On the Bulls
Playing in close games, facing adversity more important than spot
in NBA draft lottery
Three months ago, John Paxson, who, after all, sank huge shots in two separate NBA Finals in his previous life as a player, addressed the topic of tanking directly.
“I’ve never met a coach or a player who steps foot on the floor to lose a game,” the Bulls’ executive vice president said on media day. “They don’t. And they shouldn’t.”
Speaking on the same day, Fred Hoiberg interrupted a question about winning games not being the Bulls’ No. 1 goal.
“Well, that’s my No. 1 goal,” Hoiberg said. “I’m going to coach this team and put players in a position where we could be competitive and win games. That’s my job.”
It’s true the Bulls traded Jimmy Butler and the No. 16 pick to the Timberwolves last June for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the rights to Lauri Markkanen with the projection that the rebuilding move also would yield a high pick in a 2018 draft loaded with star potential at the top.
It’s also true the Bulls have won nine of 11 games and dropped into a tie for the seventh-worst record in the NBA as of Thursday morning.
And while management already has begun exploring the trade market on Robin Lopez and Nikola Mirotic and followed through on its conservative approach to LaVine’s return from left ACL surgery, these also are indisputable truths about where the Bulls’ rebuild stands:
And thus, even if Lopez and/or Mirotic are dealt or LaVine doesn’t return until February in moves to potentially worsen the won-lost record, success in the above criteria has to be viewed as positive, even if it lowers the number of ping-pong balls.
Translated: Dunn shouldn’t slow his attack at attaining potential stardom to help the Bulls draft Duke forward Marvin Bagley. Markkanen shouldn’t stop sprinting the floor for a go-ahead dunk so that the Bulls land Arizona center DeAndre Ayton.
Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf recently said in an interview that he signed off on a rebuild because he was tired of being stuck in the middle. It’s the worst place to be in professional sports: not good enough to win a title, not bad enough to get a top draft pick.
Landing at 42-40 and narrowly missing the playoffs and 41-41 with a first-round exit is the definition of the middle. Even with the recent surge, the Bulls sit at 12-22, six games out of the playoffs and three ahead of the league’s worst mark. They also own ample salary-cap space and no bloated long-term deals.
Granted, Bagley, Ayton and others like Slovenian guard Luka Doncic and Missouri forward Michael Porter are potential stars, any of which could be a huge piece to add. But Dunn is as responsible as anyone for the recent resurgence. The Bulls need him, Markkanen and LaVine all to star to return to championship contention.
If Dunn is banging on the door to that earlier than expected, that can’t be — and shouldn’t be — stopped.
“The only expectation we have of them is to work hard every day, compete, be a group of players that people do not want to have to face because they know at the very least they’re going to compete and play hard every night,” Paxson said back in September. “And that’s how we’re going to begin to evaluate what we have.”
What the Bulls currently have is a team that has figured out how to win close games, to not buckle during periods of adversity, to play hard enough to make the United Center raucous again. Maybe the Bulls can cash in some draft lottery luck again, as they did when they overcame 1.7 percent odds to land the No. 1 pick and Derrick Rose in 2008.
The draft lottery is, after all, in Chicago for the first time next May. By then, who knows what kind of heights Dunn, LaVine, Markkanen and others will have reached?
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