There’s trouble in Chicago. A Bulls team with high expectations entering the season is in danger of slipping out of the playoff picture, with the NBA season roughly at its halfway point.
The Bulls made some potentially puzzling moves during the offseason, most notably signing both Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo, while also trading Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. Add Wade and Rondo — two high-strung personalities — to the mix with another alpha dog in Jimmy Butler, and there always was a chance this thing might go sideways.
Rondo has been a relative non-factor for much of the season, and he has endured a few hiccups along the way, too. The problems for the Bulls, however, seem even bigger than him, though.
As February nears, Chicago is going the wrong way. The Bulls lost to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday at home, its sixth loss in 10 games, dropping them below .500 for the season with just a one game separating them and the Milwaukee Bucks for the Eastern Conference’s No. 8 seed.
Wade and Butler have seen enough.
There was also this from Butler.
Wade had a similar take, also questioning his teammates’ commitment.
“I don’t know what happened,” Wade told reporters, per ESPN.com. “But we continue to be in these kinds of situations and lose games like this. Everyone don’t care enough. You got to care enough, man. It’s got to mean that much to you to want to win. And it doesn’t. So I don’t know what happened.”
Also from Wade:
“We can play bad, we can miss shots, but we’re having too many of these lapses. We’re having too many of these losses. This just can’t be acceptable if you want to do something besides have an NBA jersey on and make some money. That’s all we’re doing around here.”
The Bulls need to shape up soon. After home games this weekend against Miami and Philadelphia, Chicago will head out on the road for a six-game trip against Western Conference teams.
Thumbnail photo via Brett Davis/USA TODAY Sports Images
