Chicago Bulls: 2016 Offseason Grades

It was a tumultuous summer for the Chicago Bulls, but how well did they transition past the Derrick Rose era? Here are their complete 2016 offseason grades.

In one summer, the Chicago Bulls officially closed the book on the most promising chapter in franchise history since Michael Jordan retired, committed to their next superstar…and completely tripped over their own feet trying to give him enough support.

Coming off a 42-win season that ended with the Bulls watching the playoffs from home and sent tremors of discontent through one of the NBA’s largest fan bases, change was needed. But rather than go all in on winning now or build for the future around Jimmy Buckets, the Bulls awkwardly straddled the line between both and failed to do either one.

Sure, Chicago got its hands on a few marquee names that will put butts in the seats, but since when has that ever been a problem at the United Center? And can those new additions make up for the free agency departures of Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol?

In order to make some sense of what Chicago did during an unsettling summer, here’s a look at the Bulls’ complete 2016 offseason grades.

Next: The End Of An Era

The End Of An Era

When the Chicago Bulls first stumbled into the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, they selected Derrick Rose to be the first great superstar since Jordan to lead the Windy City to an NBA championship.

Nine years later, the Derrick Rose era — and every hope, dream and title aspiration that came with it — is over in Chicago. In a stunning but perfectly sensible move, the Bulls traded the former face of their franchise (plus Justin Holiday and a 2017 second round pick) to the New York Knicks for Robin Lopez, Jose Calderon, Jerian Grant and a pile of what-ifs.

Back in 2011, Rose was finishing up his MVP season, averaging 25.0 points, 7.7 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game and leading the Bulls to an NBA-best 62-20 record. For the Windy City, it was “Rose before hoes.”

At the time, it seemed ludicrous that Chicago would ever consider trading their hometown hero, let alone for a package centered around Robin Lopez and an unproven second-year guard.

But after so many debilitating injuries, his controversial comments about looking ahead to his 2017 free agency and his unstable fit with Jimmy Butler in the backcourt, Rose’s value was a shell of its former self.

This past season, Rose stayed the healthiest he’s been since his ACL tear at the start of the 2012 NBA Playoffs, but his production was inconsistent. Though Rose showed flashes of his former MVP self, for the most part he was merely average, posting 16.4 points, 4.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game on .427/.293/.793 shooting splits in 68 appearances.

With Rose looking to make major money next summer and the Bulls wisely unwilling to surrender it out of pure nostalgia, it was time to finally move on to the Jimmy Butler era.

This trade accomplished that, even though it may be understandably hard for the Rose diehards to accept. An era that began with promises of bringing a championship back to the Windy City is over, and it’s impossible not to think about what might have been if not for all those injuries.

A haul of Lopez, Grant, Calderon and a future second-rounder was hardly sexy, but it did position the Bulls relatively well what most assumed would be an inevitable rebuild around Jimmy Buckets.

Lopez is signed on for the next three seasons at a manageable $13.8 million average salary, he’s a serviceable starting center and at this point in his career, he’s probably a more useful player than Rose.

With Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol gone in free agency, adding RoLo to the roster gave the Bulls stability and defense at the starting center spot.

Grant was unimpressive during his rookie season in New York, averaging 5.6 points and 2.3 assists in 16.6 minutes per game. But he didn’t get nearly enough run time on a team that should’ve been starting him over Calderon when it quickly became clear the playoffs weren’t happening, so Grant still has plenty of room for growth.

Calderon was a non-essential piece before the team signed Rajon Rondo, and he was quickly jettisoned in a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers when Dwyane Wade became a realistic possibility.

Moving on from the Derrick Rose era will be an emotional experience for many Chicago fans, and even those who recognize his all-time low value will have a hard time not reflecting on what might have been and the series of unfortunate events that led us to this end.

But from a purely logical standpoint, this trade for decent players on manageable/cheap/expiring contracts was a smart one for the Bulls.

Grade: B-

Next: The Draft

The Draft

Reactions to Chicago’s draft night were mixed, and for good reason. No, not because of Denzel Valentine coming to the Windy City at No. 14 — because the Bulls made an intriguing trade offer to the Minnesota Timberwolves before Tom Thibodeau eventually passed.

On the one hand, the perceived value of trading Jimmy Butler still feels overblown. Trading Derrick Rose was a painful but necessary step to moving Chicago in the right direction; trading Jimmy Butler was not, especially for two unproven players.

As the new face of the franchise, Butler has big shoes to fill, even if Rose wasn’t healthy enough over the last four years to even wear his.

But Jimmy Buckets is already one of the best two-way wings in the NBA, he’s coming off the best season of his career at 20.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game, and games like his 53-point explosion emphatically proved he can carry the load offensively.

On the flip side, there have been frequent questions about Butler’s leadership, attitude, disposition and every other character-related synonym under the sun.

The Wolves’ rumored offer of the No. 5 pick — Kris Dunn — and Zach LaVine (or Ricky Rubio and Dunn) would’ve been an enticing haul to help the Bulls jumpstart their rebuild. After all, Butler is already 26 and what should’ve been his best shot at getting Chicago past LeBron James ended in an underwhelming 42-40 season and no playoff appearance.

