BOBBLEHEAD SPORTS

Another NBA Trade Deadline passes with 0 trades from the Chicago Bulls. I’ve been a Bulls fan for 14 years, and this is the most frustrated I have ever been with the team. I believe that AKME’s tenure with the Bulls has been even worse than GarPax.

Sure, GarPax had some awful decisions, such as trading Rookie LaMarcus Aldridge for 2 nobodies and trading Kyle Korver for cash considerations, but at least they made some good draft picks. Derrick Rose, Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah, Bobby Portis, and Coby White are the best examples of these. In AKME’s 3 years, they have drafted Patrick Williams, Marko Simonovic, Ayo Dosunmu, Dalen Terry, and Julian Phillips. I can’t fully judge these players yet, their careers are still just beginning, but man do they look bad. At best, they show occasional flashes of being a role-player in the NBA.

Now on to the trades, or lack of them. The last time the Bulls traded a player was on August 28^th, 2021. That was the day the Bulls traded away Lauri Markkanen for Derrick Jones Jr, a 2nd-round pick, and a protected first-round pick that still hasn’t conveyed. The only trade made since then was trading 2 2nd-round picks for Julian Phillips. DeMar DeRozan has value for a contender, Alex Caruso is one of the best defenders in basketball, and Andre Drummond is extremely valuable as a backup Center on a minimum contract, but instead, AKME will let these guys either walk in free agency or sign them to ridiculous deals and hold them until they are washed.

AKME won us Bulls fans over at first with their blockbuster trade for Nikola Vucevic (which has also backfired), and then their big sign and trade deals for DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball. Things were looking great, and the Bulls were 27-13 as the #1 seed in the East until Lonzo Ball got injured. After that, they stumbled to a 46-36 record and lost to the Bucks 4-1 in the first round. At the 2023 Trade Deadline, the Bulls were sitting in an almost identical spot to where they are today at 26-29, and chose to make 0 trades. They ended with a 40-42 record and lost in the Play-In.

Jerry Reinsdorf is too worried about his money to make any moves. He doesn’t want to rebuild the team because he’d lose ticket sales, and he doesn’t want to buy in to the luxury tax because then he loses money. He treats the Chicago Bulls like they are just another business instead of a storied sporting franchise that has millions of fans worldwide.

My final message for any Bulls fan, or NBA fan reading this, is SELL THE TEAM JERRY!!!