Just What Happened to the Chicago Bulls?

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).

Still, after losing to Detroit, no one could yet see what the Bulls had given up in Aldridge and Carney and what a waste of money Wallace would turn out to be. They had achieved a successful season and had claimed their first playoff series victory since No. 23 was around. All was looking up in the Windy City.

Then, management decided to mess things up again.

In the 2007 offseason, the two main stars of the team, Luol Deng and Ben Gordon both turned down fairly generous contract extensions, though neither ever provided a solid reason for doing so. Most merely assumed that the two thought they were worth more to the team.

The front office decided to finally address the long time need of an offensive presence on the block. They signed Joe Smith and drafted Joakim Noah. Not the best answer to the question perhaps, but at least they were trying.

Over the summer, it became painfully obvious that the Bulls were chasing several other stars, such as Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol and of course, Kobe Bryant. Though John Paxson always denied that the Bulls had been pursuing these stars, it still had a rather negative effect on the team.

It has long been true that when NBA teams are not sure who will still be there the next day, things start to falter. The Bulls were a perfect example of this, as they started the new season with a dismal 9-16 record, despite the fact that there had been no major changes made to the roster or any nasty injuries suffered. The Bulls admitted defeat on the season effectively when they fired Scott Skiles (s smart decision, most agreed) but didn’t bother to find a replacement, instead letting interim coach Jim Boylan take over.

They also made one of the larger trades of the season, again admitting defeat by shipping off Wallace, Smith and others for Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden and others.

Chicago was glad to see the end of this season.

It was possible to resurrect the Bulls, as they still had talent (though admittedly still no constant scoring threat inside), but the team was not finished. They first set about finding a new coach. Proven NBA coaches Mike D’Antoni and Doug Collins appeared poised to take the position. Instead, the Bulls landed upon Vinny Del Negro, a man who has never coached a game in its life.

To be fair, Vinny could turn out to be a great coach, but it's still a rather large risk.

Then, they were extremely lucky to land the first pick of this year’s draft, which of course turned into Derrick Rose, choosing the guard from Memphis over Michael Beasley. It is far too early to see if this was the right choice or not, but I personally believe it to be the wrong choice. I'll explain why in a moment.

The Bulls almost committed an absolute travesty by very nearly letting restricted free-agents Luol Deng and Ben Gordon both leave. The team re-signed Deng to a six-year, $7 million contract a little over two weeks ago, but Gordon is still unsigned, and it appears unlikely we’ll see him in a Bulls uniform again.

I mentioned that taking Derrick Rose may have been the wrong choice. Rose seems to be an excellent talent, but the Bulls are already loaded at the guard spot and Beasley seems to be an absolute scoring prodigy on the inside, which is what the Bulls so desperately need.

So we’re caught up to the present day, where the Bulls are on the fence between contender and rebuilding...again. What I truly don’t understand is why John Paxson still has a job. True, he managed to draft Gordon and Deng, but he also managed to alienate these players to the point where they honestly don’t seem to want to play for this team anymore. I don’t blame them: Chicago has learned nothing in the last ten years.

They finally have a team that may be capable of achieving something. Of course, I’m not suggesting that this current team could do anything more than reach the conference semi-finals, but with a few more added pieces and some general effort, they could be one the top teams in the East.

But only if they let themselves.