At just 34 years-old, Luol Deng chose to retire last Thursday. And by signing a one day contract, he was able to end his career officially as a Chicago Bull. The place where it all started.
Though it’s easy to forget, Deng was considered the second-best prospect coming out of high school behind LeBron James. And may I remind you, while LeBron went straight to the pros and Deng chose to play one year at Duke, the 2003 recruit class quietly included future first-ballot Hall of Famer, Chris Paul. Notwithstanding Deng plausibly not living up to the high standards he received as a high school recruit — like many of his peers from that particular recruiting class — he still managed to have a very solid professional career upon declaring for the draft in 2004.
Throughout his 15 years in the league, Deng made two All-Star teams (2011 and 2012), an NBA All-Rookie Team (2005), and was a member of the second NBA All-Defensive team (2012). Still, now that this chapter in his life has finally come to an end, one can only beg the question: why was Deng never the same player after being traded from Chicago?
Older Bulls fans, who grew up during the “Baby Bulls” era, can recall fan-favorite, Ben Gordon. Whether he started or was the sixth man, he was going to play his role and serve as the team’s primary scorer. Gordon was widely respected amongst NBA players for several years. Most notably, by Chicago native, Dwyane Wade. But those high scoring successful seasons came to an unanticipated halt, during the 2009 off-season.
According to Sam Smith, Gordon felt disrespected with the Bulls offering Deng more money than him. After all, Gordon was one of the primary reasons the Bulls were able to push the Celtics to 7 games during the infamous 2009 playoff series, while Deng was sitting on the bench due to injury. As a result, Gordon rejected the Bulls offer and chose to sign with Detroit for a five-year 58 million deal — which was considered a substantial amount at the time (before the enormous deals we all witnessed during the cap spike).
In the course of his 3-year stint with the Pistons, Gordon became a member of a below .500 team whose best player was an aging Richard Hamilton — one of the last remaining members of the 2004 championship team Joe Dumars had built, along with Tayshaun Prince. Though Gordon showed flashes on some nights, he never came close to the level of production that he had shown in Chicago and struggled to ever find a consistent rhythm. After being moved to Charlotte, already being on his last legs and his decline being as evident as ever, he was out of the league just 2 seasons later.
Interestingly enough, 5 years later, a month before the 2014 February trade deadline, Deng and the Bulls couldn’t come to terms on a deal either. Resultantly, unlike their experience with Gordon, in terms of letting the player walk for nothing in return, Deng was sent to the Cavs in exchange for future draft picks and Andrew Bynum.
Like his former teammate and 2004 rookie peer, Deng would go on to endure his own struggles as he would become expendable, witness his stats decline, and never be able to find a long-term home; Deng went from having a respectable 10-year career in Chicago to having short 1 to 2-year stops in Cleveland, Miami, Los Angeles, and Minnesota, only to eventually come to the conclusion that his time in the league had reached its climax.
In Chicago, Luol Deng had made a name for himself by becoming a two-time All-Star under head coach Tom Thibodeau. Maybe having Derrick Rose helped him, largely due to his inability to consistently create his own offense, but it’s worth noting Rose was only healthy for his first 3 years in the league. For the 2011-2012 season, he was in and out of the lineup, due to multiple injuries piling up. In the 2012-2013 season, he rehabbed his ACL injury and was not yet ready to return. And as for the 2013-2014 season, Rose tore his meniscus just 10 games in and was out for the remainder of the season.
As for Deng, his 3-point percentage might have suffered, with Rose no longer being the defense’s primary focus, but he continued to average 16 to 19 points a game. Much of the credit can go to Deng himself, but for the most part, coach Thibodeau. Vinny Del Negro never chose to run post plays for Deng on occasion. Good old coach Thibs did. It was almost a match made in heaven.
Giving credit where credit is due, one must also not disregard Scott Skiles’ influence: Deng’s first head coach. Aside from his bad temper and reputation for being a short-term coach, Skiles arguably helped pave the way by nurturing Deng into becoming one of the league’s best wing defenders (Deng also showed flashes of stardom during the 2007 playoffs against the Heat, despite never fulfilling that potential). Only 3 years later, Thibs then went ahead and took that player development to another level.
Oddly enough, the same coach who helped Deng flourish might have also reduced the small window of his prime he had left.
Essentially, by Thibodeau having Deng play heavy minutes, specifically around the 39-minute range, for consecutive seasons, it’s not far fetched to believe that the wear and tear might have caught up to him.
Taking into consideration a change of scenery and the lack of touches, there are only so many reasons that can explain a 30 to 31-year-old All-Star regressing so immensely. In Miami, Deng played the stretch 4 position pretty well, especially during the 2016 playoffs, but by the time he went to Los Angeles, all of a sudden his numbers dropped to single digits. And by his second year in Los Angeles, as well as after signing with Minnesota, he began receiving constant DNPs.
Throughout his entire career, Deng never dealt with a severe or career-threatening injury like Kobe, Rose, or Roy, so were these organizations just looking to bring him in for veteran leadership towards their young players? Did the Lakers just throw a 72-million deal at Deng just because they needed to spend the money on someone during the 2016 cap spike summer? One can only come up with so many theories.
Yet a post-Bulls decline in performance isn’t the only thing Gordon and Deng shared in common. Also, like many other free agents, their focus was on financial security during free agency. Only based on their asking price and the Bulls’ future roster plans, the Bulls organization begged to differ.
Looking back, the negations likely didn’t work out for a handful of reasons. Besides the questionable approach the front office took with Deng and his life-threatening spinal tap procedure, and there being discontent on Deng’s part, above all, from the perspective of the Bulls front office, they just couldn’t overpay Deng since they were planning on pursuing Carmelo Anthony in the 2014 summer (they ended up signing Pau Gasol instead) to further improve the supporting cast around Rose. Surely, Deng might have also considered the fact that this was his last chance to receive a lucrative contract at age 28 (Of course, the Lakers had something else to say about that).
The same issues were brought forth in the 2009 off-season. The Bulls were planning ahead and targeting the 2010 summer. A free agency class that included: LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. Had Gordon resigned, not only would have the Bulls’ halfcourt offense looked a lot better but the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals showdown between the Bulls and Heat, the following year, probably wouldn’t have been so one-sided.
All that being said, it was only right for Deng’s NBA journey to end in Chicago. He, along with Hinrich and Gordon, all served as an embodiment of the “Baby Bulls” era: the first post-Jordan period that gave Bulls fans happiness, before Derrick Rose’s arrival.
