Unpredictable Bulls May Have Saved Best Act For Last

Forgive these Chicago Bulls if they are are disrupting what was expected in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Forgive them if they've put Boston in a sour mood after a stellar regular season, and certainly forgive a few Chicago players for quizzically playing their best ball of the season here in the last two games. Forgive them because this Bulls team can't figure out who they are. They weren't able to do so through an 82-game regular season, but perhaps now they have and it couldn't have come at a better time.

The Bulls, an eight seed, went into Boston and didn't just beat the top-seeded Celtics - they whooped them. Twice. It's only the second time ever that an eight seed has won the first two games of a series against a one seed on the road and now Chicago gets to go back to the United Center for two games.

What a surprise it was to see Bobby Portis play like an animal in game one. Or to see Robin Lopez act like Brook Lopez in game two. Rajon Rondo? He's looked like the 2008 version of himself. Jimmy Butler has continued to play like a superstar and Dwyane Wade bounced back to have a quality game two after a poor game one, which featured a missed dunk on a breakaway.

Chicago earned the eight seed after a rollercoaster season in which they went 22-24 against teams .500 or better, but 19-17 versus teams that were below .500. They were mediocre in every sense of the word and finished 41-41.

For all the unpredictable play in the regular season though, Chicago has looked like anything but an eight seed through two games. The Bulls have been locked in and have hardly suffered any lapses, something that plagued them throughout the regular season. In game two, Boston made several runs at the Bulls, but every time Chicago responded and fended off the Celtics' charges. Simply put, they looked like a team ready to make a run in the postseason.

This looks like a different team and it's all thanks to the role players. Butler, Wade and Rondo are clicking, but it takes guys like Lopez and Portis to make a run in the playoffs. So far those guys have stepped up. It's given the Bulls a real chance to pull off the upset and move to the ECF semifinals. But to accomplish that it will take sustained focus. Inconsistent play doesn't work in the playoffs and the Bulls had 82 games to prove they could play consistent basketball and they couldn't do that.

The time is now for Chicago. They have been the better team to this point and the belief that Jimmy Butler with two seasoned veterans like Wade and Rondo could thrive looks justified. It may not have been pretty during the regular season, but the Bulls are staying true to form. The up-and-down team is trending up.

They couldn't have picked a better time.

Bulls Sign Rondo, Wade In Bizarre Free Agency Moves

At some point in this millennium, signing Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade would have been any team's dream and perhaps put them as a frontrunner for best backcourt in the league. That would have been in 2008 or so, but it's 2016 and the Chicago Bulls just signed both players to sizable contracts. This comes on the heels of Gar Forman and John Paxson's stated goals of "getting younger and more athletic" moving forward.

How does a team get younger and more athletic you ask? I don't have all the answers, but probably not by signing 30-year-old Rondo and 34-year-old Wade. The main qualm from many is that the Bulls just signed up to get older, slower and lock themselves into more years of mediocrity, which is the worst place to be in basketball. Forman was reluctant to rebuild the Bulls, opting instead for a retool, which began with the Derrick Rose-to-New York trade. 

Bleacher Report

So the plan was a retool, but then on Draft night word was going around that the Bulls were also looking at trading Jimmy Butler, the other cornerstone of the Bulls who had assumed the face of the franchise role just a day before. Which was it? Retool or rebuild? It seemed a bit unclear. However, the Bulls hung on to Butler and drafted Denzel Valentine, returning a few good vibes to the team after trading Rose.

All signs pointed to the Bulls taking a pass on free agency this season and instead waiting for 2017 to (try) and woo some free agents to Chicago. And then news broke that Rondo was coming to Chicago and fans started scratching their heads. Sure, the guy could be blindfolded in the dark and still find the open man, but he could also tear a locker room apart, fight with his coach, refuse to play and demand a trade. Am I right, Dallas?

Rondo is not young and he's not necessarily athletic. He's joining a group of athletic freaks like Niko Mirotic and Doug McDermott. How does this fit in with GarPax's plan other than the fact that it doesn't?

A few days go by and Dwyane Wade signs with Chicago. If it was 2010 Bulls fans might be ecstatic, but again, it's 2016. Personally, I don't think it's a horrible move. Sure, Wade is older than the Bulls would like, but he averaged 19/4/4 last season and could potentially lure other free agents next season. As for right now, it at least shows the Bulls can sign a big name in free agency after years of failure to do so (James, Wade, Bosh, Anthony).

My take: neither signing is awful for the Bulls who have shown they do not want to rebuild. However, fans in Chicago have grown tired of Forman and Paxson and their poor track record in the front office. Perhaps if they had not stated that they wanted the Bulls to "get younger and more athletic" fans would be a bit more perceptive to the pair of signings. But "trust" and "GarPax" don't go together for Bulls fans unless they are saying they don't trust them.

Only time will tell whether or not the signings pay off, but even if the Bulls wallow in mediocrity for another season there will be no shortage of interesting headlines around this team. GarPax may not know what direction they want this team to go, but the direction is now clear: the Bulls have retooled the roster and may get the exact same results.

That's not something that will sit well with Chicago fans. 

