The Chicago Bulls are Once Again an Awful Basketball Team

It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that the Bulls were one of those “teams on the rise.” You know, the kind of team with a young, talented nucleus that was seen as taking the necessary steps toward building a serious contender.

That was, in fact, just two short years ago. The Bulls finished the 2006-07 season 49-33, earning a playoff bid in the Eastern Conference and sweeping the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs before bowing out against Detroit.

And here we stand, in the year two thousand and nine, and the Bulls have regressed remarkably.

As of today, the Baby Bulls have lost six of seven, including a God-awful 102-92 loss to the Timberwolves at home Saturday. Garbage.

Three of their best players — Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng and Drew Gooden — are hurt. Big man Joakim Noah isn’t any good. Tyrus Thomas is looking like loads of potential that will never be fulfilled.

In short, the Bulls went from budding to just really bad. So, how did this happen?

That’s easy enough — the roster went from young and rising to young and not that good. I’m not convinced Noah will ever be even a decent big man. Thomas can look like gangbusters one night then suck for five games in a row.

Larry Hughes is nothing but a role player. Kirk Hinrich is probably the same on a decent NBA team. Ben Gordon can fill it up in terms of points but not much else. Luol Deng is just, eh, blah. Nothing stands out about the guy.

Good thing is, they have Derrick Rose. He will in time be one of the best point guards in the league. But it’s only worth a damn if the players around him can play too.

So, yeah, this has amounted to nothing but a rant about how bad the Bulls have become. Watching them languish is just pathetic.

But hey, we have the Blackhawks.