gotemcoach:

QUIT PLAYING, CHICAGO.

Not like, “Quit playing basketball, Chicago Bulls.”  More like, “Quit playing around, Chicago Bulls Management.”  This team can’t win a title without help.  There are some names floating around (O.J. Mayo, among others), and some guys coming back from China.  Pick up the phone, open up your wallet, and get Derrick Rose some help.

Basketball isn’t brain surgery.  You can make this determination on paper.  Look at the roster and ask yourself, “Has there ever been an NBA Champion with a guy like Luol Deng as the second best player on the team?”  No.  There hasn’t.

Look at the long list of NBA Champion #2’s:  Oscar Robertson, Kevin McHale, Dr. J, Scottie Pippen, James Worthy, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Manu Ginobili, Ray Allen, Pau Gasol.  Sure, there might be an Otis Thorpe or Vernon Maxwell in that list, but why risk it?

The same can be said for Carlos Boozer.  Not only is he a liability defensively in the post against larger power forwards, but he habitually disappears in the Spring. Plus, Rip Hamilton is a dinosaur, Kyle Korver has that haircut, and this patently greedy schedule (thanks David Stern) is going to eat everyone alive.  You need help.

Look at it this way: the #2 on the team that just beat the Bulls, and is favored to win the title this season, is either LeBron James or Dwyane Wade.  I understood stockpiling bigs like Noah, Boozer, Asik, and Gibson.  That size and flexibility made you unique last year.  But it didn’t work. 

You lost.  And those players aren’t going to get that much better.

You need to make a move.

The Chicago Bulls management is idling.  They’re too comfortable.  They’re assuming, because the team is young, and because they have Derrick Rose, the Bulls will be good for a while into the future.  But window’s close.  Sometimes they slam shut.  Ask the Portland Trail Blazers, or the Sacramento Kings.  Ask the Cleveland Cavaliers, or the Orlando Magic.

The time is now, Chicago.  Don’t waste this.  Quit playing.

@gotem_coach