The ruining of the Bulls
With the 2007-08 NBA season nearing the halfway point, most people expected that the Chicago Bulls would be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Instead, at 14-22 they are much closer to the bottom, and head coach Scott Skiles has already been deposed.
What’s going on here? This team was supposed to be a contender to make the Eastern Conference Finals, if not the NBA Finals. They brought back the core of their team from last year, and they improved the team by getting rid of the scrubs like marshmallow Mike Sweetney and bringing in Joakim Noah and Joe Smith.
The problems with this team go beyond the fact that they don’t have a big man who can dominate inside or a superstar with a killer instinct like Kobe Bryant, or the fact that Ben Gordon and Loul Deng turned down five-year, $50-million extensions. In fact, it may not have anything to do with their struggles. They don’t even have referees to blame this season for their poor record.
After Skiles was fired, players openly admitted that they had tuned out Skiles and implied that they weren’t caring. Their play showed that they didn’t care. Firing Scott Skiles hasn’t fixed anything, as Skiles was not the reason for the team’s poor play.
Former NBA great and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley said Skiles should not have been fired. Instead he said, “The person that didn’t trade for Kevin Garnett last year should get fired. You have a chance to get Kevin Garnett and Pau Gasol, you’ve got to make that trade.” Barkley would be referring to Bulls GM John Paxson.
While I think he was going a bit too far saying Paxson should be fired, Barkley does bring up an interesting point. This is more Paxson’s fault than it is Skiles’. Paxson has not done enough to build this team into a title contender. While this team’s poor play is not due to the lack of a dominant inside force, this team still needs one.
When Joakim Noah, who now appears the most competitive and genuinely interested of all the Bulls, said back in November that other teams were basically doing whatever they wanted against the Bulls, he wasn’t lying.
These Bulls don’t seem to care at all. They don’t play the game with any desire. There is no effort or hustle. Their play is sloppy and opponents have turned the tables on the once Pamplonain-hustle of the Bulls, having their way on any offensive possession.
Interim head coach Jim Boylan won’t fix the team’s lack of effort. In fact, the one thing he might have had that Skiles didn’t - control of the players - he might not have that anymore, either. After Noah blew up at assistant coach Ron Adams at practice last week, Paxson and Boylan suspended the rookie for one game. However, his teammates didn’t feel it was enough and unanimously voted to extend it an extra game. They then went to Boylan and Paxson and the “superiors” agreed to it.
Who are these players to vote to increase his suspension?
How does it become the players’ job to shut up the most competitive player on the team- likely out of fear that he’ll out-hustle, out-shine, and even out-play guys like Big Baby Ben Wallace?
Ultimately, in the long-run, this poor play might end up being a blessing in disguise, especially if it leads to a high draft pick that puts the team in position to potentially draft Tyler Hansbrough from North Carolina, Michael Beasley from Kansas State, Eric Gordon from Indiana, O.J Mayo from USC or Kosta Koufos from Ohio State.
While the losing may bring the final piece to the puzzle to dominate the league not seen since the Jordan era, this team needs to show more effort and act like they care.