Deadline Trade Indictment of Bulls' Talent Development

I have to admit I didn't feel as upset about Thursday's trade as others.  That's not to say I was happy about it at all, though I tried to look at it from a basketball business perspective.  Taj Gibson's expiring contract meant avoiding the situation from last year in which Pau Gasol walked in free agency after the Bulls didn't deal him at the deadline.  As much as it pained John Paxson to tell arguably the most beloved Bull he was headed elsewhere, it was completely understandable as to why he and Gar Forman made the decision.

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.

Protest Calling for GarPax Firing Planned

Let me make clear off the bat that I'm not advocating, nor discouraging anyone from taking part in what's been planned.  This is merely to inform you that someone from the nether regions of the internet has decided enough is enough with the Bulls.  That person and the followers in support of the following idea want change, even if that means they have to make their voices heard.

On Thursday, a Reddit user with the handle graythematter proposed a mass protest calling for Jerry Reinsdorf to dismiss Gar Forman and John Paxson.  Chants of "Fire GarPax" would take place during the March 4 game against the Los Angeles Clippers set to be televised on ABC.  People responded and before long, more details and the above t-shirt design were unveiled.  As reported on the updates to this plan, a few websites have picked up on this.

On one hand, buying game tickets feeds into business, so Reinsdorf would probably just see as adding to the number of sellouts the Bulls have already had this season.  Heck, he might take this as a one-night thing that won't affect business for the rest of the season.  The flip side is a public relations nightmare for the organization on national TV if enough fans take part in this protest and they're loud enough.  The Bulls are not far removed from the 3 Alphas going to war with each other, so maybe another instance of the team making headlines for the wrong reasons will be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

It's doubtful anything meaningful comes of this and some are even raising concerns about whether security will let in people wearing these shirts.  But if nobody's bringing anything already banned inside the United Center, they really shouldn't be able to tell these people they can't come in.  It would be censoring free speech.  If the President of the United States can take to Twitter to bash anybody who rubs him the wrong way, fans should be allowed to protest how their team is run.

Every Bulls fan should be rightfully disgruntled at how things have gone.  Until moves in the name of progress are made, those feelings will continue.  Maybe a large gathering during a game at least gets Reinsdorf to think about what's going on.  White Sox fans are already happy about his other team picking a direction, so there's no reason to think Bulls fans won't react well if he just makes it known that changes will be made to ensure a winner will come sooner rather than later.

Fans are done with personal loyalties.  They're done with hanging onto the past in hopes of that carrying over into the present.  Whether or not you think this protest is the right way to being vocal, know that you have the power to make a difference.  Not buying tickets, turning the United Center into a frenzy or whatever, the fans make up the soul of the team and if it's dirty, the brains behind it have to cleanse it.

Forman, Paxson Have Safe Jobs and That's Not Good

If a Tuesday night report is to be believed, Gar Forman and John Paxson will remain as Bulls general manager and executive vice president respectively, even if the team misses the playoffs this year.  Jerry and Michael Reinsdorf trust the two in how they build the roster. The brass reportedly believes this is the first year to reopen a championship window without Derrick Rose and also that the strategy of rebuilding while competing is working.

They can spin this all they want, but the fact remains that this is the latest example of a longstanding tradition of Reinsdorf loyalty to its front office regardless of team performance.  While it's fine to be on good terms with your employees, it isn't worth anything if your product is mediocre.  People don't go to the store to buy mediocre groceries.  They want high quality at a reasonable price and the Bulls expect fans to pay one of the most expensive tickets in the NBA for inconsistency.

While regular sellouts and the United Center's large capacity allows the Bulls to lead the league in home attendance, the eye test at these games indicates people aren't showing up, and that's embarrassing.  The fans have never been as loud as say, Warriors and Thunder fans, but with fewer people wanting to see a shoddy product, folks being fed up gets harder to ignore.  At least it should for fans watching on TV.

