Chicago Sports Review

Merry halfway to Christmas, Chicago. Meet your present – Derrick Rose.

In all likelihood this is the best present anyone has ever received for Jesus’ half birthday. He’s going to be a star – you can book it now. I could go further into that, but someone already has, and he’s probably done more research than me, so let’s move on.

Which is what the Bulls can now do – there’s a coach in place (say what you will about his qualifications) and a new franchise cornerstone in Rose, so it’s time to build a team around him. Which begins, naturally, with taking stock. As far as I can tell, the current team breaks down like this…

PG – Rose, Kirk Hinrich

SG – Larry Hughes, Ben Gordon, Thabo Sefolosha

SF – Luol Deng, Andres Nocioni

PF – Drew Gooden, Tyrus Thomas

C – Joakim Noah, Aaron Gray

Guys who will be lucky to make the roster and likely won’t leave the bench if they do – JamesOn Curry, Cedric Simmons, Demetris Nichols.

There are a couple things that jump out at me here. First, the perceived and oft-discussed “glut of guards” doesn’t entirely exist, particularly if you consider that Thabo is long enough and a solid enough defender to log some minutes at small forward.

Yes, there are four returning guards on this team, plus Rose, but I think they all bring different things to the table. Specifically…

Ben Gordon is a volume scorer, who is capable of tearing any team apart when he gets hot, regardless of the defender. Assists from Rose can only help in that department.

Kirk Hinrich is in many ways an intriguing combo guard. While he’s often criticized for not fitting either guard position particularly well – a legitimate criticism, I think – he certainly is not as bad as he played last year and there’s a good argument to be made that his versatility between the two guard spots offers welcome flexibility for a coach.

Thabo Sefolosha is already a very, very good defender at the 2; he’s got crazy long arms and a willingness to break down and guard people. He still got beat occasionally last year, but never for lack of trying. He can be a lockdown defender in this league.

Larry Hughes is a bit of an enigma, and often takes frustratingly bad shots, yes. However, he also is the only returning player who is both capable of and willing to drive to the hole on a regular basis. He is also untradable right now with his ridiculously inflated contract, so Bulls fans might as well get used to having him around.

All in all, a team is not at a disadvantage for having depth at the guard positions. What puts the Bulls at a disadvantage is the general lack of experience – and, let’s be honest, ability – at the power forward and center positions.

I’m on record as being a Drew Gooden fan, and I stand by that – but the trio of Thomas, Noah and Gray is troublesome. Together they have a total of four years of NBA service, and each has marked weaknesses. There is potential there, but this is where the Bulls need help.

That said, John Paxson has maintained that the first order of business is to resign the Bulls’ own restricted free agents, Ben Gordon and Luol Deng. And business time begins today, July 1, with the opening of the NBA’s free agency period.

For the uninitiated, restricted free agents have the option to sign an offer sheet – essentially a long-term contract offer – with any team around the league. If they do, the team that owns their rights has the option to match that offer and keep the player; or they choose not to match, letting the player go. If the player chooses not to sign an offer sheet, they can return for a one-year “qualifying offer” and become an unrestricted free agent at the end of this coming season.

For Gordon, that last option is the most likely. In a down market, with very few teams having available salary cap space, Gordon is not likely to find an offer that he feels is appropriate. That’s judging from the audacity he showed in turning down the Bulls’ reported five year, $50 million offer last offseason.

Unfortunately for the Bulls, this means there is little they can do with Gordon. And perhaps even more unfortunately, Deng – who is far more versatile and two years younger than Gordon – is far more likely to sign an offer sheet and force the Bulls to overpay him.

Working in the team’s favor is the fact that almost nobody around the league has the kind of salary cap space that would be necessary for that sort of deal. Outside of the Memphis Grizzlies, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Clippers, there is essentially nobody who could afford the sort of contract Deng is believed to want; and both the Clippers and Sixers would likely have to let their own free agents (Elton Brand and Corey Maggette for the former; Andre Iguodala for the latter) walk out the door.

