The Bernstein Brief: Bulls Making It Hard For Smart Fans
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) It's likely that even this uninspiring and often uninspired Bulls team makes the playoffs.
Yaaaaaay.
Nobody ever wants to be put in the position of rooting against their team, but any fan capable of the least bit of critical thought has to be dismayed at the prospect of all the wrong messages being sent to and by a management team with a habit of fooling itself.
A couple playoff wins or a not-impossible second series do little to get this team closer to winning a title, and missing out on this lottery would set them back. The Bulls could have dealt Jimmy Butler for a spot there already, a move that would have facilitated another higher selection of their own. Instead, they ride him for more heavy minutes into the spring, risking the devaluation of an asset -- one thing at which the Bulls have proven exceptional.
A flaccid bottom of the conference rewards their spasms of competence that are interrupted by games in which they forget or refuse to play. One of the many remaining Hooray For Everything fanboy zombies might see something to believe in, but the rest of us have seen too much of this before.
This isn't progress, but it will masquerade as such just enough in a way to perpetuate more useless Bulls mediocrity.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Bernstein and Goff Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.