CLEVELAND – Common sense screams that by the time the Feb. 6 NBA trade deadline comes and goes, the Bulls would have purged.
That vice president of basketball operations John Paxson will have taken any extra freight, and thrown it overboard to lighten the load of the sinking ship.
Since when does this front office work on commonsense, however?
What if they are in fact looking to be buyers? To take some weight off of Zach LaVine’s shoulders and add a legit secondary scorer?
It’s not out of the realm of possibility, especially if the organization feels they are in striking distance of a playoff seed in the Eastern Conference.
According to coach Jim Boylen, conversations like that have not taken place with him in the room yet. That could change this upcoming week in which the Bulls will truly be tested by the schedule.
“We have not talked about that,’’ Boylen said, when asked about building the roster up, rather than sending assets out. “It doesn’t mean we won’t. We’re in the middle of a really tough stretch of games, and a lot of games, so my focus has been on that.’’
It better be.
A home game with the Spurs on Monday starts what could turn into a death march, thanks to three straight road games at Indiana, Brooklyn and Toronto.
Yes, the East is a punchline after Philadelphia in the No. 6 seed, but there’s also a business of basketball. The Bulls entered Sunday three games behind the Nets for the No. 8 seed, but could a losing week widen that gap and have Paxson rethink the deadline?
Boylen expressed his opinion on that matter, and was hoping that the locker room looks the same after Feb. 6 comes and goes.
“I love the guys we have, and we’re going to keep coaching and teaching the guys we have, and I’ve got a good group, a willing group, a coachable group,’’ Boylen said. “It’s going to be ‘we and us,’ and ‘we and us’ are going to keep working.’’
Doing so completely short-handed.
Wendell Carter Jr. (right ankle) told the Sun-Times last week that he was ahead of schedule for his return, and rookie Daniel Gafford (right thumb) has also been making progress for a return shortly, but neither move the needle as scoring threats.
The loss of Otto Porter Jr. (fractured left foot) just weeks into the regular season, and now shutting down Lauri Markkanen (right pelvis) this week, have completely neutered the fire power that the Bulls had anticipated having on the offensive side of the ball.
LaVine only has so many 40-point games in him.
With defensive-minded players like Carter and Gafford on the mend, maybe the move is trading Thaddeus Young and a Denzel Valentine for more scoring. Even if Markkanen and Porter return, it could be March by then, with a shot at No. 8 well out of reach.
LaVine said last week that he would welcome the organization coming to him and bouncing roster ideas his way, but until that happens, he’s staying tight-lipped about his opinion of where this roster currently stands.
“I mean with the team, we’re working every day,’’ LaVine said in Cleveland. “We haven’t had any disappointment. I think we’re disappointed that we haven’t won as many games as we thought, but there’s still a lot of season left. I can understand why the fans are mad, they want to win every season. We’re building to get to that point, but all you can do is just look forward to the next game and try and win that next game.
“I’m not a GM, I’m a player, so I take my stance as what can I do to help this team.’’
