ESPN 1000.

The radio partnership is back in the picture with the announcement that the teams are leaving their respective radio homes for WLS AM 890.  The White Sox will ditch 670 The Score next spring while the Bulls will remain on ESPN 1000 for the coming season before leaving.  The Bulls' deal goes for five years and the Sox' for six, both running through 2021.  If the two teams' schedules ever conflict with each other, the Bulls will likely play on WLUP FM 97.9.

Since I've started followed the Bulls in earnest, they've almost always been on ESPN 1000.  That means they'll have been on there for almost 20 years once they leave.  It's a shame to have another piece of my childhood changing long-term and an even greater shame for one of Chicago's sports stations to be left without a team right now.  Personalities and writers like Nick Friedell, Jonathan Hood, Marc Silverman, Carmen DeFalco and Steve Kashul have been instrumental in promoting and discussing the team, so their jobs might change.

No word on the broadcast team has come down yet, but I would hope Chuck Swirsky and Bill Wennington aren't going anywhere.  Swirsky is a born play-by-play announcer and Wennington is as good a Bulls ambassador as he is a broadcaster.  I know some people who don't like the Mickey Mouse voice he often drops going into breaks, but I look past that.  If you're going to replace either of those guys, they better be proven in their respective areas.

The Bulls will get a greater reach with WLS.  ESPN 100 doesn't go very far beyond Chicagoland, Northwest Indiana and southeast Wisconsin.  WLS covers the vast majority of Illinois and Indiana.  Its signal can be faintly heard as far north as Green Bay, just east of Cedar Rapids, as far southwest as St. Louis and as far east as northwest Ohio.

As far as sports programming, WLS is known in Chicago for only carrying Notre Dame football and basketball.  The rest of the time, it operates with a news/talk format that includes Rush Limbaugh, Steve Dahl and Jonathon Brandmeier.  Most recently, it was ranked 29th in Chicago's Nielsen Audio survey.  Gaining the Bulls and White Sox could attract a new, younger demographic the station doesn't really attract right now.

Aside from the two stations losing their teams and maybe some of the teams' on-air personnel, everybody stands to benefit from this.  The station earns more revenue as well as better ratings.  The teams enter lucrative deals with a new partner.  And we Bulls fans get to listen to our team on the radio further from Chicago than we had before.

Brazilian Baller

So far, Bobby Portis is the only guaranteed newcomer for the Bulls this fall.  However, if all goes according to plan, there could be one more rookie.  Brazilian forward/center Cristiano Felicio, currently on the Summer League roster, has been signed to a contract.  Terms of the deal were not announced.

Last season, the 6-foot-10, 275-pound Felicio played for C.R. Flamengo of Novo Basquete Brasil.  He last made headlines in the U.S. when he was on the verge of attending Oregon in the summer of 2013.  But those plans ended when a report emerged that he signed a professional contract in Brazil while still in high school.  He and the school couldn't prove that didn't happen, so he's remained in his homeland ever since.

It's possible Felicio, if he makes the roster, could be extra insurance for Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol and Taj Gibson.  If Portis wasn't enough, Felicio hopefully is.  We don't know a whole lot about what he can do, but Gar Forman is eager to give him a chance.  Even if he doesn't make the final roster, it's a very low-risk signing.

It wouldn't be fair to compare him to other Bulls undrafted international signings (Andres Nocioni, Kornel David, etc.) because those all happened years ago.  If he stands out in the Summer League and later, the preseason, such comparisons won't be needed.  Now is his chance to leave a good impressioin on Fred Hoiberg before the head coach leaves Las Vegas.  Best of luck to an unknown trying to pounce on making the big time.

Starting to Look Familiar

The more things change, the more things stay the same.  That appears to be the theme for the Bulls ever since they exited the playoffs.  Besides changing head coaches and drafting Bobby Portis, very little has changed.  We can say that with further confidence now that they're bringing back Aaron Brooks on a one-year deal.

Brooks played well as the backup point guard on last year's squad (11.6 points per game).  Having joined a long list of productive players in that role during Tom Thibodeau's tenure, he was thought to continue that during the playoffs.  Instead, he disappeared with only 4.5 points per game, putting more pressure on a still-recovering Derrick Rose.  After that, his days in Chicago looked to be numbered.

Instead of grabbing a point guard in the draft, the Bulls decided to go big with Portis, leaving everyone to believe they'd sign a veteran at the position in free agency.  However, those on the market were either out of their price range, less than ideal or chose to sign elsewhere.  Perhaps Gar Forman and John Paxson felt their hands were tied here, but the move seems to indicate they have full confidence in the team that took LeBron James to six games in the playoffs instead of their usual five.

Does GarPax really believe Thibodeau was responsible for the team flaming out against Cleveland or do they believe Fred Hoiberg is the coach who can push them over the top?  Not since the championship years have we seen so little roster turnover in this organization.  The consensus was the Bulls needed to shake things up so they can get further along in their journey and soon.  However, with a new coach typically comes new players and none seem to be arriving barring a trade in the days and weeks to come.

Is there a move in the works we don't know about?  Not likely since Taj Gibson, their best tradeable asset, won't see basketball action again until roughly the start of the regular season.  Mike Dunleavy and Jimmy Butler have already been locked up while Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah are aging and injured respectively.  Heck, everyone will be a year older, so that's not very exciting when other teams look at guys they might want.

While other contenders are moving players around and signing free agents, thus getting better, the Bulls seem content with those they already had.  Will this be a "slow and steady wins the race" situation or one that comes back to "you snooze, you lose"?  Either scenario could play out, but most people are probably looking at the latter.  If the Bulls fall behind because they couldn't/wouldn't find outside help to correct their problems, people will be calling for GarPax to be tarred and feathered at the Michael Jordan statue.

