Southpaw wrote:I always thought we should've rebuilt with Jimmy and Niko as the core pieces. Admittedly it's not a great core but it probably would've been better than the "Big 3" of Jimmy, Wade and Rondo.
+1
One guy I thought would've been a great half-bargain target for the Jimmy/Niko Bulls was Gallinari. Before the Clippers, he was having up-and-down seasons, but really I think he just needed a better team fit to maximize his game. Coupled with a pursuit for a PG (Jimmy was talking about recruiting Lowry or Kyrie), I really think we would've had a decent playoff team. I get the temptation to "dream big", in fact it's kind of mandatory in this league... But if you have one legitimate two-way all-star on the roster, it's not blasphemous to try and compete even if it's expensive with minimal championship odds. More than anything, it pays to be relevant, so long you don't blow all your draft chips and cap on bloated salaries.
As a Bulls fan, if there is one thing I hate... it's sitting on a large pool of losing young players who clearly have no star upside. I simply didn't get the point of holding onto all these picks who were projecting to be 1-way bench players at best (out of the league, at worst). I got fooled once with the 04-08 Bulls - building a tower on sand. Once the contract extensions, RFA offers or QOs come around, it crashes. Every time. So you look at all those picks from Marquis right up to Coby, and you ask yourself if the draft investments were better than simply consolidating and trading the picks (draft picks have higher value before their first NBA game besides for the 2 or 3 steals in each draft, which would amount to a 3% chance at best, FWIW).
If I had to write a book on how
not to GM in the NBA, it'd be about marrying all 3+ home-drafted rookie salaries. Unless they're Durant, Westbrook, Harden.
So again, I look forward to this new FO hopefully wheeling and dealing pro-actively instead of standing pat with every draft pick and making the hard decision on 2-3 guys each summer: resigning a project, trading for mediocre/lateral talent, letting them walk.