Sometimes, life just gets you down with all of the social media outbursts, drama with co-workers and everything just seems mediocre. When life hits you hard, you just gotta get away. Pack your bags, get out of town and just hit the open road. And that’s exactly what the Chicago Bulls are going to do for the next two weeks.
The Circus Trip might be a thing of the past, but the Bulls are a circus and they are certainly going on a trip.
Chicago heads to Oklahoma City for a Wednesday night matchup, the first of six consecutive on the road, with a record of 24-25. They start the trip seventh in the Eastern Conference, half a game ahead of the Charlotte Hornets.
There are rumors that the Bulls are waiting to make a decision on what to do with their star player, Jimmy Butler, until they reach the trade deadline. These six road games, plus two tough home games against the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics are all that stand between Chicago and the All-Star Weekend. You’d have to imagine that they’ll know what their plan is by the time they get there.
Or, maybe they don’t have a plan. Which is probably more believable if you’ve been tracking John Paxson and Gar Forman, the general manager of this ramshackle squad.
Even if trading Butler isn’t a topic that is being discussed in the Bulls front office, the direction of this season should be considerably more clear when they next play a home game on Valentine’s Day.
Let’s take a quick look at each opponent and assess Chicago’s chances in each game.
Opponent: Oklahoma City Thunder
Hey, have you heard about Russell Westbrook? Here’s the lowdown – he’s the best. Westbrook has played 49 games entering Wednesday’s matchup with the Bulls. He’s averaging a triple-double. Some people have problems with this, all I can say is that you don’t deserve to watch anything other than the Chinese Basketball Association and I hope your League Pass freezes forever and only plays the trailer for The Great Wall over and over for as long as you live.
Seriously, Westbrook is averaging more than 30 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. That’s ridiculously impressive. The rest of the team is pretty good, too. I’d say that the Thunder are the favorites and expect them to win this game.
Opponent: Houston Rockets
Out of the Westbrook frying pan, into the James Harden fire. Harden is having a season arguably as good as, or better than that of Westbrook. The arrival of peak Harden after a disappointing season last year probably has a lot to do with the team around him and the arrival of new head coach Mike D’Antoni.
The Rockets are what would happen if the Bulls were the opposite of themselves. They shoot all of the 3-pointers, like all of them. They also make a lot of them because they players on the roster who can make 3s consistently. They also have the great benefit of last year’s draft pick, Sam Dekker, stepping up and playing consistently good basketball when the opportunity presents itself.
Houston should win this game.
Opponent: Sacramento Kings
The Kings are a bad basketball team. That’s good news for them. The worse they do, they closer they are to not transferring their first-round pick to Chicago. Another bad experience thanks to Forman and friends.
As trade rumors are kicking up across the league, it is time for the annual DeMarcus Cousins speculation to take the blogs by force. Speaking of Boogie, remember that phantom foul called against him when Dwyane Wade absolutely looked like a 35-year-old trying to dunk a basketball. Cousins will definitely be upset about that, but he’s always upset so I’m not sure that makes a difference in the outcome.
Sacramento is bad at basketball and the Bulls rarely lose three or more games in a row so it figures that they’d get one here.
Opponent: Golden State Warriors
The Warriors are the best basketball team in the entire world. This one shouldn’t even be close. Much like the Rockets, Golden State is the opposite of Chicago. They drafted really well – Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green – and they play a very aggressive style of basketball that head coach Steve Kerr credited to none other than Mike D’Antoni.
Warriors better win this game or else nothing is real.
Opponent: Phoenix Suns
It’s a team that might be legitimately worse than Chicago. They’re right now in about the place the Bulls would be if they had fired up the tank earlier this season. Devin Booker, Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender are all prospects believed to have a significant amount of upside. They also have a decent, if not always healthy, backcourt in Brandon Knight and Eric Bledsoe.
Things aren’t good in the desert right now, they should lose this game to the Bulls. The best way to understand the Suns is through this tweet from Matt Moore of CBSSports.com:
Opponent: Minnesota Timberwolves
Remember when Chicago hosted former coach Tom Thibodeau and the young Wolves earlier this season? The Bulls have what seemed to be an insurmountable lead, only to have Minnesota come storming back to take the big road win.
Chicago has a better record right now, but the Timberwolves have been playing better basketball as the season goes on. Plus, it’ll be game six of this road trip. The only good thing about this long trip for the Bulls is that they avoid back-to-back traps. The Wolves aren’t there yet, but they’re like a super-charged Phoenix squad, with incredibly talented, high-ceiling young players that should be leading the Wolves deep into the playoffs sooner than later.
Minnesota gets the win, but you could convince me either way.
That would put Chicago at 2-4 for this trip and 26-29 on the season. If that holds as accurate, the Bulls likely will be on the outside looking in at the playoffs. That would mean Forman and Paxson will have a lot to figure out. If they want to scrap this team, they can trade Taj Gibson, Robin Lopez and maybe one or both between Wade and Butler. Plus, they’ll likely waive Rajon Rondo, but wait to do so until the trade deadline has passed and until after March 1 so that any team acquiring him wouldn’t benefit by having access to him in the playoffs. That’s the only advantage they have in potential trade talks over the NBA’s infamous pariah.
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It might all be nothing. Chicago could finish 3-3 or pull off another miraculous 4-2 like earlier this season. Forman could always do what he’s done in the past – nothing. As you can see, that’s worked out really well so far.
