Thursday, April 29, 2010

A Bittersweet Exit


Since 1998, the Bulls have made the playoffs just five times, and made it past the first round only once. One word to describe their first round exit this past Wednesday night: Bittersweet. No one wants to see their team lose, especially at the hands of your LEAST favorite team with your two LEAST favorite players, but for the first time in a while, this Spring brings a sense of anxiousness & hope to fans.
This summer, Reisndorf will have plenty of dough in his pocket to toss around and go land someone who's name doesn't make you say, huh? since MJ left. Here's a few of the few Bulls season scoring leaders over the past 12 years: Ben Gordon, Jamal Crawford, Jalen Rose, Marcus Fizer, & Toni Kukoc. It would almost seem uncharacteristic to a Chris Bosh or Dwayne Wade wearing a Bulls uniform. Im not at all bashing the Bulls style of play, it's actually one of the reasons why I still follow them so closely (as opposed to jumping ship in '88 when MJ and Phil Jackson left with everybody else).
The single positive thing about being a bad team is that you get high draft picks in return. The Bulls have actually been one the best drafting teams the past decade, including some forgotten names like Ben Gordon, Elton Brand, Jay Williams and LaMarcus Aldridge. And in 2008, the only thing the Bulls beat were the odds when they defied a 1.7% chance to land the #1 overall pick (which would bring home Derrick Rose).
This season, the Bulls starting lineup featured five players all drafted by John Paxson. Granted, Rose remains the only guy above the radar, but that's what makes this summer so intriguing. With such a strong core, Paxson could go get somebody that could resurrect the entire franchise. The Bulls have been desperate for a low post scorer in Bosh since the disappoints of Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler. But a elite threat in Dwayne Wade would make the Bulls back-court the best in the league, hands down.
So what will Paxson and Reinsdorf do? At this point; I don't even care. Just something to hold on to will suffice.

No comments:

Post a Comment