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Signing Dwyane Wade yet another confusing move for the Bulls

Dwyane Wade playing for the Chicago Bulls may feel good. He was born in Chicago and graduated from high school in nearby Oak Lawn. Really, who doesn’t like a good “coming home” story? It warms the heart.

But we can’t just focus on what feels good. Since Wade is an NBA player and the Bulls are an NBA team, we have to look at this from a basketball perspective. From that point of view, this is yet another confusing move in an offseason that’s been full of them for Chicago.

Make no mistake, Wade is still a fine player. Miami Heat president Pat Riley went on the record saying that he thinks 2015-16 was Wade’s best season since before the arrival of the Big Three.

The numbers may not entirely back that up, but Wade did have a fantastic season. He scored 19 points per game and shot at 45.6 percent from the field. His playoff numbers were even better. In the postseason, Wade scored 21.4 points per game, shot at 46.9 percent and made more than 52 percent of his threes.

But Wade will be 35 in January.

It would have been easy to justify the Cleveland Cavaliers signing him. That’s a championship caliber team that could be looking for one or two more pieces. It would have also been a reunion with LeBron James.

The Milwaukee Bucks would have made sense. That team has a young nucleus and seems ready to become contenders in the NBA. A player like Wade would help lock up an uncertain backcourt situation while also providing veteran leadership to a rather inexperienced group of players.

But the Bulls aren’t remotely close to either of those teams on the NBA totem pole. This isn’t a championship team.

Chicago went 42-40 in 2015-16 and missed the playoffs. Wade may make the team better, but nothing close to championship caliber.

Chicago isn’t a young team either. Even before Wade’s signing, this was one of the 10-oldest teams in the NBA. Wade obviously won’t bring that number down.

Since the season ended, the Bulls have traded Derrick Rose to the New York Knicks. That pointed to a rebuild. That logic was squashed when Chicago decided to replace Rose with Rajon Rondo, who is almost three years older than Rose.

How does Rondo fit in to a rebuilding project? The same question can be asked of Wade.  Bringing in a 35-year-old doesn’t exactly scream “rebuilding” to anyone.

If Chicago was a young team like Milwaukee or the Minnesota Timberwolves, this may make a degree of sense. It always feels good to get youngsters some playoff experience, even if it’s in the form of a quick trip. But that doesn’t come close to describing the Bulls. What good will a first-round exit do for this team?

We can all smile at the “coming home” montages that Wade will surely get. But even the biggest smiles won’t make this move a good one. From a basketball perspective, this move makes no sense for Chicago.

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