Chicago Bulls at Washington Wizards Outlook: No Wade, Butler? Problem!
The Chicago Bulls hit the road when they take on the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night, fresh off a loss to Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Bulls suffered through a poor night of shooting and a flu-stricken Jimmy Butler.
Now, Chicago heads out on the road. It’s a busy week for the Bulls. The Tuesday night tilt will be a second game of a back-to-back and is a road game, one night after playing at home. Three of their next four total will be on the road, so it would be ideal if they could steal a win to start off their travel.
They’ve met their upcoming opponent twice already this season, and they’ve split the two games they’ve played. Both games were played in Chicago, so this is the first time this season that the Bulls will be playing in the Verizon Center.
The Wizards are similar to Chicago. Both teams are .500 right now, battling among the mediocre sides in the Eastern Conference. They’re currently in a two-game winning streak and 6-4 over their last 10 games. They’re also significantly better as the home team than as the visitors. As if home court advantage won’t be enough, the Bulls will also be sitting Dwyane Wade for rest and will likely be without star forward Jimmy Butler who played through the flu on Monday night, but had his worst game of the entire season.
No Wade? No Butler? No Problem! Well, maybe a problem. Maybe a big problem and a return to being a sub-.500 basketball team, unless they think they can contain John Wall, Bradley Beal and Markieff Morris.
Jan 4, 2017; Cleveland, OH, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Michael Carter-Williams (7) drives to the basket against Cleveland Cavaliers forward Channing Frye (8) during the second half at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
John Wall vs. (Bulls Guard)
It doesn’t matter who Chicago throws at Wall from their available options. If Denzel Valentine has recovered from his ankle injury and is ready to go, he’d get absolutely roasted by Wall. If Jerian Grant is supposed to try and stick with him all night, well, good luck with that. Michael Carter-Williams has the best chance of the bunch, which has been the case among Bulls guards all year when MCW has been healthy. He’s not a great player, maybe not even a good player, at this point in his career. However, he’s easily their best defensive option at point guard.
Or, you know, Chicago could bring Rajon Rondo back into the rotation since they’ll already be short Butler and Wade. It is Rondo that was sticking up the offense when he was playing. The ball has moved better and both Butler and the bench players paired with Butler have done significantly better without Rondo. Now, there’s not glut of Butler and Wade to combine with Rondo’s ball problems so maybe they run him out there.
If they don’t, things will get weird and Wall will have himself another great game. He was inactive for the first meeting of these two teams in early November, but he made his presence known in their December matchup, scoring 23 points to go with nine assists, both best among all Washington players in that game. During the Wizards two-game win streak they are currently on, he’s put up 18 points and 18 assists against the Minnesota Twins and 16 points, seven assists against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Chicago doesn’t have the firepower at guard to keep up with Wall and even if Butler can play, he’s going to be busy dealing with Bradley Beal.
Dec 5, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade (3) and forward Jimmy Butler (21) celebrate after the second quarter of the game against the Portland Trail Blazers at United Center. Mandatory Credit: Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports
No Wade, No Butler. Problem.
Chicago has won a bunch of games and they’ve lost a bunch of games. But, they’ve done much better when they’ve had healthy, energetic, good knee Wade. And while his successes haven’t always guaranteed team successes, it’s been valuable.
Speaking of being better, the Bulls are absolutely nothing without a healthy, non-flu Butler. A lot of people, not writers, but more fans, have been letting their Twitter fingers do a lot of barking about how Butler isn’t worth much. It’s been Chicago fans, it’s been Derrick Rose fans, it’s been Boston fans who don’t think Butler is worth trading for.
Last night, Butler was definitely sick and still gutted out almost 30 minutes of basketball. It was a flu game, but not the Michael Jordan kind. To be very clear: No one at PAE wants Butler to ever be sick or injured. However, there is a lesson for fans to learn about this Bulls team. Butler was way off his game on the offensive end of the floor, shooting 0-for-6 with just one point total. He still played, helped run the offense a little and was full effort on defense. A lot of foolish people who don’t know anything about basketball are going to say that he played very poorly and because of this, he isn’t a good player. Those people are short on intelligence. And wrong.
