BTW, I lifted this from wikipedia because I wanted to revisit the timelines.
In addition to trading Brand for another 18 year old center. He was already on thin ice with people for chasing off the golden era of all golden eras. And then he became one of those GMs that felt like he had to pre-emptively draft HS kids. On top of ending the golden era, this was another colossal failure.
Reinsdorf bought the Bulls at just the right time in 1985 and placed Krause there, who was able to bring in pieces to put around MJ. The belief was that one player never made that much of a difference as far as record, and Krause wanted to prove to the world that he could do it without Michael Jordan, and Reinsdorf, running the Bulls as a business investment, took it because he knew he was going to still make a ton of money off Michael Jordan and that dynasty, all the while saving money in the process by having a few bad seasons while allowing Krause to do his work. The NBA lottery commission even helped out by awarding the Bulls with the No. 1 pick in 1999, one year removed from losing the dynasty team (You know, like how Cleveland luckily wins the lottery a year after losing LeBron James).
Krause honestly I felt wanted to do too much, and he seemed to only know how to build pieces, not staples of a team (Which is what he essentially did around Jordan). He also based his entire 2000 offseason on Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Eddie Jones, and Tim Thomas. Realistically everyone knew Duncan and Grant Hill weren't going to sign with Chicago, so it was really about Tracy McGrady. In reality, its a good thing none of those guys ended up here as their careers went.
The high school kids was a dream of Krause of creating a Twin Towers situation like the Rockets in the mid-80's and the Spurs were at that time with Duncan and Robinson. It would become a dominant front court and rule the NBA in 3-4 years after they were drafted. That was also why Krause sacrificed Elton Brand, which to me is one of the worst trades in franchise history when looking back on it. Then trading Brad Miller and Ron Artest for Jalen Rose was the next dumb move, but lets be real here, none of these guys were ever going to lead us anywhere. Brand could have with a reliable PG, but the Bulls were pressed hard to find one at that point.
Once Gar/Pax took over, they went with drafting more proven college players. Part of it was that there was a rule requiring them to wait a year out of HS. Correct me if Im wrong but they started doing this before that rule was in effect.
The truth is, GarPax have done a better job building than Krause did.
It's unfortunate that Reinsdorf made it all about having faith in Krause.
Paxson only drafted guys who had at least been in the Final Four with his lottery picks and even some later picks (Hinrich - Championship Game, Gordon - Champ, Deng - Final Four, Duhon - Final Four, Tyus Thomas - Final Four, Joakim Noah - Two-time Champ, Derrick Rose - Championship Game)
The rule that banned players fresh out of high school was instituted for the 2005 draft. The 2004 was the last draft to take on high schoolers, and the Bulls were already following the philosophy of not taking them at that point.
