Still Gotta Come Through Chicago
The All-Star game is coming to Chicago and the Bulls are hardly represented. That's fair, unlike the ruling that snatched a win out of the Blackhawks hands this week.
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Exciting news: This is not the news I teased the other week, but is no doubt a welcomed feature to Still Gotta Come Through Chicago. Substack (the platform I use for the newsletter) formerly only allowed comments for paid subscribers. None of you pay me (pieces of shit), so you weren’t allowed to comment. Now, Substack has opened up comments to everyone.
The thread has been used as an attempt to increase engagement and to amplify the reader’s voice. I understand some of you didn’t love the idea of jumping on the thread. Now, you can all comment below the post about anything: recommendations for the newsletter, responses to the content generally, or responses to other reader comments.
To my loyal threaders—I love you, and will still include threads for times when there is a pressing question that calls for a specific message board to discuss it.
Either way, this is good news, and I hope you all take advantage of it. I always respond to every comment, even my Dad’s. Let’s do this.
2020 CHICAGO ALL-STAR WEEKEND: Prepare to pay surge prices for Uber and Lyft, ladies and gentlemen. A lot of boujee folk will be strutting around Friday through Sunday, so I’d suggest a dive bar type weekend to your friends.
Trivia:
Greg Olsen, despite having only played for the Bears for four years, is 23rd all-time in Bears receptions with 194.
The Question: Which Bears that retired in 2010 or later, or are still playing, are inside the top 20 all-time for receptions?
(Answer at the end of the newsletter)
Let’s kick off with some…
History:
The Bulls said that Zach LaVine was “off-limits” at the trade deadline because they reportedly view him as a no. 1 guy and the rest of the league views him as a no. 2 or no. 3 guy. The standings are the first place you should go for evidence as to who is right in that disagreement. The first place I go to are the two things god blessed me with between my forehead and my nose.
If you’ve read the newsletter at all, you know how I feel about Zach LaVine. I don’t need to go over that again. Would I have traded him for any reasonable value? Yes.
But as I sat back and watched the trade deadline unfold, knowing the Bulls would do nothing to improve their chances at being a respectable franchise in the near future as the rest of the league did, I started to think it may be a good thing that those imbeciles held onto LaVine.
Hear me out.
LaVine is the most valuable asset the Bulls have right now, like it or not. All I did was think back to every notable Bull the front office has traded in the past 20 years or so.
So here it is, the receipts from the organization that stumbled onto third base twice with Derrick Rose and Michael Jordan, and both times thought the subsequent success meant they themselves hit a home run.
“The Last Dance” commenced in 1997-1998, and the Bulls decided afterward that they were going to part ways with the only figures that ever made them worth a shit — Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
Jordan was basically forced to retire and so was Jackson (until he came back and won five more rings with the Lakers).
Then, on Jan. 22, 1999, the Bulls traded Scottie Pippen to the Houston Rockets for Roy Rogers and a second round draft pick.
Yes, the Bulls traded the second best player in the history of the franchise for a meaningless pick and a guy that they waived not even two weeks later. Rogers was out of the league after the following season.
A year later, the Bulls shipped away Toni Kukoc for John Starks and a conditional first round pick.
What makes this trade worse is that the Bulls would eventually get the 7th overall pick in the 2000 draft because of it. They drafted Chris Mihm, but traded him for Jamal Crawford, who in his last year in Chicago averaged 17 points and 5 assists and went on to have a great career.
So why is this bad? Well, the Bulls always make their way around to screwing things up. They traded Crawford after that year for Dikembe Mutombo, Othella Harrington, Frank Williams, and Cezary Trybanski. They flipped Mutombo, but in the end, that trade led to, well, nothing.
What about Ron Artest? The Bulls had him too, right?
In 2002, the Bulls acquired Jalen Rose, Travis Best, Norm Richardson and a conditional second-round draft pick from Indiana for Ron Artest, Ron Mercer, Brad Miller and Kevin Ollie.
Well, that’s not too bad. They got Jalen Rose out of it. He was good for the Bulls… for a year and some change. Rose averaged over 20 points per game during his time with the Bulls, then they traded him for Antonio Davis.
They eventually flipped Antonio Davis — after he failed to contribute much at all — along with Eddy Curry, who they had traded Elton Brand for. Brand was one of the best rookies in Bulls history and averaged 20 and 10 in his first two seasons with the Bulls. Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler, the Bulls thought, were their ticket to the next Bulls dynasty.
They didn’t do anything with them. Curry had a heart issue, to be fair, but never amounted to much. Chandler has had a great career, all things considered, but the Bulls traded him to the Hornets for P.J. Brown and J.R. Smith. Brown played one year with the Bulls and Smith never did.
