Is There a Quick Fix for the Chicago Bulls?
It’s likely that the Chicago Bulls will find themselves in the NBA Draft Lottery for the first time since they magically ended up with Derrick Rose and the No. 1 overall pick in 2008. With that being said, what’s the solution for this team moving forward?
On Tuesday night, the Chicago Bulls played a Memphis Grizzlies team that was missing their two best players — Marc Gasol and Mike Conley — to season-ending injuries and the Bulls were still torched by 16 points in one of the most crucial games of the season.
There is no other dog in the race towards the biggest disappointment in the NBA this season. The Bulls have gone from a missed timeout attempt by former Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt and a 3-1 series lead against LeBron James last postseason to one of the laughing points in the NBA today.
Solutions and ideas have been thrown around by everyone with knowledge of the situation in Chicago and from the fan base itself.
“Trade Jimmy Butler! Derrick Rose isn’t D-Rose anymore! Fred Hoiberg sucks! Pau Gasol is old! Joakim Noah can’t stay healthy anymore!”
Well, let’s think about this here.
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Jimmy Butler is the best player on this current Bulls roster and the most valuable.
Derrick Rose has played his best extended stretch of basketball in years since Christmas Day, despite some nagging injuries down the stretch.
Fred Hoiberg is a rookie head coach in the NBA. Not every coach can inherit what former Bull Steve Kerr did last season out in California with the defending champion Golden State Warriors.
As for the two big men, Gasol has a player option for next season and Noah is an unrestricted free agent. Despite the claim that the Bulls would like to re-sign Gasol before this year’s trade deadline, it seems unlikely the Bulls keep Gasol and the injured Noah for that matter.
It’s a never-ending cycle of drama for one of the more dramatic and hot-take(iest) franchises in the NBA.
With four games left in the season, the Bulls sit at 39-39 on the year; two games out in the Eastern Conference. The team they’re chasing for the final playoff spot — the Detroit Pistons — have already beaten the Bulls three out of the four times they met this season and own the tiebreaker.
It’s probably time to face facts. The Bulls aren’t a playoff team.
With the Bulls likely heading for the lottery, what’s the solution or a quick-fix solution?
(No, it’s not Kevin Durant. Get that out of your skulls right now.)
But, a somewhat realistic option for the Bulls this offseason could be finally getting their owed first-round pick from the Sacramento Kings. As of now, the Kings sit with the seventh-worst record in the NBA. If they fall outside of the top 10 picks in this year’s lottery, the Bulls obtain that pick.
So basically, the Bulls would be looking at a Doug McDermott situation from two drafts ago with two first-round picks in their grasp.
If that was the case, what would the Bulls look for? With Gasol and Noah potentially heading elsewhere, there’s a glaring need for front line help. The Bulls have been poor on defense this season and that was even with Noah in the lineup for a part of the year before shoulder surgery ended his season.
McDermott has really come into his own offensively in year two, but he and Tony Snell provide next to nothing on the defensive end. The dreaded “Bulls need athletes on the wing” theory still rings true from the days of Keith Bogans starting next to Derrick Rose on a 62-win Bulls roster five years ago.
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There was the whole “Mike Dunleavy is a wonderful trade acquisition when he’s actually already on the roster” thing this season, but it’s clear this season that his back isn’t the same.
Nikola Mirotic has lit up the nets with his hot shooting down the final stretch of the year, but he had his own scare this season with two surgeries due to an appendectomy and a hematoma removal. Still, as good as Mirotic is offensively (and he’s been really good lately), the Bulls need a big (a la Taj Gibson) to help cover Mirotic on the other end of the floor.
Along with Rose in the back court, E’Twaun Moore and Aaron Brooks are both slated to be unrestricted free agents. Justin Holiday is a solid backcourt piece that’s signed through next season, but he’s been with four different franchises in three seasons.
When you look at the Bulls’ situation as a whole, there appears to be no quick-fix solution. If the Bulls shocked everyone and actually conducted a trade centering around Jimmy Butler, the draft picks would fly in, but it’s not something that’s going to get the Bulls back into the title picture in the near future.
You’re not winning a title with Derrick Rose (who has one year left on his humongous deal) and a bunch of rookies. That’s not realistic at all.
(Related: The Bulls are the ninth-oldest team in the NBA with an average age of 27.7 years.)
With the offseason likely coming sooner rather than later, the best bet for the Bulls is to think long-term success. It’s more likely that the Chicago White Sox win 100+ games, unseat the Kansas City Royals and win another World Series than Jerry Reinsdorf firing John Paxson, Gar Forman or both.
Next: If the Bulls trade Jimmy Butler, they could go big come draft time
The Bulls have what they have right now and what they have isn’t good enough. Call it a rebuild, call it “tanking for the future”, but make sure you call the Bulls getting younger and growing potential young prospects the best chance at the Bulls finding success again.