A little over a year ago, the Chicago Bulls seemed to be a team on the rise and figured to be a contender in the soft Eastern Conference.
Today, they couldn’t be further away from that goal.
Ever since the man called Michael left (and even a bit before), the Chicago Bulls front office has been subject to mockery and loathing. In my mind at least, there is nothing worse than when a team is ruined by guys in suits. Perhaps the 90’s Bulls had their run either way, and perhaps it was time to let someone else win a ring, but the way that team was unceremoniously torn apart is still a great tragedy in NBA history.
Since then, it’s only gotten worse. They had Elton Brand. They had Ron Artest. They had Tyson Chandler. They failed to capitalize on any of them, and it was mainly because of issues with management. Let’s not be overly short-sighted: they weren’t brilliant on the court, and were even worse on the bench. But still, I maintain that management is mainly responsible for this.
Flashback to Opening Night of the 2006/07 season.
Chicago vs. Miami on Ring Night.
Chicago dismantled the Heat on the first night of the new season, proving to be the first of a long line of kicks between the legs for Heat as they fell from greatness. During Miami’s title run, the Heat beat the Bulls 4-2 in the first round. Chicago avenged this in the '07 playoffs by sweeping Miami and officially telling the world that they were a force to be reckoned with. Britain’s own Luol Deng emerged as the team’s leader and perhaps the franchise player. Ben Gordon was a deathly scoring threat, and even Ben Wallace (yeah, remember him?) seemed to jump for rebounds and put in effort to win basketball games, as he had been the off-season’s biggest signing the previous summer.
That was the last success the Bulls had. After this, Detroit once again made them look like a team that did not belong in the playoffs.
What is annoying is that things could be different. Although they wouldn’t have made much of a difference in the 2007 season, Chicago made several key mistakes that most likely sealed their fate during the 2006 off-season.
They drafted Lamarcus Aldridge, then traded him away for Tyrus Thomas. They also managed to land Rodney Carney and traded him away for Thabo Sefolosha. Plus, they paid probably about twice the amount that Ben Wallace was worth. To be fair, Big Ben did appear to be one of the best when with Detroit, but still, that was a lot of money to invest in an aging and under-sized big man with little to no offensive skills, especially when you are in dire need of a franchise player. (This being before Deng emerged to be one of the premier talents in the league).
7 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
Quentin McCall 10 months ago
Great article.
Do you recall their rationale for trading Aldridge for Thomas? I also thought that was a bizarre move (good for the Blazers though).
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Hoops4life 10 months ago
@Quentin, At the time they believed that Alridge would be strictly defensive, which they already had in Tyson Chandler (despite the fact they traded him shortly after), unfortunately the Bulls fell into the all-too-common trap of falling for an explosive forward that dunks alot.
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Jaime Irvine 10 months ago
Good article. I haven't understood what the Bulls have been doing for years. I never understood the Aldridge trade on draft night and remember that night thinking they made a huge mistake. They have needed an inside scorer for years now and have drafted Noah (who cant score) and Rose this past year. Looking at their roster now it is a mess. I don't see how they will be able to trade Gordon or Hinrich and not get back 50 cents on the dollar. Try to think of one trade that makes sense for both teams that involves one of these guys and you cant. The team's makeup is dysfunctional and agree that Paxson should go.
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Brett Fulmore 10 months ago
Luol Deng is not a franchise player in my opinion. He is a very versatile, hard working player with a lot of character but do you honestly see him being the centerpiece of a championship team? To think that Paxson's refusal to trade Deng was the dealbreaker in both the Gasol and KOBE BRYANT (seems so silly now, doesn't it?) trades, is quite ridiculous.
They've butchered the Ben Gordon situation, and now are forced to trade him for 50 cents on the dollar or see him spend a year in Europe and then return as a free agent.
They traded Elton Brand for Tyson Chandler on draft night when Chandler was coming straight from high school.
They gave Chandler away for peanuts a few years later to sign B. Wallace, who never got along with Skiles and was a huge dissapointment. In order to get rid of Big Ben's contract, they had to take back Larry Hughes - which is equally as bad and he's equally as dissapointing.
They have some real nice pieces in place - Rose, Deng, Hinrich - and a few other pieces that could still go either way - Noah, Thomas, Sefolosha - but still lack that dominating scorer to lean on for 25 points every night. I thought they should have drafted Beasley, but I know I am in the minority with that thought.
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Hoops4life 10 months ago
@Brett, you are right about Deng, though i do believe he could be an all-star and play a 'Pippen' style role on a good team, and you're also right about the trades, though you must remember he would have never been dealt purely for Gasol or Bryant, the Bulls would have had to give away about half their team, so its a 50/50 call.
They do have good players, on paper this is a real good team, but they don't work on the court. They are still not a Memphis or New York, but they are definitly no where near their potential.
Oh, and they definitly should have drafted Beasley.
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Curly Morris 10 months ago
Great job!
Scott Skiles is what happened to the Bulls. Aside from his inability to connect with the players they had. His coaching style is what played a major part in the personnel decisions management made.
Skiles has skills, don't get me wrong, but he needs to be coaching in college somewhere. His act is old with NBA players. The Bucks will start off next season red hot with him on the bench and then when the team has a slump he'll start riding his players too hard and they'll tune him out. It's already happened to him twice already.
This team was tailor made for Mike D'Antoni to coach, I have no idea why he chose to go to NY.
They can still rebound but they absolutely must get an interior scorer, period.
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Hoops4life 10 months ago
@Curly, good point i should have mentioned more about the coaching situation i do like the old-school type style of Skiles, i think the NBA might need more of that, but its got to be in moderation. There's being strict and still managing your players, and then theres just screaming like a high school coach who's first sport is football.
D'Antoni has connections in New York, and technically the Knicks COULD turn into the new Suns, its just incredibly unlikely.
We'll have to settle for Del Negro at this point
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