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The one-time NBA powerhouse made famous by Michael Jordan must embrace the chaos of a lost season before tearing it all down (again). Who will survive and what will be left?
“What we’ve done tonight is set a direction,” said Chicago Bulls executive vice president John Paxson on 22 June 2017, the night of the NBA draft, after the team had just traded three-time All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves. “We’ve decided to make the change and rebuild this roster. We’re going to do it with young players we believe can play a system [head coach] Fred [Hoiberg] is comfortable with.”
In exchange for Butler, the Bulls acquired guards Kris Dunn and Zach LaVine, as well as Lauri Markkanen, whom the Timberwolves had just selected with the No 7 overall pick. In a sense, the trade provided some much-needed closure to the Tom Thibodeau era, though the coach had moved on from the club a season earlier. At a point, just before Butler’s arrival in Chicago, the Bulls saw themselves on the verge of returning to the NBA finals for the first time since the 1990s with a team, loaded with potential and helmed by hometown talisman Derrick Rose, that would be undone by in-fighting and injuries. It was time to move on to bigger and better things. A new rebuild had begun.
Continue reading...from US news | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2rNWuwZ
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