I really don’t know where to start. I know this had to happen, but I am still shocked. With what I will be saying here shortly may put me in the minority, but that’s fine. Today, I was reminded why the Bulls are still, an inept organization from ownership all the way down to the players. Even the trainers and doctors suck too as we have heard. I pray what happened today signals an overhaul of this entire franchise, but even I am not that stupid.
Derrick Rose, Justin Holiday and a second round pick for next year go to the Knickerbockers for Robin Lopez, Jerian Grant and Jose Calderon. First, Holiday was an alright player and usually, second round picks in the NBA do nothing. The Bulls get back Lopez, who is a decent center and replaces Joakim Noah (good riddance). Jose Calderon was a pretty good point guard a few years ago and can still be pretty good. Jerian Grant must have been thrown in the trade just for the fact that he is the nephew of one, Horace Grant. I’d say the Bulls won this trade.
Now, on to Rose. At the beginning, it was a blessing. Getting a text message from someone telling me the Bulls got the number one pick in the draft that year just made me some damn excited. I think every fan was. Just seeing the dude run all over the court and how freakishly athletic he was made us all tuned into the TV.
Then, the wheels fell off.
The Bulls decide to hire a lifelong assistant coach by the name of Tom Thibodeau. From the beginning, I knew this was a problem. The Bulls were kicking the shit out of teams in their wins. They were winning by 15, 20 and even 30 points at times. The problem with that? The starters were still in games late instead of the bench players. So we saw players like Rose and Deng out there in 30-point blowouts playing 40 minutes.
This proved costly in the playoffs when, in the first year of ThomASS, the Bulls somehow made it the Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat. I can just remember my head twisting with the question of why Derrick Rose wasn’t sitting out a few minutes in Games 3 and 4 of that year. He needed to rest. In Game 4, the Bulls had a chance to win late in the 4th and then, in overtime. Unfortunately, Derrick Rose ran out of gas and couldn’t make any shots. He must had played well over 40 minutes in that game. The Bulls were then put away in Game 5 after blowing a 12-point lead with just over four minutes to go.
In 2012, the proverbial knife to the chest happened. The Bulls were playing the 76ers in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs. The Bulls, up double-digits with under two minutes go, were all but done with this one. Thibodeau, who I’d bitched about countless times on this same, shitty website, for leaving starters in way too long before this game, decided to repeat his stupidity. Derrick Rose drives to the basketball and the rest is history. “Derrick Rose is hurt…Derrick Rose is hurt” is what Stacey King said on TV. Rose tears his ACL playing in a meaningless final two minutes of a playoff game. Fuck.
We knew Derrick Rose wasn’t a bright individual off the court, but that was masked by his play on the court. When he was sitting out, all of the awful comments, stories about his idiotic brother controlling his decisions and whatever else asinine came to light. I don’t have the energy to get into all of that, but needless to say, it affected his play on the court. And we can’t forget about the countless injuries that were spread out through this entire fire. Meniscus tears, sore knees, bad neck, whatever else it was, it happened to Derrick Rose.
The destruction of this man was a collective effort. It started with himself, of course. Then, it went to his virgin brother and trickled all the way down to the players, coaches and management. I still would like to think ThomASS was the fucking culprit of all it, though. ThomASS was the main reason why Derrick Rose self-destructed. If that injury happens while the game was close, then I guess it’s not. But that fact it wasn’t, still pisses me off to this day.
Nobody doubted Thibodeau’s skill of coaching. Even I said many times that he is a good X’s and O’s coach. But actually handling a team and making sure they are healthy? The absolute worst. Those 60 wins meant nothing because most of us logical fans knew that they would eventually run out of gas in the playoffs. Mark my words, the Timberwolves will do very well in the regular season eventually. That’s what teams coached by ThomASS do. When it gets to the playoffs, Thibodeau will defeat that team.
As the last couple of seasons went, ThomASS was shown the door and Fred Hoiberg was brought in. Rumors came about with Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose not getting along. I didn’t understand it either. I also felt ThomASS had a lot to do with that because he got into Butler’s head about being a great player. The humble and shy guy that came out of Marquette became egotistical. Well, he’s still with the Bulls for another four years. Derrick Rose is now gone.
So while many others are happy Rose is gone, I’ll say that I was really pulling for the guy to do well. I was praying the guy would grow up. Nearly eight years after the day he was drafted, he is now gone. And as I said earlier, I understand. But it’s time the Chicago Bulls grow up as a franchise. Tearing this whole team down from management all the way to the players, trainers and doctors needs to happen. Let this be the start.
Take out the trash.
