If the 6-23 Chicago Bulls thought firing Fred Hoiberg was going to solve their problems, they're in for a rude awakening. Since relieving Hoiberg of his head coaching duties and promoting Jim Boylen to head coach on December 3rd, the Bulls have already had their worst loss in franchise history, losing to the Boston Celtics by a final score of 133-77. To make matters even worse, their $40M man Jabari Parker, a Chicago native, is being shown the door as he has been put on the trading block and dropped from the rotation.
Given how things are going, it wouldn't be surprising to see Bulls players spontaneously combust on the court. Everything else appears to have gone wrong, so why not? They're clearly heading in the wrong direction and it's tough to envision things getting better for them anytime soon.
The only thing that the Bulls can take some comfort in is the return of second year power forward Lauri Markkanen and the stellar play of combo guard Zach LaVine, who is averaging 23.8 points per game. Both Markkanen and LaVine look like a legitimate duo to build around for the future, but it's the rest of the team that's a mess.
Personally, I'm puzzled of as to why they're already giving up on Parker. He's averaging 15.2 points per game and is one of the few guys they have that can create his own shot. I understand he's not the best defender in the world, but that said, he's still a very solid player. Even more puzzling is the way they've gone about handling this whole thing. Wanting to trade him in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing. What's bad is to drop him from the rotation, lower his trade value, and then seek a trading partner for him. If they were smart, which they clearly aren't, they would showcase his skills and try to up his value to get as much back for him as possible. Instead, they're potentially stuck with a two-year, $40M contract that they desperately want to get off their books.
The bottom line is that this Bulls team is a disaster and there's no easy solution to turning them around. Their general manager Gar Forman has his work cut out for him and if he doesn't figure out how to right the ship, he'll soon be looking for a new job. Sit tight Bulls fans, I'm afraid the bumpy ride has only begun.
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