The Chicago Bulls are used to winning. Forget even about the rich Jordan-fueled history, the franchise missed the playoffs last year for the first time since 2008. Now Chicago will enter the 2016-17 season looking as different as any team not called the New York Knicks, Spurs or Warriors. Adding the mercurial point guard wizard Rajon Rondo gives the Bulls some potential old school magic in the backcourt, and then hometown hero Dwyane Wade came back to the Midwest from South Beach to play where he grew up. (Where on earth, LeBron, did he get that idea?) Lots of talk about how it’s still Jimmy Butler’s team ensued, of course, even though until Derrick Rose hit the bricks it was never clearly Butler’s team to begin with.
[Bulls: Jimmy Butler In “Great Frame of Mind” After Rose Trade — Coach]
But even with these three savvy veterans, the Bulls are young. As Chicago GM Gar Forman told the AP that after the Wade move: “You look at our team and we basically got a young team. We’ve got 10 players now with three years or less experience.” Forman talked about how Wade’s influence — he’s a winner renowned for his work ethic — on the young squad is something you “can’t put a value on.” Nevertheless Forman and the Bulls managed to put a value on it anyway: $47 million over two years, good wages in the tutoring business. Seems Wade will be charged with doing more than setting an example for all those young Bulls. Here’s how head coach Fred Hoiberg’s Bulls roster looks now.
