It Could Be Worse

Bulls’ fans may not know where their rebuild is headed, but they do have a sense of what would’ve happened if nothing had happened, starting in 2015.  All they need to do is look at the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team stocked with ex-Bulls, starting with that gym-rat genius, coach Tom Thibodeau.

The T-Wolves hired Thibodeau in 2016.  The team won 31 games in Thibodeau’s first year and 47 this season.  Yes, that sounds impressive, but their 16-game improvement only merited Minnesota an eight-seed in the first round of the NBA Western Conference playoffs.  Two more wins, and Thibodeau might have secured the three-seed, three more wins for sure.  Gosh, I wonder if playing his regulars 40-plus minutes in mid-February left Coach T with a tired team going into the playoffs.

And what a Bulls-like team they were, with ex-Chicagoans Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson, Jamal Crawford and that most intriguing of late-season acquisitions, Derrick Rose.  They got the band and put it back together, only to lose their opening series against top-seeded Houston, four games to one.  So, this is a team with a roster kind-of-young, kind-of-old, coached by a no-nonsense, defensive guru.  Been there, done that, time to move on.

The 36-year old Dwayne Wade did after one season with the Bulls, to return to his old team, the Miami Heat; they also bowed out in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.          The only prominent ex-Bulls to move on in the playoffs are Rajon Rondo and Niko Mirotic, both of the New Orleans Pelicans.  Good for them, Rondo in particular for showing real leadership skills his only season in Chicago last year.  But I wouldn’t want to go back and have all these guys on the same team again.  Been there, and, like it or not, time to see the rebuild through.