Gutless, Inconsistent Bulls Sure to Disappoint Again

It's the same thing every year: the Bulls come into the season with a more-than-capable lineup that provides plenty of depth and veteran leadership, only to go through the motions on almost a nightly basis. Games only seem to be taken seriously if they are being played against the top teams in the league, and the high-scoring affairs are overshadowed by a lack of heart and urgency. This is not the way this organization is supposed to function, yet after blowing a sixteen-point lead to the visiting Phoenix Suns last night, the Bulls are showing signs of yet another disappointing season.

The addition of Hoiberg has yet to show any promise

The summer for the Bulls was an exciting one. Tom Thibodeau was forced out and the rookie NBA coach Fred Hoiberg was hired. The Bulls FINALLY  had an offensive-minded coach that promised to put up plenty of points with a roster that is almost identical to last year's. Throw in the re-signing of Jimmy Butler and the improved health of Joakim Noah and you have yourself a pretty successful off-season given what the Bulls felt they needed to accomplish. The news of any feud between Butler and Derrick Rose had finally died down and it appeared as if basketball could finally be the sole focus once again as opposed to who's coming or going or, most importantly for the Bulls, health.

Now, however, the season is almost a quarter of the way gone for the Bulls and they have shown no signs of improvement or identity under Hoiberg. In classic Bulls fashion, they took down the San Antonio Spurs in a hard-fought and well-earned win only to fall to the traditionally dismal Charlotte Hornets just a few nights later. That's the kind of inconsistency the Bulls have come to be defined by. That's their only identity right now and the shame of it is that they seem perfectly okay with that.

As the years have gone by, it's become obvious that this is not a tough team. Sure you have guys like Butler, Noah, and Kirk Hinrich who would run through a brick wall for this team, but Butler is the only one who can give a consistent performance while the other two have dealt with injuries and lack of playing time up to this point. The guys who bring the energy are on the bench while this group continues to spiral into a team with very little chance at a title run.

That's where the biggest problem, in my mind, comes into play. This team is content to blame loss after loss on lack of energy and attention to detail on the defensive end. Every post game interview in the locker room is littered with quotes like "It's just about playing hard, and tonight we didn't do that" or things along those lines. This is a group of veterans, grown men, who obviously realize the problem, but aren't willing to rise to the occasion and fix it. And what's really aggravating is watching this team beat teams like the Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder because they then show you how good they COULD be, but choose not to be.

The evolution of Butler has kept the Bulls afloat this season

Every Bulls fan, at some time or other, hangs their hat on the six banners that Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Phil Jackson helped hang in the rafters. All six of them, facing the six banners the Chicago Blackhawks have raised, have a spotlight on them every night while the retired numbers of Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Pippen, and Jordan are illuminated during starting lineups. Those six championships are constantly talked about and praised for how good those teams were because they took every game seriously. There were no nights off and there were certainly no games that were taken lightly. So any member of today's Bulls team that wants a ring or wants to be put in the conversation of being one of the organization's best teams, dream on. This team doesn't want it bad enough.

It's still early in the season and this is a new system. That is understandable and it will take time to mesh as the Bulls get used to playing more guys and finding their roles in the new offense. But that will never excuse the lack of interest and poor effort on the defensive side of the ball. That's not how Tom Thibodeau built this team to play and, say what you want about him being stubborn or relentless on playing time, but the Bulls miss Thibs, and they miss him dearly. Thibs didn't accept lack of effort and he did not allow excuses. It didn't matter how many times Derrick Rose wimped out of a game, Thibs was fully accepting of the "next man up" philosophy and he changed the culture of the team to believe that same way. That's something Fred Hoiberg does not bring to the table. Hoiberg was praised for his poise on the sidelines and his "calm, cool, and collected" demeanor. But as the rookie head coach has loosened the reigns and shown a much more relaxed personality, he has also loosened the expectations and accountability. If the Bulls want to turn this season around and truly be an elite team, it starts with Hoiberg demanding more from his players.

The season is far from over, and thanks to a brutal Eastern Conference the Bulls find themselves sitting in fourth place in the conference. The conference is far too poor for the Bulls not to make the playoffs, but if there is any chance of dethroning LeBron James and the Cavs the Bulls will need to make a number of adjustments. There is no reason this team cannot win the East and capture that number one seed, but that's also been said for the past three seasons. The Bulls need to figure it out and start playing with the toughness that the city of Chicago is used to seeing. Being lazy and showing no signs of interest is not what made this organization elite and it's time this team stops accepting that kind of play. Chicago takes great pride in the Bulls, and it's time for the Bulls to grow up and give the city something to actually be proud of.

With Series Loss to Cavs, Bulls Season Ends Sooner Than Planned

They finally had it all together. They brought in their star rookie, they signed a 2-time NBA champion, and they had their MVP back to health. Everything was in front of them. Literally everything. And yet, the Eastern Conference Finals will not feature the Chicago Bulls. Why? It's quite simple really: the Chicago Bulls just didn't want a successful season bad enough. Were there individuals on the team that had high expectations? Sure. After all, Jimmy Butler played the best defensive series against LeBron James of anyone to ever guard the future Hall of Famer. Heck, every player in that locker room continually stressed their belief that this team could be great. And in all honesty, it could have been. It SHOULD have been. But the thing about great teams is that they're made through their play on the court, not by the names listed on the roster.