But as long as the bottom line is good enough, the Reinsdorfs will see no reason to make drastic changes.  Never mind that every draft pick since Jimmy Butler in 2011 has failed to live up to expectations.  Forget about going back on the vow to get younger and more athletic by signing Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade.  GarPax can do no wrong, even with the third head coach since the duo came together, so it's here to stay.

How is anyone supposed to believe in a future for this team?  Players and coaches keep changing and yet, those in charge of basketball operations never suffer the consequences of their failure to produce winning results.  Just getting to the playoffs isn't enough.  You have to contend for championships to keep fans interested and yet, the organization has no interest in trying a different path.

Perhaps most annoying of all is that we still haven't reached the All-Star break on this season, meaning there's still two months before the playoffs.  That's at least 14 months before we can even consider the possibility that one or both of these guys will be replaced.  Tell me how we're supposed to expect the Bulls to blow people away when most of their fans are ranging from pissed to apathetic.  Without changes to enter the next winning era of Bulls basketball, it ain't happening.

They say you should value people over anything else, but pro sports is a business with millions of outside followers, something no other industry can boast to the extent it does.  That's why when the majority of those people are calling for you to do something, loyalties have to put aside.  Paxson in particular has contributed a lot to the Bulls for over 30 years, but eventually, patience and chances have to run out.  And besides one great year, Forman has not earned the benefit of the doubt because he and his scouts and failed to properly identify quality talent to build with.

You don't have to follow the Bulls to see how the opinions of one or two can affect the entire operation.  We're seeing that with America itself as we speak and how upset people are.  Maybe it's a stretch to draw that parallel, but how poorly people can take certain actions or inaction is on full display.  Reinsdorf is running a professional sports organization as opposed to the most powerful country in the free world, so when put that way, making changes should be a lot easier.

Until anything happens, we as the fans have to deal with an organization stuck in its ways until it indicates otherwise.  While we may not like it, we just have to endure it because we can't call ourselves true fans without putting up with the crap that comes with following one team your whole life.  Someday, we'll look back on this and laugh.  Maybe.

Rajon Rondo Instagram Rant Points Blame at Wade, Butler

I gotta hand it to the Bulls.  When controversy comes their way, they don't shy away from it.  In fact, they seem to love adding one layer after another.  And as we found out Thursday, they can even cause a ruckus on social media.

In the immediate aftermath of Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade calling out their young teammates following Wednesday's blown game against Atlanta, the most vocal response came from Jerian Grant on Twitter.  But Rajon Rondo's grating Instagram post on Thursday made Grant's tweets look like high praise.  For those who can't be bothered to follow the link, Rondo posted a picture of himself with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett during his Boston days.  Here's the full message that accompanied it in all its glory:


My vets would never go to the media. They would come to the team. My vets didn't pick and choose when they wanted to bring it. They brought it every time they stepped in the gym whether it was practice or a game. They didn't take days off. My vets didn't care about their numbers. My vets played for the team. When we lost, they wouldn't blame us. They took responsibility and got in the gym. They showed the young guys what it meant to work. Even in Boston when we had the best record in the league, if we lost a game, you could hear a pin drop on the bus. They showed us the seriousness of the game. My vets didn't have an influence on the coaching staff. They couldn't change the plan because it didn't work for them. I played under one of the greatest coaches, and he held everyone accountable. It takes 1-15 to win. When you isolate everyone, you can't win consistently. I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a bad teammate. My goal is to pass what I learned along. The young guys work. They show up. They don't deserve blame. If anything is questionable, it's the leadership.

Well.  That sure resolved everything going on with this team.  In fact, Bulls management appreciated it so much, Rondo's contract might be bought out.  It's as if to say "We love how you spoke your mind, so why don't you do it someplace besides here?"

The scary thing about Rondo's post is he's not completely wrong.  Go back to any non-game story involving Wade or Butler this season and you'll find things that match what Rondo is saying.  So it's not a huge shock that he doesn't like how they've conducted themselves as team leaders or simply as players either.  Their postgame comments were clearly the last straw for him, but even with all that time between then and when he made the post, he still felt strongly enough that he had to tell the world what he perceived to be the wrong way to guide a team.

