Chicago Bulls waive point guard Mike James
By Brad Rowland
The point guard situation for the Chicago Bulls has been a point of contention (and frankly, comedy) in the absence of Derrick Rose, but the team has taken a step to alleviate the all-out logjam in the backcourt.
Even with Rose on the roster, the Bulls were already employing both Kirk Hinrich and Marquis Teague (who has gone back and forth from the D-League already this season), but less than a week ago, the team picked up another point guard, DJ Augustin, off the scrap heap. This made James fully expendable, and as a result of the fact that he has the lowest “ceiling” of the four options, he has been let go.
In 7 appearances this season, the 38-year-old James has managed to post a negative PER (-4.51) in 5.4 minutes per game, and that is difficult to do. He shot just 1-of-10 from the floor in his limited court time, and for a career 41.7% shooter, that wasn’t far out of the ordinary. In fairness to James, he was put into a no-win situation, but with Kirk Hinrich coming back from injury (possibly on Monday), they simply had no reason to keep James around.
Chicago will continue to go through the motions for the rest of the season (and really, until Rose returns), but for Mike James, this could be the end of the line for him in the NBA.