“We knew from a flexibility and cap-room standpoint that this wasn’t going to be a big summer as far as additions were concerned,” [Gar] Forman said. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...lls-jimmy-butler-spt-0710-20150709-story.html So, the Bulls stand pat for the most part, and that was the expectation going into the off season. What does this signal about the Bulls thoughts about the state of their team? This is a veteran group for the most part. A "win now" group or even a "win yesterday" group as many of the core big guys are getting long in the tooth. The organization had high expectations last season. Championship expectations. The only really big move in the off-season was to fire the head coach and replace him with a new one. The organization must feel that this is an upgrade from a wins / losses perspective. As for the team - Butler should be another year better, as should Rose. Mirotic should progress. Dougie McBuckets has nowhere to go but up. As for guys that could take a step back, the top on the list is Gasol to me. That seemed like a miracle season given his age. Quite impressive, but also unlikely to be reproducible, but we'll see. Unless Noah is done, he should be a more effective player this season than last. Gibson, who knows? So, some guys should be better, some guys very well may be worse. The organization thinks that they now have a better head coach in place. They also stood pat with their existing guys and even resigned Dunleavey, which is a clear "win now" move. If the expectations were championship last year, why are they not championship this year? Sure, there are some expected regressions, but there are also expected improvements as well. So, what do you think? Was standing pat the right move? This is a "win now" or even "win yesterday" roster. If winning the title this season isn't a reasonable expectation, shouldn't this squad be blown up and we start doling out development minutes to Dougie, Snell, Portis and Mirotic? Those aging big men are not going to likely be better next season if they can't bring it this season.
I don't think they're thinking as narrowly as just the win/loss column. They're probably hoping for improvements large and small in a number of places - on and off the court. It's a long season and things could happen to throw off the W/L record in any one season. I don't remember where I read it, but this season was alluded to as giving this 'core' one more run at it. Who knows what follows that? I'll start worrying about that if and when the team looks like it's faltering after a large-sample number of games have been played. If they do falter, you might see moves by the trading deadline and a lot of McDermott, Snell, Portis and Mirotic in the second half. I really doubt we'll see those "development minutes" doled out though. I'm betting that if they play, it'll be because they're contributing to winning.
Yeah, the Bulls stood pat. They re-signed Butler and this took them way over the cap. I completely support their re-signing Butler so I guess I support them taking themselves out of the big-time free agent sweepstakes. They used their early Bird rights to re-sign Dunleavy. I support this move. I like Aaron Brooks. It's unclear to me what exception they used to sign Brooks. Wish they'd've signed or traded for a star player.
