Chicago Bulls Are Playing A Dangerous Game In 2016-17

The Chicago Bulls surprising offseason saw the team deal pieces from the past, but embrace the same strategy that got them exactly where they are now

Following a late march game against Atlanta, where the Chicago Bulls dropped a close home game to the Hawks that would send them below .500, it was Bulls guard Derrick Rose that summed up the feeling in the best way:

"“I like the way we competed tonight,” Rose said. “We just have to keep it up. We are still fighting, still trying to find our rhythm.”"

It had become the anthem of the Bulls of the last few years; always searching for the right lineup, the right intensity, the right rhythm. It was never for lack of trying that the “grit and grind” Bulls couldn’t seem to get over the hump. Seemingly, each year the Bulls would supplant themselves firmly in the title discussion. But as far as reaching the ultimate goal, the Bulls have been the bridesmaids, never the bride.

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The Chicago Bulls are victims of rough circumstance. Injuries and victims of circumstance have cost Chicago dearly. We all know the fate of the former MVP Derrick Rose, hardly help when your competition is LeBron James year in and year out. But for all the unfortunate obstacles, the Bulls stayed the course.

Until they just couldn’t anymore.

Following yet another exit in the postseason in the 2014-15 season, the Chicago Bulls made what was considered a move for the future. The Bulls fired defensive guru head coach Tom Thibodeau and supplanted him with the offensive-minded Fred Hoiberg from Iowa State. The new Bulls will open up and get faster, with a healthy Rose and a spreading offense.

Instead, the Bulls stagnated. Rose remained healthy, but a shell of his former self, and the defensive anchor of Joakim Noah faded (partly to injury). New addition Pau Gasol fit the mold well, but far from the level needed to keep the Bulls at the championship level they had been accustomed to.

It came to a head in that late March game, as the Bulls would inevitably find themselves missing the postseason for the first time in eight years. Chicago would come face to face with its lurking issue: that time had passed them by.

And so, as the season ended, Chicago GM Gar Forman relayed to the media what we all already knew: the Bulls must get younger and faster. They made their first move to do so by dealing Rose to the Knicks, and letting Noah walk to join him. The league viewed the Bulls as making a necessary change, a readying move to push toward the future. Rumors swirled that Jimmy Butler was the next to go, as the roster saw a revamp.

Those rumors pushed into draft night, as the Bulls dangled Butler to potential suitors, and drafted Denzel Valentine to become the new shooting guard for a team getting smaller and faster. The Bulls now only have Butler as a building block, with a move expected.

But that move never came, and in the coming weeks the Bulls would turn the NBA on its head, signing Rajon Rondo and stealing Dwyane Wade from Miami. The Bulls embraced their new influx of talent, and the roster added two alphas to join Jimmy Butler.

Moving into the new season, the Bulls are in the exact same place they said they were trying to avoid. They are stuck in the middle ground of the Eastern Conference. The Bulls are betting hard on the star power of Wade and Butler, and the veteran play of Rondo. The roster features competent veterans, and the talent to be a playoff team.

The Bulls made a move to get younger and faster, and instead got older and slower

But this team is everything ownership said they hated as they justified the firing of Thibodeau, the trade of Rose, and the turnover to Hoiberg. The Bulls made a move to get younger and faster, and instead got older and slower.

With Wade and Rondo, the potential backcourt lineup of those two and Butler has potential to be the worst shooting group in the league, with Rondo and Butler shooting sub-35 percent from three, and Wade shooting sub-20 percent. This team is everything Hoiberg can’t win with and everything the league isn’t: an undersized defensive team that can’t shoot.

It’s odd to make sense of what Chicago is doing, with Hoiberg seeming like nothing more than a stopgap. Hoiberg’s style is conducive to undersized players that can handle the ball and shoot from the outside, surrounded by competent post players. The basketball revolution will not happen in Chicago, instead turning to a roster much more suited for the previous administration.

This is a roster designed for failure under a Hoiberg system. The tools to succeed just aren’t there. The bench will provide some scorers, some shooting on the outside, but in compliment to the pieces in the starting lineup, Chicago has an oddly constructed team, with a marquee free agent signing that doesn’t fit the mold of the team.

Don’t mistake me; Chicago is a talented team, with a roster that should compete for a playoff seed. But is that really what Forman and the front office was envisioning? A team laden with veterans, just vying for a trip to the postseason?

Chicago is playing a dangerous game, with a roster that is too talented to tank, but not good enough to seriously contend for anything. The Bulls are stuck in basketball purgatory. They have a team middling between the 6-10 spot in the conference. One that won’t make it out of the first round, but won’t get a high enough draft pick to change their fortunes.

I understand Chicago’s motives for bringing Wade in. The hometown kid returns, and you don’t say no if he calls. But the Bulls called Wade, and the strategy around it just doesn’t make sense. The Chicago Bulls have rebranded their team in a way that’s counterintuitive to the front office.

They seem bent on rebuilding, but don’t actually want to go through the process. We saw Boston do it a few years ago. But Boston had much better pieces to trade, and actually dealt who they need to and had some rough seasons.

Chicago doesn’t seem interested in missing the postseason, but also have to know they can’t compete.

Sure, with a player like Wade, if things bounce their way, the Bulls could find themselves playing for a conference title.

But hedging your bets with two past-prime players on a roster that can’t score is a dangerous bet to make.

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The Chicago Bulls are going to compete, and the upside certainly is there.

But the down side is very much real, and so much bigger.

Wade and Chicago are playing a dangerous game, and one that they probably aren’t going to win.

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