Let’s not get too deep into the weeds. How about the notable players that the Bulls have traded recently?
On January 7, 2014, the Bulls traded Loul Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Andrew Bynum, two future second round draft picks in 2015 and 2016 (initially traded from the Portland Trail Blazers to the Cavaliers), a protected future pick the Cavaliers received from the Sacramento Kings, and the right to swap first round picks with the Cavaliers in the 2015 draft.
Bynum never played for the Bulls. Because the Kings pick never conveyed as a first-rounder, the Bulls essentially traded Deng for three second-round picks. They love themselves some of those. This is after, mind you, the Bulls low-balled Deng before the season and never offered him an official contract extension.
On June 22, 2016, Derrick Rose was traded, along with Justin Holiday and a 2017 second-round draft pick, to the New York Knicks in exchange for José Calderón, Jerian Grant and Robin Lopez.
The Bulls traded the youngest MVP in the history of the league, who four years after the fact is averaging 25 points and 8 assists per 36 minutes played, for a bag of basketballs. Jose Calderon never played for the Bulls, Jerian Grant is no longer in the NBA, and Robin Lopez — I love him dearly — is a decent bench player.
Consider this: The Pistons opted not to trade Derrick Rose at the 2020 trade deadline. Had they, they probably would’ve gotten a better return for him now than the Bulls did when he was four years younger.
On June 22, 2017, Jimmy Butler was traded, along with the rights to Justin Patton (the 16th pick in the 2017 NBA draft), to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the rights to Lauri Markkanen (the seventh pick in the 2017 NBA draft).
The Bulls got rid of Butler because they claimed they couldn’t build a good team around him. The Heat are currently doing so. The Bulls are 68-149 without him. Lauri Markkanen is slowly becoming a disappointment and wants out of Chicago (more on that later), Kris Dunn is a bench player, and Zach LaVine, well… whatever you think about Zach LaVine, the three of them together have amounted to an awful team. Butler has been the catalyst for a very good one.
The most Bullsian part of this trade, though, is that they actually gave the Wolves a first-round pick in the deal! They traded a top-15 player and actually managed to give up their own pick.
This one isn’t dealing with as significant of a player, which is the theme of this exercise, but is always worth mentioning. There is no way this isn’t one of the worst trades of all time.
On February 23, 2017, Taj Gibson was traded, along with Doug McDermott and an unprotected 2018 second-round draft pick, to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for Joffrey Lauvergne, Anthony Morrow, and Cameron Payne.
All three of the players the Bulls received are no longer in the NBA, not even three years later. Taj Gibson is still in the NBA and was also a valuable piece at the time. Despite my issues with Doug McDermott (by the way, the Bulls traded two first rounders for him), he is better than every player they received.
And once again... they threw a pick in there! Can you imagine the look on the Thunder’s braintrust’s faces when they asked (probably while snickering) for a pick too and the Bulls were like, uh, yeah sure! The Sun-Times reported that two days into Cam Payne’s tenure with the team, they knew he was not an NBA caliber player.
Alright, now cue the music and re-read!
Bulls:
Back to the 2020 Bulls, who have fallen so far out of the basketball nation’s radar that no one even realized they were one of the only teams who did absolutely nothing at the deadline.
Paxson’s explanation?
“We weren’t going to trade Zach (LaVine), Lauri (Markkanen), Wendell (Carter Jr.), Coby (White) because we don’t know what we have yet and we need to see. And we’ve known that all year long.”
I appreciate Pax’s honesty here: All he knows is that he doesn’t know shit. That, he knows for sure.
Come on, you guys could have guessed this one: the injuries!
From Stephen Noh’s terrific column at The Athletic:
The injury excuse should come as no surprise to anyone who has even paid remotely close attention to this rebuild. Paxson has used injuries as a verbal “get out of jail free” card at the end of every season. Two years ago at his annual end-of-season press conference, he waited until midway through the two-minute mark before blaming injuries for a poor year. Last year, he dropped the injury excuse within the first five seconds of his comments. When he addresses reporters again this April, you should take the under on one minute.
As Noh pointed out, last year Paxson put the blame on the players for not staying healthy. They needed to stay in the gym in the offseason to get more “powerful,” he said. He played himself this time, because before the season he specifically said that the above injured players put in extra work in the summer.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Bulls sucked this year with all of their players healthy.
First it was Tom Thibodeau’s fault, then the players fault. Then it was Hoiberg’s fault for not evoking enough spirit. That’s why we ended up with Boylen. How’s that spirit coming?
I imagine that when Boylen answers questions in the post-game like “Why can’t you guys create open shots?” with “Umm… We need to keep coaching them up and getting the spirit going and coaching and spirit and blah blah blah…” everyone is rolling their eyes except for Paxson, who is tucking his erection into his waistband in the back of the room thinking about the next six rings the Bulls will win under Boylen once the spirit turns around. Maybe it’s time for a voodoo doll.
