Why Should We Even Care, Bulls?

There’s no other option for the NBA’s hypothetical “Most Disappointing Team” award. It’s the Chicago Bulls’ award. The name plate is already on the award and the season’s not over yet.

There’s a bulk of the Chicago Bulls fan base that doesn’t care if the Bulls make or miss the postseason.

At this point, it’s a legitimate thought to think the Bulls themselves don’t care if they make or miss the playoffs for the first time since before Derrick Rose was drafted No. 1 overall in the 2008 NBA Draft.

The Bulls sit with a mediocre 36-36 record with 10 games left and start a difficult three-games-in-four-night span this upcoming week against three current playoff teams (Atlanta, Indiana and Houston) and are in a complete free fall.

It’s honestly simple.

When you watch the Bulls, do you honestly see a team that cares? Do you see a team that’s buying in to what their first-year head coach is selling?

Blaming injuries can only get you so far when you talk about the Bulls. Every player has been in the injury report one way or another this season, but that doesn’t excuse how pathetic the Bulls have been down the stretch of a playoff run.

Take Saturday’s night’s blowout loss to the Orlando Magic for a good (yet, atrocious) example.

The game was over before it even began and the Magic — who mind you, are 13 games under the .500 mark — were missing three players in their everyday rotation against the Bulls. Saturday was an early Easter gift for the Bulls.

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Of course, that’s what the home-and-home set with that “trash team” in New York was supposed to be, but we saw how that went.

Blog a Bull’s Jason Patt said the most proper thing about the Bulls in a solid piece about why the Bulls are just downright depressing.

(It’s a pretty solid piece and probably describes what many are feeling, so give it a read here.)

“I just don’t like this team,” Patt wrote.

Personally, I’m in agreement with him.

What about this team is likable right now? (That’s a serious question.)

Jimmy Butler hasn’t been the same since his left knee injury, the Bulls are statistically one of the worst teams defensively in the league and the Bulls have gotten worse since firing Tom Thibodeau after last year’s playoff exit. (Departing with Thibodeau was the right decision at the time, but that’s a different discussion for another day.)

When I say “worse”, I mean it.

Have their been good things this season? Sure.

Derrick Rose is playing the best basketball of his career since the leg injuries began to pile up, Doug McDermott has shown flashes of becoming a legitimate rotation piece this season in a bigger role and Bobby Portis fears nothing. There are good things, but they’re few and far between.

But in the end, does it really matter?

The Bulls currently have a eight percent change of making the postseason, per FiveThirtyEight.com and most likely won’t see that first-round pick that’s owed to them by the Sacramento Kings (if the Kings finish outside of the top 10 picks).

As of now, the Bulls are two games back of Indiana and Detroit for seventh and eighth in the East (with one more meeting with both teams), along with other tough games with Milwaukee, Memphis and Miami. There aren’t too many wins appearing on the remaining schedule if we’re being completely honest.

Next: Taj Gibson should be embarrassed by how the Bulls have played in a playoff race

Once again, the question sticks out like a sore thumb. What about this team is likable?

More importantly, why should a large fan base care about a team that doesn’t seem to care themselves?

(Semi-related note: These tweets just about sum things up.)

What a time to be alive and God bless Twitter.