The Bulls' Second Quarter: In which trade possibilities and free agency once again precede—possibly supercede—any genuine playoff optimism

I know things are bad when my uncle is joking (hopefully) about "adopting Memphis" as his new favorite NBA team.

My understanding is that the TV ratings for the team are actually better than last year, but I've also heard the topic of "Where's the outrage?" suggested more than once in regards to how Bulls fans are taking their usually sub-.500 team this year. I guess we're ignoring the continuing retardation of Derrick Rose by surrounding him with talent that "doesn't mesh well at all with his skill set." It seems to be OK since Rose is still young and the general consensus is that we're doing what it seems like Bulls fans do every year for as long as it's been since Jordan was called for pushing off made the shot that won us our last World Championship: We're relying on our next big acquisition. You know, that one move that'll put us over the top. I'm sure every city's got a similar franchise.

These days, that means the same Kirk Hinrich some people actually couldn't bring themselves to talk about moving for Kobe-fucking-Bryant a few years back is now back on the table when everybody plays fantasy GM. Tyrus Thomas is sort of the same story, but probably a tougher piece to move. And it's all about moving whomever we can to make cap room and hopefully land one of the many big fish, seeing as seemingly every game-changer becomes available during the much-ballyhooed free agent class of 2010. I think I've seen this story before, and usually all the biggest and best names from said "class" go to other teams and fans in Chicago are supposed to get excited about ... Ron Mercer. I'd try to think of a fine example of the sub-par talent I fear we're going to have end up settling with as what the front office will deem the best product they could offer, but that's ever-lingering thoughts on management that I was bitching about when I summarized my feelings after the first quarter of the season.

And since we last talked about the Bulls here on BMC, the team indeed still employs our man Vinny as the head coach. But just to point to one example that I'm not just another meatball blaming the front office without some real justification, Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski wrote up a fairly blistering piece following GM (kind of) Gar Forman's terribly awkward press appearance—amidst the daily speculation regarding Del Negro's job—in which he came out and basically told the media ... well, a couple lies and certainly not anything resembling a vote of confidence in that coach they have.

With a victory over the Spurs in San Antonio this evening, the Bulls have now won three in a row and are only one game under .500 on the year. The fact that this little winning streak (they had a pair of four-game winning streaks in this second quarter of the season) comes in the midst of a seven-game road trip is mildly remarkable, but as was said on the radio the other day, this year's Bulls team never gives you a feeling that they have something figured out that will translate to the consistency needed for, say, an extended playoff run.

And who's talking about a playoff run for these Bulls this season? The Cavs, as expected, will probably have the Central wrapped up by the time I'm done posting this and even if the Bulls do get into the playoffs (remember, it's actually harder to miss the post-season than make it since more teams get in than not in both the NBA and NHL), they'll be a lower seed that—at best—gives us another entertaining first-round series. Besides aforementioned Cleveland, then Boston, Orlando or even the Atlanta team that I had pegged as going out to the Bulls at the beginning of this year all appear to be squads that should have no problems with Chicago.

All of this, of course, assumes no roster changes despite the quiet hope for a move with slightly more news weight than today's shipment of Aaron Gray to New Orleans. The game that sadly leaps out to me the most from these past 20 or so contests since last writing about the Bulls would have to be the historic-in-a-bad-way loss to the Kings in which the team blew a 35-point lead.

But just to end on something of an upshot—and one of the most obvious reasons in regards to the players (besides Joakim, obviously) I keep coming back to the Bulls for this year—that Rose jersey is a lot more popular than I would have guessed. The kid keeps surprising me with what he can do every time I catch a game and at least one guy's already asked if his slam in the Suns game this weekend was the "Dunk of the Year?":