Paxson can bask in Bulls' success

John Paxson has taken a pounding here the last few years.

And, by the way, deserved every bit of it.

But now the Bulls' boss deserves all the praise for his team being near the top of the NBA and with a real shot to get out of the Eastern Conference this season or in the next couple of years.

Yes, he got lucky and hit the most unlikely lottery of all when the Derrick Rose pingpong ball bounced his way, but that's not his fault.

Seriously, you can't blame the man for having good luck and falling folding-chair backward into Rose.

Let's also remember that he could have chosen Michael Beasley with that first pick in 2008, and he got it right.

Paxson put the Bulls in a position to score with a pair of monster free agents in the summer of 2010, and while failing to land any of his biggest targets, he did finally snag the low-post scorer in Carlos Boozer the Bulls have needed forever and a day.

Boozer has his faults, to be sure, but Bulls guards have wondered for years where the easy buckets would come from down low, and Boozer has — when healthy — provided the answer.

But in the smaller moves that garnered little attention at the time is where Paxson has worked some magic.

After Portland took Omer Asik 36th in 2008, Paxson acquired the rights to the 7-foot rookie from Turkey for three second-round picks in 2009 and 2010.

Last July, he picked up C.J. Watson from Golden State in exchange for a 2011 second rounder, and he also signed free agent Kurt Thomas.

While filling out the roster, Paxson resisted the urge to trade Taj Gibson. True, James Johnson was a disaster, but at least Paxson admitted that mistake, sent Johnson packing, and in the same first round as Johnson in 2009 the Bulls picked up Gibson.

In the process, Paxson has given the Bulls the deepest and best bench in the East and given them a serious chance to compete for the big prize in the near future, notwithstanding a sickly effort Monday night.

Of course, there is always some luck involved, like Joakim Noah developing into more of a player than even Paxson could have imagined. Noah is still limited offensively and is always an injury waiting to happen, but with appropriate expectations he gets the job done.

Paxson overpaid Luol Deng and because of that has been unable to trade him, but Deng has become — for long stretches this season — the player Paxson thought he was when he handed him all that cash three years ago.

On top of that, Paxson finally found himself a coach, and a very good one in Tom Thibodeau.

The Bulls have yet to win a first-round series with this group, but it will happen this year and much of it will be due to Thibodeau's relentless approach to defensive responsibility.

He teaches it, preaches it and demands it from his players, consequences included when they don't match his intensity — which was clearly the case Monday night in a no-show against Philadelphia.

The Bulls looked awfully tired after an extended run of max-effort games, and Thibodeau will learn to manage minutes more carefully and keep in mind that not every game is an NBA Finals contest.

Nevertheless, it has been a remarkable year for Paxson, beginning with his decision to shed his maddening obstinacy and make deals to create the cap space necessary to make a run at LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

In the middle of it all he admitted another mistake by firing Vinny Del Negro, which was the worst of the Paxson gaffes.

It's a shocking turnaround considering all the errors that culminated in Paxson nearly starting a fight with Del Negro last spring, after it was Paxson who neglected to pull Noah from the lineup and instead foolishly asked Del Negro to limit the big man's minutes when the coach was trying to save his job.

That was after years of failing to land stars Kevin Garnett and Pau Gasol, waiting too long to trade players he'd fallen in love with — like Deng, Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Tyrus Thomas and Andres Nocioni — and the signing of Ben Wallace for four years and $60 million.

Of course, none of it would matter now if Rose hadn't decided last summer that he wanted to be the MVP and lead his team to the NBA Finals. His desire is both real and spectacular.

But in that same time frame, Paxson has gone from a man making mistakes to the manager of a team on the verge of claiming the No. 1 seed in the East.

He has gone from disaster and indecisive to certain and triumphant, and he ought to be executive of the year in the NBA.

There's still work to be done and the Bulls aren't there yet, but after years of feeling the heat Paxson ought to be feeling great.

He deserves at least that much.

brozner@dailyherald.com

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