The Bulls have become the Clippers of the east – soft!
For the last 30 years, the Chicago Bulls front office has been one of the least liked organizations in all of basketball. From Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson having issues with Jerry Krause during their dynasty run, to now John Paxson running a dictatorship on anyone not named Joakim Noah; we’re not sure why one of the greatest franchises isn’t being properly ran. Since drafting Derrick Rose as the no. 1 overall pick in 2008, the Bulls have been searching for a title in their post-Jordan era.
While the team has been plagued by the injury bug of D-Rose and last playoffs with Paul Gasol going out against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Bulls just can’t catch a break. The team parted ways with the great Tom Thibodeau, revealing they wanted to break away from his traditional style of defense-driven play, to jump-start a fresh offense with new head coach Fred Hoiberg.
Upon the former Iowa State skipper arriving to Chicago, the Bulls already had a championship-ready team in place; but were just one Gasol injury away from upsetting the Cavaliers last May. With the team failing to make the Eastern Conference Finals for the fourth consecutive year, the nasty internal issues between Thibs and the Bulls front office of Paxson and others had spilled into the public – affecting their players. Ironically, the team’s front office hasn’t been the focus for their 2016 campaign, as Jimmy Butler has now emerged as the new face of the franchise and team captain.
He publicly stated that he wanted to run point-guard last year with Thibodeau still at the helm, but didn’t go into detail about his frustration. However, with the team on a 3-game losing streak and an imminent road-loss on Christmas Day in Oklahoma City, Butler publicly criticized how Hoiberg has handled the collective of talents in Chicago – saying the team has became soft.
While no other players disagreed with Jimmy’s comments, they felt this was something that could’ve been held internally. In our opinion, this is the team’s wake-up call to finally move forward and figure out what they want to do when Rose’s $94 million dollar contract comes to an end summer 2017.
Since returning to the court last year, he’s been healthy for the first time in nearly 4 years, but has been in a fragile state – including fans at The United Center gasping every time he takes a hard bump or fall to hardwood. They’ve essentially lose their defensive edge from year’s past under Thibs and seriously pose no threat to mentally scare other teams out east.
This is extremely bad, considering how their front-line of Gasol and Noah aren’t getting any younger, with nagging injuries eventually catching up to them at the end of their careers. Butler’s comments were reasonable, because in the midst of calling out the team, he put himself at the forefront of being accountable for not playing up to the team’s standards of play.
While Fred’s laid-back approach may be something the front office is enjoying for their own personal vendettas, he has to be that no-nonsense guy, before they fall out of playoff positioning. Although the Western Conference may have three of the top four teams in the entire NBA, the Eastern Conference is more competitive this year, for the time ever since post-Jordan era of the late 90s.
If nothing changes after these Butler comments, the Bulls will be fishing on Lake Michigan with Eminem come April. Let us know in the comments what you think about Jimmy firing up Chicago and whether he should be the new face of the franchise.
Truth or Dare Horse: Jimmy Butler & Erin Heatherton