NIGHTMARE ON MADISON

John Paxson and Gar Forman

If there was ever any front office that needed to start from scratch it's the Chicago Bulls. Yesterday was the trade deadline and the Bulls traded away a 2018 second-round pick, Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Cameron Payne, Anthony Morrow, and Joffrey Lauvergne. Gibson was drafted by the Bulls in 2009 and was the only player remaining from the 2010-11 Bulls roster. That season we saw Derrick Rose become the NBA's youngest MVP and watched the Bulls make it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bulls would win 62 games, the most since Jordan era and finish with the best record in the NBA.

Following that season things began to go downhill. Head Coach Tom Thibodeau really never saw eye to eye with Paxson and Forman. While Thibodeau was able to get the most out of his players throughout all the injury plagued seasons he was let go in 2015. If you get rid of a coach like Thibodeau you would think the front office would bring in a veteran coach, or at least someone with some type of NBA coaching experience? WRONG! The Bulls went into another direction by hiring Fred "The Mayor" Hoiberg. He did have coaching experience coming from Iowa State, but none at the NBA level.

One would think the emergence of Jimmy Butler, him and Rose would become one of the best duos in the league. That didn't pan out and the organization decided Rose was no longer the future of the franchise and traded him to the Knicks for Robin Lopez, Jerian Grant and Jose Calderon. To paraphrase Forman after drafting Denzel Valentine last summer the Bulls must 'get younger, more athletic.'

How do you get younger by bringing in a 34 year-old Dwyane Wade and a 30 year-old Rajon Rondo? I'm still trying to figure out the answers to this. Not only do you bring them in, but outside of McDermott there aren't any shooters on the roster. Then during the season you trade Tony Snell for Michael Carter-Williams. Fast forward to the trade of Gibson and McDermott and now this Bulls roster has five point guards. It makes absolutely no sense in my eyes.

It's clear that the front office doesn't know what direction they want to go in. It seems like everyone but Paxson and Forman realize that the Bulls need to tank and start over. I don't understand why the trade deadline went by and Jimmy Butler is still in a Bulls uniform. While the Bulls are 7th in the Eastern Conference standings they need to look to the future. Making the playoffs does nothing but give the city false hope.

I'm hoping the "GarPax" run will come to an end soon in Chicago, but it simply doesn't look like that will be the case. They have flat out lied to the fans on the future of the team and have a coach in place that doesn't have respect or control in the locker room. The Bulls will be bad for a long time coming if a change isn't made in the front office.