It's possible GarPax spent a good portion of last year picturing how Hoiberg would have handled the team they had in place.  Would he have sat guys more, as is typically the case in today's NBA?  Would fewer injuries have come from that?  Would that have meant a stronger showing against Cleveland?  As much as I'm sure they'd like, they're never going have the answers to those questions.

Defying the turnover that defines today's league is a practice only the best teams can get away with.  If the salary cap doesn't force you to mess with a good thing, you won't.  The Bulls have yet to prove their a real championship contender as constructed.  If there was ever an offseason to define GarPax, this would be it.

UPDATE: The Butler Signed It

Maybe I should have waited until later in the day to write a post about all the moves the Bulls have made this week.  But so much was happening, I had to recap it all quickly.  I figured Jimmy Butler finalizing his new five-year, $90 million contract was inevitable, although I didn't anticipate it happening already.  However, it has.

Already, the Bulls have checked off the biggest item on their to-do list for the offseason, which was to lock up their best player of the past season for the rest of the decade.  Although Butler will have a player option for the fifth year, he's hear to stay for at least most of his prime.  Everyone in the front office is celebrating, as are the fans.  They wanted this deal done and they got it as quickly as they could have hoped (unless you count the one Butler rejected at the start of last year).

All that talk about Butler not getting along with Derrick Rose or wanting to be the only alpha male on the roster can be put to rest.  No "league source" was officially named, so until it comes out, we can't put much, if any stock in that "report".  If Butler had grown sick of Rose, would he have signed this contract knowing the former MVP would be around for at least two more years and possibly beyond?  I highly doubt it.

Even if a fraction of the reported animosity exists between the two, Fred Hoiberg will do everything he can to resolve those differences between the two.  If it doesn't, Hoiberg can focus on making that duo stronger together.  Both are still young, although Rose's knees would suggest otherwise.  If no more injuries get in the way, they can develop a chemistry that would rival whatever the Splash Brothers have working for them.

There's no guarantee Butler will have as good a season, if not better at any point in the future.  He doesn't have to be an All-Star every year, but he should at least put up solid numbers.  In 30 years of the Most Improved Player Award, none has made it to the Hall of Fame yet, so we're especailly not exactly asking Butler to do that.  He just needs to compete with the best players in the league and make the Bulls a winner.

Whatever happens, no one can ever take away the season Butler just had.  20.0 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game is a line any player would love to have.  He made everything work like clockwork and even made two clutch plays on both ends when I saw the Bulls in Indiana last December.  Even if I didn't get to watch every game as closely as I would have liked, anyone who watched the Bulls at all last year know this guy was something special.

Hope you've found a nice place to live in Chicago, Jimmy.  If you have, consider making some renovations or other improvements to make yourself feel more at home.  If you haven't, hope you find something very reasonable with the money you're about to make.  Either way, everyone's happy to have you here.

Keeping the Band Together

As NBA free agency commences, the Bulls have already heard from a couple of players that they'll return next year.  A third is also considering staying in Chicago for awhile after it was reported he was trying to get out.  Let's look at these moves chronologically.

It all began when Kirk Hinrich, to the chagrin of many, exercised his option to return for next year.  This will be the fourth year of was second Bulls tenure and 11th overall.  If the point guard known as Captain Kirk wasn't coming off his worst season ever at 5.7 points and 2.2 assists per game, people might have been more excited.

But this was strictly Hinrich's choice and even if he's in a limited role next year, he loves the Bulls too much to leave now.  We all know at age 34, he can't be the major contributor he once was, which could be detrimental to the team.  Even so, he can still show flashes of his former self on a given night, so those games will be worth watching out for.  Plus, maybe Fred Hoiberg felt bad about missing a chance to be Hinrich's teammate by a year, so he decided being his head coach would be the next best thing.

Many whispers were surrounding  Jimmy Butler's future over the past week.  He only wanted to sign with the Lakers.  He didn't like the idea the Bulls being Derrick Rose's team or that Rose got special treatment this past year.  Whether it was because of money or a desire to get out of Chicago as quickly as possible, some might have already started planning on life without Butler.

Now, the restricted free agent is mulling a five-year $90 million offer from the Bulls.  He canceled meetings with several teams to think this over.  While nothing has happened yet, this seems to seriously indicate that the aforementioned was nothing more than speculation.  Plus, the Bulls can match any offer from other teams.

Butler has stated before he wishes to remain a Bull and there doesn't appear to be any legitimate report that would suggest otherwise.  The Most Improved Player only turned down the Bulls' offer at the start of the season to see what other offers would come later.  It paid off and now, everybody is lining up to get him.  Still, it would take a sudden change of heart for Butler to play elsewhere sooner rather than much later.

In the meantime, the Bulls can rest easy knowing Mike Dunleavy has agreed to a new three year, $15 million contract with them.  The starting small forward drew strong interest from the Cavaliers, especially free-agent-in-name-only LeBron James, but Dunleavy chose to remain in Chicago instead.  As much as Cleveland would like the depth, the Bulls need him to stabilize their starting lineup and Dunleavy apparently felt more comfortable with the Bulls.  It's a two-way victory.

Dunleavy will be 35 at the start of next year, but he's proven to have the shooting and veteran leadership the Bulls need out of the three.  His 107 3-pointers were a high for the team and the offensive-minded Hoiberg will need someone like him, even as he gets older.  Shooters last awhile in the NBA and Dunleavy doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon.  Without him, the Bulls probably would have had a worse season, coming out of their worst stretches in tougher spots.

Free agency is not even a day old and already, the Bulls have been busy.  For now, the main focus is to retain the players they want who could head elsewhere otherwise.  A week from now, we'll start to see some new faces enter to picture.  Prepare to celebrate or be upset, depending on if you're a glass half-full or half-empty person.