The Chicago Bulls sound like they may be on the verge of blowing it all up.
Stop me if you have heard this one before — the Chicago Bulls may be on the verge of another rebuild. The question is, ‘will the fans have the stomach for it?’ Each year it feels like the fans are sold a different bill of goods. It’s as if the front office thumbs through its excuse Rolodex and feeds it to the faithful. Whether they’re going through a true rebuild, or hired a new coach, or have dealt with injuries, the excuses are piling up almost as fast as the losses.
However, it was starting to feel like the Bulls had their young core in place to build off of. Lauri Markkanen, Zach LaVine, Wendell Carter, and Coby White were thought to form a pretty formidable nucleus to build around. Throw in Otto Porter Jr., and another top-ten draft pick this year, and it was reasonable for fans to think the rebuilding years were behind them.
Yet, based on some recent reports, that might be the furthest things from the truth as the whispers around the league seem to imply they might be starting over entirely yet again.
It started with rumblings that the front office (which hilariously promised a ‘players first’ philosophy) was strongly considering bringing back head coach Jim Boylen. It continued shortly thereafter with a story that the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets were among teams doing their homework on LaVine ‘just in case’ the Bulls made him available.
Sure, they could just have been doing their due diligence, but teams generally aren’t going to whistle in the wind, and it’s more likely they have reason to believe LaVine could be looking to jump ship in Chicago — mainly because of the aforementioned Boylen.
Fast forward to this weekend, when another story emerged from Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. In it, Cowley noted that according to one NBA source, multiple teams are starting to hone in on multiple Bulls, including Markkanen and Carter. Not surprisingly, those are the other two players who have been most vocal about their displeasure with Boylen.
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In other words, it’s not that difficult to start connecting the dots. The Bulls hint at bringing back Boylen and shortly thereafter, multiple stories emerge that teams are interested in the three players who have been Boylen’s most visible critics on the team. This sounds like the epitome of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
If the Bulls blow the whole thing up again, you have to wonder if many fans start jumping ship. At some point, enough is enough, and with the lack of transparency and clarity about their long term plans, coupled with their endless excuses, it would be hard to blame them.