Bucks fans and fans of other bad teams were shaking in their booties with the fear that the big market Bulls would find their way back into the lottery and reign on our tanking parades. The Bulls were 14-18 entering the day on January 7 when they traded Deng to Cleveland. Then, Joakim Noah decided to play like an MVP and Tom Thibodeau solidified his place as a top five coach in the NBA and the team began to fight their way out of the mediocre fate that they seemed destined for.
The Deng trade was a more curious move for Cleveland as they chose to go for it a little early. Clearly this was a tank move for the Bulls as they got an injured/permanently disgruntled Andrew Bynum and a pick in return and Bynum would be immediately waived after the trade. Maybe it was addition by subtraction as the move allowed more offensive freedom for the likes of Jimmy Butler and Mike Dunleavy, arguably the craftiest player in the NBA, on the wing.
A more subtle move the Bulls made was signing guard DJ Augustin who was quickly becoming an NBA after-thought. Augustin turned out to be a sensation for the Bulls this year, playing heavy minutes in Derrick Rose' absence. Believe it or not, Augustin averaged 15 points and five assists in 30+ minutes per game for the Bulls this year, shooting a pretty respectable 42 percent from the floor.
Flash forward to the end of the Bulls' last regular season game, they're sitting at 48-34 and in the fourth seed in the East. I'm assuming the Bulls hoped they'd see the Brooklyn Nets in the first round and not the Washington Wizards.
The Nets would have been a better matchup for the Bulls. They had faced them the year before in the first round of the playoffs and had beaten them in two of the three matchups this season whereas the Bulls were just 1-2 against the Wizards this season.
The Nets are old and slow (almost like the Bulls) and the Wizards are young and a pretty well-rounded team. Nene played like an animal in that entire series (17.8 points 6.5 rebounds per game), save for Game 4 where he was suspended for attempting a little mid-Game 3 Brazilian jiu-jitsu on Jimmy Buckets.
Honestly, I'd pit that Wizards starting five against any team in the league going-forward. They are a bit of a buzzsaw if they're on.
I think America got fully introduced to the 2013-14 Chicago Bulls Without Derrick Rose. The Bulls were painful to watch in the second half of these games. Taj Gibson was his normal self, for the most part, but watching him go iso in the closing moments of some of those games was cringe-worthy and Augustin playing 40+ minutes of post-season basketball isn't ideal.
Also, I've never heard Michael Fant, the resident Bulls die-hard, complain so much about the play of Noah this series. Noah was this season's Defensive Player of the Year and he was taken to task by Nene, Marcin Gortat and Trevor Booker all series. This just shows that he may need a better, tougher defender next to him. I'm looking at you, Carlos Boozer.
It'll be interesting to see what the Bulls do this coming offseason to improve the offense. There's little doubt they'll use the amnesty provision on Boozer if they can't find a trade partner for him (and they won't). Derrick Rose coming back might help but will he be the same?
It's probably going to be the Bulls division to win going into next year with the Pacers going Mr. Hyde in the second half of this season and having plenty of uncertainty for next season themselves.
I'm looking forward to hoping on the Wizards' bandwagon after the Raptors are inevitably eliminated.
-Mitch
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