Everyone knows about plans. They’re like opinions — everyone’s got one. How often they are right or they work is another issue.
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So the Bulls had this plan, and it has been a pretty good one: You begin to gather young assets (players, as they’re called by the public), players who are responsible and committed and talented. And you begin to blend them together, all the while waiting for an opportunity to either get lucky in the draft and have someone break through or use the assets you’ve acquired to get that final piece that makes you a champion.
It seemed as if it could have been Kevin Garnett, whom the Minnesota Timberwolves didn’t think they could trade and then did for what seemed a whole lot less than the Bulls were once said to be offering.
I say “once” because things change.
And that appears to be what has been happening with the Bulls.
Whereas Minnesota probably could have had Luol Deng in a package for Garnett, now the Bulls seem unwilling to include Deng in a package for Kobe Bryant, who is far more accomplished than Garnett.
Perhaps that will change if things don’t go well this season or in the playoffs.
But Deng has moved to the verge of All-Star recognition, and if he can score, say, 22 points per game and Bryant gets 30, how much more is Bryant worth?
Meanwhile, Ben Gordon became a 20-points-per-game scorer, Kirk Hinrich was invited to the USA Basketball team and the Bulls added Ben Wallace, still one of the best defensive centers in the NBA.
So are they too good to deal or break up?
This is probably where the Bulls are as they get set to start the fifth full season of general manager John Paxson’s makeover. They seem to be at a crossroads.
Do they ride it out with what they have in a season in which many believe they have enough to win the Eastern Conference? In an informal survey of East general managers, the Bulls were listed as a top-four team with Detroit, New Jersey and Boston.
Or do they continue their various efforts of the last few years to land the elusive star they still don’t seem to have, the so-called final piece that can get a team over the top … or send it back to the bottom if the move fails?
“It’s more dangerous to do something dramatic than it is to hold firm, stand pat and make another run at it,” said Steve Kerr, the Suns’ general manager.
The Suns have been one of those teams — very close but not there.
Eventually your window closes without a trophy.
Take the Portland Trail Blazers. They got to the NBA Finals in the 1989-90 and ’91-92 seasons, but they’ve fallen into mediocrity since.
The Atlanta Hawks won 50 games for four straight seasons in the 1980s, but then a big trade for Moses Malone didn’t work out and they fell back.
The Dallas Mavericks of the late 1980s were close and made a bid for James Worthy. When it failed, they fell back. In the early ’90s, Golden State broke up its core of young scorers and found out it didn’t work.
But the Lakers got Shaquille O’Neal and it did work. The Suns made a run to the Finals after adding Charles Barkley before the ’92-93 season, and the Kings became successful, if not significant, when they acquired Chris Webber.
A team generally needs a transcendent star to win an NBA title. There are exceptions — Seattle in 1979, Detroit in 2004 — but rarely in league history has a team won a championship without at least one future Hall of Famer.
Do the Bulls have a future Hall of Famer on the roster? Perhaps Wallace, though he is hardly the focus of the team as he was for the ’04 Pistons.
“If there’s someone out there who can take you over the top, he’s not going to be available for a minimum contract,” Kerr said. “I like that Dallas didn’t panic after that [first-round] playoff loss and is going to give it another run with the same team.”
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For now, it appears the Bulls are also going to give it another run with essentially the same team. Is that team good enough to win an NBA championship? Likely not.
So do you trade for Bryant? Sure, if you don’t have to give up too much … which puts everyone back where they’ve been for the last five months.
We want him; we want him not. We want him; we want him not. We want him …
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