The Bulls should truly be ashamed of themselves not making the Finals with the East in the state that it is in. You could blame the Gasol injury but that is no excuse with the Cavs down Love in the first place. Rose and Butler are the only two who came to play otherwise, Noah and Gibson were both complete non-factors, even if clearly not 100%, although I guess Dunleavy was pretty decent.
My real frustration is with the organization in general though. The dysfunction between the front office and Thibodeau never should've reached this level and that dysfunction obviously crept down into the team, and that is all on the front office. The Bulls management is extremely arrogant going back to the Jordan days, they had to have their arms twisted just to pay the GOAT what he was worth, they broke up the dynasty when it may have had another year or two left in it and they insist that titles are won by "organizations" and not players, basically ignoring the fact that basketball is more of a "players" sport than any other. On top of that they are ultra-conservative and closed-minded when it comes to personnel moves, they clutch to guys they overrate and write off guys who don't fit a certain profile. Hell, I believe they bought out JR Smith's contract a few years ago when he fits what they've needed for the past few years off the bench.
The fact of the matter is that the Bulls organization is run like a mediocre, profit-oriented, small-market team despite the fact that they are one of the most profitable, recognizable teams in the league, in a huge market at that. They don't seem to be willing to do whatever it takes to win big, to gamble on greatness like the Lakers or Celtics seem willing to do. They seem happy to be a good team that makes the playoffs, but they would rather just go the conservative route and hope things work out than to go all out to win in any given year.
Reinsdorf and his board members basically hit the jackpot when the Bulls lucked into the GOAT, and they don't seem particularly eager to go all out to build a winner again. If it hadn't been for their ridiculous luck to win the lottery when Rose came out I highly doubt this team would've been any better than a 40-45 win team over the past decade. They had a "bright" future with guys like Hinrich, Gordon and Deng back around 2005-2007, the organization was happy to let it ride without being aggressive to improve, that deteriorated (including a severe deterioration with Skiles, similar to what has happened with Thibodeau) to the point where the team went 33-49 in 2007-08, which is when they lucked into Rose, and now the process is repeating with the organization being its usual militant self when it comes to their "employees".
All in all, I don't really blame or have hatred for the Bulls players. The patterns that I've seen in terms of how the organization operates disgusts me and it is why I don't have any expectations for the team going forward. If Rose can stay on the court they will be good next year no doubt, no matter who the coach is. Butler is a bona-fide All-Star, Rose looks like he can play at an All-Star caliber level even if he isn't an MVP contender, Mirotic will get better and so forth, but looking at history I'm pretty sure the organization will be content with "good", merely hoping that "good" turns to "great" without actually doing anything proactive to become great, unless it fits their fiscal model of course.
And I was in France for the past week, but I appreciate that I am in your thoughts jiggy.