It's Early, But--

The last time I judged a team based on so small a sample size of games, I went after the White Sox after Lucas Giolito gave up a homerun on the first pitch of the 2020 season; patience is definitely a virtue. So, I waited three games before saying anything about the winless Bulls. They were 0-2 going into Sunday night’s matchup against the visiting Warriors. Not only is Golden State playing without Klay Thompson, starting center Marquese Chriss suffered a broken leg during practice, in Chicago, on Saturday. The Warriors would’ve seemed to be a beatable team, then. But no. In their first two games of the season, the Bulls lost by 20 and 19 points, respectively, and both games were garbage-time close. Against Golden State, the Bulls were ahead by two with five seconds left. Not a problem. Warriors’ guard Damion Lee drained a three-pointer for the win. Now, here's the bad news for just about everyone on the roster. With the exception of current first-rounder Patrick Williams and two other players, this team remains the work of the old regime. Only John Paxson’s gone and Gar Forman and Jim Boylen, too. How long do you think the new front office will keep Lauri Markkanen, Zach LaVine and company? LaVine had 33 points last night, to go with seven turnovers. Yikes. My guess is that players will start getting dumped a week or so before the trade deadline as the Bulls tank in order to get a nice pick in the next draft. This is the joy of a rebuild, which owner Jerry Reinsdorf should be used to after how long his Sox took finding their way back to respectability. Reinsdorf is learning, yet again, that it’s not a good idea to be irrelevant in a Bears’ town. If the Munsters have so much as a pulse, you have to respond with a fifteen-game win streak, not a fifteen-game win total on the season. And that’s assuming they even get off the schneid.