Um that was my point, stop waiting and thinking players are just lining up to be in Chicago. Of course you have to draft good players but you also need to make big moves to get your team over the top. Players are lining up for whoever will over pay them once they hit free agency.
If players were truly only concerned with their paychecks they'd never leave their current teams. On top of that, basically every team with space is going to throw the max at a max guy. Apparently, when given a choice, players pick anywhere else over Chicago. I can't fault management for giving offers, likely similar offers to what other teams are offering, and getting rejected. We have Boozer right now because he was what was left over after all the better players opted to go somewhere else.
Thank you for pointing out that he has made a couple moves, because they were definitely forgettable. Brad Miller is the best move he has made which is pretty sad when you think about it, but I did like Brad and he got Joakim to straighten up so Pax gets credit for that. But Salmon had half of a good season and playoffs and then fell off the planet so I don't see him as a positive.
You said ANY trade...so I named a memorable trade. If you recall, that trade turned an underachieving team into a team that was on pace for 50+ wins and pushed the defending champions to 7 games (John Salmons was pretty huge in that series too, but you're right, that's about all he had going for him in a Bulls uniform). But hey, if that's forgettable, I'm not sure what to tell you.
You don't get credit for having a bust pick like James Johnson when he could have had Jrue Holiday, Dejuan Blair (the guy I wanted), Byron Mullens, Danny Green, Chase Budinger, Jonas Jerebko, Jeff Teague, Darren Collinson, or Ty Lawson. I know Rose was already on the team but a backcourt of Jrue Holiday and Rose gets it done. Either way we are talking about winning a championship and you are throwing out quality bench mob players not difference makers.
Well how much more so for the Timberwolves who picked Jonny Flynn over Stephen Curry or Memphis who picked Thabeet over...anyone. It's easy to say that picks were stupid with hindsight because you see which players actually panned out. There's busts every year. The year we picked Thabo we actually picked Rodney Carney and traded him for Thabo. Thabo was an ok player for us and if our backcourt wasn't such a mess back then he could probably have been a productive player for us. But the other guy? He's not even in the league. How dumb the 76ers are I guess.
Byron Mullens? :andruw:
Why bother listing Teague, Collison, and Lawson when drafting them doesn't make sense? Just because they've had better careers than Johnson? Collison has also been replaced in the starting lineup by Derek Fisher so not sure what the point is there.
Sure, Danny Green can be considered a better player now, but at the time he was a late 2nd round pick. No one was thinking James Johnson was going to be a worse player than Danny Green. A guy like Jerebko wasn't even on anyone's radar. I remember Adam Silver being surprised that he was actually in attendance for the draft being a relative no name with a low draft stock. And considering he hasn't been able to get consistent minutes off a crappy Pistons bench, I'm not convinced he's really that much of an upgrade over Johnson anyway.
Dajuan Blair's career is bound to end sometime soon due to his knee issues...dude barely even played last year. But even without this hindsight, at the time you could argue that Johnson over Blair was reasonable, especially after he fell past 26 where we could've picked him again. In any case, we have Taj who is at least as good, if not better, than Blair anyway.
Your best argument is for Jrue Holiday, who would probably make an awesome backcourt mate for Rose if he could effectively work without the ball. Though at the time, you were looking at Holiday to be your primary ball handler, not doing what he did at UCLA rather ineffectively. I'm not sure if Holiday would be the player he is now if he was alongside Rose this whole time. Holiday also had a terrible jumper in college and pairing that with Rose, who at the time also had issues with jumpers would've seemed like a terrible fit. Arguably, Marcus Thornton could've been the best fit alongside Rose because he can shoot, but taking him at 16 definitely would've been a stretch at the time. The draft is always a gamble, you can't always be certain that who you draft will succeed. Johnson had a lot of potential to be a playmaking wing player, i just never happened.
Look I lived through the Tim Floyd era like all of you so I can understand if you all are still shell shocked and fear ever being that bad again, but Chicago deserves better than these nickel and dimes short sighted moves. Do you want the Bulls to be a continual dynasty like the Lakers or do you want to be the Utah Jazz?
Until we're gift wrapped players like the Lakers are, we'll have to settle for being the Jazz. Arguably it doesn't matter who we get unless it's Lebron because Lebron's always going to be in our way and best player in the league blah blah blah. If you recall, the Jazz did have some fans scared that they might actually beat the Bulls back in 98 before MJ shut everyone up. But if if weren't for MJ, the Jazz would probably have a couple banners hanging in their rafters. I'm not saying we don't want to be a dynasty because who in their right mind doesn't? But if you try to acquire the players to do so and they choose elsewhere, what can you do? If you pursue a player through trade and the other team flat out refuses or demands half your team in return, does that put you at fault? The Knicks traded half their team away for Melo and have gotten nowhere.
It's not about making moves left and right, it's about making the right move for the team. That move happens to be near impossible for the Bulls to pull off. They had a chance in 2010 and struck out...you can't say they never tried to improve the team. Even now, you don't know that they're not trying to make a move. Just because names have floated around on the internet doesn't mean the Bulls are ignoring every single potential trade option that may or may not have presented itself. But hey, let's go get another Ben Wallace in 2014! At least it won't be a nickel and dime move right?
