Admission of Error

On Thursday, the Bulls blew up their roster, trading away former first-round draft picks Wendell Carter Jr and Chad Hutchison along with Otto Porter Jr., Daniel Gafford, Luke Kornet and two first-round draft picks for a whole bunch of folks, starting with All-Star center Nikola Vucevic. OK, then. Right now, the only thing I can say for sure about the incoming talent is that the front office wants to start winning now, because Vucevic happens to be 30. Of more immediate interest is what this says in effect, as in, The old regime didn’t have a clue, which, of course, they didn’t. Carter and Hutchison were two first rounders who obviously didn’t pan out. As for those other two first-round picks from the days of Gar-Pax, Lauri Markkkanen and Coby White would be smart to keep their bags packed. (Technically, the Timberwolves drafted Markkanen, then packaged him in a deal with Kris Dunn and Zach LaVine for Jimmy Butler and Justin Patton. You be the judge of that trade.) Anything short of a quantum leap in production, and they’re both likely gone by next season. I’m a broken record on the subject, so I may as well start repeating myself about one-and-done’s, in this case Carter. If the third-year center doesn’t produce in the near-term in Orlando, he risks joining the ever-expanding club of young journeymen, Jabari Parker and Jahlil Okafor among its most prominent members. One-and-done certainly hasn’t worked out career-wise for those two one-time phenoms. Carter, Okafor and Parker all could have benefitted bigtime from another two years of college ball, but what do I know? Well, more than the Bulls’ old regime, at least.