Rare Opportunity

This year's Chicago Bulls have a rare opportunity.  The last two seasons, the Bulls have finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA.  Unfortunately, that regular season success has not translated into the post-season.

Two years ago the Bulls exited the playoffs after a lopsided Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Miami Heat.  This past season, bad luck struck, and the Bulls best player (and possibly the best lead guard in the NBA), Derrick Rose, was injured during game 1 of the playoffs. The Bulls then became only the second 1-seed to lose to an 8-seed since the first round of the playoffs expanded to a 7 game series.

I guess that's why they play the games.

But enough statistics.  The point of the above introduction is this.  The Bulls have a rare chance this season to join the upper echelon of super teams that is currently exclusive to the Thunder, Lakers, and Heat.  How can they do this you ask?  Well simply put, by losing as many games as possible.

Now, you may be asking yourself how that makes any sense?  How are the Bulls going to become one of the best teams in the league by losing a ton of games?  Well, I'll tell you how.  In the mid 1990's the San Antonio Spurs had a great player named David Robinson.  The Admiral (as he was nicknamed) attended the Naval Academy and was therefore forced to serve his term of duty with the Navy after his NBA career had already started.  With David Robinson, the Spurs were a middle tier playoff team, incapable of drafting another star, and incapable of getting over the hump to win a championship.  But during the 96-97 season, the Admiral was off doing his tour of duty for his country, and the spurs were busy being the worst team in the league and earning the number one draft pick.  With that pick they selected one Tim Duncan, the greatest Power Forward in the history of basketball.  And four championships later, that one year of mediocrity seems to have worked out very well for them.

Well, this worked out nicely.

So back to the bulls.  Derrick Rose is expected to be out until at least February.  I've never been one to believe in tanking.  I love competition and to lose games on purpose I believe is very detrimental to the sport.  But that being said, the Bulls seem to be taking the approach where if they put a bad enough team on the court, they wont have to try to lose.  It will just come naturally.  The Bulls let many of their key contributors from the last two seasons walk in free agency, and signed many players that have never been anything more than bit contributors.  It looks like they plan on letting second year wing Jimmy Butler and rookie point guard Marquise Teague lose together grow together while D-Rose heals up.  By doing this, the Bulls, in a season where they know they have no chance to win a championship, may end up with a very high draft pick or possibly the number one overall selection.  Pairing a player such as Indiana's stud PF Cody Zeller or UCLA standout freshman wing Shabazz Muhammad with a healthy Derrick Rose and Scrappy Joakim Noah at center is the makings of a contender. 

Pick Me!

 Some would argue that losing on purpose is never acceptable, and I would agree with them. But you can't deny the Bulls strategy.  If they stay the course and try to win while their franchise player is sidelined, they wil; end up probably missing the playoffs, getting a middle of the road draft pick, and being  a perennial loser to the Miami CHeat for many seasons to come.  With the opposite strategy, they can possibly have a one-two punch to rival any the league currently has, and a legitimate shot to win multiple titles. 

If you ain't cheating...

It seems the Bulls have made their choice, but is it the right one?