Chicago Bulls hold team meeting amidst crumbling season
After winning three straight games and gaining some momentum, the Chicago Bulls have now lost three in a row, and their season is on the brink. Can they get it together and make the playoffs?
The 2015 season has not gone the way the Chicago Bulls expected. With a new coach in Fred Hoiberg, the front office hoped they found an offensive-minded coach who could lead the team deep into the playoffs.
Instead, after losing their third straight game on Saturday to the Orlando Magic, they find themselves on the outside looking in on the playoffs scenario.
The Chicago Bulls are in the ninth spot in the Eastern Conference, two games behind the Detroit Pistons for the last playoff spot.
What makes the current losing streak worse is that the three losses have come to the New York Knicks (TWICE!) and the Magic, two teams that have pretty much been out of the playoff picture for most of the season.
The loss to the Magic on Saturday reeked of a team that just quit on the season. Orlando owned a six-game losing streak heading into the game, and they were without TWO of their top scorers. Even so, they pounded the Chicago Bulls 111-89.
It was an infuriating loss that came on the heels of getting swept in a home-and-home series against the Knicks. Taj Gibson said he was embarrassed to be losing to “trash” teams.
The Bulls then went right out and lost to another trash team.
Maybe it is time to say that the Chicago Bulls are one of those trash teams now.
On Sunday, the players and coaches held a team meeting to discuss righting the ship. The Bulls did not say what went on, but Hoiberg said it was productive.
“That was a big part of what (today) was about, getting in there and talking about some things and hopefully airing some things out,” Hoiberg said. “I think (guys were honest). And that’s what it has to be when you go through those things. You have to have honest communication where things aren’t taken personal. I thought it was productive from that standpoint.”
The Chicago Bulls have a do-or-die week starting Monday night. They have five games in seven days against the Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks. All those teams except for the Bucks are playoff teams at the moment.
If the Chicago Bulls think they are a playoff team, then they have to show it this week. At the end of the week, they will either be entrenched in the playoff chase, or they will need to make early plans for the NBA Draft Lottery.
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There are a number of reasons the Chicago Bulls are in the predicament they are in. Dealing with injuries and having a new system under a new coach are contributing factors, but now it appears that their mental makeup may be as well.
The Bulls were always known as a mentally tough team. After the loss to Orlando, however, I cannot see how you can say that anymore.
Yes, the coach has to take some of the blame for it, but to put it all on Hoiberg is not fair. He is trying to run a high-tempo offense with a roster full of players who have run former coach Tom Thibodeau’s half-court, grind-it-out scheme.
The Chicago Bulls will have some contracts that will expire at the end of the season, and the salary cap will greatly increase, so the front office, trying to show that they did not make a mistake in letting Thibodeau go, will remake the roster much the same way they did in 2010 when Thibodeau was hired.
Next: Derrick Rose is back, but where is Jimmy Butler?
They built a team that would fit in Thibodeau’s style. Now, in the summer of 2016, they will need to build a team that will fit in Hoiberg’s style.