More from Pippen Ain't Easy
Tonight, Chicago will be without Butler altogether. We’re about to see what the Bulls look like without part-time Wade and full-time Butler. Hopefully, instead of making excuses, fans will realize what the league has in Butler by seeing what the Bulls do without him.
There’s always the possibility that I’m wrong on this one, but the absence of Wade and Butler and presumably Denzel Valentine will leave the team short of options and talent. They’re looking at a January road game rotation of eight players on the second night of a back-to-back. This could get ugly in a hurry, or the bench guys could show something.
Dec 6, 2016; Auburn Hills, MI, USA; Chicago Bulls guard Rajon Rondo (9) against the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The Pistons won 102-91.Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
Rajon Rondo, Again.
This is important for two reasons.
First, we’ve reached the contract guarantee date for the league. The Bulls probably weren’t ever going to wriggle out of the money they owed him, but short of a trade they are stuck with his tab now. It doesn’t seem like there is going to be much of a trade market, so this is kind of important.
Second, Chicago is close to running a skeleton crew tonight. We already covered that Wade and Butler are out. Valentine is reportedly going to give it a go, but that’s a sticky situation if he’s not ready to go. If they elect to keep Rondo benched, they’re going to be running thin.
They probably start Carter-Williams. But then they have to figured out who goes next to him. Doug McDermott at the two? Do they start Valentine and have Doug at the three? And then Taj Gibson and Robin Lopez in the frontcourt as usual.
If that is approximately the lineup that Fred Hoiberg plans to start, we’re looking at a bench group of Jerian Grant, Nikola Mirotic, Cristiano Felicio and…
If they say no to Rondo, again, then we’re talking about an 8-man rotation and the other options are going to be Isaiah Canaan, Bobby Portis and Paul Zipser. That’s my assumption anyway based on how Hoiberg elected to empty the bench last night. Also, this is going to say a lot about just how committed Chicago is basically never playing Rondo ever again.
Dec 25, 2016; San Antonio, TX, USA; Chicago Bulls power forward Cristiano Felicio (6) brings the ball up the court against the San Antonio Spurs during the first half at AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
Predictions
The Bulls and Wizards have split to the two games they’ve played in Chicago this season and now it’s time for the Bulls to take it on the road. As you would expect, Chicago is much better at home than on the road and the same is true for Washington.
The game is a SEGABABA for the Bulls and they’ll be without their two most skilled players and best scoring options. That’s going to make things really tough for them heading to the east coast.
It would be marvelous for Chicago if Mirotic and McDermott can provide a huge scoring spark with their ability to knock it down from outside. One of them, probably McDermott, is going to sneak into the starting lineup tonight. He’ll need to be ready to go from the opening tip and he’ll have his chances.
Defense has always been an issue for the post-Tom Thibodeau Bulls and it’s not going to get much better tonight. Gibson couldn’t slow down Markieff Morris in the previous meeting of these teams. Lopez is going to have his hands full with Marcin Gortat. But the biggest struggle is going to be any effort to contain Wall and Beal. For all of his offensive potential, McDermott is a complete liability on defense and Carter-Williams or Grant would be at a huge disadvantage against either Wizards player.
Score: 111-93
Player of the Game: John Wall
Winner: Washington Wizards
I’m far from a genius and I can’t see the future, but things just don’t look good for Chicago. If Valentine has the best game of his young career and they can chase Washington’s perimeter players off the 3-point line and into the Bulls bigs, it could be interesting. However, the absence of their two best players, the SEGABABA, and a short bench on the road against a team that has been very good at home just seems like too much of a task. If they can pull out the road win over the Wizards, that’s going to say a lot about just how far Washington has to go to improve.
