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.

Year of Frustration Keeps Going for Bulls: Midseason Report

People have become fed up with the Bulls.  A season filled with turmoil, inconsistency and no willingness to change is causing fans to tune out.  A Crain's Chicago Business report says TV ratings for games on Comcast SportsNet are down 28 percent compared to the final season average and the team is on pace for its lowest average viewership on the network in nearly a decade.  But everything is fine in Jerry Reinsdorf's world as long as he has Gar Forman and John Paxson back next year, which he will, even when players are calling each other out.

What was hyped to be the season of the 3 Alphas has turned into what many feared would when Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade were signed as sidekicks to Jimmy Butler.  Mediocrity is the name of the game and in January, the younger players felt the wrath of Butler and Wade, who were bashed by Rondo on Instagram in return.  For the second straight season, Fred Hoiberg has a roster that simply isn't built for his system.  And with Sacramento trading DeMarcus Cousins right after Sunday's All-Star Game, the Bulls will likely have to settle for the Kings' second-round pick in the next draft instead of their first-rounder.

Despite so many things going wrong, the Bulls find themselves in the seventh playoff spot in the East at 28-29, one game behind Indiana and one ahead of Detroit.  Amazing is that the East's ninth-place team, Milwaukee, is a half-game better than Denver, the eighth seed in the West.  So unless the Bulls decide to trade Jimmy Butler before Thursday's trade deadline, it would take a monumental amount of losing for them to miss the playoffs.

That's not what many people want to hear.  They see this as a team with no direction stuck in basketball hell and the only option is to tear it down and start over.  If GarPax goes that route, it's hard to imagine they'll consider it until the end of the season at the earliest.  As long as the team is connected to Jahlil Okafor trade rumors, it's wise to assume they won't be burning anything to the ground soon.

That's good news if you want to keep watching Butler in Chicago.  Once again, he's improved from a year ago, posting career highs in almost every relevant category.  The new All-Star voting system allowed him to make his first start in three selections.  He's proven he belongs among the NBA's elite and he won't slow down until he's stretched his ceiling as high as it can go, which is scary for opponents since it appears the sky's the limit for him.

While his string of 12 consecutive All-Star selections ended this year, the 35-year-old Wade has shown he has plenty left to contribute.  When he's not sitting out games to conserve whatever gas is left in his tank, he's creating his own plays and acting clutch in situations where Butler is unavailable.  Fortunately, he's been out there enough to wow fans and create memories befitting of a future Hall of Famer near the end of the years in which he can make a real difference.  As long as the team doesn't have to go through him all the time, his value will be maximized and the Bulls will gain from that.

The same can't be said for Rondo, who hasn't started since my girlfriend and I saw him begin a 5 1/2-game benching on Dec. 30 in Indiana.  His scoring average is at its lowest since his rookie year and he's well on his way to a career-low field goal percentage.  Although he still gets his assists each game, that average hasn't been so low since his second season.  The one good thing he's done is give the bench a veteran presence it didn't have before, which is beneficial to any team.

For the first time in his career, Taj Gibson has started every game he's played, missing only two all year.  His scoring and free-throw percentage are up significantly from last year and he still plays with the same intensity he has since coming in the league.  Hard work and not a lot of flash won't get you the accolades of your more talented colleagues, but it gives you respect and admiration from everybody.  Gibson has earned all of it and with his contract about to expire, it's sad to know this player who embodies what a Chicago Bull is might soon be out the door.

Robin Lopez, who took over Joakim Noah's starting spot at center, is the only Bull to play and start every game this season.  While he's had a bit of a down year, it's been easier to take thanks to lower expectations in the paint without Noah or Pau Gasol.  He's another example of doing all the right things with the game he has and there isn't as much pressure on him to create.  He won't ever achieve the results of his twin brother Brook, but he's a respectable NBA player the Bulls were lucky to acquire as the centerpiece of their haul in the Derrick Rose trade.

Since Rondo's benching, starting point guard duties have been split between Michael Carter-Williams and Jerian Grant.  Carter-Williams might be productive enough to be considered a viable NBA player in the long run, though the Bulls are his third team in four seasons.  Plus, he's averaging just 2.7 assists a game this year, by far the fewest in his career.  A restricted free agent after the season, he could stand to improve if he wants his next paycheck to be a good one.

Grant, in his second NBA season, has shown flashes of a player belonging in the rotation, particularly by shooting 34.8 percent from 3-point range, but he isn't proving himself enough in other areas.  If he wants to stick around the league, he needs to create more plays for himself and others.  He has room to grow at 24 though, so look for more out of him.

