No.
Post over. Thanks for stopping by. OK, as long as you are here...
Earlier this week, the Chicago Bulls traded Jabari Parker, Bobby Portis (and his crazy ass eyes), and a second round pick for Washington's Otto Porter Jr. The trade was simply so "Bulls".
Although it is hard to tell when Portis is shocked, he really was stunned that Paxson found another way to destroy the Bulls.
For the past 16 years, John Paxson has been in charge of driving the Bulls into the ground. Although during that time, his title has changed from GM to President, the results have not. He has been a raging success... at driving the Bulls into the ground.
Paxson and his staff are batting under .100 when it comes to "winning" trades. Heck they don't even break even on the vast majority of them. Some of my absolute favorites were the deals where the Bulls ended up with absolutely nothing (except money of course... they always come pout ahead financially). My favorite of these deals for nothing is the Luol Deng for Andrew Bynum trade which was made after Bynum had decided to quit playing basketball.
The Bulls traded for me? But I quit playing basketball already.
Even with the reputation as the worst wheeler and dealer in the league, Paxson keeps coming up with new ways to pour more fuel on the raging dumpster fire that is the Chicago Bulls. This week he managed to lose another trade. No surprise there. What was surprising is that he lost even though he ended up with the best player in the deal. How can this be possible? Only the magic of John Paxson could make it so.
First the good news. It appears that John Paxson has finally realized that the organization has become such a joke that no valuable free agent would ever choose to accept a max contract to play for these clowns. The problem is that Paxson figured this out about nine years too late. Perhaps if he had figured this out sooner he would not have traded Kirk Heinrich and a number one draft pick to the Washington Wizards in exchange for... you guessed it... nothing! After all they had to clear cap space so they could sign LeBron James I mean Carlos Boozer. How it took them this long to figure out how ridiculous they look to the rest of the NBA and its players is beyond me. After all, why would anyone want to play for the franchise who:
Chose a GM over Michael Jordan
Signed Ben Wallace, a dude who was famous for his hair and headband, and then forbid him for wearing his headband because it was against a silly, archaic team rule.
Failed to trade up in the draft to acquire the rights to draft Dwayne Wade because they simply could not ever give up Donyell Freaking Marshall (and this was pre-douche Dwayne Wade).
Refused to throw the kitchen sink at the Lakers when rumors were swirling that Kobe Bryant wanted to be traded to the Bulls. (Clearly they needed to hold on to Luol Deng so they could trade him for nothing later).
Told LeBron James that his posse would not be allowed to travel with the team (if he were foolish enough to sign with the Bulls)
Signed Carol Boozer
Refused to provide their insane coach with a bench that resulted in him playing his stars in meaningless minutes of games
Signed local hero Jabari Parker... and then within a month kick him out of the rotation.
Hire Jim Boylen as coach
Publicly support and commit to more of Jim Boylen (even after a player uprising 1 week into his tenure)
I could actually go on and on... but it is making me too sad.
Every Bulls Fan
Back to this week's deal for Porter. Porter was clearly the best player in the deal. He's not great but they basically traded a bench player, who will demand big money in the off-season, for a starter. Great! That's a win right?
Wrong!
Even when Paxson wins he loses. Porter will make $27,250,575 next year and $28,489,238 the year after that. That basically eliminated the Bulls from any chance at the big name free agents who will be available this summer. That would be fine if the Bulls had not been foolishly setting themselves up for this free agent class for the past several years.
Ok. No Harm done. They weren't getting anyone good anyway.
Wrong!
Trading to upgrade the starting lineup is the worst thing the Bulls could do. After acknowledging that they are such a joke that no real player would ever choose to join the Bulls, they only have two ways to build a team: savvy trades and getting super lucky in the draft. You can quickly strike the hope of a savvy trade. That only leaves the only thing Paxson has ever done well: getting lucky in the draft.
But even luck needs a little help... like stacking the odds in your favor as much as possible. How do the Bulls do this?
By freaking losing!
Even Charlie gets it.
Thanks to more complete dumbassery by the NBA, now the bottom 3 teams all have an equal percentage to win the draft lottery. That means there is a ton of competition to finish in those bottom 3. With Zion Williamson lurking as the ultimate prize, every smart GM whose team has no shot at the playoffs is doing everything in his power to land one of those coveted three spots... except for john Freaking Paxson. This moron just made it less likely his squad will finish where they belong... the bottom.
The Bulls are currently 13 - 42 which places them just 2 games above that coveted final 3rd spot. John Paxson should be doing everything he can to not win another game. Instead, he improved his team. If Otto Porter helps the Bulls win a single game, it could go down as Paxson's worst trade ever.
And that is saying a lot.