The biggest irony of this whole thing is that it was Rondo who coined the term "The Three Alphas" and in less than 24 hours, they all added fuel to the fire that is this dysfunctional season.  Worse yet, it's turned into two alphas against one and unsurprisingly, the player by himself has by far contributed the least this year.  What is anyone hoping to gain from all this?  Unless some magic potion that brings unity is somewhere in the locker room, it's hard to imagine much.

But perhaps some good will come of this.  Maybe this is what Gar Forman and John Paxson needed to finally stop turning the other cheek and do something about this mess they created.  Years from now, we might look back on these past couple days as the moment when the Bulls finally decided to get serious about building the franchise's next great era.  And to think, all it might have taken was an online rant from a player who many felt was a poor teammate and bad for Fred Hoiberg's system to begin with.

All we know for sure is we're all sick and tired of season after season turning into a soap opera for one reason or another.  Two years ago, it was GarPax against Tom Thibodeau.  Last year, Butler seized leadership from Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, much to the chagrin of the now-Knicks.  The latest one is Rondo vs. Butler and Wade vs. everybody.

Why do we as fans have to put up with this?  Even the Tim Floyd era didn't see so much drama for so long.  If Michael Reinsdorf doesn't realize now is the time to get his father Jerry to sign off on something new, this organization is a lost cause.  This all could have been avoided if they took the proper steps to assemble a winning, united basketball team, but here we are.

The longer the higher-ups remain silent about this, the more fans are going to tune out.  It's a shame to see the same franchise Michael Jordan became famous with reduced to something no one should want to be a part of.  A real culture change is needed.  No one should care about how it happens as long as there's a light at the end of this God-forsaken tunnel, which there currently is not.

Maybe Jerry will see how happy SoxFest attendees are this weekend to know his other team is finally taking proper steps to get back to winning.  If that's the epiphany he needs to realize Bulls fans would be just as happy to endure lean years for a better future, so be it.  Maybe it starts with dumping Rondo and admitting he never should have been signed to begin with.  Let's see somebody take to social media about that.

Postgame Comments From Wade, Butler Remove Any Doubt of Discord

If any people were still wondering about the unity of this year's Bulls, there's no longer any question regarding it  after Wednesday's late collapse against the Atlanta Hawks.  Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade, the only two players to make any meaningful contributions in the game, really let their teammates have it.  Wade, already in the spotlight this week for threatening to walk after this season, said he doesn't "know that they care enough."  I won't reprint the expletive Butler dropped, but his sentiment echoed Wade's, saying his teammates "just got to care if we win or lose."

The teammates in question surely took the comments in their own ways.  Jerian Grant had the most public reaction so far, sending out four tweets about it.  It's understandable because none of us like to be talked down to at our jobs.  Still, it's disheartening to see this young player, the latest in a revolving door of starting point guards at a time when the Bulls sometimes have no one on the court at that position, respond to the on-court leaders in this fashion.

For the second straight season, Fred Hoiberg has lost control of his locker room.  Not being able to get the best out of every player is one thing.  So is not knowing which player should be doing what in clutch situations.  It's quite another to see words flying to the point where your players aren't getting along.

Okay, Rajon Rondo brought his baggage with him as everyone expected, but at least when he's the story, it ultimately goes squarely back to him.  Now, you've got the best players on the team throwing the young players who are supposed to be developing under the bus.  That's multiple parties on both sides of the aisle involved.  How are we expected to believe this will all get resolved before the season ends?

We can't blame Hoiberg for this entire mess though.  What will really be intriguing is if we hear from Gar Forman or John Paxson, the architects of this dumpster fire, about these latest developments.  While we probably won't, it's hard not to want to be a fly on the wall during their private meetings.  Do they feel they need to take action or do they just not care?

I'm not holding my breath on whether GarPax has learned what could happen when you're indecisive on the direction of your franchise.  Collectively, they've made one poor decision after another without consequence.  Even when Forman says they're going to put together a younger and more athletic roster, he finds players to fill that description who aren't that good and also abandons that plan halfway through it.  And he's getting paid a lot of money for it all.

