Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats are sort of a dream team
of other sorts.
It’s a roster that is so impossibly bad, boring and
hopeless, that you couldn’t imagine anyone doing this on accident. This wasn’t
just a “oh our two bigs got hurt” and then the season spun out of control.
It’s a tank job. I called it at the beginning of the season.
And you know what? It might work…if the Bobcats get the top pick and can draft
Anthony Davis.
But that’s only if they get the top pick, which often hasn’t
been the case for the worst team in the league in the past decade.
We read that Tyrus Thomas lost a fight to his 68-year-old
coach and care barely cracks the starting rotation of a team that is almost certainly
going to break the record for the worst team of all time. Really, this is
unprecedented bad.
A lot of people who don’t watch the NBA will say to me: “I
never heard of the Charlotte Bobcats.”
Tyrus’ demise is sort of fascinating because he was the
Bulls draft bust and one of the biggest blunders of
John Paxson’s career. He
was the wrong guy at precisely the wrong time. But at least Paxson netted a
draft pick that could amount to a top five pick in a few years out of it.
You look around the league and you see all the former Bulls
basically floundering. Ben Gordon looks
like he can’t play basketball anymore as he’s lost in Detroit. Kirk Hinrich has
become a highly paid journeyman who barely plays on a team on the eternal
trajectory of sideways. Vinny DelNegro can’t turn a team consisting of two of
the top 10 players in basketball into one of the league’s elite, while Tom
Thibodeau has the team with the best record sans the league MVP. Chris Duhon
and Andres Nocioni are basically out of basketball.
I suppose Tyson Chandler has flourished.
Oh, in the mean time, the Bulls pummeled the Bobcats—crashing
the boards, closing out on shots, hitting their shots and basically could have
pitched a shutout if they wanted to. Rip Hamilton had a nice game as did Carlos
Boozer and the Chicago Bulls beat writers are essentially praising the two for
beating a team that might, just might, get aced in the NCAA Tournament.
Luol Deng and Derrick Rose didn’t play and Rose may not play
against the Miami Heat tonight in a match that was supposed to be meaningful
but hasn’t been all season. That means the Heat have a chance to grab the top
seed if they win out.
The Bulls need to get healthy while winning a few games. My guess
is the Heat play unusually inspired ball on a Thursday evening, making us ache
for Derrick to return. In some ways, we’re sort of like the rich crying about
capital gains tax. The Bulls are likely to lock down the top seed, but it would
be even nicer with their best player on the court.
Contact Mike Mitchell
at michaelkennethmitchell@gmail.com.
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