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Mixed Messages, Mismatched Pieces Could Leave Bulls Lost This Season
- Updated: October 20, 2016
CHICAGO — Every player on the Chicago Bulls might be worse than public opinion of him.
You have guys who’ve achieved and won in the league so their names now do more than their games (Dwyane Wade, Rajon Rondo). You have guys once underrated and now respected to the point that they’re a little overrated (Jimmy Butler, Robin Lopez). And you have guys whose poor training camps leave them far from the potential we dreamed for them (Nikola Mirotic, Bobby Portis, Jerian Grant).
Simply put, there’s reason to be skeptical of both the parts and the whole in Chicago, where folks are just peeking out from under that ever-obfuscating Derrick Rose injury cloud.
The reasons go beyond the somewhat suspect games of the players involved.
The June trade of Rose to the New York Knicks signaled the team was beginning to rebuild after all the Rose uncertainty grew tiresome. The choice was fitting considering Fred Hoiberg played at Iowa State for Tim Floyd, who oversaw his own rebuilding effort in Chicago when the Bulls broke up their last three-peat title team in 1998.
Yet upon reaching the crossroads of a total teardown, with the opportunity to trade Butler for future considerations, the Bulls backed away—then completely reversed field when Rondo and Wade wanted to come.
A change, indeed; but how can absorbing some of the basketball IQ of Rondo and Wade not give Butler, 27, a boost to his unwavering push to be great, too?
Indeed, this is the time for optimism.
Spend some time around the Bulls in the preseason and it’s impossible to miss the joy with which Wade and Rondo have embraced this team.
Wade walks around the off-stage United Center corridors with his head up and smile wide, looking to make eye contact with everyone who crosses his path. In the spotlight for starting lineup introductions, Wade turns his back to the court to raise his arms and acknowledge the fans as a voice booms over the arena speakers saying he is “from Chicago!”
While …