One would hope that Deng could be signed to a longer-term extension, but for now let’s assume he’s targeting unrestricted free agency in the Summer of ‘09. What, then, ought the Bulls do to shore up their frontcourt?

Solution 1: Elton Brand

Brand is undoubtedly the best player available on the open market, and his opt-out clause from the Clippers makes him an unrestricted free agent. In other words, if Brand can be convinced that Chicago would be a good place for him, there is nobody who can stop him from signing here.

And oooohhhh, would Chicago be a good place for him – much different than he remembers it, I’m sure. Instead of the likes of Corey Carr and Cory Benjamin, Brand would be teamed with a hot young point and a host of other talented youngsters.

The problem with this scenario is simple logistics. The Bulls have been unwilling to cross into the luxury tax threshold (i.e. exceed the salary cap), and they would likely have to do that in order to sign Brand.

Unless, somehow, they can get Ben Gordon out the door. Thanks to the NBA’s awesome rookie pay scale, Gordon (as the #3 pick in 2004) is set to earn basically $2 million more than Deng if they both sign their qualifying offers. If Gordon manages to score an offer sheet – from, say, Philly – and the Bulls let him go, that’s about $6.5 mil in extra cap space that they would have to work with, and might be enough to go after Brand. It would also clear up the logjam – perceived or actual – in the Bulls’ backcourt, and give Derrick Rose an established offensive and defensive force on the interior.

Solution 2: Nenad Krstic

Clearly a major dropoff from Solution 1, but such is life. Krstic, before knee injuries derailed his last two seasons, was considered a real up-and-comer at the center position, especially on the offensive end. With the almost entirely defensive contributions of Joakim Noah and (sometimes) Tyrus Thomas, the Bulls could use someone capable of scoring in the post with regularity, as Krstic appeared able to do before injuries struck.

As a restricted free agent, the current Net is not likely to be a signee for the Bulls, but is a potential sign-and-trade candidate. The Nets went big – really big, actually – in the first round of the NBA draft when they picked up Brook Lopez and Ryan Anderson, presumably to be their starting center and power forward of the future (though Anderson could end up projecting more as a 3). Either way, it seems to mark the end of them valuing Krstic particularly highly, and that could be where the Bulls come in.

After unloading Jason Kidd last year and Richard Jefferson on draft day, the Nets essentially have three guards in their rotation – Vince Carter, who many expect to be the next Net to be traded away; Devin Harris, their prized point guard acquired in the Kidd deal; and Marcus Williams, a second-year point out of Connecticut that is expected to develop into a pretty good player. Throw in second-round pick Chris Douglas-Roberts if you like, but it’s not likely he’ll have much of an impact this season.

On the other hand, the Nets’ frontcourt is almost comically overcrowded – besides Anderson and Lopez, they have youngsters Sean Williams, Yi Jianlian, Josh Boone and DeSagana Diop, plus less young-sters Stromile Swift and Bostjan Nachbar. You may call some of those guys small forwards, and that’s fine, but the bottom line is I just listed eight players who are listed at 6′9″ or taller. The Bulls have basically three – Noah, Gray and Gooden.

There haven’t been any reports to this effect, but it sure looks to me like the Nets might want an experienced combo guard like Kirk Hinrich in exchange for a center they apparently no longer value. So I think that’s a possibility, and while it might not be an exciting one it could be a very practical one, particularly if Gordon and Deng both stick around for one-year contracts.

Solution 3: Absolutely nothing

Sadly, as a veteran observer and fan who has followed the NBA closely for a decade and been so on top of Paxson’s career as a GM that I should be paid for it, this strikes me as by far the most likely scenario. It might seem weird for the word “solution” to be the associated label for a summer of inactivity, but to a certain extent I think this is a reasonable action.

