D Rose must demand that the Bulls improve.

The more I think about it, JR must reserve his big contracts for KC and Sam Smith.

Most fans don't know enough about the game to make their own decisions.  They don't know players from other teams (besides the All-Stars) and they don't understand the salary cap and other considerations.  They have to be told that the org is not trying to get better, but is just trying to stay status quo and make loads of money.  And actually from a business perspective, JR is 100% right.  He is selling merch.  He is selling out the UC.  He is getting national pub and games on TV.  He would not make enough extra income by making this team a contender, to financially justify the cost.  So the correct "business" move is to shed salary any way he can and stay under the tax any way he can.  Not winning.

The problem is us, the fans.  Especially the hardcore fans of both the Bulls and the NBA.  As fans, we want to win.  And as Chicago Bulls fan, we've seen it.  We've tasted it.  And it is always worse to have some thing taken away once you've had it.  And we of the BlogABull tribe can see past the national hype.  Past the "beat writers" and their articles prepared by the Bulls organization.  We see past the press conferences and radio appearances where Gar Paxdorf claims to be going through their "process" to make this team into a winner.

 

So I think in many scenarios, we're screwed.  We've seen in 2000 what big time free agents think of this organization.  Sure, Krause is gone, but JR isn't.  And the agents and players know this.  Just like the organizations do their due diligence, the agents and players do as well.  They call other players who have played for them.  They know, like we know, that the Bulls aren't really going for it.  Actions speak WAY louder than words.  And if there is one thing, ONE THING, that the top players are looking for right now, it is a real dedication to going for it.  D Wade is not signing an extension because he wants to make sure that Miami is going to make good moves and pay the price to be a contender.  LBJ keeps putting pressure on Cleveland to build something around him.  Kobe spouted hate for an entire summer about how he was done with the Lakers, because he thought they weren't committed to winning a championship.  Bosh, Duncan, Nowitski, Nash.  The list goes on of big time players demanding that their organizations try to win or send them to someone who wants to win.  And here is the beauty.  No one is expecting that you have to win a championship to be happy.  It's actually not as hard as you would think.  Just try.  Only a few teams (the Knicks, Clippers, etc.) are throwing money around so badly that they are "trying" but without hope.

Which brings me to Rose.  No matter what we, as the knowledgable fan, knows or says, the org is not listening.  They know they have the average fan right where they want them.  And heck, most of us love the team too much to boycott, even if we are pissed.  And JR is never going to pay the tax.  Because he has set the rules up so that he doesn't have to.  He says he'll pay the tax for a championship contender.  But the only way to become a contender is to pay to become one.  The days of paying Jordan and Pippen a couple million a year are long gone.  We could wait a century for us to get 4 or 5 perfect fit draft picks that all developed into starters/All-Stars and formed a perfect storm of a team.  It's not happening.  In the NBA today, you can luck into one (D Rose), but you then have to build the rest.  You need to go out and get another star and the right complimentary role players around them.  History has shone us this usually happens through trades (for the star), but free agency also plays an important role (aging stars who want a ring).

So here is our one hope.  That Rose takes ownership of this team.  He stands up and says, "I'm the man.  This is my team and I want to win!"  And he needs to do this publicly.  This does a couple of things.  It first sends notice to JR that he better work to make this team a winner, or Rose won't be happy.  And if he isn't happy, he'll go somewhere that actually wants to win.  But it also puts the other players in the league on notice that the Bulls have a star.  And that has to happen as well if we are going to get a top 10 guy to agree to a sign and trade or to sign an extension with us after a trade.  Talent loves nothing more than other talented people.  Very few people want to sing in a choir with people who suck so that they look even better.  And those are not the type of players we want anyway.  The best are confident enough in their skills to want to play with the best.  And Wade, Bosh and even LBJ have shown in their attitudes and careers that they can share the spot light, at least with another star who can share the spotlight.  Kobe, Shaq, AI, Marion, Starbury, not so much.

So it all comes down to Rose.  Does he take a Chris Paul jump from good to great this year?  Does he learn and grow and start taking what is his, namely, the team?  Does he step up as a leader and say, follow me?  Does he demand that Jerry Reinsdorf go into the luxury tax to set this team up to win a championship?  I hopes so.