Still Sinking

Don't let the smiles behind this official team photo fool you.  Taken at face value (no pun intended), you see people happy to be competing together.  But in reality, there's no real indication anyone in this picture has enjoyed doing that this season and it shows.  The latest addition to the Bulls' four-game losing streak, Monday's 102-100 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, showed a better effort than they had in the past week, but it still put them 2 1/2 games out of the final playoff spot in the East.

Recent news hasn't exactly done much to inspire confidence for the regular season's final nine games.  Jimmy Butler has flip-flopped on whether his ailing knee needs offseason surgery.  A team meeting was held Sunday less than 24 hours after a brutal loss to the Orlando Magic.  Mike Dunleavy has called this "do-or-die" week and obviously, it's not off to a good start.

We shouldn't be hearing these stories on the doorstep of April, but what else can you expect when the Bulls are below .500 at the latest point of a season since Vinny Del Negro's final season?  Just when you think the season couldn't get any lower, something always digs the hole deeper.  It prompts more fans to get upset and even cope by pulling out the Vine of Tom Thibodeau's laugh, a message that the Bulls made the wrong move in letting him go.  I even took to Facebook after Monday's game with a message that had 11 likes as of early Tuesday afternoon:

will juggle chainsaws on fire if Jerry Reinsdorf or Gar Forman or John Paxson or SOMEBODY high up in the Bulls' hierarchy will say maybe, freaking maybe, we completely screwed up this season and we need a total overhaul on how we do things.

That's what it's all about, isn't it?  GarPax, with Reinsdorf's blessing, changed head coaches and preached a different offensive philosophy that would blow the often stagnant Thibodeau one out of the water.  Instead, the team is 20th in the league in offense, averaging 101.5 points per game.  It's higher than their 100.8 scoring average last year, but that still ranked 15th, the upper half of the league.

Let's go further.  During their 14-25 record since Jan. 9, the Bulls are averaging exactly 101 points per game for 25th in the league in that span.  Opponents are averaging a league-high 6.4 blocks,11.6 turnovers, tied for second fewest, 40.8 field goals, tied for fourth most.  There are other damning numbers out there, but it's a clear indication of how south things have gone.

What's it going to take for some serious changes to be made?  Whether the Bulls make the playoffs or not, there's no way they can't be considered.  They might be singing Kumbaya in the front office, but the rest of us have had more than enough of these overhyped underachievers.  Nobody has said anything significant yet and maybe they're waiting until the end of the season, but until they do, how are we to believe it's actually going to happen when everyone knew Fred Hoiberg was going to replace Thibodeau well before the end of last year?

GarPax are beyond the point of trusting because they completely miscalculated on how much they could change things with the current group.  Maybe Thibodeau's act wore thin on some players last year, but at least he got results.  Hoiberg can't receive too much blame since he was charged with implementing a new strategy to Thibodeau's roster, although he's had his fair share of missteps along the way.  Even if you disagree with that statement, you can't argue it was GarPax that set it all up and as such, they need to be held responsible.

It would work so much better going forward if Reinsdorf showed one or both of those guys the door out of disrupting what worked before as well as roster negligence.  Being at the helm of an NBA franchise involves much more than changing your ship's captain and expecting completely different results for the better.  You have to have players who can adapt to that new strategy.  This is the wrong group to showcase Hoiball with and don't try to convince most other people otherwise.

People want to love this franchise so badly, but they're just so fed up with everything.  It's why blowing up the whole operation and starting over is worth considering.  But first, you have to do it with basketball minds that know how to construct a winning team for the long run.  Those in charge now have run their course, so it's time to look in another direction.

If the Bulls have anything left in the tank, they'll try showcasing it next on Tuesday against the Indiana Pacers.  The question is did they work too hard trying to keep up with Atlanta on Monday to make this next game better?  Actually, don't answer that.  It might be too depressing.