It will certainly be intriguing to see how the addition of Rose affects the rest of the team, as he is the first true point guard I can remember the Bulls acquiring since… well, ever. After watching the Jay Williamses and Jamal Crawfords of the world traipse through the United Center for unsatisfying stays, a point who actually wants to pass the ball is a novelty that Chicago is not entirely familiar with.

But it would certainly help the Bulls front office considerably in their evaluation of guys like Gordon and Deng. So often in the last two years the Bulls seemed to be a talented bunch of players running around like a chicken with its head cut off – no on-court leadership; and if the behavior of Noah and Thomas is any indication, little off-court leadership.

A year with Rose at the helm of the ship would give Paxson the chance to see who fits with his young franchise cornerstone and who needs to go, and there’s nothing to suggest that resigning guys like Gordon and Deng will be especially harder next summer as opposed to this one.

Plus, let’s be honest – even the acquisition of Elton Brand wouldn’t make the Bulls a championship contender this year. Rose, great as I think he will be, is only 19 years old and will not likely walk in and dominate the league from Day One. What he should do from Day One is help weed out the undesirables.

So, for instance, if Ben Gordon can’t get on board the Rose train, then Paxson knows he won’t try to resign him next season. And if the Bulls stand pat this summer, their committed payroll just about cuts itself in half for next season, giving Pax all the flexibility he could ever want to bring in anyone who is available from a group that could include Rasheed Wallace and Carlos Boozer, not to mention the long-coveted free agent class of 2010 that includes most of the legendary 2003 NBA Draft.

In other words, the easiest, most likely and least pressurized course of action – the sort of route Paxson has shown himself to be partial to in the past – involves signing nobody this offseason. He will almost certainly try to work something long term out with Deng, and to a lesser extent with Gordon, but I would caution Bulls fans not to hold their breath for the big splash, as it’s quite possible that an unrestricted second-tier center like Primoz Brezec could be as wet as the Bulls get.

But don’t despair. Not only would that action set the Bulls up for a potential run at bigger talents in the future, it will allow them to use 2008-09 as a development season – which means more Derrick Rose for your viewing pleasure, and likely less time wasted trying to get something out of veterans that have disappointed us in the past. Not to mention that with Rose in the fold, the team will probably not underachieve to the embarrassing degree that they did last year.

And, perhaps best of all, it means that without having to worry about an ill-advised big-money deal potentially handcuffing your favorite basketball team for years to come, you have all summer long to bask in the glory of your best Halfway to Christmas gift ever.

Happy Holidays.

When was the last time you went on YouTube and watched some old Michael Jordan highlights? Can you remember the smile on your face when John Paxson’s three beat the Suns in the 1993 Finals? Do you still consider Phil Jackson a Bull, or has his time with the Lakers adjusted your thinking?

It has been ten years since the Bulls last brought a world championship back to the city of Chicago. Ten years since the last rally in Grant Park, ten years since the last banner in the United Center rafters, ten years since the last champagne bath and confetti shower. Those great teams, the six NBA titles, the 72 regular season wins in one year, the two best all-around players of the ’90s (as well as the best coach and best rebounder), are now all a distant memory. The Bulls now are a joke, the leagues biggest disappointment and once again looking for a coach to replace Jackson.

Since the last championship in June of 1998, the Bulls have made the post-season only three times, advancing past the first round only once. Not a single Bull has played in the All-Star game since Jordan in ‘98. And once again, the most exciting day of the off-season for Bulls fans is the NBA Draft lottery. Ten years since the last title. I guess the old saying is true: Time flies when your team really stinks.

So who is at fault for this decade of deprivation? There are the players, the coaches, management, even the ownership. Or how about all of the above. It really has been a group effort in turning the Bulls from the greatest basketball team the planet had ever scene to nothing more than an after-thought.

