What was your most disappointing Bulls season?

[panthermark]

I was going to start this thread a few weeks ago, but the Bulls were still playing Cleveland, and I didn't want to jinx it.

Well, the season is over, and I have to say....in all my years of watching the Bulls, this 2014-15 season was by far the most disappointing season I've witnessed.

Prior seasons were disappointing because either Rose got hurt, or he didn't return. But that was a different kind of disappointment.

The phanton call on Pippen in game 7 against the Knicks was a disappointing moment, but that wasn't a disappointing season.
Same with watching Orlando carry Horace Grant off the court.

The Ben Wallace implosion was a disappointing season, but we knew that team wasn't a title team. I was more disappointed that we didn't move PJ Brown's expired contract (via S&T) for Gasol.

Back in 1990, losing to the Pistons....again....really sucked. I really hated that Pistons team.

Eddy Curry (sounds funny now) and his heart condition (right before the play-offs) turned a fun season into a big disappointment.

But this season....is by far the most disappointing season I've witnessed. Up 2-1 while playing an injured/suspended team....and losing 4-2 including a massive blow-out at home in an elimination game? Awful....

Anyone have anything worse?

[NZB2323]

The 2008 season was very disappointing. The prior year we swept the Heat in the first round and took the Detroit Pistons in 6. We had a young team that played hard together, and then we missed the playoffs after making it 3 years in a row. The team quit on the coach and then the coach quit on the team. He seperated on Christmas Eve, Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas looked like draft busts and all of our veterans regressed.

This season had some bright moments in it. Jimmy Butler looked like a MVP player at times, Snell looked like a NBA player at times, Mirotic looked like the best rookie at times, and Rose looked like Rose at times. What bright moments did the 2008 season have?

[nrockwaychicago]

I haven't been an NBA fan as long as some of you guys, but definitely the ACL tear was my most disappointing moment as a Bulls fan.

Great team, thought we could compete with Miami better than the previous year, but it was ruined by a freak injury.

This season the team didn't meet my expectations, but there's no shame in losing to one of the best players of all time. At least we put up a better fight than ATL and made it interesting.

[AshyLarrysDiaper]

2011. I thought we were Miami's match. At least. Losing in 5 was a shock to the system.

[LCMJ]

this one. everything was handed to us and we blew it

[Mr. Tibbs]

03-04 was one of the lowest for me. All the talk prior to the season was playoff this playoff that, and being young and stupid I really thought it was possible. Of course, the opposite also held true, not expecting the playoffs at all 04-05 made making it that much sweeter.

[DarthDiggler69]

The "Anything can change in the blink of an eye" season. What year was that? 2003-2004 or 2004-2005? That one was bad, supposed to be good and make the playoffs totally flopped. Bulls fans came out of the woodworks only to watch the team fail badly

I could say this season but my expectations weren't as high as the media's. I knew when Cleveland got Love, then Shump, JR and Mozgov that Bulls were screwed. And again Bulls blew a opportunity to win the series, but funny because I wasn't surprised they did

[Rerisen]

Probably 08.

But I look back on it with nostalgia, burned the final bit of homer out of me.

[musiqsoulchild]

This one.

Because we didnt play Bulls basketball.

[Shill]

I think 2007-08 was the most disappointing because we had deep playoff run aspirations, and the bottom fell out. The future looked bleak until the Rose miracle.

However, 2014-15 was probably the most frustrating because we so rarely fired on all cylinders.

[DuckIII]

This one is up there. The season we fired Skiles (on Christmas Eve! The horror!!!!), was a frustrating one.

But the worst for me was 2003-2004. Otherwise known as the beginning of the Paxson Era.

That team was an embarrassment in the departments of effort, discipline and basketball smarts, despite being very talented. The pathetic effort displayed that season was so bad in fact, that I'm convinced it defined and set in stone many of Paxson's GMing philosophies going forward. I more or less hated every player on the team, other than Kirk Hinrich and Antonio Davis. That was the classic fan-with-paper-bag-on-head season. Embarrassing.

[Keller61]

On paper, this season doesn't look all that disappointing. Winning 50 games and losing to the Cavs doesn't seem that bad given Rose, Noah, and Taj being nowhere near their former selves. What makes this season so disappointing is that the Bulls seemed to lose their identity as a team that outworks and outhustles everybody. Some of the home losses to bad teams were just terrible effort. And then of course, we had a golden opportunity to get to the finals and we blew it.

