The Off-Season has not been too good for the Chicago Bulls
The Bulls haven’t really done much this off-season. They saw Ben Gordon sign with the division rival Detroit Pistons which had to hurt. They also bought out Tim Thomas and let Anthony Roberson go. What did the Bulls do to add to the team you ask? They re-signed veteran backup point guard Lindsay Hunter and they signed shooting guard Jannero Pargo who did not play in any games last season. The Bulls did draft two power forwards in the first round in James Johnson and Taj Gibson who they hope will give them a lot of minutes this season.
GRADE FOR THE FRONT OFFICE SO FAR: D-
I wouldn’t say Ben Gordon leaving is going to hurt the Bulls, especially in the long run. Yes, BG was the Bulls best scorer and was the go to guy when they needed a bucket, but he also was and always will be very streaky and is a pathetic undersized defender. With BG gone there will be no more of those plays were he dribbles away the shot clock and then jacks up a fade away 25 footer. It is also going to give Derrick Rose more room to create and be more assertive as this team’s leader, as he is only going to get better. Salmons will be able to fill some of the scoring void with BG gone, but I actually think Jannero Pargo will be a bigger impact than people expect. He is basically a poor man’s Ben Gordon and can come off the bench and light a team up pretty quickly.
Jannero Pargo is a very poor man’s Ben Gordon. They will miss Gordon more than you think they will.
Only time will tell how big of an impact Gordon’s departure will have on the team. I agree he could put up points in a hurry at times but shot-selection and poor defense made him expendable for the most part. Rose, Salmons, and Heinrich will be a pretty decent guard rotation. However, outside of their 2 draft picks they didn’t know much to add to their roster. The Cavs added O’Neal, The Lakers added Artest, Orlando even went out and acquired Vince Carter while Chicago did very little. Thee upside is that both Deng and Salmons will be 100% coming into the season so they will be somewhat deeper but I’m still not sure if they have the personnel needed to make a deep run in the playoffs next year.