Timberwolves Take Full Advantage of Shorthanded Bulls

It's never a good sign when you go to a Bulls game knowing your team's chances are pretty much shot.  Even before my first trip to the Target Center, my spirits were dampened by the news that Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade would miss Sunday's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a bruised right heel and swollen right wrist respectively.  Nikola Mirotic had back spasms and Paul Zipser was dealing with both food poisoning and a sore ankle.  It should come as no surprise that the Bulls lost, 117-89.

Except for the first few possessions, the Bulls had no chance against a young, athletic team without their two playmakers.  The defense constantly broke down, especially in the paint, and the offense gave itself no chance with poor decision-making and inability to take care of the ball.  Tom Thibodeau had no sympathy for his former team.  His team played well from start to finish per his trademark style to sweep the season series.

Andrew Wiggins led all scorers with 27 points, driving on every opportunity he had and finishing more often than not.  Karl-Anthony Towns scored 22 and Gorgui Dieng had a double-double of 10 points and 13 rebounds, as did Ricky Rubio with 17 points and 11 assists.  Just for good measure, Nemanja Bjelica chipped in 16 points and Shabazz Muhammad added 12.

Bobby Portis and Doug McDermott tied for the Bulls lead with 16 points, and everything about that statement should depress you.  Michael Carter-Williams wasn't far behind with 12.  Robin Lopez and Rajon Rondo chipped in 10 apiece.  Obviously, there was nothing too exciting to come of that.

All you need to know about this game is the Bulls had a 4-on-1 break and completely screwed it up with a bad pass.  Only these Bulls could find a way to mess up such an easy opportunity.  Never mind that they were missing key personnel.  The fact that two points could be thrown away just like that is absolutely mind-boggling.

This game really exposed the Bulls as to how thin they are.  Take Butler and Wade out and you're left with a bunch of role players that have no clear direction.  Granted, they don't do well against young, athletic teams anyway, but when nobody's playing well enough to hide your collective flaws, everyone can see you for what you truly are.  It's further evidence on why a new direction not only needs to be considered, but is overdue.

Having finished the Disney on Ice trip at 2-4, the Bulls will return to the United Center on Tuesday against the Toronto Raptors.  They've won 10 straight in the series, though the Raptors dropping to the fourth seed in the East makes it a little less surprising.  Still, any series with a streak that long suggests the team on the losing end has a mental block that grows larger for each passing game.  Anything to get this team back on track would be much appreciated, even if it has to come at the expense of an opponent you've beat up on recently.

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.

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.

Thibs, Timberwolves Beat Bulls

The above iconic image of Tom Thibodeau during his time with the Bulls has been used many times on social media since it came to be.  It showed up plenty of times last year when the Bulls were on their way to missing the playoffs.  On Tuesday, it made a triumphant return as Thibodeau's Minnesota Timberwolves came from behind to win, 99-94, at the United Center.

Things started well when the Bulls exploited a thin Timberwolves defense down low.  They led by as much as 21 in the second quarter before the visitors, who entered tied with Dallas for the worst record in the NBA, began to look like the team people expected at the start of the year.  Their youth and athleticism, the very thing Gar Forman and John Paxson backtracked on during the offseason, played a large part in making up the entire deficit and eventually, taking the lead.  The Bulls, who scored 38 points in the first quarter, became stagnant on offense and were badly beat frequently on defense to complete the NBA's biggest collapse so far this season.

For the second time in 10 days, the Bulls lost to a team entering with the league's worst record.  Take out the first quarter and it was ugly from start to finish.  They were outscored 77-56 in the final three quarters and shot 24 percent from the field.  And during one stretch, they made just one of 12 3-point attempts.

All five Timberwolves starters scored in double figures.  Zach LaVine led them with 24 points and Andrew Wiggins just trailed him with 23.  There were 16 points apiece from Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng, whom the Bulls passed on in the 2013 draft for Tony Snell.  In typical Thibodeau fashion, no Minnesota starter played less than 34 minutes and on this night, it didn't hurt the young team.

Jimmy Butler was the game's top scorer with 27 points and came within a rebound of a double-double.  Robin Lopez had 14, but just four in the second half, though he did get on highlight reels with some emphatic blocks (finishing with 4).  Dwyane Wade totaled 12 on a night he wasn't particularly sharp (4 of 13 from the field) and found himself ejected in the final seconds for clapping in referee Ben Taylor's face.  Taj Gibson added 10.

There's no way this should have turned out the way it did, but Thibodeau's crew had extra incentive to play extra hard when it fell in an early hole.  Meanwhile, the Bulls again played down to their competition and couldn't find another wind once they fell out of the first one.  The shooting was putrid and the defense either collapsed frequently or couldn't get back on fast breaks.  No team can play a game like this and expect to come out on top.

The Bulls will lick their wounds Wednesday before playing a nationally televised road game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the first of a home-and-home.  Rajon Rondo will hopefully be back from a sprained ankle.  But it won't matter if they don't play those 48 minutes of intensity.  I always to channel the late Norm Van Lier, but it becomes necessary when the worst of the NBA is besting what should be an above-average Bulls team and Thibs is laughing all the way home.