Chicago Bulls management have proven that they’re not right men for rebuild job
Chicago Bulls management have already proved they’re not suited to rebuild this franchise back to being among one of the NBA’s top-tier squads.
A rebuild for the Chicago Bulls has been on my mind for a while now.
Ever since Jimmy Butler‘s name came up in trade talks around the 2016 NBA Draft, it’s seemed inevitable. Given Butler’s age (27, which means he’s likely at his apex), the size of his next contract (likely to be a supermax) and the heavy minutes/injuries he’s already suffered, it made sense on some level to move Butler and get a jump-start on a rebuild.
Besides that, Jordan Bell looks like he’s going to be a really good player. He’s already recorded a 5×5 game in the Las Vegas Summer League. Bell put up five points, 11 rebounds, five assists, five steals and six blocks recently. He was also a plus-27 on the night.
Sure, it’s just a summer league game, but still, the guy’s got potential. This could end up looking like GarPax sold Draymond Green-lite to the league’s most dominant team. All for $3.5 million in cash.
Cash that is likely going right in to owner Jerry Reinsdorf’s pockets.
Paxson and Forman showed a new level of incompetence at the draft
The NBA draft is a crap shoot. There are no guarantees that the player your team takes will become anything.
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Look at the Philadelphia 76ers. They’ve added multiple lottery picks. Some look to be franchise players, like Joel Embiid.
Others like former Bull Michael Carter-Williams turned out to be whiffs. It’s impossible to tell what a player could become.
That’s why it’s good to take as many bites at the apple as possible.
The Bulls could have had at least two bites at the proverbial apple without trading their best player. The fact that they shipped off Butler and some how ended up with less draft picks then they had at the start off the draft is unfathomable. Maybe the 16th pick was a deal breaker. I find it hard to believe, but I wasn’t part of the negotiations.
What do I know? Maybe not a lot, but I do know management sold the 38th pick to save money. When starting a rebuild, a move like that is just unacceptable.
This Bulls team could have had three intriguing prospects all under team control to start the season.Taking a chance on a high upside guy is a great move for a rebuilding franchise. Adding three rookies in one draft, with one being a lottery pick, would take some of the risk out of taking a chance on guys like a Harry Giles or OG Anunoby.
It’s a big misstep by management that they didn’t try to add as many young guys as they could.
Gar Forman has a history of losing trades
Gar Forman has been on the losing end of far too many trades.
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Wiz of Awes
Forget about the Butler trade. Let’s look further back. Take a look the Taj Gibson–Doug McDermott trade.
Forman sent Gibson, McDermott and a second-round draft pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Cameron Payne, Anthony Morrow and Joffrey Lauvergne. Even on the surface, this trade looks lopsided. The Bulls recently with drew their qualifying offer for Lauvergne. Payne might not even be a starter for the Windy City Bulls, let alone a NBA player.
While Gibson was on expiring contract and it made sense to get something back for him, giving up McDermott and a second-rounder feels like way too much. The deeper you look the uglier this trade gets.
To acquire McDermott, the Bulls had to trade up in 2014 draft. They sent the 16th and 19th picks in that draft to the Denver Nuggets, as well as a future second-round pick. Those picks became Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic, both of whom are starter-caliber players.
So to sum it up, the Bulls traded two first-round picks, two second-round picks and Taj Gibson for Cameron Payne and Anthony Morrow. That’s bad.
Management has a talent evaluation problem
Forget the fact that the Bulls could have Harris and Nurkic on rookie scale-deals right now. They managed to turn one horrible trade in to another even worse trade. And why? Because they consistently overvalue rookies, which may mean they have a problem evaluating talent.
They did it when they traded up for McDermott, then again when they traded McDermott for a younger player in Payne, then they did it yet again with overvaluing Kris Dunn in the Butler trade. Forman and Paxson are starting to show a pattern of poor talent evaluation. That’s a big problem if they’re the ones guiding this team through a rebuild.
GarPax has got to go!
Like i said before, the draft is a crap shoot and players don’t always meet expectations. You win some and you lose some when you build through the draft. That’s okay. Every franchise has made bad choices at the draft that in hindsight, look like awful decisions. When you’re swinging for the fences, you’re going to have a few strikes.
The problem is that you need to actually swing for the fences. That’s hard to do when you limit your chances to swing by trading away and unnecessarily selling draft picks. It doesn’t help much that when Forman and Paxson have had a surplus of picks, they’ve traded those to grab guys whom were completely overvalued.
Next: Kris Dunn is the difference between a rebuild and mediocrity
Forman and Paxson have proved they are barely capable of running a middling playoff team. Their past and present moves have shown they have no business guiding a rebuild. Whether it’s their tendency to overvalue four-year college players at the draft — the way they undervalue second round picks — or how they seem to get taken advantage of by competent general managers in trades, GarPax needs to go.