will the wrong lessons be taken from post-AllStarBreak games? almost certainly
We reached the point of the season where the Bulls are met with total ambivalence. The past, oh I don’t know,ten yearsit’s usually been around this time? And it aligns with a general league-wide drop in quality of play.
In other words: This. Is. (Mickey Mouse) March.
Since I’ve stopped doinggame threads due to lack of interest, the Bulls are undefeated. They are still not any good, but that is ok when considering the competition.
that’s right, likely not many posts the rest of this season. all the more reason to get notified over email
I think everyone sensible knows this, and knows that it’s an environment making it impossible to evaluate individual performances. And everyone knows that the Bulls lead decisionmaker not only doesn’t agree, but takes the extreme opposite view:that, actually, these nonsense contests are themostimportant and informative.
Arturas Karnisovas made sure to say “last 30 games” a ton after the deadline. As they were terrible in the games after that but much better after the All Star Break, I’m all but certain he’ll change his evaluation period to after the break. He says this stuff that I’m not even sure he believes, but more because he is desperately trying to keep his job.
I will not break down any numbers from a sample size of ten games, especially these ten given the opponents (including the Sixers rolling over for a 50-point blowout).
It’s all but certain, based on this front office’s M.O., that they are scraping any positive as reason to justify prior moves. Most egregiously to come with a Josh Giddey ("the Punxatayny Phil of Mickey Mouse March") contract extension. But it’s not just Giddey who is playing well, but the three players returned in the Zach LaVine trade of Kevin Huerter, Tre Jones, and Zach Collins.
But what their play (again, refusing to break it down, it’s been good) has told us is not that they are any good, it’s that they are interchangeable with the rest of the roster because they’re all just guys. And even Zach LaVine, who is better than just a guy, is extremely overrated if he was thought to be irreplaceable in the pursuit of winning 30-35 games a season.
This isn’t even getting closer to the “9-10 very good players” concept that Karnisovas was also trying to spin. If Giddey maintained this play (he won’t) then he’d be one additional member. But the rest are not “very good”, or if they are on a lower standard they are merely replacing others in that strata.
If Zach Collins is a keeper, that more means that it turns out Vucevic is not actually “very important to what we do”, and Jalen Smith (DNP-CD this week) is not actually “promising young player with experience”. If Tre Jones proved he should be re-signed, it is also proof that this front office shouldn’t have been prioritizing contracts for backup guards.
(and the Bulls beat corps parroting of the organization saying that Vuc and Lonzo will increase their trade value heading into the offseason…oof.)
If you’re thinking that this means these guys can’t win with me…well, yeah. Season has long-ago been considered a disaster. A late ‘surge’ - if this even sustains - will only compound the disaster in its reinforcement of the wrong lessons. Plus the adverse effect on lottery odds1.
That’s an awful position to be put in as a fan, but that’s what Bulls fans have been dealing with for years: following the worst-run team in the league.
1
another big talking point of AK and Billy Donovan is that winning games = winning habits. No, players can develop those habits independently of the game result, especially wins reliant on veteran play