It started in ‘98, after the Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz in the Finals to win their sixth and final title. Scottie Pippen said he would return to the team only if Jordan came back. Jordan said he would only return if Jackson came back. And Jackson said he would return only if he got a huge raise. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Jerry Krause didn’t like the sound of a raise, so they let Jackson go. That led to Pippen being traded to the Houston Rockets for a pile of scraps. (More accurately it was forward Roy Rogers, released before he ever played a game in a Bulls uniform, and a second round pick, which became center Jake Voskul. Yes, Jerry Krause is an idiot.) And Jordan made a big announcement, stating he was finally hanging up his Nike sneakers so he could spend time with his family and drive carpool. (Since then MJ has come back to basketball once, purchased parts of two NBA teams and most likely driven his kids to school zero times.)

So out went the most successful playoff coach in league history and two of the sports all-time greats and in came coach Tim Floyd, whose career highlights at the time included three consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament’s second round at Iowa State. Other key players from the second three-peat also left, with forward Dennis Rodman going to the Lakers, center Luc Longley signing the Suns, and reserve guard Steve Kerr becoming a key contributor on two championship teams in San Antonio. The players who started the most games for the 1999 Bulls isn’t exactly a who’s who of NBA All-Stars: Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper, Dickey Simpkins, Brent Barry and Mark Bryant. A year after going 62-20 and winning title number six, the Bulls went 13-37 in the lockout shortened ‘99 season.

The shinning light at the end of that disastrous season was that the Bulls got the top pick in the ‘99 draft. Filled with one of the deepest pools of talent of any of the drafts in recent memory - nine future All-Stars were picked in the class of ‘99 - the Bulls actually had two of the top 16 selections thanks to a trade with Phoenix. And in maybe the biggest shock in team history, Krause actually picked two of those nine future All-Stars. With the first pick in the draft, the Bulls selected Duke power forward Elton Brand and with pick 16, they acquired St. John’s small forward Ron Artest.

Brand and Artest each had solid seasons in ‘99-2000, with Brand even taking home co-Rookie of the Year Award. But the team struggled again, finishing 17-65. That led to two more lottery picks, as Krause took Iowa State forward Marcus Fizer and Michigan shooter Jamal Crawford in the summer of 2000. Floyd now had a strong, young nucleus to work with, as well as some nice veteran players in Ron Mercer and Brad Miller. But the ‘00-01 season was even worse than the year before, as the team ended the season 15-67.

For most organizations, three consecutive seasons where the team won less than a quarter of the games they played would signify that some sort of a change needs to be made at the top. Either the person picking the players, the general manager, should leave or the person in charge of motivating and teaching the players, the head coach, should be on the first train out of town. Apparently that’s not how Reinsdorf and the Bulls do it. Both Krause and Floyd kept their jobs in the summer of 2001. But some changes were made. Two years into the re-building process, the duo felt that it wasn’t going the right direction, so they traded the teams’ best player, Brand, in exchange for straight out of high school big man Tyson Chandler. Teamed with fellow prep-to-pro center Eddy Curry, the team now had no go-to players and two long-term projects.

Finally, 25 games into the ‘01-02 season, Tim Floyd was fired. I’m not sure if it was his career 49-190 record (winning percentage: 21%) or the fact that the Bulls never escaped the basement of the Central Division in his nearly three full seasons on the bench, but whatever it was, it ended the worst stretch of professional basketball the city has ever seen. Assistant Bill Berry was the interim coach for two games (0-2) before Krause hired former Bulls center Bill Cartwright to take over full time. If anybody could teach the two baby big men toughness, it would be the guy who dominated Patrick Ewing in the playoffs back-to-back seasons during the first three-peat.

That ‘01-02 season was also noteworthy for the big deal that Krause pulled at the trade deadline. The team was struggling again, on its way to 21-61 record and the number two pick in the draft. Apparently the GM felt the only thing the team was missing was a giant contract to fill up the salary cap, making it impossible to sign an elite free agent. So he traded the teams best defender, Artest, best post player, Miller, as well as Mercer to the Indiana Pacers for swingman Jalen Rose (and his $12 million/year contract) and reserves Travis Best, Kevin Ollie and Norm Richardson. Along with Duke point guard Jay Williams, who the Bulls took in the ‘02 draft, rebuilding plan number two now seemed ready to contend for a playoff spot.

