Where It All Went Wrong: Bulls, Suns & Lakers (Pt. 1)
These three are sure to drum up some comments. Let me know down below because as you can see, doomed from the jump, I have the Chicago Bulls, the Phoenix Suns, and yes, the Los Angeles Lakers. Let’s break each of the three down, but I’ve put them together because ultimately they had an underlying theme for the three, and that is flawed rosters heading into the season. Let’s start with the aforementioned Chicago Bulls. when we talked about the Sacramento Kings and trading Zack Lavine because what is the plan in Chicago? They have been toiling in mediocrity throughout the entirety of this general manager regime and the regime of Billy Donovan who they surprisingly enough just gave a contract extension. But what is the plan in Chicago? because it seems like every year the plan is to make the playin and maybe just be good enough to qualify for the eighth and final spot via winning the playin to be this sacrificial team to go up against the east first seed. Chicago seems to have no plan and I will give them credit because they execute it perfectly every single year. Speaking of plans, what was the plan that the Phoenix Suns had in mind when they traded for the monster contract of Bradley Beal? It feels as if they were the only people and Matt Ishbia, their owner specifically, that did not see this coming and that Bradley Beal in Phoenix would not work out given the second apron restrictions and the roster restrictions that handicap your franchise when you have three players making that much money. For the Phoenix Suns, they had their moments. And really where it all went wrong was when Kevin Durant got injured because if you do remember back KD was playing at MVP caliber levels early in the season, but he could not play enough games to stick around and keep Phoenix at that level in an uber competitive Western Conference. So their roster was flawed from the jump and that is why they have landed in this doomed from the jump category.
For 29 NBA teams, the season was ultimately a failure. But where did it all go wrong?
We find out.
Where It All Went Wrong (Part 1) – Doomed from the Jump