A Weak Ash Wednesday

I can't believe I, usually one of the most optimistic Bulls fans around, am changing my tune on my outlook for this season.  Never mind that they've been stripped to the bare bone with injuries or that they're heading into the All-Star break.  I'll spare the details of their 113-90 Ash Wednesday defeat to the Atlanta Hawks and the ugliness it involved, but it made one thing clear to me:  something others have probably expressed elsewhere.  It might be time to blow it up.

That's 13 losses in their last 18 and their fifth straight defeat at the United Center, the first such stretch since March 2010.  The Bulls are now 27-25 for a whopping two games above .500, one game in front of ninth-place Detroit in the East and their four-game losing streak is the longest in the Central.  Completely unacceptable for a team that was supposed to challenge Cleveland for the conference.  Instead, we're watching...I have no clue.

Actually, here's a rough idea:  the Bulls can't close on offense and don't crack down on defense.  Put them together and a conference contender becomes a team inching ever closer to the draft lottery.  There's no way it should be like this.  Yet here we are, watching poor basketball wondering what could have been both this year and last.

The trade deadline comes just after the break and this is where the Bulls will decide who they are.  Do they hope everything turns around or do they play the market for the future?  If Gar Forman and John Paxson don't at least consider the latter, they're only fooling themselves.  Refusing to consider all options is practically begging for a firing, though I'm not convinced the ever loyal Jerry Reinsdorf is even considering dumping his boys onto the street.

In a possible sign the organization really is out of touch, ESPN's Brian Windhorst said in an ESPN 1000 interview that the front office is looking to re-sign Pau Gasol this offseason for $20 million.  If they even consider such a deal, count on a lot of empty seats at the United Center next season in protest.  Obviously, there will be other reasons, but pulling this off will make it quite difficult not to compare them to the Settlers on those DirecTV commercials.

The roster needs to be broken up, plain and simple.  If nothing happens in the next week, it better after the season.  Whether the potential new-look Bulls fit Fred Hoiberg's system or a possible new head coach's (and that might not be a farfetched idea), they need to be comfortable with that as well as each other.  The current Bulls have no indication of doing either at the moment.

I'll have a midseason report coming in the next week.  Additionally, I'm doing a podcast about the team for my grad school class, so I'll post that here as well.  I'll be busy trying to be productive during the break.  Whether the Bulls are willing or able to do the same can't be guaranteed.