Dwyane Wade did not join the Chicago Bulls to contend for an NBA title—at least not this year.
Pressed about the expectations of his new team, the 34-year-old shooting guard brushed off talk of winning a championship this season, per Vincent Goodwill of CSN Chicago:
Wade scoffed at “championship” expectations: “Coming off where you don’t make the playoffs, your goal can’t be winning a championship"
— Vincent Goodwill (@vgoodwill) October 11, 2016
Wade: "We’re not thinking longterm right now. We’re in the moment. We’re thinking short term. No predictions this early in the preseason."
— Vincent Goodwill (@vgoodwill) October 11, 2016
Though our initial reaction might be to pounce on this, we really shouldn’t. Wade doesn’t deny that there are lofty expectations in Chicago, here and now. He specifically says the Bulls aren’t concerning themselves with the big picture at the moment, so he’s not peddling some BS about a rebuild or patience that Chicago is in no place to exhibit.
With the exception of the 2010-11 Miami Heat, and the 2014-15 Cleveland Cavaliers, and the 2007-08 Boston Celtics, and some other teams throughout history, championship-level units aren’t built overnight. The Bulls, as Wade notes, didn’t make the playoffs last season, barely keeping their heads above .500. Any reasonable human cannot expect the additions of Robin Lopez, Rajon Rondo and Wade to culminate in an instant title, especially when the Bulls also lost talent in Mike Dunleavy, Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose.
Frankly, it’s smart of Wade to temper expectations. Newly forged formations take time to gel, and he has a player option for next season. There, in theory, shouldn’t be any real rush to pass judgment on his own team.
More than that, the Bulls’ best-case scenario isn’t all that great. Could you see this team in the Eastern Conference Finals, facing off against the Cavaliers? If everything breaks right for them—and that includes getting improved shooting from Rondo and Wade—then sure, maybe you could. But the pieces on this roster, namely Jimmy Butler, Rondo and Wade, aren’t guaranteed fits. So it’s smart of Wade to temper expectations and pump the brakes on championship talk. The Bulls’ brass had to know when they assembled this cast that they wouldn’t be winning any immediate titles, and there’s no reason for Wade to feign a different opinion, even if he’s higher on Chicago than he’s letting on.