Yet for some strange reason, the nucleus of Rose, Crawford, Curry, Chandler, Williams and free agent Donyell Marshall didn’t produce many wins. Even with Cartwright’s guidance, the team still played no defense and refused to share the ball. Seven guys on the ‘02-03 team (those six plus Fizer) averaged over nine points a game, but not one player averaged more than five assists. The team finished 30-52 and on April 7, 2003, Krause stepped down as the Bulls GM, citing health reasons. The man who had won Executive of the Year twice and was the brains behind the six title trophy’s walked away with most fans remembering how he alienated Jackson, Jordan and Pippen in ‘98 and failed to turn the Bulls back into contenders.

The man assigned to replace Krause was none other than John Paxson, another key member of the Bulls’ first three-peat; the team now had the championship center as coach and the point guard as general manager. Paxson’s first move would be a memorable one. The team went into the ‘03 off-season thinking that all they needed was a glue guy, a player who could do the little things to get wins. Then, a week before the draft, the team and its point guard were struck a big blow. Jay Williams, who had played decent in his rookie season but had shown flashes of brilliance, crashed his motorcycle into a street post. The crash severed a nerve in Williams’ leg, fractured his pelvis and tore up his knee. A week later, the team drafted Kansas point guard Kirk Hinrich, pretty much giving up any hope that Williams would recover.

With a rookie point guard running the show again, the Bulls struggled in ‘03-04. Cartwright was fired 14 games in, and after two contests under longtime assistant Pete Myers, Paxson hired Scott Skiles to be head coach. The GM also traded Rose to Toronto in December, and once again, thanks to a trade with the Suns, had two of the top seven picks in the ‘04 draft. With those picks, the team selected UConn shooting guard Ben Gordon and Duke small forward Luol Deng. The Gordon selection paved the way for Crawford’s trade out of town, as he was dealt to the Knicks.

Finally, with rebuilding plan number three underway, the Bulls finally had a group worthy of the playoffs. The team started ‘04-05 1-10, but finished strong with a record of 47-35, making the post-season for the first time since the glory days. Gordon won the NBA Sixth Man Award and even though the team lost in round one to Washington, the future was looking good. And even after Curry was traded to the Knicks in the summer of 2005 because of his refusal to take a heart exam, the team looked like contenders for the Eastern Conference Title. Another slow start hurt their playoff seeding, pitting them in round one against the Miami Heat, the team that would eventually go on to win the NBA Title. The Bulls put up a good fight but once again couldn’t get into the second round.

2006-07 was to be the year. Really. Paxson traded Chandler, and in his place signed Ben Wallace, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year. Gordon and Deng looked ready to break out from good players to stars and glue guys Andres Noccioni and PJ Brown did all the intangibles needed to win basketball games. The Bulls went 55-27, swept the Heat in round one of the playoffs, but fell short in the Eastern semi-finals, losing to Detroit four games to two.

Then everything fell apart…again. Predicted by some to make the Finals, the Bulls struggled all season to get easy shots, play team defense and beat bad teams. Skiles was fired in December, replaced by assistant Jim Boylan. The team did no better under him, even after Wallace was dealt at the trade deadline. Young players Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, both acquired in the Curry trade, flashed potential skills but never put it all together. And Hinrich, Deng, and Gordon all digressed back to average players. The day after the season ended, Boylan was given the pink slip.

That brings us to now. Ten years since the last title, the Bulls are looking for head coach number seven (Floyd, Berry, Cartwright, Myers, Skiles, Boylan and TBA). Rebuilding plan number three (Brand/Artest, Curry/Chandler/Williams, and Hinrich/Gordon/Deng) looks like another loser as fans wonder when the team will contend again. At least, when Bulls fans want to see good basketball, there’s still memories to rely on.