The Trade Deadline
Let’s just get this painful bit out of the way first. No need to ignore it or pretend it didn’t happen. Go ahead and pull that Taj Gibson-shaped Band Aid right off your bleeding Bulls-supporting heart.
This was always going to happen and it was always going to a hard pill to swallow. Of course, it wasn’t enough that we lost Gibson, we had to jettison something else that was almost as painful. Yup, Forman also sent a second-round draft pick out. And he did this right after trying to fish for some draft picks using Robin Lopez and Mirotic as bait.
Chicago lost Gibson, and all the good things about him, along with a draft pick. Clearly, management does not value second-round picks. Which is kind of comical because Paul Zipser, but whatever.
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Here’s the rub – moving Gibson was the right move. The pick? Not so much. Taj had to go. He deserved to be someplace better and the Bulls desperately needed to learn from last year’s mistakes in not trading Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah’s deal, or Taj. They let a lot of money, a lot of points and a fan favorite walk at the end of the 2015-16 season and had nothing to show for it. I take that back, they did get enough cap room to sign Rajon Rondo. Good work, fellas.
This year, they improved their decision making. Kind of. Except they sent out a stand-up guy and a pick for Cameron Payne, Anthony Morrow and Joffrey Lauvergne. Payne has been a total fail, grabbing DNPs and reps in the D-League. Morrow finally saw the court for the first time in a long time, when the team was up about 30 points with four minutes to play on the final night of the regular season. Big Joff, as I call him, has seen the most court time of any of those three and that was, in part, due to Lopez and Cristiano Felicio both being unavailable at the same time.
It was a terrible trade. Looks like the Bulls just can’t get the deadline right, no matter what they do.
Oh yeah, Doug McDermott was part of the deal, too.