Fire Ryan Poles | Fire Matt Eberflus 
June 22, 2016 at 4:46 pm
Until Gar/Pax are gone, until Hoidberg is gone, and that bum Jerry Reinsdolf is gone this team will be garbage. If it wasn’t Ramadan I’d curse up a storm. Gar/Pax can’t sign a real superstar in their prime. They are pathetic. Robin Lopez has 3 years left on his contract, each year is around 13 million. How pathetic are they? DRose was up after next year. Gar/Pax are dogs. I swear to God I hate them. How stupid can they be? I don’t care that they got rid of Rose but this is a pathetic trade. They are lucky it’s Ramadan or I’d curse up a storm.
June 22, 2016 at 6:08 pm
Well said Fro. My compliments.
Abdallaha….I agree totally. Forman and Paxson blow, so does Hoiberg, and so does Jerry. And nothing will change until these useless sacks are history. If you want, I’ll take up “cursing up a storm” for you, I’ll be more than happy to do it. And you know me, I’m a pro!
As for the trade itself, ABOUT FUCKING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!
June 22, 2016 at 6:26 pm
Hey, Fro, my Lakers have some players for ya; Nick Young for one, and the human stilt Roy Hibbard the other. Interested? Real cheap.
Cubs get swept by the Cardinals and Maddon continues to use Grimm and Richard. Chucky, is the guy just stupid or what?
June 22, 2016 at 6:26 pm
My two pennies:
1) Derrick Rose pretty much ran himself out of Chicago. I felt bad for him tearing his knee in the playoffs and being forced to sit out a year; he burned through that goodwill as he kept himself out a second year. Since then, he’s been nothing but a prick tease: being injured half the time, putting himself on the shelf WHEN HE COULD HAVE BEEN PLAYING, and a few flashes of brilliance between many games of “meh.” And then there were the cringe-worthy press conferences when reporters asked about his health.
We all could have done without his civil trial for sexual assault as well. Let’s have that on Bulls’ Nation’s conscience: “Are we rooting for a fucking dirtbag that we wouldn’t want within a mile of our wives/sister/daughters?”
We didn’t lose a great player; we lost another sad case of What Might Have Been.
2) If Derrick thinks he’s getting any stats or touches while he shares the floor with a certain Carmelo Anthony, he’s in for a rude shock. Good luck playing for that next contract, brah.
3) We couldn’t make a deal with anybody else but the Knicks. Good Lord, how far we have fallen.
4) Gee, I wonder how Fred Holberg is going to put this team together for next season. The last remaining member of the “core” is a knucklehead that he has no real relationship with, the Bulls’ last three draft picks are almost busts, and he just got three players from a team that was much worse that the Bulls were last year.
Unless the Bears and Black Hawks come out swinging next year, it’s gonna be a long, cold winter…
June 23, 2016 at 12:38 am
Ernie,
I wanted the Bulls to somehow, trade for D’Angelo Russell. I know, the dude was a little bitch recording a conversation in the locker room. But the shit head can play basketball if he puts his mind to it. I didn’t think the trade to the Knicks was possible (and that it could bring some players back in return), so I wanted the Bulls to make a trade for Russell and maybe another player in return for Rose.
The Bulls had to trade Rose. That takes a lot of cash off the table (along with the stress). The Bulls will continue to be irrelevant, but at least it won’t take up a whole lot of cap space.
They need to continue to trade away people like Gibson and get some picks in return. This entire team needs to be rebuilt.
June 23, 2016 at 5:37 am
abdallaha,
I agree with your sentiments on the Gang of Four.
IMHO, as long as the Bulls don’t slip into the current purgatory occupied by the Sixers, Reisendorf will let GarPax keep their jobs. Reisendorf got his once-in-a-lifetime player with Michael Jordan, he’s got his six rings, and as long as the Bulls rack up a competitive regular season and keep going to the playoffs, and the Bulls keep making money, Jerry has no more fucks to give about putting more Larry O’Brien trophies in the case.
The current roster (before yesterday) sucks. Time to move on from Gibson, Gasol, and Noah. Butler’s deal may be too expensive to eat, but do we really want a team built around him? If not, I say let GarPax get the best deal possible and at least give him a roster that he can work with before sending him back to the college ranks.
June 23, 2016 at 11:11 pm
Fro, I’m for trading Russell, but you had better have value in return. Who are you willing to trade? Let me know as soon as you can, I’ve got Kupchak on the phone. 🙂
June 24, 2016 at 7:31 pm
Abdallaha, I admire your restraint. Great post on a sad state of affairs.
June 24, 2016 at 10:15 pm
I have a trade for you Ernie:
The Bulls will trade their second round pick for the next two years. And to sweeten that pie, the Bulls will give Taj Gibson and his shitty free throw percentage and terrible jump shots. Sounds like a deal to me!