At this point, Jimmy Butler and Bobby Portis should be the only Elliot Ness level individuals (“Untouchables”) on this Chicago Bulls roster. Everybody else should be considered movable. It’s a shame no business was done by the NBA trade deadline last week because it’s time for the Bulls to blow this thing up by the summer and start the rebuilding process.
Obviously, there was a ton of chatter about Pau Gasol going to the Sacramento Kings in a deal that would have been perfect for the direction the Bulls need to go now. It didn’t happen and now there’s talk of Chicago re-signing him with mutual interest from both camps.
All Chicago Bulls fans love Gasol (maybe not on the defensive end), but extending him would be such a massive salary cap hit that it’s maladaptive to the ideal of imploding the roster and then rebuilding from scratch.
It’s a very critical crossroads period for the team. As one of the few teams with enough talent in the East to contend with the Cleveland Cavaliers, they can look towards making a final push, if everything somehow goes their way and it all comes together.
Oh wait, sorry, that sentence applied to last season, not this one. You know how last year ended and the Chicago Bulls championship window closed. It shut with authority and now it’s been dead-bolted and cemented over with a fresh coat of red and black paint.
Big thanks to our buds @PaulMBanks @wiltfongjr & @iancass for joining @bartenderradio and myself this week! https://t.co/n9NSt0KvVb
— Jim Irizarry (@JimOnSports_) February 19, 2016
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/700865674416148480
Right now the Bulls are in serious danger of falling out of the playoffs, as they still have a few more games here without their alpha dog. If they do fall into the lottery, it might not be the worst thing in the entire world. A lottery pick is certainly better for the long run than a certain playoff elimination at the hands of Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Right now, the Bulls are the #8 seed and the #1 seed is Cleveland. I almost fell asleep on the keyboard thinking about how banal and dull that would be. Michael Bay/Jerry Bruckheimer produced dreck has more original unpredictability than that series would.
If Gasol is gone this summer, and then Derrick Rose takes his talents elsewhere the following summer, then the Chicago Bulls will truly initiate their tear down-rebuilding-revamping-reshaping-rebooting-reloading makeover or whatever you want to call it.
That’s the right way to go. We’ve seen what the Chicago Bulls can do with this nucleus, and it’s not a title.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram