Random concert review: The Replacements, Poplar Creek Music Theater, 10 August 1989

I’ve had pretty good luck with live concerts for someone who doesn’t go to that many.  Nearly every show I’ve attended has at least one indelible memory associated with it, and as a result I’ve spent tons of time scouring the internet for recordings of shows I’ve attended.  Almost 20 years have passed since some of these gigs, so I thought I’d blog these memories before they’re erased from my rapidly fading memory.  File this under pointless nostalgia if you want. 

Mp3’s of the shows will be available for download when possible.

In my teens and twenties I was lucky enough to see a bunch of great shows–Naked Raygun at the Riviera, Superchunk and Guided by Voices at Lounge Ax, Elliott Smith at the Empty Bottle, Sugar at the Orpheum, and innumerable Bob Mould solo shows. 

But nothing stands out more in my mind than the times I’ve seen Paul Westerberg perform.  Like any self-respecting misfit Midwestern teen, I adored the Replacements.  I got into them relatively late, only hearing about them in 1987 or so thanks to my cooler older brother, but since then not a day goes by without a ‘Mats song popping into my head.  I could go on about how much the band meant to me, but just trust me–read Michael Azzerad’s chapter on the band in Our Band Could Be Your Life and you’ll get it.

I saw the Replacements twice.  The first time was on the infamous Tom Petty tour, at Poplar Creek Music Theater in suburban Chicago.  I was in hgh school at the time and didn’t have a car, so I managed to convince a friend to go and check out this band that was opening for Tom Petty.  It was probably one of the first concerts I attended.  Poplar Creek was a large amphitheater, and the two of us wound up way back on the lawn, seemingly miles away from the stage.  I couldn’t see Chris Mars at all, and Slim Dunlap was hidden behind a post or something like that, but I remember being able to see Westerberg and Tommy Stinson fine.

I’ve heard alot about how awful they were at times on that tour, but this night was amazing.  Years later, I landed a bootleg tape of the show, which (although it sounds like shit) confirmed my fading memories.  The pavilion seats were almost completely empty when they went on stage.  They opened with “Nightclub Jitters”, Paul wandering through the empty pavilion dressed in a way-too-large suit and goofy hat.  Returning to the stage, they stormed through “Alex Chilton”.  Paul changed the first verses’ lyric to “Standing right on campus / Would they stamp us R.E.M.“, which got a few raised eyebrows in the crowd.  Raised eyebrows was just about the only reaction, actually–most people were sitting down, drinking and picnicking, totally ignoring the band.  Tommy got pissed off about that pretty quickly, and started baiting the audience, leading to these priceless taunts:

• “If ya bought tickets to come see us, come on down and take these seats, they don’t give a shit.”
• “Popular Creek, right?”
• “You don’t know and you don’t care…Why don’t we just get drunk and shit up here all night?” To which Paul responded mock-reasonably, “You simply can’t do that anymore, Tom.  You have to be respectful.”
• “We got ten minutes left, whadda ya wanna hear?  Tom Petty?  He can kick us off, we don’t give a shit.”

Tommy actually jumped into the seats at one point, seeming to scare some Petty fans sitting in the front row.  Later he played sitting down for awhile.  During the closing “Bastards” he threw a couple pitchers of beer at the people in the seats, then smashed his bass to the ground and used the fragments like a club to trash his amp.  Following that, all of them gathered around a mic and whistled the theme from the Andy Griffith show.  And after that kiss-off to uncomprehending Petty fans, they staggered off the stage.  After all these years, it’s still the most incredible performance I’ve seen.

“Bastards of Young” live at the Orange County Speedway on 18 August 1989, about a week after I saw them.  Crowd seems a lot more appreciative. 

The Pixies also played in Chicago that night, at the Metro.  I later heard that the ‘Mats headed over to Wrigleyville after their set, and were in the audience for the Pixies gig.  Wish I’d thought of doing that.

I’ve been thinking about this show since the ‘Mats first four albums were just re-released on Rhino.  Here’s mp3’s of the show from a bootleg I obtained from the good folks at Color Me Impressed a few years ago, after searching for it for more than a decade.  Funny, the crowd doesn’t seem as overtly hostile as I remember, but maybe they were just cheering so the ‘Mats would get off stage.

The Replacements: Poplar Creek Music Theater, Hoffman Estates IL, 10 August 1989.  Download available for 7 days. The sound quality sucks–don’t say I didn’t warn you.  Do not circulate these compressed files, please.

01- Nightclub Jitters

02 - Cruella De Ville

03 - Alex Chilton

04 - Left of the Dial

05 - Achin’ to Be

06 - Darlin’ One

07 - Unsatisfied

08 - Another Girl Another Planet

09 - Here Comes A Regular

10 - Can’t Hardly Wait

11 - Bastards of Young

12 - Andy Griffith Theme

Q: Are we not men? A: No, you’re just employees.

Indignant Online has a must-read profile of the Bulls’ implosion last season. Chicago sports fans with long memories may remember that after signing Michael Jordan to an 8-year, $25 million contract extension in 1988, Jerry Reinsdorf told Jordan the contract was “the biggest mistake I ever made”, or words to that effect. Reinsdorf has always treated players like employees. I’ve always suspected Reinsdorf was OK with dismantling the Bulls’ dynasty in 1998 because (in addition to the financial windfall he’d reap from already-sold luxury boxes and season tickets) he wanted to wrest back the organizational power from Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson. Check out this illuminating–and balanced–1997 Sports Illustrated profile of Reinsdorf to get a sense of how he operates.

Over the past year, the Bulls’ organization has become one of the most dysfunctional in the NBA, almost as bad as perennial doormats like the Clippers. A major reason why is that the Bulls love to blame the players. Unfortunately the Chicago media eats this up–coaches and GM’s publicly criticizing players makes for great quotes–and a lot of fans like it too.  The Bulls’ emphasis on “character” fundamentally boils down to having players who will stay out of trouble (which is OK) and do what they’re told.  Don’t follow the script, and it’s always the player’s fault, not the organization.

But the players are men, not college kids, and when the organization insisted on treating players with 3 years’ NBA experience as if they should just be happy to have a job, they rebelled (to no one’s surprise).  With a coach who only knows how to lead by confrontation, and with the team’s alleged leader following his own selfish agenda, the Bulls self-destructed.

Not surprisingly, the Bulls have not had a superstar-caliber player in a decade.  Their organizational culture is part of the reason for this–given multiple lottery picks and young assets, John Paxson chose to attempt to build a Detroit-esque team with no superstars, rather than dealing picks and players for Kevin Garnett or Pau Gasol when he had the chance.  A superstar would challenge Reinsdorf’s desire for total control within the organization, and would push them toward paying the luxury tax (which Reinsdorf will not do). 

In order for the Bulls to become championship contenders again, the organization will have to accept an NBA truism: as attractive as an anonymous, blue-collar, hard-working team seems in theory, in reality such teams don’t even sniff the Finals.  The Bulls’ organizational culture is anti-superstar.  Right now, it’s also anti-winning.

The geopolitical ramifications of NBA coaching changes

 

 

Scott Skiles didn’t spend long on the dole, landing the Milwaukee Bucks’ head coaching job. As with all of Skiles’ teams, the Bucks should improve over the next couple of years until Skiles and the players can’t stand each other anymore, then another coach will have to pick up the pieces. 

It’s almost guaranteed that a Skiles regime will produce plenty of entertaining quotes, since Skiles loves to criticize his players in public.  (Exhibit A: When asked what Eddy Curry could do to improve his rebounding, Skiles replied “Jump“.)  Skiles also has an inexplicable love of players with limited skills like Andres Nocioni and Chris Duhon–bangers, caretaker point guards, and stereotypical NBA “character” guys.   

So what happens when when Skiles discovers his starting power forward is a mediocre rebounder and defender who prefers to stay out of the paint and loft jump shots?  Any Skiles observer knows what’ll happen: said starting PF will be the target of sarcastic asides and increasingly public criticism, will find himself benched in favor of nobodies like Michael Ruffin and Dan Gadzuric, and eventually will be traded.

Oh, but what if said starting PF is the second best basketball player from the largest country on earth, who only agreed to sign with Milwaukee after a personal appeal by the team owner (and U.S. senator), and apparently was guaranteed 20 minutes per game as a rookie? 

No, this won’t be a problem at all. 

Where’s YouTube when you need it?

This history of Dikembe Mutombo’s Finger Wag sadly omits the funniest play I’ve ever seen in the NBA.  The Bulls were playing the Hawks at Atlanta, back in the MJ/Pippen era when the Hawks starred Mutombo and Steve Smith.  Mutombo blocked a shot, turned and did the Finger Wag to the crowd.  Meanwhile, the ball was going out of bounds, and Steve Smith–in a move coaches tell you never to do–dove and flipped the ball back inbounds under his own basket.  The ball ricocheted right to Scottie Pippen, who grabbed it, took one step and pounded home a dunk over Mutombo, who was still standing with his back to the court triumphantly waving his finger.  The shocked expression on Deke’s face when he realized how thoroughly Pippen had punked him was priceless.

 Sadly, that clip is nowhere to be found on the internets.  So, in its absence, enjoy this:

Laugh all you want

Mr. Hey Larry Hughes please stop taking so many bad shots, but trust me, in a few weeks, you’ll be snapping up heybenwallacepleasestopmissinglayups.com, or heybenwallaceithoughtyouwereashotblocker.com, or even heybenwallacewhydontyoujusttakeyourmoneyandretirealready.com. 

Bob Mould: “District Line” review

(UPDATE 06 February:  if you order through Music Today you will not receive the 3 song bonus live CD included with some editions of the album.  Plan 9 Music has ”limited supplies” (and a better price), so you might want to try there instead.) 

First things first:  the album will be out on February 5.  You can pre-order the CD through Music Today.  Don’t bother asking me for the mp3’s or where you can find it online for free.  If you want to support artists, don’t be a fucking cheapskate.  Pay money for their work.

There’s no middle ground in being a sports fan–you feel high or low, elation or disappointment, anticipation or letdown.  Of course, that’s why we like it.  In its own way, everything about sports can be reduced to black-and-white, and genuinely complex issues can just be ignored until they go away.

Music fanhood is entirely different.  When a song evokes a true emotional response, the artist and the fan are always connected, and hearing the song years later can at least evoke memories of the initial response.  For most people, that’s as far as it goes.  You hear the song by that guy that was popular when we did that, your memories linger on it for a moment, and go about your life.

But if you’re lucky, at some point you’ll listen to music that hits you in the gut with emotion, summarizes everything disturbingly right and gloriously wrong about your existence, music seemingly written about you and for you–but by a complete stranger. 

Husker Du live at the 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis 05 September 1981 - “Gravity”

Husker Du did that for me.  Those three beefy Midwesterners played music as raw as an open wound, their combination of heart-on-sleeve lyrical frankness and thuggish musical power providing the perfect sound track to my alienated suburban teenagerdom.  Bob Mould’s solo efforts, Workbook and Black Sheets of Rain–the latter one of the most bitter breakup records ever–got me through college, and Sugar’s Copper Blue even now feels like my personal celebration of achieving adulthood, with all the attendant emotional ups and downs. 

Bob Mould live at Maxwell’s, Hoboken, New Jersey 12 March 1991 - “Chartered Trips”

A new Mould release generally gets a lot of damned-with-faint-praise reviews that basically say “it sounds like a Bob Mould album.”  That’s not entirely fair–since his career twists and turns took place over the better part of a decade, Bob probably hasn’t gotten the credit he deserves for expanding his musical palette.  Bob (hey, I feel like I’ve known the guy for 20 years now, I think I can call him by his first name) has had an odd career path since Sugar disbanded in early 1995.  After a couple of solo albums that–for the most part–stuck to formula, followed by a 1998 tour heralded as his final full-band electric outing, he wound up working as a pro wrestling writer for awhile, then began dabbling in electronic music.  After releasing Modulate in 2002, definitely the most experimental record he’s made, 2005’s Body of Song was heralded as somewhat of a return to form, mixing his traditional sound with electronica, and was followed by the full-band tour he’d sworn off only seven years before. 

I’ll confess that each of Bob’s post-Sugar releases has disappointed me to varying degrees.  I suppose that’s inevitable.  The music he made between 1984-1994 meant so much to me that it’s unfair to expect that kind of emotional resonance again.  Also, I’ve seen him do enough amazing live shows–particularly solo acoustic–that the albums themselves paled in comparison.  (The exception was his awful, embarrassing Modulate tour, in which he played along to synthesized beats with silly videos projected behind him, a presentation that removed all the energy and spontaneity from the show.  When I saw him in Chicago, he got booed, and deserved it.)  Still, each album has had a few good songs, and while I don’t get the urge to listen to Body of Song that much, a few songs (”Fucked Underneath Days”, “Beating Heart The Prize”) stand up with Bob’s best work.

Listening to a new Mould album, for me, is like getting together with a close friend you haven’t seen in awhile.  Of course you want to have a good time and see that your friend is happy, but you also want reassurance that the old emotional connection is still there.  It’s impossible for me to listen to District Line on its own, without any connection to Bob’s previous body of work and the impact he’s had on me.  I want to hear greatness.  I want to hear Bob come up with songs that will knock me sideways on first listen, like the first time I heard New Day Rising or Copper Blue. 

Husker Du - live at the Camden Underground, London 14 May 1985 - “Celebrated Summer”

Of course, that is a completely unfair expectation of any artist, especially now that Bob is 47 and leading what sounds like a happy, fulfilling life.  Not surprisingly, District Line doesn’t pack that kind of punch.  Don’t get me wrong, it sounds great.  Mould has finally figured out the right balance between guitars and effects, and apart from his annoying overuse of the vocoder (which I guess is just a new habit I’ll have to accept) the album sounds great blasting out of my speakers.  The guitars bite, the keyboards sparkle, Bob’s singing (when not heavily processed) is sweet, and Brendan Canty’s drumming smacks harder than a Federer forehand.  The songs vary between rockers and acoustic material, and all pack big hooks.  There’s only one overtly dancey song (”Shelter Me”), which sounds far less out of place than “Shine Your Light Love Hope” did on Body of Song.  And it all sounds familiar–sometimes a little too much so.  The vocal inflection in “The Silence Between Us” is the same as Body of Song’s “Best Thing”, and the opening bars of “Miniature Parade” are reminiscent of “Stop Your Crying”. 

What the album has in sonic punch, though, it lacks in emotional pull.  Only the opener, “Stupid Now”, really brings back the classic Mould vitriol in the lyrics.  Otherwise, the lyrical themes are more reflective, befitting Bob’s current place in life.  The closer, “Walls In Time”, fits in perfectly even though it’s actually a 20 year old song, an outtake from Workbook.  The album overall has a mannered feel.  It’s a collection of songs for adults who are dealing with adult issues, and doesn’t explore the emotional turmoil that Bob’s best work (or at least, my favorites) do.

In a way, that is disappointing, but to be expected.  Bob maturing into a craftsman in the singer-songwriter niche has been a long time coming, and during that time, I’ve become an adult with a job, a mortgage, etc etc just like everyone else.  I’m not even sure why I want Bob to plumb the depths of human emotions in his songs, since I don’t experience those sorts of highs and lows anymore.  But I know what he’s capable of, and even though that’s an impossible standard to hold him to, I still want to know that music can reach me emotionally like it did when I was 20.  Perhaps the lesson of District Line is that those sort of connections can’t happen past a certain age.  Listening to District Line isn’t anywhere near as jarring as seeing Jeff Pezzati’s tremor and masked facies, but after listening straight through I realized:  I am not a young man anymore.  If you’re comfortable with that, you’ll love this album.  Me, I think I’ll have to put it away for awhile. 

Download mp3 of “The Silence Between Us” at Spinner

Listen to District Line on Bob Mould’s MySpace page

The curious case of Ben Wallace

When the Bulls signed Ben Wallace to a $60 million free-agent contract in the summer of 2006, they believed they were getting a dominating rebounder and defender, and also a leader for a young team.  But there was plenty of evidence that Wallace was no leader.  During his Pistons tenure, Wallace had conflicts with both Larry Brown and Flip Saunders, and refused to enter a game at least once.  He also helped instigate the infamous 2004 brawl by overreacting to a Ron Artest takedown attempt.

It didn’t take long for the Bulls to find out Wallace’s true nature.  With he and the team off to a poor start, he started a childish feud with Bulls management about wearing a headband.  Although his play improved, his skills were clearly in decline, and he missed a few games with mysterious injuries.  He further cemented his me-first reputation by showing up late for a critical playoff game.

Things have gone from bad to worse this season.  Wallace apparently declined to be named a captain in the preseason, then allegedly quit on former coach Scott Skiles, who had the gall to limit Wallace’s minutes in an attempt to get the most out of him on the court.  At least Skiles triedto keep Wallace’s ego in check.  Like all interim coaches, Jim Boylan is beholden to his highest-paid vets, as he attempts to win enough games to be considered for the permanent head coaching job in the offseason.  Ergo, Boylan’s bizarre decision to not only go along with Wallace and Adrian Griffin’s urging to increase Joakim Noah’s punishment for mouthing off to assistant coach Ron Adams, but also to credit Wallace and Griffin for showing locker room “leadership“.  Locker room lawyering is more accurate–it’s difficult to interpret Wallace’s role as anything other than self-interest.  Would Wallace have reacted the same way if the offender wasn’t also a challenge to his playing time?  No matter what Noah did, the idea of Wallace suddenly assuming the leadership mantle is laughable.

Plain and simple, Wallace is a coach killer, and seems to be becoming a franchise killer as well.  Not to get all Free Darko on you, but Wallace’s situation neatly inverts many NBA stereotypes.  Fans and the media tend to assume non-scorers must also be good ”character guys” and leaders, simply because they don’t focus on the allegedly selfish act of scoring.  Few players can legitimately lay claim to the coach-killer title, and those that do are usually ballhogs with no use for defense, like Ricky Davis or Stephon Marbury.  Wallace appears hell-bent on proving that a rebounder/defender can be just as much of a prima donna as anyone else.  (The Wages of Wins guy actually believes Wallace was underpaid last season–Ben must have read his book). 

UPDATE:  This post was actually written before Wallace and Noah got into a locker room shouting match after getting their ass kicked by Orlando.  Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Bulls vs Kings: maybe the 2006 draft wasn’t a waste

Sacramento was missing its top two players and was playing the 2nd night of back-to-back road games.  Winning by a point isn’t impressive, but at least it was entertaining. 

The good:

• Thabo lives!  His 13 minutes was the first significant PT he’s received since the Boston massacre.  Sefolosha was active and aggressive during his 2nd quarter stint and even took a few jump shots.  He missed all of them–not surprising given his  .259 eFG on jumpers–but for a guy who often seems to run away from the ball on offense, this is progress.
• Tyrus lives!  He played 24 minutes–10 in the 4th quarter–with 14 points, 9 boards, and 3 blocks.  One block was an incredible recovery after John Salmons had beaten him on a drive.  But the yin and yang of Tyrus was on full display.  After forcing a turnover with just over 2 minutes left, he promptly threw the ball away while attempting to lead a 3-on-2 break.  Somewhere in Finland, Scottie Pippen put down his Nokia N95, turned to the blonde at his side, and nodded sagely.
• Big Ben is, uh, comatose!  Boylan smartly kept him out for much of the 4th quarter, finally reinserting him with just over 2 minutes left; in the final minute, he had an offensive board, made the deciding FT, then cleanly blocked Brad Miller on the Kings’ final posession.  

The bad:

• The Joe Smith Injury Watch continues.  He played 31 minutes, and is averaging 32.2 minutes since Boylan took over.  Just put him on the operating room schedule for mid-February.
• Duhon is now 5-for-28 from the field in his last 5 games, and 3-for-20 on 3’s.  But he doesn’t turn the ball over!  And missed shots never result in the other team getting the ball, of course. 
• Boylan’s lineup to open the 4th quarter:  Duhon, Gordon, Nocioni, Thomas, Gray.  That lineup has played less than 14 minutes together all season.  Not surprisingly, they gave up the lead in the first 3 minutes. 
• Noah:  3 minutes of PT.

Narrow wins over bad teams should be disappointments, given the high hopes entering the season, but they’re all we have to get excited about at this point.  Let’s see if the increased PT for Thabo and Tyrus continues.  And hey, how about playing Tyrus and Noah at the same time?

