The Bulls are not the Bulls the Bulls sell

Catch up with New York, Indy, Dallas, Golden State, Atlanta

Among the many indignities Bulls fans suffer is their team’s Category 5 Cuteness. With Zach LaVine gone there is next-to-nothing to dislike about these Bulls.

Nikola Vucevic, maybe, but the typical Bulls fan long ago ran hoarse with curse words for the Chicago center, wearying from the effort and moving along. At least Vuc can catch a pass, Will Perdue dropped everything but the pen hovering over his contracts. And Zach’s not a bad guy, he should simply be on a different team, nothing personal.

Chicago fans tend to take the inevitable on the nose, saving energy for shivering with keys at the front door. Whether that’s cynicism or depression or sadness or six titles is for others to figure out, but no Bull fan expected the team to dismantle ranks at last Thursday’s trade deadline.

Not even attaching a pick to Vucevic’s contract to end the charade, years of NBA basketball informing us Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine needed every bit of a healthy Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso to make do.

Ball is out forever, Caruso (154 appearances out of a possible 218 career Bulls contests) often sits, as he did during Monday’s win over Atlanta with a stomped-upon left toe. And Chicago wouldn’t dump Vuc even with Nikola’s giddy pivot replacement in place.