If you wanna talk disappointments, look no further than Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic.  While McDermott has gotten more playing time, increased his scoring and is the best 3-point shooter on the team, he hasn't lived up to the expectations of the lottery pick the Bulls drafted two first-round picks to get.  He's not the go-to player they expected, but he has one year left on his contract to figure it out, which can't be said for Mirotic, who's becoming a restricted free agent after a season in which he's regressed across the board.  He should be fortunate to collect an NBA paycheck right now because at this rate, he's going to find trouble landing elsewhere next season.


As for the rest of the team, Cristiano Felicio does enough with his minutes that he can get it done on both ends during that allotted time.  Bobby Portis is still finding his footing, though slowly making strides.  Paul Zipser has improved his post play by doing the little things, allowing him to get more minutes than fellow rookie Denzel Valentine, who needs to prove his production matches his basketball smarts at the NBA level and not just with the Windy City Bulls.  Isaiah Canaan barely sees action these days, which should tell you all Hoiberg thinks about his potential to thrive here.

Hoiberg could thrive with a roster suited to his demands, but he hasn't gotten one yet.  If he did, we might be talking about a more successful Bulls.  He's not blameless however.  Though he deserves a longer leash than GarPax, nothing about these Bulls indicates he can get the most out of his players like Tom Thibodeau did.

There's talent on this roster, but it's not enough to be considered a consistent winner.  The question GarPax has to consider so close to the deadline and beyond is whether the core players can be built around without triggering a total teardown, which Reinsdorf undoubtedly wants to avoid completely.  The chairman is 80 and might not have be happy if he knows he must wait for another championship for too long.  Then again, he wants to do it his way with GarPax, so he needs to pick a lane and choose it for the greater good of the franchise.

The second half begins Friday with a home meeting against the Phoenix Suns.  After the Bulls laid an egg against them on the Disney on Ice trip, one would think the universe would balance itself out.  Then again, that's another young and athletic team, the type the Bulls said they would be, but didn't and have ironically struggled against.  Funny how saying one thing and doing another works against you.

Bulls Stretched Out, Unable to Finish Wizards

No Jimmy Butler or Dwyane Wade for Tuesday's game against the Washington Wizards should have spelled disaster for the Bulls.  A team they have struggled with a lot these past few years would surely have their way with them.  Surprisingly, that trend was reversed for awhile.  But the Bulls couldn't keep it that way and lost, 101-99.

An even first quarter turned into a 10-point Bulls lead late and that ballooned to as much as 18 in the second.  But the sloppy Wizards were replaced by the cold and sloppy Bulls in the second half and it turned into a nail-biter down the stretch.  The Bulls held a two-point lead in the final minute, only to see John Wall tie it up and then, make the winning basket with five seconds left.  Doug McDermott went for the winning 3-pointer on the final possession and you can guess what happened on a night he shot 0 for 5 from beyond the arc.

Wall led all scorers with 26 points and all passers with 14 assists, which isn't a surprise given he was the only pure star playing in this game.  Bradley Beal and Markieff Morris each poured in 19, though Morris fouled out before he could play a key role in the waning minutes.  Rounding out the starting lineup were Otto Porter's 11 points and Marcin Gortat's 10.  You're probably sick of reading these names as a Bulls fan, but they'll continue to come up until the Bulls can figure them out.

Denzel Valentine came off the bench and had the game of his short NBA career, leading the Bulls with 19 points, including five 3-pointers.  Michael Carter-Willliams and Robin Lopez each hustled to score 14, Bobby Portis hit a trio of treys in a 13-point effort and Taj Gibson completed a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds.  Rajon Rondo, earning some of the minutes normally allotted to Wade and Butler, scored 12 and gave out six assists, which might be enough to come back into the rotation after missing the last five-and-a-half games.

While it was a better game than expected under the circumstances, the Bulls still couldn't close the deal.  It happens way too often:  they build a nice lead in the first half only to completely squander it in the second.  They earned a little bit of slack here with their two best players out, but as we've learned many times over the years, no NBA team is ever really out of a game.  That lesson showed itself yet again here.

The other cruel reminder this game served is that the Bulls have very streaky shooters.  They can get hot at just about any time, but when they really need to put an opponent away, the shots simply stop falling.  This is especially true from downtown, where they were 10 for 27.  The number of treys is impressive, but to paraphrase a certain White Sox announcer, tell me when you make those shots, not how many.

The Bulls will meet the newly found Derrick Rose and the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden for a nationally-televised tilt on Thursday.  Wade should return to the lineup and hopefully, Butler will too.  They'll hope to avenge the loss at the United Center when these teams first met.  They almost always play well on TNT though, so don't rule out a game in which they run the Knicks right out of the World's Most Famous Arena.