Pippen Ain't Easy

There’s also Butler’s durability to worry about, since he’s missed at least 15 games in each of the last three seasons. Dunn is a dynamic young player who could grow into a defensively-oriented version of Russell Westbrook, he could’ve set the Bulls on a new timeline, and LaVine — who is only 21 still — has far more potential than he’s given credit for. Depending on Dunn and LaVine’s development in Minny, this non-move might reveal itself as a missed opportunity later on.

That being said, Butler is already a superstar and trying to rebuild with youth around Butler seemed like an acceptable fall-back plan. (You know, until we saw how the front office actually went about rebuilding around Butler, but I digress.)

Still, the Bulls got solid value with the last pick in the lottery, taking Valentine out of Michigan State. As one of — if not the — best college players in the nation last season, Valentine brings positional versatility, playmaking and shooting to the Bulls.

Though he’s already 22, Valentine’s college numbers as a senior — 19.2 PPG, 7.8 APG, 7.5 RPG, 46.2 FG%, 44.4 3P% — and even his Summer League numbers for the Las Vegan champion Bulls —  11.6 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 2.7 APG — are undeniably encouraging.

Valentine is a smart player and has built a reputation as a great teammate, he’s a very good defender and though he didn’t shoot well in Summer League with .352/.255/.778 splits, he had no problem stepping up and hitting timely, clutch shots for his team.

The biggest issues with Valentine — other than his age — are concerns about his knees, which probably caused him to fall a few spots in the draft.

If he can stay healthy, he’ll be a terrific addition. If not…well, let’s just say trading one injury-prone star and trying to moving on by drafting another one would be an unfortunate and unlucky stroke of fate.

At No. 48, the Bulls took Paul Zipser, a German small forward with three-point range who could develop into a 3-and-D wing if Hoiberg gives him a chance. The Bulls may look back on keeping Butler with regret one day, but for now, they got solid value out of their two draft-day picks and kept their superstar.

Grade: B

Next: Reining In Rondo

Reining In Rondo

Following the Derrick Rose trade, it was time for the front office to put young talent around Butler and rebuild for a new chapter in the once prestigious franchise’s history. Instead, their first move was signing Rajon Rondo to a two-year, $28 million deal.

To be fair, this isn’t a disastrous signing. Rondo rebuilt his free agency value a bit in Sacramento last year, averaging 11.9 points, a league-leading 11.7 assists and 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting a respectable (for him) 36.5 percent from three-point range. Under the new salary cap, $14 million a year isn’t terrible, especially since his contract is only for two years.

However, if the best thing you can say about signing a player starts with, “Well, it’s not a disaster…,” it’s probably not a great move.

Rondo has championship experience, but his prime is far behind him. He’s become an uncaring turnstile on the defensive end, his attitude problems are well-documented and his decent perimeter shooting might have just been a one-year fluke considering his atrocious 58 percent shooting from the foul line.

For a franchise that just made the edgy Butler its leading man and watched the offense crumble under first-year head coach Fred Hoiberg, is adding a head case and notorious coach-clasher like Rondo to that equation really a good idea?

The Bulls needed a point guard in the wake of the Rose trade. Valentine’s versatility may not translate that far at the NBA level, Jerian Grant is coming off an underwhelming rookie season and someone like Mike Conley was never a realistic option.

But Rondo fits neither the timeline, temperament nor desired skill set that Chicago needed to put around Butler, and that’s the biggest takeaway from this deal.

Rondo has always carried himself like an alpha, regardless of what he says about the Bulls being Butler’s team. This was just the first of a series of puzzling moves for a front office that claimed its goal was to get younger and faster, not just retool.

Grade: C-

Next: Another Chi-Town Legend

Another Chi-Town Legend

If you thought adding Rajon Rondo was a head-scratching move, bringing back Chicago native Dwyane Wade only compounded the confusion.

On a two-year, $47.5 million contract, the Bulls signed a three-time NBA champion and by all rights, one of the five greatest shooting guards of all time.

It’s just, you know, the move might have made more sense if A) It hadn’t come out of nowhere, B) Chicago had a championship-caliber roster, C) Butler and Wade didn’t play the same position and D) Wade wasn’t on the decline at age 34, playing on a set of wobbly knees.

Oh, and that’s before mentioning that no one in Chicago’s new backcourt can shoot…which is kind of concerning for a front office that said it was dedicated to adding floor-spacers for Fred Holberg’s offense…in a league adopting the pace-and-space era with the immediacy of Angelina Jolie stepping into a third-world orphanage.

Last season, Wade averaged a respectable 19.0 points, 4.6 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game, coming to life to step up as his team’s alpha in the playoffs. But he only shot an anemic 15.9 percent from three-point range last season, and is a career 28.4 shooter from long range.

Rondo posted his career-high 36.5 three-point percentage last season, but he’s a career 28.9 percent shooter from downtown. When Butler, a career 32.8 percent shooter from deep, is your best shot at spacing the floor in a backcourt trio that can’t shoot, there are going to be problems.

