Bulls versus Hawks for two
even more rare, both games in Atlanta
So our 5-15 Bulls (even Joe Cowley is on this point with me: it’s only fair to say it as often as AK cited the end of last season) went and swept the two games versus the Cavs.
Does it mean anything? No. I suppose going 0-2 and continuing the free-fall would have perhaps been a catalyst, but based on the past three seasons of trade deadlines, I really don’t know how bad it has to be for any action.
I did find myself realizing that I don’t particularly care to watch a middling (37 win pace or so?) Bulls team that absolutely desperately NEEDS Isaac Okoro and Zach Collins? As I said during 5-15, while Billy Donovan could try and steer out of this skid by simply playing these veteran castoffs in place of all of AK’s draft picks, it doesn’t actually mean good things for this trade deadline and long-term franchise building.
To even start to justify what is surely to be another do-nothing trade season, the Bulls have to this 20-game sample to play above .500 (or something that actually looks like ‘competing for a playoff spot’), with Josh Giddey continuing to play well and Matas Buzelis improving from what has been a pretty uneven sophomore campaign.
Can they continue this, sigh, momentum versus the Hawks? On the one hand, Trae Young is back. On the other hand, Trae Young is back.
Zach Collins out Monday versus the TWolves
This game no longer counts then, I will have to consider just the 6 games where literally everyone was healthy, a total normal sample for an NBA front office to assess their team in
Shouldn’t AK have to address the fact that some of his draft picks who were supposed to be legitimate rotational players at this point (Williams, Terry, and Phillips) are all so bad that simply replacing them with mostly average journeyman players is helping the team win again?