John Paxson’s record (part 1)

 

John Paxson faced an unenviable task when he landed the Bulls’ GM job in April 2003.  The team was trudging toward the end of a sixth consecutive horrendous season, and despite years of lottery picks, no end to the losing was in sight.  After taking over, Paxson made a series of decisive moves that seemed to have the Bulls on track toward recapturing their championship glory—until a disastrous start to this season resulted in the firing of Scott Skiles and the likelihood of more changes to come.  While Paxson’s job is safe, the heat will definitely be on if the Bulls fail to improve, and some major decisions will have to be made soon.

 

With that backdrop, let’s take a season-by-season look at Paxson’s major moves and their ultimate impact.

 

2003-04 Season

• June 19: Jay Williams injured in a motorcycle accident.

Paxson’s first offseason was marred by Williams’ injury, which ultimately ended his career.  The Bulls had the 7^th overall pick in the upcoming draft and were forced to use it on a point guard.  If Williams had stayed off his bike that day, Pax would likely have gone for a shooting guard-Jamal Crawford had already established his no-defense chucker rep by then. 

• Drafted Kirk Hinrich with the 7^th pick in the 2003 draft.

The two SG’s taken later in the lottery were Jarvis Hayes and Mickael Pietrus, both of whom have had careers that could be charitably described as “undistinguished”.  So I guess things worked out well anyway.  It’s worth noting that although people think the ‘03 draft was loaded just because of Lebron/Melo/Bosh/Wade, as in most drafts, there were few quality players availableafter the top 10.  Hinrich was probably the best pick Pax could have made at that spot.

• Fired head coach Bill Cartwright; replaced him with Scott Skiles.

The team started the ‘03-’04 season 4-10, so Pax had little choice but to relieve the popular but overmatched Cartwright.  Skiles had been out of the league for over two years before Pax came calling, and gave him a mandate to change the culture on a team comprised mostly of players who had no winning experience.  In retrospect, signing Skiles was exactly the right move, given the depths to which the franchise had sunk.  Skiles successfully instilled a hardworking, disciplined mentality, and led the Bulls to three playoffs in a row.  He also provided possibly the single best quote any coach has ever made about one of his players.  Subsequent events have shown that while Skiles is definitely a capable NBA coach, his phone is only going to ring when a GM is faced with a rebuilding process-for once, Sam Smith was probably correct in describing Skiles as “Larry Brown Lite“.  I’ll bet Ed Stefanski is already exchanging flirty IM’s with him. 

• Traded Jalen Rose/Donyell Marshall/Lonny Baxter to Toronto for Antonio Davis, Jerome Williams and Chris Jefferies (December 1, 2003).

Paxson’s first major trade, carried out chiefly to rid the team of Rose, whose allergies to defense and ball movement were anathema to Skiles’ philosophy.  Jerry Krause had traded Brad Miller and Ron Artest to Indiana for Rose, a move which seemed to make some sense at the time, but wound up being fairly disastrous for both franchises (though much worse overall for Indy).  The deal didn’t grant the Bulls much salary cap relief, thanks to the ridiculously large contracts Davis and Williams had received from Raptors GM Rob Babcock.  (Babcock would go on to plumb the depths of GM incompetence.)  Davis and his, er, easily provoked wife would last less than two seasons in Chicago, and “JYD” would be gone before the start of the next season.  While it was not recognized at the time, the trade deprived Baxter of the chance to bond with another noted gun enthusiast, Tank Johnson (who was drafted by the Bears a few months later).

2004-05 Season

• Traded a future #1 pick and cash to Phoenix for the 7^th pick in the 2004 draft.

Possibly the best move Pax has made, taking advantage of Phoenix owner Robert Sarver’s pennywise and pound-foolish ways to pick up a lottery pick in a good draft.  Phoenix simply didn’t want to pay the #7 pick’s salary; in exchange, they got Nate Robinson with the 21^st pick the following year, and promptly traded him and Quentin Richardson to the Knicks for Kurt Thomas. So, to summarize: the Suns could have had Luol Deng, but instead have, well, nothing.

• Drafted Ben Gordon with the 3^rd pick in the 2004 draft
• Drafted Luol Deng with the 7^th pick
• Drafted Chris Duhon with the 38^th pick

An outstanding job by Pax, even though at this point it appears that only Deng may have All-Star level ability.  While many solid contributors have come out of this draft, Gordon and Deng were clearly the best options with the 3^rd and 7^th picks.  The only superior players drafted later are Al Jefferson and perhaps Josh Smith (neither of whom has made an All-Star appearance either), but the Bulls were definitely not going to take another high school player after having had rocky times with Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler.  Picking up a solid backup PG in Duhon was a nice bonus.  Pax clearly hit a home run with this draft, even if the players’ limitations have been exposed subsequently.

