Back and Forth

The Bulls have the uncanny ability to go 4-1/2 steps forward, five steps back. Make that 469 steps ahead, 500 back, which, with some quick math, gives you their winning percentage. Last week, they pulled to within two games of .500, only to lose three out of their next five. Mediocrity, thy name is Chicago Bulls. Just check the roster to see what I mean. There are four good players, tops—DeMar DeRozan, Coby White, Ayo Dosunmu and Alex Caruso. Only DeRozan is old at 34 while Dosunmu and Caruso tend to perform better off the bench. That leaves the suddenly-good White as the only starter to build around long-term. Yes, Andre Drummond is a more-than-serviceable center, but his days as a starter look to be in the rearview mirror. Zach LaVine is just as much of a mistake for Arturas Karnisovas as he was for Gar Forman and John Paxson. Nikola Vucevic? He’s always going to be a stat leader on bad teams. Think the other Frank Thomas with the early Mets. On top of everything else, LaVine has next to no trade given his nagging injuries this season. At a minimum, he has to be the one to go. As for the team, the bigger the deal the better. But how do you engineer blockbuster deals with broken bats, if you’ll pardon my wrong-sport metaphor?