[Red Larrivee]

2008 was an absolute nightmare. Literally everything that could have went wrong, went wrong. 2014-15 looks like a sunny day in California compared to that season.

[Shill]

The 2003-04 season was also bad. That was an eye-opening season for me. That's when I realized, "Hm. Maybe all these high draft picks simply suck and won't become great players." It pretty much changed how I view the draft.

[dice]

does the '98 offseason count?

[weneeda2guard]

It's a toss up between this season and 2011. I can disconnect when we are not just that good and miss the playoffs. Or injuries give me a nice comfortable excuse as a safety net. But year 1 of Miami and now year 1 of cleveland was our best shot at beating lebron and in both seasons our front office moved with no sense of urgency to get that done. Rose being the only dynamic scorer and ball handler in 2011 was just inexcusable. How can a front office not have the foresight to see that would get exploited if not even by miami by whoever was coming out the west? It's for fans to over look certain flaws and just root and cheer regardless. The front office is supposed to know when it's your best shot at winning it all and go all in.

2011 has a bit of a excuse however only because even with the flaws, they had the best record in the league, so I guess you can sight team chemistry etc for why you don't make moves

This season was absolutely no excuse to not load up and go for it all. You had cleveland year 1, a mediocre east and question marks all throughout the west. This team has had the core for the longest out the east. It was just no excuse not to really bolster the roster. Instead our response to going for it all was old ass pau, cheap vets old kirk and snell who been trash most his career and 2 rookies in mcdermott and niko. That is just pitiful. Then we look average, lose all those games to sub.500 teams had about a month of play where we just looked like we quit on playing and because we won a few games before the trade deadline and snell has 1 little hot streak, we once again stand pat. Then cleveland makes moves

So the guys who cleveland traded for kicked our behinds in the playoffs and the guys we stayed loyal to gave us nothing in the 2nd rd.

Cleveland is beatable, whoever coming from out west is beatable, we didnt do anything and we blew our shot. If cleveland lands aldridge this summer and keep Jr and shump and add guys to they bench, we can forget it.

If we never win a title 2011 and this season will be the 2 seasons I remember where garpax seriously dropped the ball and their conservative nature kicked us in the behind.

[coldfish]

1. 2002/03. The C unit plus Jalen Rose. Supposed to be a legit team and was awful. Got Krause fired.
2. 2008. That team just fell apart.
3. This year. Really just an unpleasant team to watch most of the year. Mailed in so many games.

[DarthDiggler69]

I don't understand how the 2010-2011 team was disappointing to some, they overachieved, nobody expected them to be that good and make the eastern conference finals. Yeah sure you can say losing that conference final was disappointing but nobody thought Bulls would be there in the beginning of the season in the first place. That team gave the Bulls fans hope for the future more than anything

[Ice Man]

I don't understand how the 2010-2011 team was disappointing to some, they overachieved, nobody expected them to be that good and make the eastern conference finals.

The 2011 season was one of my all-time favorites. Sure I had my heart ripped out in May. But who gives you the better memory, the fabulous girl who gives you a 6-month thrill ride and then dumps you, or the annoying girl whom you date for a while against your better judgement, until you leave her because you are bored?

Easy call for me. Give me the smiles and give me the tears. Team 2011.

And yeah, 2008 sucked. This year was obviously the worst of the Thibs years, but not as bad as '08.

For those with really long memories, the 83-84 season that brought us Jordan in the draft was garbage. Bad characters, bad players, bad ball. Just embarrassing.

[Bulls_Fan]

The worst for me was the 2000-2001 team. It started in free agency in July when we couldn't land a top-flight FA. There was so much 'hope' we would land someone. We ended up with Brad Miller and Ron Mercer. Not awful players but clearly not the star players we wanted.
Our lineup looked like this:
C-Miller/Ruffin
PF-Elton Brand/Fizer
SF-Ron Artest
SG-Ron Mercer/Fred Hoiberg
PG- Bryce Drew/Jamal Crawford/Khalid El-Amin

We won 15 games that season...15 games. I remember fan night at the beginning of the season and Khalid El-Amin was putting on a show w/ the microphone entertaining the crowd. Brand was coming off a 20/10 season, Artest had a great rookie year as well. I really thought they would do something that year. Hopes were quickly dashed.