The Chicago Bulls’ front office, in place since the firing of Jerry Krause back in 2003, does not like to answer questions publicly. Presented as a friendly alternative to Krause’s oft-mocked ways – the man was cast as singularly secretive and painted in some quarters unfairly as sinister – the team’s basketball operations duo of John Paxson and Gar Forman have instead taken to the stylings of their predecessor in ways that are far from becoming.

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Minus, of course, the six championships that Krause and his staff enjoyed. Chicago’s new front office will point to all those postseason appearances since 2005, nine in total, while the fans will point to an unending malaise and paucity of leadership and clarity that took tangible form during the team’s embarrassing, nationally-televised loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday afternoon.

That defeat, one that saw the Celtics so safely in the lead that the team decided to work the wave during game action, was Chicago’s fifth straight. It dropped the team a game and a half behind the No. 8 seeded-Milwaukee Bucks for the final spot in the Eastern Conference’s already-embarrassing playoff bracket.

A team featuring fringe MVP candidate Jimmy Butler, Robin Lopez in perhaps a career year and Dwyane Wade is working on a 39-win pace, and that’s after we round up. It has been a very bad year for the Chicago Bulls, a team created without a sense of direction and, in just about every instance, a semblance of tact.

To say nothing of an acknowledgement as to how the modern game is played. That’s to even presume mixing Wade and Butler and Rajon Rondo would fly in any era, as if slapping together Michael Ray Richardson and Bobby Dandridge on a team in 1981 would have ever shook the league’s foundation.

Forman and Paxson aren’t answering questions about the why offense that everyone knew in July wasn’t gonna fit … ain’t fitting. A post-wave Dwyane Wade, placid as ever as he counts down the 110 days left between Sunday’s loss and his ability to opt out of his 2017-18 contract with the Bulls, wouldn’t mind yet another Chicago Bulls employee stepping in to do the work for him:

The Chicago Tribune’s K.C. Johnson professionally points out that Wade was speaking bright and easy as opposed to resentful and with a chilly tone:

Well, yeah. I mean, despite the eight points on 4-11 shooting, the guy did have some energy in reserve:

Wade went on:

Butler has shot just 37 percent from the floor since injuring his heel against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 1, a span that has included 12 games, two stints on the injured list (totaling four games), a seven day All-Star “break” (and game, in which Butler shot just four times, hitting for six points, in 19 minutes; the lowest marks among East starters) and 40 days (40 days!) in full.

His averages have taken a tumble as a result, as he plays for a team set to miss the playoffs for the second straight year, while dealing with an injury that, seemingly at best (what if this eventually requires surgery, as was the case with some former Bulls?) will only be better once the offseason hits.

Chicago, in the wake of a mediocre 2016-17 season and a deal that sent a strong starter and bench helper to Oklahoma City for little in return, is left wondering if it is best served shooting for the playoffs, or developing its young, um, prospects.

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Those questions led to Wade’s bland insistence that John Paxson and Gar Forman address the queries. Neither travels with the team, Paxson gives the odd local and/or radio interview while Forman’s most recent in-season discussion with the press featured a statement and no questions, making Jerry Krause himself look as ubiquitous as your typical modern, podcast-friendly and Twitter-literate, 2017-era GM.

The new front office seems not only averse to the modern sense of patter, but the modern sense of research; which is why one recent study painted the Bulls as among the few that paid little-to-no attention to what the rest of the league (and not Bulls front office) consider to be “advanced analytics.”

This is perhaps why a surprised Rajon Rondo questioned if “analytics” were behind the decision to play left-for-dead deep reserve Michael Carter-Williams ahead of the consistent Jerami Grant in the Chicago rotation on Saturday in a loss to Houston, following a good run of play from MCW in the teams’ previous meeting against Rockets star James Harden.

A desperate (if understandable) move made under the influence of a 35-minute sample size shouldn’t count as “advanced analytics,” that’s just a “Michael plays well against the team in red”-level of scouting that even the junior high set would pay attention to. Either way, Rondo contradicted himself later, after chiding the Bulls for the team’s win-now move with Carter-Williams (who missed five of seven shots after scoring 23 in his team’s first pairing with the Rockets), when he offered this in talking to Vincent Goodwill at CSN Chicago:

Dwyane Wade, after lamenting the predictability of the Chicago offense …

… was more supportive of his coach:

Yeah but:

Wade never checked in with the Bulls because he never had to, they didn’t deserve his respect after chasing him down to the tune of a two-year, $47 million contract with a player option for 2017-18 that he most assuredly will take advantage of. If you need any confirmation on his “check out status,” read what just flew under the radar:

We’re here, man. It’s unfortunate.

Meanwhile, 2014’s saviors in Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic are either traded, or stuck with a DNP-CD:

“Lauvergne” is recently-acquired Joffrey Lauvergne, who has missed 17 of 23 shots as a Bull. Cameron Payne, plucked in the same deal that sent Taj Gibson, McDermott and a draft pick to Oklahoma City, is playing the same way he had with the Thunder. Terribly.

Terribly:

Terribly:

Terribly:

Terribly:

Jimmy Butler remains the team’s star, and for a change he appears a bit resigned, yet in a cheerful turn:

The problem is that we can’t tell, exactly, what the Chicago Bulls are supposed to be succeeding at.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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