The biggest issue for me was not that the Bulls acquired three players in the middle of poor shooting seasons. It's not that Doug McDermott ultimately cost five draft picks that turned into the haul they got yesterday. It's not even that the trade made them no better for now or the future. It comes down to the Bulls being unable to do anything with the talent they acquire.
Think about it. Since the Bulls drafted Jimmy Butler in 2011, absolutely zero of first-round draft picks have made an impact and the first three members of that group are now elsewhere. Marquis Teague is now playing in Russia at just 23, Tony Snell was dealt at the start of the year for Michael Carter-Williams and we now know where McDermott is. Dealing Gibson means more minutes for the most recent draft picks: Bobby Portis, Denzel Valentine and Paul Zipser. We'll cut Valentine a little slack because of injuries in his rookie season, but just like the players before him, the former two have done little to inspire confidence they can turn into playmakers.
And that's what makes this whole situation disappointing. For whatever reason, the Bulls cannot develop any young player who puts on their uniform these days. I put a lot of faith in McDermott from the moment the Bulls acquired him and in less than three years, they've admitted yet again that a draft-day acquisition has not worked out under their watch. Maybe I sound like less of a fan here, but I hope the Thunder turn McDermott into the player I thought he would as proof that the Bulls are the wrong destination for youngsters with raw skills.
The more I think about it, the more I believe the Bulls might have ruined Nikola Mirotic. He's taken a significant step back this year and playing for an organization with such a poor track record of late surely hasn't helped. It's difficult to believe he'll be serviceable anywhere when he becomes a restricted free agent this summer. Had he broken into the NBA with a team like San Antonio, maybe we're talking about a different player.
Given all this, how are we to believe any young players who would come to the Bulls as part of a potential Jimmy Butler deal would thrive? Paxson said in Thursday's press conference that the team would build with Butler and not around him. Does that mean talks with Boston, a team connected to the Bulls during deadline rumors that holds Brooklyn's first-round draft pick, would part with that in order to get Butler this summer? Even if that's the case, it's difficult to believe that player won't resemble Anthony Bennett more than Anthony Davis when all is said and done.
More presently, they say Cameron Payne has the biggest potential to grow, but will he really? Like with any new Bulls acquisition, I'll hold my breath to a certain degree and say he just might do something significant in the years to come. But how does a player whose shooting has taken a step back this year live up to his billing as a lottery pick with this team? There's no clear answer right now and that's scary.
The biggest question to consider is how does Michael Reinsdorf feel about all this? Reports earlier this week indicate he's more businessman than basketball mind. The difference between him and late Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz is he actually cares about the United Center seats filling up. As long as people are buying tickets, and there are plenty of people willing to do that, he won't see a need to make significant changes. And no real urgency to win a championship is what makes the Wirtz comparison legit as painful as it might be.
As much as we diehard Bulls fans don't like to see people drop off until the team becomes competitive again, we'll understand if you choose to just keep track of the Cubs and Hawks for the time being. They've figured out the correct mold on how to build winning cultures. The Bulls have either forgotten the blueprint for that or just don't care much. Whatever the case, it's going to be a long wait before that all changes, even at the expense of what could have been promising careers.
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