But perhaps it’s a good thing Boylen doesn’t try to get into the basketball specifics. One of the only times he did that this year, he said the Bulls goal was to average 35 assists per game, something that literally no NBA team has ever done in a season. In fact, the all-time leader — the 84-85 Lakers — they averaged nearly four less than that.
At least the Bulls lead the league in timeouts taken when the game is out of reach. Remember the Timberwolves game a week or so back? Here’s another one.
On Sunday, he did the same. With virtually no time left in the game, Boylen called timeout, which led to an onslaught of boos from the Philly faithful.
By the way, that Jimmy Butler trade could look even worse, too, when Markkanen leaves at the first chance he gets.
Can you blame him? I have my issues with Markkanen, but his situation with the Bulls has absolutely squandered any chances of him being an All-Star player. He gained a lot of “power” in the offseason. His reward was playing for the worst coach in the NBA and watching Zach LaVine do everything he could to chase personal accolades every night.
In the end, I’m just not sure what Gar Forman and John Paxson do. They don’t make trades. They don’t sign big free agents. They literally don’t conduct coaching searches.
If something isn’t changed — and I don’t mean simply reassigning Gar Forman or John Paxson’s roles — the Bulls will eventually become as irrelevant to this city as the Blackhawks were at the turn of the century. They inherited one of the best franchises and fan bases in the history of the sport, and they pissed it all away.
What a shame.
Bulls record: 19-35, 10th in the Eastern Conference
Blackhawks:
The Blackhawks were plagued by two things every Still Gotta Come Through Chicagoan can relate to this past week: hangovers and bad officiating. Lord knows none of our teams have ever gotten a call that benefitted us. That’s just facts.
Jobbed, I tell ya.
The Blackhawks lost in overtime to the Bruins on Wednesday, in large part due to this blown call from officials, which they later admitted was a mistake, according to Jonathan Toews:
The goal, which would’ve gave them the lead, was voided and the Hawks eventually lost in overtime.
The whistle, which no one heard, was blown for a hand pass on Drake Caggiula. The video, however, shows that the pass that led to an eventual goal was not a result of that.
"It's tough," Jeremy Colliton told reporters. "It's disappointing. But there will be another night where we come out on the other end of it. These things have a way of evening out. But it's just disappointing because it would've been a big two points for our team."
This one really stings, as Colliton said, because the Hawks need pretty much every point they can get from here on out if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. Another point there in a win over a great Bruins team would’ve been huge.
The night before, the Hawks looked god awful against the Wild for two periods. A causal relationship between that sluggish start and the boys staying an extra day in Arizona to get piss drunk for the Super Bowl can be drawn.
A few subscribers, in fact, were tossing back brews with the team in Phoenix on Sunday night. The players were reportedly, for lack of a better term, banged up.
At least they were nice enough to take pictures. As for whether or not that is sweat bleeding through that Target-bought cowboy hat on the right, further reporting will need to be done.
The Hawks have earned a point in eight of their last ten contests, and our greatest fears of them laying an egg post-break have been squashed. But the momentum needs to continue. Sunday’s loss came at the hands of a team leading in the Wild Card, Winnipeg, and also a couple more tough calls. They’ll get another shot at them this Sunday at the end of their road trip. The final, 5-2 was deceiving because of a few empty-netters.
They are four points out of the Wild Card race with 27 games to go.
Blackhawks Record: 25-22-8
Bears:
A lot has been made about the Bears deficiencies at quarterback, offensive line, and tight end — and justifiably so. Another position that deserves consideration, however, is cornerback.
Prince Amukamara is on the wrong side of 30. Defensive back is still a hard position to quantify, but even the eye test hinted at a downfall for him this year. He played much worse in 2019 than he did in 2018. He’s also due $9 million in 2020 if the Bears elect to keep him on the roster. If they cut him, it looks like the Bears would be saving at least $8 million, which means a lot for a team that has little-to-no cap flexibility.
Now, cutting salary is only worth it if you’re able to replace that player with a viable option on your roster. The question is whether or not Kevin Toliver — the soon-to-be third year undrafted pro from LSU — or Tre Roberson — the 27-year-old cornerback that the Bears recently signed out of the Canadian Football League to a 2-year deal — are ready to start opposite of Kyle Fuller.
On Roberson: He played his last two years in Calgary and was, according to Adam Schefter, the top prospect out of the league entering free agency. Before that, he was on the Minnesota Vikings practice squad, but never saw game action.