• Bought out Eddie Robinson’s contract

ERob was Jerry Krause’s free agent prize in 2001, but essentially took his $32 million and mailed it in for the next three seasons.  He hasn’t been heard from since, and probably won’t be until the inevitable appearance of a story similar to this. 

• Traded Jamal Crawford/Jerome Williams to New York Knicks for Othella Harrington, Frank Williams, Dikembe Mutombo and Cezary Trybanski (August 5, 2004).

The Bulls had no intention of re-signing Crawford after drafting Gordon, so Pax decided to get what he could for him.  That turned out to be simply cap relief-though Harrington was a useful reserve for a bit, none of the other players achieved anything of note in a Bulls uniform.  The money saved from JYD’s contract and not signing Crawford largely went for Tyson Chandler’s contract extension (more on that later).  Letting Crawford go didn’t hurt the Bulls, as his rep has changed little since going to the Knicks:  good guy, streaky scorer, poor defender.  Fun fact: since Crawford entered the league, his teams have won less than one-third of their games (171-350, .328).

• Signed Andres Nocioni as free agent.

When this signing was announced, Bulls fans knew little about Nocioni except for one phenomenal YouTube highlight.  Oh wait, YouTube didn’t exist then–so we knew nothing.  Acquiring Noce (sorry, Chapu for all you Argentinian readers) for essentially nothing was clearly one of Paxson’s more savvy moves.  However, Noce has become a controversial figure among Bulls fans-his penchant for turnovers, wild shots, flopping, and borderline dirty plays at times outweigh his defensive and scoring skills.  He’s probably best suited as a bench player, but now makes starter’s money thanks to an extension signed last year. 

Going into the 2005 offseason, Pax seemed to have done everything right.  The team had made the playoffs for the first time since 1998, and Pax had assembled a dynamic collection of young talent under a respected head coach.  How did things go from there to the current unsettled situation?  The next two seasons will tell the tale.

In it to win

The Bulls have struggled all year for an unexpected reason:  Deng, Gordon, and Hinrich all decided to stink simultaneously.  Throw in the unfortunate demise of Ben Wallace’s career and a notoriously impatient coach, and it adds up to 9-16.  With Skiles out the door, the mighty Bulls blogosphere has been calling for more PT for Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, and treating the next 2 months before the trading deadline as an evaluation period.  Well, as Ziller noted, new coach Jim Boylan didn’t exactly heed those calls, giving TT and Noah a combined 4:12 of PT in yesterday’s win over the Bucks.

That should not come as a surprise.  Even with this disastrous start, the Bulls are only 2.5 games out of the 8th playoff spot.  Their upcoming schedule is soft, facing Philadelphia, Sacramento, the Knicks (twice) and Miami in the next 10 games.  Deng and (to a lesser extent) Hinrich have started to play better, and Gordon’s recent aggressiveness–he’s had 1/3 of his season’s FT attempts in the past 5 games–hopefully means he’s returning to form.  If firing Skiles treats at least some of Wallace’s malaise, by mid-January the Bulls could be within sight of .500 and solidly in the playoff hunt.

Paxson’s thinking no doubt goes something like this:  We’ve got an easy schedule coming up.  The Eastern conference is better, but Atlanta has the 4th seed right now, for chrissake.  Our best players can’t continue to play like crap forever, and our $60 million center has to show a pulse at some point.  We’re not out of this yet.

This team was picked to go deep into the playoffs just a couple of months ago, and Paxson isn’t going to blow up the team and start rebuilding.  So forget about TT and Noah getting 20-25 minutes a night–Pax and Boylan are definitely in win-now mode, and putting up with the inconsistencies of youth isn’t their game plan.  Expect to see plenty of Nocioni, Joe Smith, fan favorite Chris Duhon–and probably Aaron Gray–over the next few weeks.  Is this the right long-term strategy?  Maybe not, but Pax is thinking short-term.