If there's any good to come out of this latest episode, maybe this will finally convince management to pick a lane and follow it through to the end.  As seemingly everyone but them suspected, you can't just sign high-profile players to put butts in seats.  Sure, the Bulls are still selling out games, but turnout has not been very good and tickets are being cheaply resold everywhere.  So much for taking the marketing route this year.

The best we can hope for now besides wins is Butler and Wade making sure there are no hard feelings and they just want everyone to play to the best of their abilities.  They might have to do it quickly though in case GarPax wants to sell at the trade deadline.  Even if the season that never was is officially lost, at least the interpersonal relationships can be healed, right?  Of course, that's not what season-ticket holders pay a lot of money to see, and we have to wonder how long they're willing to do that.

Bulls More Magical Team in Orlando

The news early Tuesday revolved around Dwyane Wade indicating the rest of the Bulls' season would determine whether he'll stick around for the second year of his contract or opt out.  There was still a game against the Orlando Magic to be played though.  Regardless of if Wade has been thinking about this for awhile and just needed to get it off his chest, he didn't let it affect his play.  In fact, the Bulls put the comments behind them long enough to earn a 100-92 win.

The Bulls came out shooting poorly, but remedied that before the Magic could pull away.  From there, the teams went back and forth until the Bulls slowly extended their lead.  Though they never put it out of reach, they got to a point where they kept Orlando on the precipice between threatening the lead and completely dropping off.  Helping was the Magic missing three players due to injury, including ex-Bull D.J. Augustin.

Wade scored a game-high 21 points and recorded seven steals (tied for the most in the NBA this season), picking up right where he left off in Saturday's win over Sacramento.  Jimmy Butler was just behind with 20 points and a team-high four assists.  Cristiano Felicio continued his ascent with a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds.  Doug McDermott scored all 12 of his points from 3-point range.

The Bulls will take a win however they can, even with the distraction of Wade making his departure after this year a possibility.  They created opportunities for themselves and converted on just enough of them.  They also showed the defense that allows them to get the better of inferior teams, at least on certain nights.  In this case, they forced Elfrid Payton into eight of Orlando's 19 turnovers.

This and pretty much every game for the rest of the season will be critical in determining what the 35-year-old Wade does next year.  True, his mere presence has gone against the younger and more athletic route that Gar Forman pledged, but he's also provided the good basketball he has left to the city.  What would it say about a future Hall of Famer in the twilight of his career bolting from his hometown team after just one season of a two-year deal?  Whatever the answer is, Forman and John Paxson might soon learn they've been going about the way they do business all wrong.

A Wednesday meeting at the United Center with the Atlanta Hawks means a quick turnaround.  The way the Bulls start has no place to go but up after Friday's clunker.  At least the bench was ready to put the Hawks on their heels toward the end.  If the Bulls are going to play like that though, they need to do it for a full 48 minutes instead of 12.

Bulls Get By Ailing Cavs

Sometimes in sports, it's all about catching a great team at the right time.  In Wednesday's case, the Bulls benefited from a pandemic that's hit the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers.  Kyrie Irving missed his third straight game with a hamstring injury, Kevin Love is dealing with food poisoning and even LeBron James was a question mark until 20 minutes before tipoff thanks to a cold.  None of that mattered to the Bulls, who took it to their hosts and won, 106-94.

It initially looked like a blowout the other way might happen when the Cavaliers opened the game on a 15-2 run.  But the Bulls cut the deficit to seven at the end of the first quarter and from there, commanded most of the contest.  A hot offense outscored Cleveland by 13 in the second quarter and got the lead up to 17 in the third.  The Cavs, led by James' game-high 31 points, made a final push in the fourth and got to within one, but that came during a stretch in which Jimmy Butler scored 10 consecutive points for the Bulls to put the game away.