He was courted by a slew of NFL teams, so it is possible that Ryan Pace guaranteed him some sort of playing time. Either that, or he could’ve just taken the highest deal. After all, CFL signees don’t often receive major money.
According to ESPN, his contract includes a $75,000 signing bonus, and a $50K Week 1 roster bonus in 2020. His base salaries are just $550K and $610K in 2020 and 2021, respectively. It’s not a safe bet that he’ll be able to step in immediately and be a starting and reliable cornerback.
But the way I see it, Amukamara is not productive enough at this point in his career to be taking up that much cap space. The Bears have to figure something out. Maybe that’s reworking a deal with Amukamara, which would mean some sacrifice on his behalf late in his career, or maybe it’s using Toliver and Roberson to fill the void.
I’d just rather not see Prince chasing people all over the field again this year with a top-10 team salary allotted for him.
In tight end news, Greg Olsen told ESPN 1000’s Waddle and Silvy that he was “surprised” that the Bears weren’t one of the teams that reached out to him when he officially became a free agent this past week.
As I’ve said before, he should’ve been a Bear for his entire career. I understand the Bears thought process if they don’t sign him, he’s on his last legs and has had some bad injuries the past few years. He’d certainly be a major upgrade, however. The guy still knows how to be where his QB needs him to be, something that the Bears desperately needed this past year. It may come down to money, but a chat with him — in my mind — is more than worth it.
We’ll delve further into the Bears precarious cap situation in the coming weeks.
Chicago Baseball:
Things have been relatively quiet on the North and South side this week, even after the Kris Bryant grievance ruling.
FanGraphs released the Cubs ZiPS projections this week, so if you’re into to some cool, nerdy stuff, check that out.
The Twins received Kenta Maeda in a trade, which bolsters their pitching staff a bit. Maeda isn’t a game-changer, but he’s a reliable starter, which is always valuable. The Sox 2020 hopes have skyrocketed this offseason, but the Twins have only gotten better.
The Athletic has done some cool stuff on both the Cubs and Sox development processes the past couple of weeks. If things stay quiet moving forward, perhaps we’ll do a bit of a deep dive on that here.
This week in Chicago:
Blackhawks: At Edmonton on Tuesday, 8 PM; At Vancouver on Wednesday, 9:30 PM; At Calgary on Saturday, 9 PM; At Winnipeg on Sunday, 7:30 PM
Bulls: At Washington on Tuesday, 6 PM — Then the Chicago All-Star Weekend Commences
Trivia answer:
Bears in the top-20 all-time in franchise history for receptions that either retired in 2010 or later or are still active:
Matt Forte: 2nd all-time with 487
Alshon Jeffery: 7th with 304
Brandon Marshall: 9th with 279
Desmond Clark (retired in 2010): 12th with 242
Devin Hester: 15th with 217
Martellus Bennett: 17th with 208
Tarik Cohen: 20th with 203
Betting Pick: Good win for the Kings over the Wolves last week. That brings the newsletter record to 20-12. This week’s pick is just a recommendation, not an official pick.
Duncan Robinson is +500 to win the three-point competition. The odds are great on arguably the best three-point shooter in the league. Throw a little clam on Duncan and enjoy the show. The only thing I can promise you about the contest is that Zach LaVine will not win.
Thanks for reading as always! If you enjoy the newsletter (or don’t), don’t be afraid to 1. tell your friends to subscribe 2. leave a comment below and 3. like or share this post. Appreciate you all! Let the out-of-towners know how we do it in Chicago this weekend.
Trading Jimmy back in the Summer of 2017 shocked me. To this day I’m still upset about it but looking back on it now I have some bulls friends that say they would still have traded jimmy in hopes for a better rebuild. Clearly whatever rebuild plan garpax had in mind failed miserably (what’s new). Would you have traded JB back in the summer of 2017? I certainly would have preferred to keep him and try to build a contending team around him. These past 3 years have been frustrating as hell and the future is as bleak as ever. Good to see jimmy thriving with Miami thus far
Its officially baseball season and I am struggling to figure out my approach to this Cubs season. I want to go in with somewhat of a positive attitude but its hard to do that especially after another extremely disappointing off season lead by the greedy, racist Ricketts family. I was a member of the trade Bryant camp, but at this point they should just keep him. A Bryant trade was supposed to open the door for some moves this offseason, but they clearly have no intentions of doing so, so you might as well hold on to him until at least the deadline in July. The blockbuster trade between the Dodgers/ Red Sox, has put me at peace with the potential train wreck of a season the cubs could have. It's the Dodgers league to lose at this point. I placed a decent amount of money on the Dodgers to win the NL, so at least I will have a rooting interest come October. With all that being said, I am holding onto a sliver of hope that this offense might finally grow some balls this year and start living up to their potential.