LOL major props for Dwyer about the Bulls hypocrisy. Seriousy, the Bulls are one of the cheapest orgs in the bizz, its just that they're less obvious about it than teams like the Suns.
Has it really been that bad for Chicago? Let's see: They replaced a bench of Asik/Gibson/Korver/Brewer/Watson with a bench of Mohammed/Gibson/Radmonovic/Belineli/Hinrich and saved a ton of money. I think it's a wash. They would not be a contender anyway and they opted to save some money. They can still make the playoffs even with Rose injured for most of the year.
The issue isn't that they suck. Its because their owner always treats the Bulls as a cash cow to fund his White Sox team. Teams usually end up in the middle because they were trying to get better, the Bulls do it by design, and you probably won't know it unless you've been following them since the Ben Gordon days. Also as the article pointed they didn't save a ton of money, they saved hundreds of thousands of dollars by downgrading their bench. Ignorant posters like DD always talk about how Alexander should sell the team because he sucks, but the truth is the compared to other owners he's one of the best. At least Alexander stepped up to bat and spent cash to buy picks and eat 17M in salary just to better the team, I had no doubts we would get Asik because the Bull's owner is one cheap-ass dude.
Yes, it is very unfortunate what's happening there - this perpetual waiting for the next opportune moment - and one that is not discussed much in the media unfortunately. This is a team that had the best record! A lot of it you can't do about (i.e. Rose injury), but who knows when they'll get back to that level.
They did save a ton of money by not picking up the options on Brewer ($4.37 M)/Watson($3.2M), trade Korver ($5M), and not matching Asik (>$8M). They signed Hinrich ($3.5M), Belineli ($2M), Mohammed (vet minium), and Radmanovic (vet minimum) instead. As an organization the Bulls have always been cheap since the Jordan days. It's been well documented.
I think the article is overly harsh. Rose won't play next season and may not fully recover until 2014 (if he ever does). The next two years are nuked because of Rose's injury so no use in pretending to be a contender.
Agreed. I think Watson is a better player than Hinrich. With Rose out most of next season Hinrich will be the starter at PG for Chicago and it will not be pretty.
