Pippen Ain't Easy
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Dwyane Wade and LeBron James social hour on the banana boat

By Daniel Coughlin

Dec 2, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade (3) and Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) meet at half court prior to the first quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 2, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade (3) and Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) meet at half court prior to the first quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the banana boat boys. First, Chris Paul received the bad news that he was going to be sidelined for an extended period to recovery from a surgery. And then it was LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Both players clearly frustrated with their teammates and recent struggles. The best part is that they both went social with it, taking to Twitter to entertain us all.

Next: Rondo Claps at Wade, Butler

LeBron isn’t the main person of interest here, it’s more interesting and concerning coming from Wade.

The situation in Cleveland will correct itself. They’re the best of the rest, aka Eastern Conference champs from now until James calls it a day. They’ve got James, but they’ve also got Kyrie Irving approaching his prime, Kevin Love showing exactly the kind of thing that the Cavs were hoping for when they traded for him. Oh, and they won the championship last year. Yeah, I’d say they’re fine.

Just the same, James did have a few things to say after the game. He believes Cleveland could use another playmaker, said that their team was top-heavy. And he is right, but what a blessed curse it must be to stand as defending champs, dominating their conference and have three of the best in the game keeping the top so heavy.

After his outburst, in which he stated that they needed a “f***ing playmaker,” he took to Twitter in some sort of effort to continue airing his grievances while also sounding as if he wanted to clear the air.

LeBron had several tweets after that, stating that he knows the team will bounce back and so on.

As an isolated incident, this just looks like the best player on the planet being frustrated with his team, seeing a severe lack of talent below the top three players. An injury to any of them would set the team back significantly.

What makes this more fun, yes fun, is that the Chicago Bulls imploded on Wednesday night. After getting hammered by the Atlanta Hawks in Atlanta on Friday night last week, they ran it back in Chicago a few days later and the Bulls went from a big lead late to taking yet another loss, dropping to 23-24 on the season.

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This defeat came shortly after Wade had made some comments about his future. In a piece from Nick Friedell of ESPN, Wade had some pointed comments about the trajectory of the season for Chicago and how that would impact his offseason decision on his player option for next year.

"“I wouldn’t lie to you and say no,” Wade said. “Of course. I can’t play this game forever. I just turned 35 and I have a number in my head how long I want to play. At the end of the day you want to be in a situation where it’s a competitor situation, whatever the case may be. It’s tough in this league as well because a lot of that also depends on how much money you’re willing to make. It depends on what city you’re willing to be in. So it’s a lot of variables to that, but no question about it, what happens throughout this year, as I go into my summer, I’ll definitely take a look at it. I take my career seriously and where I am and where I want to be. And I will do the same thing this summer.”"

Those remarks can be read as a few things, but clearly it puts the pressure on his teammates, his coach, and the front office if they want Wade to return next season. Of course, that could be a big if after Wednesday night.

This tweet from K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune was a sample of the kind of comments that came flying from both Wade and star forward Jimmy Butler.

Cody Westerlund, editor at 670theScore.com, captured this fabulous Butler footage after the second loss to the Hawks:

As if the comments from Butler a few days earlier weren’t clear enough, both he and Wade were perfectly clear on Wednesday night. Westerlund also shared this tweet, a note of what Wade said in full:

And just to make sure that it wasn’t lost on anyone about how he felt, Wade went ahead and put out a very sideways tweet.

All of this makes the LeBron situation seem downright silly. Except that we go back to the friendship of the former teammates that spent four years dominating the East together with the Miami Heat.

Wade might not hustle back on defense or give full effort, a fact pointed out by both Stephen Noh of The Athletic and Rajon Rondo of the Bulls. Yes, Rondo called out Wade and Butler, too. This is certainly an implosion on top of the implosion that is the implosion formerly known as the Chicago Bulls.

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And if you’re having a hard time keeping up, you’ve reached the point where we talk about the totally implausible scenario where the banana boat illuminati have conspired to join forces.

It’s absolutely ridiculous, but the timing makes it fascinating. And no, there isn’t a trade that works which the Cavs or their GM, LeBron, would agree to. The easiest match is Wade for Kevin Love when talking about salary. Before the season got rolling, I hinted at such a trade. Imagine what we know now and what a different it would make if Love was a Bull and Wade wasn’t the Bulls’ problem anymore.

LeBron wants another playmaker, someone to help the top-heavy trio he has with Love and Irving. Wade doesn’t make sense because it would require either complete fodder or one of those three heading the opposite direction in exchange for Wade.

Unless, of course, this is all part of the banana boat plan.

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