Butler, fresh off his 52-point performance against Charlotte on Monday, was considerably colder at first, missing nine of his first 11 shots from the field.  Luckily, it doesn't matter so much how you perform as when you do it.  He scored 14 of his team-high 20 points in the final frame.  It was just in time to be one of four Bulls with three treys in the game.

Taj Gibson shot 9-of-10 from the field to end up not far Butler with 18 points.  Doug McDermott made all six of his field-goal attempts in the second quarter en route to a 17-point game.  The good version of Nikola Mirotic showed up and scored 16.  Michael Carter-Williams started again while scoring 13 and Dwyane Wade added 10.

Once again, Rajon Rondo was left on the bench.  The longer this goes on, the more it's worth questioning what exactly his role will be from here on out.  Not even Rondo himself knows as a meeting with Gar Forman and John Paxson answered no questions.  For now, all he can do is support his team from the sidelines while perhaps realizing he's becoming more expendable.

People won't look at this as a defining win for the Bulls because of the fewer Cavs superstars they had to face.  But at a time when they desperately need wins to make up for a bad December, they'll take them even if it means kicking a top dog when it's down.  They almost always show up against great teams on national TV anyway, so as far as they were concerned, this was no different.  And if you're going to stay mediocre, you might as well do it while beating championship contenders.

The Bulls welcome the second-best team in the East to the United Center, the Toronto Raptors, on Saturday.  It will be the first time these teams meet this season after the Bulls swept all four games a year ago.  Will the team that represents our northern neighbors have better luck this time around?  Or are the Bulls in their heads, as is often the case when you just can't top a team you should be all accounts?

Tumultuous 2016 Draws to Close

Like with much of the world, 2016 wasn't a very kind year to the Bulls.  When it seemed like necessary changes were finally going to be made, they didn't really happen.  So the end of the year doesn't feel much differently from the beginning.  Yet this is still the day to reflect on everything significant that happened and that's why we're here today.

With Fred Hoiberg inheriting virtually the same roster Tom Thibodeau had the year before, the Bulls struggled to meet the demands of Hoiball, yet remained in contention for the final playoff spot in the East until the season was nearly over.  But it wasn't fun to watch and even the good things that happened had strings attached.  Jimmy Butler was named to his second All-Star Game, but an injury kept him from playing, so Pau Gasol took his place.  Though Derrick Rose appeared in 66 games, his most since his MVP campaign, he still didn't play like the superstar he was pre-ACL tear except for a few flashes here and there.

All this, along with Butler attempting to seize leadership from Rose and Joakim Noah, whose season ended early with a shoulder injury, led to a 42-40 finish and no playoffs for the first time since 2008.  Calls to get rid of everyone came from everywhere.  When Rose was traded to New York and it became heavily rumored that Butler would be dealt on draft night, it looked like the Bulls would indeed go in that direction.  With Noah and Gasol leaving as free agents and Gar Forman saying the team needed "to get younger and more athletic", the fuel to the rebuilding fire continued to be poured on.

But everything was doused quickly when the Bulls signed Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade, which would have been perfect if this was 2010.  But it's six years later and both have aged considerably since then.  Young players were added up until the regular season started, but none generated much excitement.  A veteran starting lineup to go with a young bench baffled many people as it seems like the makeup of a team stuck in the middle, which is exactly where the Bulls were when the previous season ended.

With over 40 percent of the new campaign in the books, the new Bulls are as mired in mediocrity as ever, the worst place to be in professional sports.  Butler and Wade are reliable game in and game out, but the rest of the Bulls are hit and miss game in and game out.  Since starting at 11-7, they've fallen to one game below .500 and suddenly, there are reports that Hoiberg's job might be in jeopardy.  But don't let that distract you from the fact that this is ultimately a team constructed by Forman and John Paxson, though there's no indication that Jerry Reinsdorf is fed up with either of them.

Perhaps it's only fitting that a year filled with divided politics and lots of celebrity deaths among other things includes a Bulls team that hasn't moved in one direction or the other since we last rang in a New Year.  You're sick of everything else in the world bringing you down and this is only adding to the frustration.  Unless you're a Cubs fan, a Trump supporter or both, this likely won't be a year you remember fondly, and maybe not even then.  Shouldn't we at least have a basketball team that knows what the heck it's doing?

