Chicago Bulls Trade Talk: Worst Five Trades-#3

Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

More Chicago Bulls trade talk. Another star involved. Another team gets the prize. After the Chicago Bulls made a run for Kevin Love last month, more Chicago Bulls trade talk turned out to be just that…TALK! Well Pippen Peoples, it’s done, it’s over, time to move on. Kevin Love has been traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Cleveland Cavaliers in a three team trade with the Philadelphia 76ers. For  a total breakdown of the trade, check out Pippen Ain’t Easy, your best choice for all NBA news, previews and reviews.

Seems like this always happens for the Chicago Bulls. A big time trade in the works, there’s Chicago Bulls trade talk but no action. But fear not Pippen Peoples! The staff here at Pippen Ain’t Easy don’t care  about all that. We’ll do  our own thing. Pippen Ain’t Easy will keep up the Chicago Bulls trade talk in our  own series. Pippen Ain’t Easy continues the series of the five  best and worst trades in Chicago Bulls history.

The start of the Chicago Bulls trade talk series started with the fifth worst trade of all time with Artis Gilmore being traded from the Chicago Bulls to the San Antonio Spurs for Dave Corzine and Mark Olberding. Artis Gilmore went on to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and I’m STILL trying to figure out who Mark Olberding is.

The fourth worst trade spelled the end of an era for General Manager “Crumbs”…I mean Jerry Krause. The Chicago Bulls traded Elton Brand to the Los Angeles Clippers (pre Lob City) on draft night for the rights to nab Tyson Chandler back in 2001. Elton Brand went on to have a solid if not unspectacular career while Tyson Chandler won a NBA title and a NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. The only problem was, all of this happened after he was LONG GONE from the Bulls.

Now Pippen Peoples, let’s check out the number three worst trade in Chicago Bulls history. Boy  is this one going to hurt my feelings. February 19, 2002 The Chicago Bulls trade Ron Artest, Brad Miller, Ron Mercer and Kevin Ollie to the Indiana Pacers…

WHILE

The Indiana Pacers gave the Bulls Jalen Rose, Travis Best and Norm Richardson.

I bet some of you Bulls fans thought that Derrick Rose was the only Rose in Chicago. Nope! The original Rose in Chicago in the modern era was Jalen Rose. Let me get this out-of-the-way. This may be biased. So what? I was a HUGE Jalen Rose fan back to the Fab Five days at Michigan. He led the Wolverines in scoring, not Chris Webber and he was one of the most vicious trash talkers of all time.

Coming into the NBA he didn’t find his footing until he got to Indiana and started getting knowledge under the tutelage of Larry Bird. Combining his talents with Reggie Miller, Rose helped lead the Pacers to the NBA Finals only to lose to the Los Angeles Lakers led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant during the three peat years in the early 2000’s.

Larry Bird decided to retire from coaching and then came Isiah Thomas. Ask any New York fan or anyone associated with the old Continental Basketball Association  about Isiah Thomas and how he does things, you know how this turned out.

Jalen Rose and Isiah Thomas  did not get along and Rose was out of Indy with the quickness. Well John Paxson had just taken over the reigns as the General Manager when Rose was in a Bulls uniform. Let’s just say that if he wants another GM job this part of his tenure won’t be on his résumé.

This one was bad Pippen Peoples on so many levels. The Bulls traded their three leading scorers at the time midway through the 2001-02 for Jalen Rose and two tomato cans. The Bulls traded Ron Artest, Ron Mercer, Brad Miller and Kevin Ollie, a good locker room guy.

Oops! After Ron Artest got to Indiana, his career took off. He turned into a scorer and became at the time the best lockdown defender in the league. Artest was on his way to superstar status in 2003-04  when he made the All-Star team averaging 18.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. The crowning achievement that year came when he won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Then he started drinking the Kool-Aid. Remember when he wanted time off to promote his album? If you are thinking…what album? My point has been made. Then he was the centerpiece of the “Malice in the Palace” and got suspended along  a couple of his teammates. Eventually Artest was traded. That set the franchise  back years.

Brad Miller emerged as a terrific center who played well in Indy but got his claim to fame in Sacramento in their high post offense. Think Joakim Noah of last year and you get the idea.

Ron Mercer…has a cool first name.

Kevin Ollie went on to find  his calling in college coaching. He’s pretty good too. Last I heard he coaches UCONN the reigning National Champions.

Jalen Rose statistically scored well for the Bulls averaging 21.4 points per game. He only played 128 games for the team (more on that later). Travis Best and Norm Richardson only played 38 games and were the pioneers for sitting the bench like the bench for the Bulls did in the playoffs last year. Not a good look.

Jalen Rose left the Pacers under tough circumstances. In Indiana, he was a star as Reggie Miller’s sidekick and he flourished under Larry Bird. Isiah Thomas has a system too. It’s called making it up as he goes and blaming people when it doesn’t work. When the Pacers started to slide. Rose was thrown under the bus and traded. When Rose got to Chicago, it had to be a  bit of  a culture shock. He went from a veteran team to a baby-faced squad set up by Krause. The Bulls were in rebuilding mode building around Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry  and  Jamal Crawford. (Remember that dude?) The Bulls at that time was looking for veterans to mentor and groom these guys for the future. Jalen reportedly was not that guy. Check out what Chris Ballard wrote in Sports Illustrated…

"“And while Paxson won’t say so explicitly, it’s clear he thought the mercurial Rose didn’t fit that description. In Chicago, Rose broke off plays  to get his own shot and was disruptive in the locker room (charges that he denies). Worse from Paxson’s point of  view, he had become a  negative influence on Crawford. Paxson was determined to move him, no matter the cost.”"

Ouch! John Paxson wasn’t playing either. He made another questionable trade trading Rose, Donyell Marshall and Lonny Baxter to Toronto for Antonio Davis, Jerome Williams and Chris Jeffries. Editor’s note… Jalen Rose was on the floor when Kobe Bryant went to the moon for 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. Maybe defense had something to do with it too.

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