There hasn't been a post in nearly a week, so what the hell. For the last 4 seasons, it was reasonable to believe that the Bulls could be a contender. It all depended on whether DRose could regain his MVP form or something close to it. He didn't do it, and though reasonably healthy, he was not good, he was not average...he was bad. Personally, I had seen enough and was ready for the team to end the Rose era. The Bulls figure to be a good team, but not a real contender. Of course you never know. A couple years ago, NOBODY saw the Hawks being a contender and they won 60 games. Stuff happens, but we shouldn't expect it. I thought the Bulls FO got better value for Rose than we had any right to expect. Lopez is a legit starting center that they badly needed. Otherwise, the FO did nothing stupid nor anything brilliant. Wade and Rondo pretty much fell to them. Wade is a HOFer, but doesn't figure to have much left. I don't trust Rondo, but the Bulls are my team and I'll hope for the best. If you can ignore the character issue, he's a nice fit. The fun part of this season (or conversely, the potentially disappointing part) will be how 3 young players show - Mirotic, McDermott and Valentine. Some would add Felicio, but I'm not there yet. Each of these 3 is eminently capable of putting up 20+ on any given night. The question in each case is whether they can deliver consistent offense and whether they can play defense well enough to keep us from pulling our hair out. Importantly, since the starting 5 figures to be 3-pt challenged, these 3 are key to the Bulls' ability to spread opposing defenses. Then there's Hoiberg. He's a Kerr-style head coach, but last season his key players didn't buy in. To me, this is a make-or-break season for him. I haven't mentioned Butler. I don't see any circumstances, other than injury, that he's not a top-20 player. He's a terrific player and it's his team. Go Bulls!
I would not be surprised to see interest in the team continue to wane as the Bulls fade from the Thibs / Rose era back to the miserable NBA middle that is more associated with Thibs-less Paxson Bulls teams. Ratings were already down last season. Attendance should remain around the same unless this is a total cluster-****. This squad is a curiosity. Its clear there is no overarching vision from the front office. The idea of playing some type of Warriors-eque / modern / Hoiball was scrapped this off season when they acquired ball dominant / average to poor shooters in Rondo and Wade to pair with Butler. None of these guys are bad NBA basketball players, Butler is one of the better ones in the league, but not cogs in a modern Atlanta Hawks / Warriors style that getting rid of Thibs would supposedly usher in. As for Hoiberg, I would not really be comparing him to Kerr, who has been one of the more successful coaches the last two season. Hoiberg took a #3 team in the East and couldn't even make the playoffs. Sometimes when you are bored playing NBA2K you might just make a bunch a trades to remake the Bulls. If I was playing last season's game, I could see someone doing that and ending up with a core roster of Rondo / Wade / Butler / Lopez. That's seemingly what GarPax did. If there is any NBA championship vision here, I'd love to hear the argument. It should be interesting to see how on Earth all these pieces / personalities fit together. Could be a total dysfunctional train wreck. Noone thinks the Thibs-less GarPax Bulls are title contenders anymore and they are not trying to get top lotto picks, so might as well enjoy the entertainment. The Bulls have a decent shot of making the NBA playoffs and the Bulls stand to be a profitable operation yet again this season. Perhaps there will be a surprise to the upside. The championship expectations are out the window, which is good for the front office. 1st round and out works just fine with them.
I could see the team getting as high as the #2 seed if everything went right and possibly stay out of the playoffs again if the bottom fell out again. For some reason I don't worry about Rondo. His time in Dallas was a trainwreck, but he quietly had a good year in Sacramento if you look at it closely. He's a control freak, but Hoiberg seems like one of the rare coaches who's comfortable ceding control without it bothering him so I can see the two being a good fit. I'm much more worried about Dwyane Wade. I actually think he's the guy that doesn't mesh with anyone else. Him and Jimmy have very similar games and play the same position. My intuition is that the Bulls had their eye on Rondo as a talented guy they could get on the cheap, but they truly had no clue Wade was going to be available until he was. I suspect they will be the new version of Pau/Jo: two talented vets who's games don't fit but who's egos are too big to accept a smaller role. I think the team needs Wade to come off the bench in a Manu Ginobili role, but I don't see Wade agreeing to that, so we'll probably stumble along with these awkward lineups that make it hard to get the best combinations on the floor for the most minutes possible. There's always the chance that his game just bottoms out too. I think he's a smart player, but I honestly don't know if his head's still in the game or if he'll just start collecting checks like Steve Nash did at the end of his career. Right now I rank our young talent like this: 1). Mirotic - the only young guy who's proven to be an above average rotation player for any length of time. Perhaps the best-shooting high minutes big man in the game. 2). Felicio - Five-tool big man who looks like a capable starter to me if he'd ever get the chance. Won't be surprised if he gets the full Gilbert-Arenas deal this offseason if he builds off the work he did last year. 3). Valentine - I see his game projecting slightly better at the NBA level than Doug's - he's a much better athlete with the ball in his hands. The big question is how bad he'll be on defense......probably bad, but it's hard to say exactly what you're dealing with. On an island he moves his feet like Carlos Boozer but he has a strange ability to be around the ball at the right time so there could be some benefits to having him on the court. His steal and block numbers actually aren't too bad, so I think there's a little hope for him.........more than Doug, who I think is destined to be below average on that side of the court. 4). Doug McDermott - he's carved out a spot for himself with his shooting, but I see his limitations restricting him to being a specialist. His game requires a lot of work from the rest of the team to get into its groove and most of the time it'll just be easier to default to simpler plays even if they're not a higher percentage than passing the ball a bunch of times while Doug runs around a bunch of screens trying to get open. It takes a patient, enlightened team to get the most out of Doug McDermott, and I don't think we have that. I think he'll be better than Valentine this year but Valentine has the higher ceiling and should catch up to Doug by year 2.
My problem with Rondo is that he turtles in the playoffs. I can't think of a comparable situation and I've been watching for a very long time. I'm glad you feel good about him. It will take at least a season to begin to turn me around. I hope you're wrong about Wade, though it's only a hope. I agree that Wade was not a strategic signing. He was signed for reasons other than fit. Good thing Hoiberg is such a proven leader of men...oh wait. The Feliicio love is over the top IMO. I hope he proves to be reliable in 12+mpg.
