Are The Bulls Setting Themselves Up For Free Agent Failure?
Here was the Bulls’ plan heading into the season: let Ben Gordon walk, hope the offense holds without him, backdoor their way into the playoffs, then go for broke in the free-agent market this summer.
It made sense. And I agreed with it. This was pretty much a holding-pattern year before the Bulls’ plane was taken over by a Chris Bosh or Dwyane Wade or maybe even LeBron James and landed in the East’s upper crust.
But what has happened now is this: the Bulls are, as of today, very much on the outside looking in for the playoffs. John Hollinger Playoff Odds projects them to finish the year 30-52. This is not good. This is very bad.
The Bulls’ selling points to free agents this summer are as such: 1) Big market 2) Derrick Rose 3) A good enough team.
But if they continue at their current rate — and really, their offense is probably a lost cause at this point — why would any big-name guy want to come to Chicago? Hollinger ($) writes:
The Bulls let Gordon walk and failed to bolster the bench this past summer because Chicago will have enough cap space to pursue a maximum-salaried free agent in the summer of 2010. In the best case, perhaps that player would be Chicago native Dwyane Wade.
That all depends, however, on the Bulls’ playing well enough to persuade a superstar that he could put them over the top. I’m not sure the likes of Wade or Chris Bosh can see much difference between their current teammates and Chicago’s roster, Rose’s presence notwithstanding, and they have to harbor some doubt as to whether Chicago’s notoriously dithering brass can put the necessary pieces around them in the future. Del Negro is said to be on thin ice given the slow start, but there’s no guarantee Chicago’s next choice will be any better.
This is all true. But the optimist in me would like to believe that if the Bulls can end the season on a respectable level, a corps of Rose, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah and perhaps a new, competent coach would be enough of a selling point.
I hope, at least.
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