Maybe Reinsdorf will take how positively folks are reacting to his White Sox going the rebuilding route and decide the Bulls will pick a solid direction during their next offseason as well.  Had Forman truly backed up his "younger and more athletic" comment, this talk about the franchise being stagnant might not even be happening.  For now, he's stuck with young players on the bench whom you don't really want to build your team around.  If you can't replace players quickly, get some better talent evaluation in your front office and begin the proper process.

Before wrapping this up, I want to thank everybody who came back to this blog after I temporarily jumped ship to Chicago Bulls Confidential.  Yes, it's not as big a brand as ChicagoNow, but I find this setting more intimate.  It's something we can share together and if you like what I write, it would be nice of you to share my work with others.  I highly value my audience.

I've had enough of this drama of this calendar year.  2017 can hopefully only be an improvement.  But first, they can end 2016 on a high note by defeating the Milwaukee Bucks tonight.  See you all on the other side of this big day.

How Low The Bulls Go

I was working during the Bulls' back-to-back clunkers with the Milwaukee Bucks, but that doesn't mean I don't know how bad they were.  One of the things about my new job is I have to break during my first five hours.  On Thursday and Friday, I chose the start of the Bulls games to take them.  Despite only being able to watch the first quarter closely both times, they were all I needed to see.

I'll get to why in a second, but to add to all the drama, Nikola Mirotic missed Friday's mandatory walkthrough and could be fined.  This came one night after he received the first "DNP - Coach's Decision" of his career.  While he apologized, he was still confused as to why Bobby Portis had taken his spot in the rotation.  It's not like Portis has performed much better than Mirotic has of late, but with a qualifying offer on the table for next year, don't be shocked if Mirotic is done in Chicago after this year.

But the Mirotic chapter looks rather small compared to the bigger issues facing the Bulls.  After a nice start to the season, they are now 13-13, having lost six of their past eight games.  They are becoming the team many like me were in denial about during the summer:  mediocre and right in the middle of the NBA.  It shows how wrong and indecisive Gar Forman and John Paxson have been in their decision-making.

Yeah, about that.  Remember when Forman said the Bulls were going to get "younger" and "more athletic", only to stop just short of that when it came to the core?  Doing more talk than walk on the matter came back to haunt him this week when bot the Bucks AND Tom Thibodeau's Minnesota Timberwolves beat his team with the very makeup he said he would pursue.  Meanwhile, Forman's young guys, all on the bench, have made little to no progress nearly two months into the season.

I'll give a Christmas cookie to anyone who can tell me with a straight face one young player who not only has improved under Fred Hoiberg this year, but is a viable franchise building block for years to come.  Otherwise, you'll have to accept that Hoiberg is the anti-Thibodeau in that he doesn't maximize anybody's game.  Forman felt he could and decided to give him a five-year contract that's currently in year two. 

Christmas Eve has historically been an exit day for Bulls coaches just not living up to expectations.  Just ask Tim Floyd and Scott Skiles.  We are exactly one week from that day and there's speculation that in the event Hoiberg goes then or on any day, Forman becomes a scapegoat and goes with him.  It would be nice for this organization to hold people accountable and if the Bulls follow their history, it can happen sooner than later.

The worst thing about these past few games is that the Bulls have looked completely disinterested on both ends.  The offense is out of sync and not making smart decisions.  The defense has let anybody and everybody carve it up like Swiss cheese, showing little resistance in the half-court and letting itself get beat convincingly on the break.  The players can talk all they want about improving, communicating and all that, but until they actually show that they care by their actions, they'll get booed off the United Center court as they were Friday.

Many are calling this the low point of Hoiberg's tenure and it's hard to argue against it.  To get back above .500, they'll have to beat the Detroit Pistons on Monday.  Even if they win, the issues with the team's makeup will remain.  And they won't change until the organization decides to actually build a foundation we can all be proud to call our own.