RealGM

You know guys, I just don't get it. I am trying to think of a team historically that has declined so dramatically like the Bulls. I am looking for a team that is comprised of mostly young players, whose core players are still reaching or at their peak years, who have had 3 or so years of success under their belts.

I just really for the life of me have never seen a team like the Bulls decline so dramatically without many changes in personnel or injuries. I mean the only major moves we made last offseason were to sign Joe Smith (in place of PJ Brown) and draft Joakim Noah. Neither move should have significantly changed the team either way.

Aghhh I just don't get it. This was the team that I thought was above all others in the NBA in terms of drive, chemistry, and playing 'the right way'. I know that sounds cheesy, but I used to laugh at other teams that had players give up, or only seem to care about their own interests, or have the kind of body language our players showed today. No team I've ever followed has ever given me as much pride as the Bulls of the last 3 years. I never thought they were the best team, I was never really sure they were good enough to even win their conference, but damn they made me feel good the way they won all those games with hard work.

Sorry for the long winded rambling. I guess my question is, have you ever seen this type of decline occur historically?

this was discussed briefly in another thread but my favorite comparison is the 00-01 bucks to the 01-02 bucks. Much like us they had a few years in a row making the playoffs and they were doing better each year. Finally in 00-01 it came together and they made the ECF winning 50 games i believe on the season maybe a few more. They lost in 7 to philly and they felt they were right there just needed to bolster their front line. So they got Anthony Mason who wasn't too far from an all star year (although probably undeserved). He basically was like ben wallace on steroids, ruining any offense they had by running his point forward style dribbling the ball for 20 seconds and getting cassell robinson and allen all itchy trigger fingers. They horribly collapsed and missed the playoffs by a game.
The main difference between us and that bucks team tho was how they played. They were all offense no defense. We are all defense (well we were anyway) and no offense. They were however, a jump shooting team like us..just alot better at it.

The other team that's a decent comparison are the clippers from 2 seasons ago but i don't like that comparison that much cuz it's not like they were consistently good like us they just had one season where they made the playoffs then didn't the year after.

This is going to be somewhat insulting but I'm in that type of mood. The Memphis Grizzlies might be a good example of a team that had a brief illusionary resurgence then went back to sucking. Remember Hubie came in (like Skiles) and changed the culture of the team and they managed to hold that up several years, at least until Pau started missing games and then it all fell apart. Here is there wins compared with the Bulls run.

Memphis
28, 50, 45, 49, 22

Bulls
23, 47, 41, 49, ? (14 so far)