Column: The Chicago Bulls are 4-13 since the All-Star break. That’s still too many wins.
· Yahoo Sports
For nearly two minutes in Monday’s 132-107 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, the Chicago Bulls played basketball to a soundtrack of gasps and groans.
Visit arroznegro.club for more information.
It was the type of cheers that accompany relief. The beleaguered Bulls were doing their best to put on a show, powered by a smattering of 3s from Matas Buzelis and another triple-double from Josh Giddey. But the crowd truly reached its fever pitch when Rob Dillingham — one of the smallest players in the league at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds — floated his way to the basket, slamming down a one-handed dunk before flashing a wink at his teammates on the bench.
The Bulls aren’t accustomed to the comfort afforded by a double-digit lead. On Monday, they reveled in it. This is a team that won only four games in the nearly six weeks since the Feb. 5 trade deadline. As the losses piled up, so did the frustration.
Winning should be a relief. But for the Bulls, every win is a blade that cuts with a double edge. The Bulls can’t stand losing. They also can’t afford to keep winning — even if it’s just a chance to blow off a little steam in front of a home crowd.
The Grizzlies didn’t want to beat the Bulls. Memphis entered the game ranked No. 8 in the draft lottery standings, which provides 26.3% odds at a top-four pick and a 6% chance at first overall. The Bulls sat close behind at No. 9 with 20.3% top-four odds and a 4.5% shot at first overall. With a loss, Memphis neatly extended its cushion to 4.5 games to fend off Chicago from closing in on its position. The Bulls, meanwhile, now lead the Milwaukee Bucks by only a half-game.
The stakes were clear. But only one team understood them. The Grizzlies gave starters plenty of rest in the second half. The Bulls, meanwhile, kept stars like Giddey and Buzelis on the court well into the fourth quarter to throw down reverse dunks and extend their lead past 20 points.
These wins don’t come with hope. The Bulls still sit five games back from the surging Charlotte Hornets for the last spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament. Most betting lines have fully removed their odds to make the playoffs. There isn’t a way to claw out of this mess. The Bulls are simply stuck in the middle once again.
There’s no easy fix now. Sure, the Bulls should shut down players like Jalen Smith and Tre Jones — true winners who can prop up the rest of the flailing offense against a truly tanking team — for the rest of the season. They should not entertain the possibility of returning players like Anfernee Simons and Jaden Ivey. And they should probably slap Buzelis and Giddey with a hard minutes cap, a well-earned respite after both players logged close to 40 minutes on back-to-back nights in Los Angeles last week.
But this team refuses to follow that path. With 14 games left in the season, the Bulls are still chasing wins. They won four of their last eight games. The franchise can’t provide a cohesive argument to defend its insistent pursuit of a middling standing. The Bulls seem to be content to be bad — just not bad enough to make a difference.
This ethos bleeds into every aspect of game and player management. Coach Billy Donovan revealed pregame that he doesn’t want to play Dillingham as the primary point guard in any rotations at this point in the season, instead preferring to pair the guard in units with point guard Giddey or Jones. This pulls Dillingham out of the point guard position, forcing him to adapt to off-ball play — but Donovan said it’s worthwhile because it protects the guard and the team from his inexperience as a primary playmaker.
This type of logic would make sense if Donovan had been the one traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, forcing him to balance the development of a young guard with the pressing concerns of a team attempting to make a run to the Western Conference finals. But the Bulls shouldn’t care whether they lose games due to mistakes made by Dillingham. Their goal is to develop a young player by giving him substantial reps at his preferred playing position, something Donovan is eschewing in preference for chasing late-season wins for a team that will not — barring a miracle (or disaster) — make the playoffs.
Who should Chicago Bulls fans watch during March Madness? Here are 8 potential NBA draft prospects.
This is a boring line of logic to keep hammering as the season drags on. Fans want to see their team win.
They certainly don’t want to hear that they shouldn’t cheer for a win. Even more, they want to see their teams commit — to a plan, to a star, to a system of ideals. A fixation on tanking creates a monotonous dialogue around a team, especially when ownership and leadership refuse to actually apply themselves to the concept.
But that monotony is the status quo in Chicago. There is no way up or down for the Bulls. The middle is all that exists — yesterday, today, tomorrow, perhaps forever.