The Chicago Bulls need to be saved from themselves.  Joakim Noah.  Luol Deng.  Tom Thibodeau.  Taj Gibson.  They need John Paxson and/or Gar Forman to stop them from ruining this great opportunity that has fallen into the Bulls lap.  The 2014 NBA Draft is going to be LOADED.  Andrew Wiggins – Kansas Jayhawks.  Julius Randle – Kentucky Wildcats.  Jabari Parker – Duke Blue Devils.  Marcus Smart – Oklahoma State Cowboys.  There are four franchise players at the top of the draft.  There are about half a dozen very solid core players after the top 4 franchise guys.  This is definitely a draft to be in the lottery.  If you can tank enough games to be one of the worst 3 teams, you are almost guaranteed one of the franchise players (69.5% chance of being in Top 4 selections.)  If you have the worst record in the league, the worst you can do is #4 pick and be guaranteed a franchise player.  I truly believe that this could be the best top of the draft since the 2003 draft had Lebron James, Dwayne Wade and Carmelo Anthony.  Why wouldn’t you try to be involved in the hunt for that chance when you have no chance of winning of title this season?

The Chicago Bulls are not going to win the NBA title this season.  They have no chance of even getting to the NBA Finals.  The Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers would wipe the floor with them in the playoffs.  The Bulls might have beaten the Miami Heat tonight by a score of 107-87 but let’s not get carried away.  It was one regular season game that doesn’t mean squat to the Heat.  In Derrick Rose’s MVP season, the Bulls went 3-0 in the regular season against Miami and blew out the Heat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals 102-83.  The Heat then won 4 straight to eliminate the Bulls 4-1 and went on to win the NBA title.  The Heat are better now than they were in 2011 because they have acquired a ton of talented players looking for a championship to fill out their bench.  Shane Battier, Ray Allen, Norris Cole, Rashard Lewis and Chris Andersen are way better than the corpses of Mike Miller and Mike Bibby, Dexter Pittman and Jamaal Magliore.  The Miami Heat also eliminated the Bulls from the playoffs last season 4-1 even though the Bulls played them tough in the regular season tying 2-2.  They couldn’t beat the Heat with Derrick Rose and they can’t beat the Heat in the playoffs without Derrick Rose.  The Bulls are worse this season than they were last year.  They let a few key pieces go because Derrick Rose was coming back and they didn’t need them anymore…or so they thought.    Think the Bulls could use Nate Robinson or Marco Belinelli?  How’re Mike Dunleavy’s 6 games of 5 points or less out of the first 17 games making the Bulls better?     There are only 3 reasons to push through the regular season and try to make the playoffs if you are a team like the Bulls – #1) Money.  Ticket sales and playoff games revenue.  #2) You are a young team and you need to develop players so the experience would be great and you don’t want them to learn bad habits from sloppy play while tanking.  #3) Foolish pride.  The Bulls don’t have a young team so they don’t need the experience or to be fearful of acquiring bad habits.  That just leaves money and foolish pride being the reasons for not tanking this season.

However, if you tank and acquire one of the franchise guys in the draft, you can make up that lost revenue by being a better team going forward and winning championships and lasting longer in the playoffs.  Does anyone in their right mind think that Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer are going to get better?  Boozer is 32 years old and in his 12th NBA season.  Luol Deng will be 29 years old at the end of the season and this is his 10th year in the league.  How much longer can he go without starting to decline?  Joakim Noah will be 29 years old at the end of the season as well and is in his 7th year in the league.  He hasn’t played in more than 70 games in the regular season since his 2nd year.  He is constantly slowed and missing games due to feet issues.  Instead of resting Noah and limiting his minutes in an effort to reduce stress on his feet, Thibodeau plays each regular season game like it is life or death.  He needs to learn to coach like Popovich in San Antonio.  Pop will sit Duncan, Ginobli, Parker and have them miss entire games…sometimes all on the same night.  He realizes that not every game in the regular season is important.  It’s better to have healthy and refreshed players in the playoffs when you are playing so many grueling games in such a short period of time.  Thibs mentality carries over to Noah and Deng and they go all out every night until they break down and then miss a week or two or they are broken down and out of gas come playoff time.

The Chicago Bulls need to be saved from themselves.  The only way to do that is to take away the players that give the Bulls their best chance to win so Thibs can’t squeeze a 6 seed out the team.  Call up Brooklyn and offer them Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce…you might even be able to get the Nets to kick in a draft pick or two that might land you another lottery pick.  Garnett would have to approve of the trade but he has history in Chicago and with Thibs when Thibs was a coach on the Celtics staff so I think he would.  Garnett and Pierce would never survive the minutes that Thibs put on them and if they did, they would be horribly ineffective.  Garnett might even be a good teacher for Taj and someone who could give Noah rest on the bench.  The trade would also save the Bulls about $3M in cap space if I’m reading it right.  The tickets are already sold for this year Mr. Reinsdorf.  Do the right thing and pressure Paxson and Forman to take away Thibs’ play toys and get this team a pick at the top of the draft.  Imagine a Chicago Bulls team with DRose, Jabari Parker and Joakim Noah going forward.  Isn’t that better than losing in the first round of the playoffs?

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