Should We Be Bullish on Ex-Bulls?

Not so long ago, sportswriters used the number of former Chicago Cubs on a major league baseball roster to determine that team's success in the post-season. The more exes there were, the greater the probability the team would fail.

With the NBA playoffs upon us, I'm wondering how that affects professional basketball teams with former members of the Chicago Bulls in their lockerooms.

It was a decade ago that the Bulls seemed on the verge of championship contention. Anchored by nascent superstar Derrick Rose, they possessed all the ingredients for a long run of success. But recurrent injuries to Rose's knees derailed what would have been a brilliant NBA career, and with it the aspirations of the entire roster.

Center Joakim Noah is retired, as are forwards Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng. But a smattering of the roster (including coach Tom Thibodeau) remains active. As do several other former Bulls.

So you have to wonder how the resurgent Atlanta Hawks (with Kris Dunn), Washington Wizards (with Robin Lopez and Daniel Gafford) and New York Knicks (with Rose, Taj Gibson and coach Thibodeau) will fare.

Ditto the Miami Heat, featuring built-in-Chicago superstar Jimmy Butler and fresh off an appearance in last year's NBA Finals. And we shouldn't forget the Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago refugee Bobby Portis.

So despite this season's startling success, does the fact the roster carries three ex-Bulls mean that Knicks' fans should be waving the white flag? Is their series with the Hawks (with only a lone Bull) a foregone conclusion?

And what of the Wizards? With zero ex-Bulls on the Philadelphia 76er roster, is their stirring late-season comeback and return to the post-season doomed to failure?

And how will things shake-out between Miami and Milwaukee? With a single ex-Bull populating each roster, do they negate each other, leaving their teams to fight it out on basis of merit?

With a fourth consecutive losing season, one over-before-it-began playoff appearance in their last six and a desultory rebuild mired in mud despite a new GM and a new coach, it's a bit disconcerting to see so many ex-Bulls thriving in new environments.

As fans do, I grew very attached to the teams coached by Thibodeau and Scott Skiles. Those rosters were gritty and talented. They played defense. Most importantly, they complemented each other.

It was tough to see them so rarely move beyond the first round.

I'm happy for Thibodeau's success, even if he's coaching my second least-favorite team in the NBA. The same goes for Rose, forced to consume a good deal of humble pie since the sparkling first act of his NBA career.

But I'm left wondering why the Bulls remain with an uneven, disjointed roster after so many other teams (Phoenix, Denver, Utah, Atlanta and those Knicks) have risen to contention in the same time frame.

If I even needed the impetus, I appreciate the Jordan-era dynasty anew.

Nikola Jokic

Denver Nuggets' center Nikola Jokic looks like the guy who shows up at your house to load your stuff on to a moving van. This impression is cemented by his no-nonsense gaze, squared-off jaw and a haircut which says freshly discharged. Or paroled.

You pity the bartender forced to cut him off.

He's big (7' 0” 250 pounds), but his musculature isn't cut the way so many player's are these days. However, any inferences you draw from his lack of definition are at your own risk. Just ask Enes Kanter.

In contrast, his hands are as soft as a used baseball mitt. They are quick and supple and move with a speed completely at odds with the physique attached to them. When they're not depositing the ball into the basket, they're deftly firing a no-look pass to a forward standing on the wing or sending a letter-perfect bounce pass to a guard streaking towards the hoop.

For someone predisposed to a style of basketball reliant on ball movement and motion, it is a thing of beauty.

Without a post-season appearance, I have been mostly unfamiliar with Mr. Jokic. But minutes into a Nuggets game, it becomes clear how their offense works. He is not only is one of the best-passing big men I've ever seen, but one of the best passers, period.

His passes are sharp and focused. They rarely find their way into opponent's hands. The Golden State Warriors, practitioners of soft, lazy, frequently ill-advised cross-court lobs, could learn from this guy.

Also running counter to type is Jokic's free-throw shooting.

For reasons unknown, many big men struggle at the line. Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O'Neal are just two of the literal and figurative giants who could seemingly score with a dozen power forwards hanging from their necks.

But a straight on, uncontested shot fifteen feet from the basket? Nope. Both struggled to make half their free-throws, frequently making far less.

Fortunately, Jokic is better. His career mark stands at eighty-two percent, which removes the temptation of the Nuggets' opposition to employ the hack-a-Shaq routine as tight games draw to a close.

Lastly, would it surprise you to learn that Jokic also has a nice touch from the three-point arc? Although he retrenched from his career-high of .396 a year ago, Jokic demands attention when loitering on the three-point line.

So. Jokic can score. Jokic can pass. Jokic hits his free-throws and is a threat from the three-point line. What can't Jokic do?

We may be decades-removed from the nineteen-nineties, but rumor has it that defense is still played in the NBA. And like so many of his eastern European brethren, every day is business casual Friday when it comes to playing D.

Yes, the rebounding is solid. But no one will ever accuse him of suffocating opposing bigs. Perhaps it's the long shadow cast by Yugoslavia's oppressive Tito regime that keeps Jokic from offending (or defending as it were).

But Jokic is young. And abundantly gifted with what is called basketball IQ, the future is bright. Denver has a talented and cohesive core. They play well together. Can you imagine the league-wide nightmare the Nuggets would be if Kawhi Leonard headed west? Or Anthony Davis?

(Playing in front of Denver's combustible fans would require OSHA-approved hearing protection.)

Perhaps the addition of a bona-fide superstar would spur Jokic to take that final step to unassailable, incontestable greatness. That the scent of a championship would drive him to fulfill this last, empty corner of his potential.

Alas, I am an old man writing about a young one. And I know only too well the cocky arrogance of the youthful male ego. Surrounded by adoring fans, sycophants and ass-kissing agents, Jokic may feel things are fine just the way they are.

That he has come a long way from Serbia and attained the American dream of wealth and fame. What else is there?

It will be interesting to see this story play out.