Jimmy Butler and Dwayne Wade ‘went in’ on their squad after Wednesday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks

I’ve never played in the NBA. Never stepped foot on a college court either. The highest level I’ve played is high school, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about but just hear me out. I’m pretty sure for a team to be good your best players need to be happy right? After  the Bulls painful loss to the Hawks it’s clear that there is some division in the locker room. Yes, having a comfortable lead and then giving up 19 points in the last 2:46 would make any player frustrated. But let’s not act like this dysfunction is just from this game alone. This has been going on for months. Last night seemed to be the breaking point for Jimmy Butler and Dwayne Wade. Both held absolutely nothing back when it was time to talk to reporters. ESPN.com’s Nick Friedell insinuated that it wasn’t a coincidence. Wade and Butler might have planned in their head what they wanted to say. They both left the showers at the same time having a clear message they wanted to get across. And their criticism sounded very similar.

“We don’t play hard enough”, Butler said according to the Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson. “This is your job. I want to play with guys who care.” 

Wade cut a little deeper with his criticism. “I don’t think people care enough…..It just doesn’t mean enough to guys around here,” Wade said according to Johnson. “And it pisses me off.” 

Wade had a few more things to add on top of that. “I’m 35 years old. I have 3 championships. It shouldn’t hurt me more than it hurts these young guys. They have to want it. I can look at Jimmy and say Jimmy is doing his job. I think Jimmy can look at me and say Dwyane is doing his job. I don’t know if we can keep going down the line and be able to say that.” 

He even supplied us with this gem of a tweet.

And this one 

And this one too

This has been an issue all year. Actually this has been a problem ever since the Tom  Thibodeau days. The Bulls bench and supporting cast has always been weak. Before Jimmy became the player he is now, it was guys like Loul Deng and Derrick Rose logging huge minutes because the bench couldn’t add any scoring punch. When Butler started coming into his own under Thibodeau he was logging 38 minutes a game. Now that Fred Hoiberg is in charge he uses his bench a little bit better than Thibodeau did, it just doesn’t make any sense. 

He’s gone through 3 starting point guards already. Rajon Rondo, Michael Carter-Williams and now Jerian Grant… yes Jerian Grant is now the “starter”. Not one point guard on the roster averages more than seven points a game. Maybe the Bulls front office hasn’t noticed but this league is dominated by point guards. The Bulls don’t have a viable option at that spot. Until they do, they will continue to have a lack luster offense. 

Their front court players are nothing more than guys taking up roster spots. Robin Lopez isn’t breaking any scoring records in his life. Taj Gibson has been solid so far. He’s averaging a healthy 11 points and seven rebounds a game and even shooting over 50 percent from the field. I still think we should expect a little more from him. I thought with Hoiberg as coach we would see a new and improved Gibson that could stretch out his game. He’s shown the ability to consistently hit mid-range jumpers. He’s a solid post presence and a good defender. I just haven’t seen that jump in production that I expected. His numbers have been steady throughout his career, but he’s never had a major increase in his scoring output like Butler did. This might be who Gibson is at age 31.

Doug McDermott has showed promise in spots during the season but hasn’t put together a substantial stretch of good production. Nikola Mirotic has been a major disappointment all year and hasn’t lived up to the potential the team thought he had. After shooting a more than respectable 39 percent  from three last season, he hasn’t found his stroke yet this year hovering around 30 percent . I know there will be some readers that don’t understand basketball and what the stats mean so I’ll put this in simpler terms. He’s trash. Garbage. 

Despite all the turmoil in the locker room and front office the Bulls only find themselves one game under .500 at 23-24. There’s plenty of time for the squad to come together and ride the ship into the playoffs. There’s just not much optimism that that will happen. It’s hard to have trust in Hoiberg when he can’t figure out who he wants to play at point guard. He’s been playing musical chairs with the starting rotation all season. The lineups have been questionable to put it nicely. For a time he experimented with 6″8 rookie forward Paul Zisper in the starting rotation and getting more minutes than McDermott and Mirotic. That smells like desperation from the coach to me. Zisper actually hasn’t been terrible to be honest. He’s had a couple nice games scoring in double figures, but he shouldn’t be getting playing time over the players the Bulls have invested so much money in. 

So where does this leave the Bulls in the near future? This is truly an unpredictable situation. Division in the locker room is never a good sign but with a bonafide superstar like Butler leading the way and Wade to back him up, there’s reason to believe the Bulls can sneak into a playoff spot. If they can’t, you can expect Hoiberg to be gone and D-Wade almost certainly will pack his bags after the season. Then the Bulls will almost have no other choice but to go into rebuilding mode. Who would’ve thought the Cubs would be the best orginization in the city? 

Stats courtesy of NBA.com