April Bulls Recap

April 30, 2017

Thankfully the Bulls’ lost season comes to the end. With so many problems to fix it will be a long time before this team contends for a championship. Maybe they can time it for when LeBron retires, many years from now.

Let’s start with the lowest ranked coach Fred Hoiberg. For two years he has tried to fit square blocks into round holes. A good coach puts together an offensive game plan that his players can execute. Hoiberg wants a fast break running team and then has plays where Butler walks the ball up the court. The defense is non-existent. Whenever they play a team that shoots 3 pointers they are usually wide open. Players don’t rotate properly. This is something you work on in practice. Many people think that the injury to Rondo caused the Bulls to lose to the Celtics. If he is so important, Fred, how do you explain 5 games when he didn’t play and then was relegated to the second team?

Things could have gone better if the goofs in the front office did their jobs. Two payers they acquired at the start of the season were inserted into the line up to replace Rondo. It took to the final 10 games realize Grant and Carter-Williams suck. In the playoffs they both got benched because they continued to suck. Speaking of benching, first round draft pick Valentine didn’t play until game 6 was out of reach. The reason given was that he was bad defensively. Speaking of bad defense, Mirotic seems to be continuously lost. He is always losing his man under the basket or they fly past him to get there. What you have is a 6’10” player who can’t handle the ball, can’t post up and plays no defense. Every shot he takes is a 3 pointer and he’s not good at that either. He should not be here next season. Next front office blunder, the Taj Gibson trade. The key component, Cameron Payne, was inactive for the playoffs. The other 2, Lauvegne and Morrow, didn’t get the chance to break into the rotation. This just tells you how bad they must be.

The future looks worse than the present. Wade will probably exercise his option and come back. No matter what anyone says it’s all about the money. Wade will not pass up 23.8 million. Five years ago this would have been a good deal for the Bulls.  Butler played well but often disappeared during the playoffs. It seems highly unlikely someone would trade a lottery pick for him. He also looks confused when the double team comes. Rondo should be back and Lopez who played well should be back. That’s only 4 players plus Portis, Zipser and a remaining cast of bad. I hear that this year’s draft goes deep in talent. The Bulls could draft a decent player at number 16. However, look who’s making the selection…those goofs in the front office.