There’s also the slight issue of how similarly they operate with having the ball in their hands, especially in pick-and-roll situations:

Wade is a great player, but handing out a contract that large — even if it’s just for two years — would’ve only made sense for the Heat, who would’ve been ponying up to keep the greatest player in their franchise’s history.

For a franchise like the Bulls, who already had a star shooting guard, this deal is really all about bringing home a big-name Chicago native to sell tickets. Outside of that and trying to recruit other free agents, the fit makes no sense.

Grade: C-

Next: Two Trades For Wade

Two Trades For Wade

Before they could sign Wade, however, the Bulls had to execute two salary-shedding moves to clear out enough room for his gaudy contract.

The first move was trading Jose Calderon (and two future second round picks) to the Los Angeles Lakers (for the rights to an overseas player, TBD). The second was shipping off Mike Dunleavy (and the rights to Vladimir Veremeenko) to the Cleveland Cavaliers (for the rights to Albert Miralles).

The Bulls didn’t get anything out of these deals, since Miralles is 34 and the Lakers don’t own the rights to any draft-and-stash products who are actually likely to make their way to the NBA. Chicago also had to part with two future second-rounders to entice Los Angeles into taking on Calderon’s contract.

However, with Dunleavy unable to stay even relatively healthy the last two seasons, and with Calderon being rendered irrelevant by the Rondo signing, the Bulls had no need for either one of the players they parted with.

As confusing as the Wade acquisition was, he could actually help the Bulls woo future free agents. Neither Calderon nor Dunleavy were essential, so these trades are really just kind of…there.

Grade: C

Next: Odds And Ends

Odds And Ends

It’s ironic, but Chicago’s smartest point guard acquisition this summer is actually found here in our “Odds And Ends” section, with the Bulls signing Isaiah Canaan to a two-year, partially guaranteed deal.

Even though his best seasons have come in meaningless minutes with the Philadelphia 76ers, and even though he quickly flamed out on a Houston Rockets team with very little point guard depth before that, Canaan has shown the ability to do one thing relatively right in his first three years in the league.

That skill — and it’s a mediocre one for Canaan — is knock down threes at a somewhat respectable rate. After a poor rookie season (32.7 percent from deep), he drilled 36.4 percent of his whopping 7.4 long range attempts per game in 22 appearances with the Sixers in 2014-15.

Last season, Canaan converted 36.3 percent of his 6.3 attempts per game in Philly, and though none of these numbers are particularly staggering, he might as well be Reggie Miller for a Bulls team whose starting backcourt can’t hit the broadside of a barn with a beach ball.

To finish things off, the Bulls added Detroit Pistons exile Spencer Dinwiddie, a stud from Colorado whose early NBA career has been stunted by his recovery from an ACL tear in college and Stan Van Gundy’s lack of trust in him.

Though Dinwiddie very clearly had a higher upside than Steve Blake, Van Gundy often chose the veteran to back up Reggie Jackson off the bench. Detroit traded him to Chicago in the Cameron Bairstow deal a few months back, but after waiving him, the Bulls decided to bring him back on a two-year, partially guaranteed deal.

In Chicago, Dinwiddie should get a chance to compete for minutes and improve upon last season’s career-high 4.8 points and 1.8 assists per game on dismal .352/.100/.576 shooting splits.

Neither one of these additions moves the needle much for Chicago, but they’re the kind of low-cost, diamond-in-the-rough kind of chances most figured a rebuilding team like the Bulls would be taking all summer long.

Grade: B-

Next: Overall

Overall

The Chicago Bulls had a very odd summer, even if they somehow averted the crisis of hastily trading away their next franchise superstar. It was the league’s worst-kept secret for the last two years or so, but now it’s undeniably out in the open: The Bulls are Jimmy Butler’s team.

The only problem is that even after the Derrick Rose trade, even after avoiding trading him for two high-upside, unproven players, and even after Chicago’s marquee free agents repeated the same thing verbatim, most of the Bulls’ summer didn’t feel like it was about making this Butler’s team.

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Even if Wade and Rondo, two historically ball-dominant, accomplished players who have almost always functioned as alpha dogs, somehow defer to Butler, and the lack of shooting doesn’t come back to bite them, and everything else is completely hunky-dory somehow, what’s this team’s ceiling?

Signing big names like Rondo and Wade suggests the front office is still invested in winning now, but they didn’t build a roster that’s capable of challenging the Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors or Boston Celtics in the East.

More minutes have been freed up for Nikola Mirotic and Taj Gibson in the frontcourt, but losing Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol in free agency were painful losses, both from an emotional standpoint and from a basketball standpoint.

Rather than putting young talents around Butler or completely hitting the reset button by trading him while his value is high, the Bulls bumbled through the summer by signing two former star players who are well past their primes and don’t figure to mesh particularly well with the team’s franchise player or their struggling head coach’s offense.

More hoops habit: Detroit Pistons: 2016 Offseason Grades

Moving on from the Derrick Rose era and into the Jimmy Butler era was a necessity, but no one figured the transition would be this ugly.

Grade: C-