Mark K wrote:Stratmaster wrote:Because EVERYTHING is the front office's fault.
A hall-of-fame player claimed he was coming here to be a professional and mentor Butler and the young players, and then instead was a pompous prima donna who seemed to purposely cause drama and rifts. That's not Wade's fault. It's the Bulls front offices fault. The fact that he put his arm around Butler and told him how the coach, the rest of the team and the front office all sucked is the front office's fault. Not Wade's fault. Wade's unwillingness to accept and work with Rondo was the front office's fault, not Wade's fault.
I mean, for 24 mil a season, what did the Bulls expect? That the person they were paying it to would actually try to perform and act in a way that HELPED the franchise? What were they thinking and how dare they call any player out for accepting their millions and millions of dollars and then trashing the team publicly?
It seems many forget that these players are getting PAID by someone. There aren't any organizations in the world that will pay an employee huge bucks and put up with the kind of comments some of these NBA players make.
No one is suggesting Wade is blameless. Do you think Bulls fans actually like defending Wade or enjoy bypassing the blame from him to someone else?
What is happening here is people are rightfully identifying the root cause for his drama: management.
Wade is a douche and deserves his share of the blame, but it's more on management than him. After all, he opted into the contract they gave him.
Actually, I think laying blame on the two parties and trying to say who is more or less at fault is the wrong way of looking at it. At fault for what? Wade being an ok basketball player who makes too much money? Who cares? All the Bulls need to be focused on now is maximizing the chance of rebuilding successfully.
If you think Wade is good enough that he'll cause you to win a couple of extra games, then you want him gone. If you think his relationship with the younger players is so poor it's going to screw up their development, then you want him gone. If you think Wade's presence means wasting perfectly good minutes on a guy who doesn't fit when they could be used to improve young players, then you want him gone. If you think he's going to be an effective veteran mentor, then you might want to keep him. I do not think he's going to be an effective veteran mentor, though I also don't expect him to be a full-on cancer.
Nobody should be mad at Wade for opting in because he wanted his money. But he apparently wants to have his cake and eat it, too - get his money but also be free to go play for a team that isn't at the very outset of a rebuild. The Bulls, knowing he wants to be free, want to save a few bucks. I don't really begrudge them giving it a shot, though after selling a draft pick, I'm less sympathetic than ever. What I'd like to see, though, is that when push comes to shove, they let him go on terms that are favorable to Wade if that's what it takes. It makes the rebuild process a lot cleaner and gets rid of noise in the locker room. Let Hoiberg play pace-and-space with the young guys without any Wade-related distractions. Treat the buyout as the cost of doing business when you blew it up. Prioritize the rebuild over saving a few shekles and saving face.
Put another way, I think it's wrong and Wade is at fault for wanting his full salary from the Bulls, yet wanting to be released from his contract before playing a single game this season. If he wants out, he should be willing to give up something to secure his freedom. But I don't think it makes sense for the Bulls to pick a big fight over it. Let him screw you over if it allows you to focus on rebuilding. Nothing else matters.