One of the many things that is so hard to believe about this enigma of a team is that they won over 50 games and can still be considered a failure. Is that "f" word too strong? Not really. Take a look at this season and what has transpired over the last 8-9 months: big-time wins over Golden State, San Antonio, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City. Horrific losses to the likes of Detroit, Utah, Charlotte, and the Los Angeles Lakers. If bipolar doesn't describe this year's team, then let me know if there is a more applicable word. The series of events can only bring up two simple, one-word questions: "Why?" and "How?"

Butler's ascension is one of the few highlights for the Bulls this year

This team had a 2-time champion and future Hall of Famer (Pau Gasol), a former (and now healthy) MVP (Derrick Rose), the reigning Defensive Player of the Year (Joakim Noah), a perennial 6th Man of the Year contender (Taj Gibson), the runner-up for Rookie of the Year (Nikola Mirotic), and this year's Most Improved Player (Jimmy Butler). All of these players, with a steady and more-often-than-not productive bench were under the influence of the former Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau. With that lineup, with that talent, with that depth, this team was a failure. And honestly, we now are forced to wonder how much they really care.


This is not about saying the Bulls had a horrible season and this is not to say that locker room is full of quitters. But when the lights were on, and the stage was set, this Bulls team never figured it out. Why? They waited three years for their point guard to be healthy. They got rid of seasoned veterans so that they could develop their young stars and they had arguably one of the best off-seasons in the league. Everything they worked for and everything Tom Thibodeau dedicated his time to building was ruined this season. The intensity and will to shock the world was gone, the defensive and hard-nosed identity vanished, and the sense of urgency never appeared present when it was needed most. To make it all worse, the players knew they lacked these things all year. If you read any articles or followed this team at all, every loss would be followed by quotes like "We didn't have the intensity tonight. They outplayed us." or "Our defense is not what it used to be and that needs to change." Okay, so it's not like the long-scoring droughts or losses where the opposing team scores over 100 points were sprung on them all of the sudden. This team knew what it had to do to be great and they never felt the need to execute. That is why this team was a failure.

I will give all the credit in the world to the Milwaukee Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers. While the Bucks were ran out of their own gym in Game 6, they were never once intimidated by the Bulls. They saw their weaknesses and did everything they could to expose them. The Cavaliers on the other hand, were a different story entirely. It's no secret that any team led by LeBron James is an automatic title contender, yet this team was without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving was not his All-Star self due to a number of injuries. On top of that, LeBron did not have an exceptional series minus Game 5. Jimmy Butler took LeBron out of almost every game, as far as scoring is concerned, and forced him into a couple poor shooting nights. Jimmy Butler did his job, and yet his teammates let players such as Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson, and Matthew Dellevadova out-work them.

The Cavs "Big Three" was not made up of James, Love, and Irving. It was made up of the three aforementioned players that came into the series knowing they would have to shoulder the load with Love being out, JR Smith serving a 2-game suspension, and Irving playing through injury. And to their credit, they showed out. But to look at this team of mediocre bench players that were thrown into the fire, and to look at the team the Bulls trotted out to contest them, it goes to show just how soft this Bulls team was. Again, the Cavs role players were phenomenal this series. But they shouldn't have been, not if the Bulls played like a typical Thibs team used to play.

Thibodeau will likely be fired in the coming weeks

So now it's over. It's finally over. There are no more nights of guessing which team would show up to play. There are no more injury reports to be released before tip-off. There are no more meaningless post-game quotes about needing to play harder. It's over, and to some extent that's a good feeling. It wasn't fun to watch this team under-perform and appear not to care. There is no reason this team could not have won 62-65 games with the lineup and coaching they had. In some regards this team had more to it than the 2011 team that won 66 games and went to the Eastern Conference Finals. But that 2011 team had an identity and they had a purpose. They knew they needed to perform every single night to chase that championship dream. They wanted to be great. The 2014-2015 Bulls did not want it bad enough, and it showed on an almost-nightly basis.

While it's sad to see a team not recognize its potential, it's even more aggravating that this is the way the Thibodeau era will most likely come to a close. Everything Thibs stood for, everything he built, is now gone. The players lost their fire, and with the rough relationship between Thibs and the front office, it appears that he will be gone very soon. And while Thibodeau is a top three coach in the NBA, I'm excited for him to coach for a new team. He deserves better from both a front office and from a team. He weathered the storm through all of the injuries and all of the doubt these past few years and still managed to make the Bulls a tough out in the playoffs. He had total buy-in from each and every player and gave the Bulls their best chances at a title since Michael Jordan left. Thibs did his part, he made this team, and yet he will be shown the door with nothing to show for it. Bulls fans will remember his successes, but the league and history will not. This team should have been the best in the East, but they weren't. The team that should have been the Incredibulls quickly became the Laughabulls when that final buzzer sounded in the Madhouse last night.