What’s next for the Bulls?
May 10, 2017
Season three of a distasteful movie titled “Fred and the boys are bound to fail” starring John Paxson, executive vice president basketball operations, and Gar Forman, general manager.
Coach Fred Hoiberg has shown in two unsuccessful seasons that he is unqualified to coach a team like the Chicago Bulls. Currently on a five-year, $25 million contract, as a rookie head coach, he coached a team that missed the playoffs for the first time in eight years and then performed miserably in the first round of the 2017 NBA-playoffs despite taking a 2-0 lead against the Boston Celtics.
Paxson and Forman last week gave their unflinching support to Hoiberg, a coach they think needs time to develop. Ironically though, Hoiberg was hired after the Bulls sacked Tom Thibodeau after a decent 50-32 regular season as head coach.
The organization is misguided, confused and clueless.
Season one of the movie started with missing the playoffs for one of the Eastern Conference’s most successful organizations. Season two was a semblance of a fight between a cat and a dog.
At the onset of the just-ended regular season, it was clear that Rajon Rondo, Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler were the Bulls’ choice for a big three combination in the starting five. This resulted in confusion on and off the court, evident by Rondo’s telling Instagram post about Hoiberg’s inability to provide stability and his preferential treatment that favored Wade and Butler.
Career wise, it was Wade’s worst scoring season averaging 18.3 points through his 60 games, and his lowest field goal percentage with .434, a percentage that is worse than the .465 he was able to get during his rookie season in Miami.
Rondo, too, had some deteriorating stats. He was able to score just 7.8 points per game, 1.8 points shy of his lowest regular season output. As an elite point guard revered for his assists, he went for 11.7 through 72 games, matching his 2011-12 record assists season with a team that is in worse shape than the Bulls – the Sacramento Kings. Rondo went for 6.7 assists through 69 games during his freshman stint for the Bulls.
This could be the reason the Bulls’ front office decided on a trade that brought in Cameron Payne, a lackluster shooter but somehow decent with assists.
For Butler, it was his best scoring season with 23.9 points per game, with a .367 three-point shooting percentage through 76 games. On the sad note, his name made headlines during the trade period when the Bulls were losing left and right to division rivals.
Here we have a big three that is made of players that weren’t at the peak of their careers, and a young, promising and talented player, like Butler. There is a 100 percent likelihood that nothing is going to change since the Bulls have not decided on building a team with Butler as the key player. Let us see what the organization will come up to concerning Rondo’s guarantee contract, and what Wade is going to do about his player option.
Now, let me get to the crux of the problem.
The Bulls went for depth with an avalanche of point guards. The Bulls can’t move forward with a depleted roster. If you want to boast about young players who are ready to play basketball, look at Giannis Antetokounmpo and his Milwaukee Bucks team.
The Bulls’ young players are way too bad to think they can perform better next season. Paxson and Forman want us to believe a young team with a young coach is the way to go.
A pessimistic as I may sound, it is my hope that the Bulls can make the necessary changes before the start of the 2017-18 season.