The Bulls got themselves into this mess. Can they climb out?

There are a lot of angry stars in the NBA right now, but no franchise is in as much locker room upheaval as the Chicago Bulls. In this week’s FLANNS & ZILLZ, we work through the Windy City drama.

ZILLER: Oh for the halcyon days when the Chicago Bulls looked like a normal franchise fitting in under the expertise of Dwyane Wade and immense talents of Jimmy Butler.

Last week, Wade and Butler ripped their entire supporting cast, earning subtle snipes back from some of the younger players. Rajon Rondo was not subtle, lighting into the dynamic duo in an Instagram post. (Rondo doesn’t really do subtle.) Then the Bulls started leaking like a reused milk carton, with players complaining to the media that Wade rarely practices with the team.

Meanwhile, Rondo has continuously lobbed snark at the coach, and GM Gar Forman is admonishing the team while refusing to take questions from the media. The Chicago Bulls, ladies and gentlemen!

FLANNERY: You left out Fred Hoiberg, which is appropriate because he’s been left holding the bag. I’m not blaming him for this entirely — lord knows there’s enough of that to go around — but this is one of the things that can happen when you make a dramatic change in temperament.

Tom Thibodeau held everyone accountable, perhaps to a fault. Hoiberg is laissez-faire, perhaps too much. Change sounds great in theory until you get run over by a freight train and no one knows who’s in charge.

Let’s take this bit by bit here and start with the players. Butler has had a great season. Wade has been good. They’re Chicago’s two best players and vocal leaders. Did you think calling out unnamed players was wrong?

ZILLER: It’s not the best practice, certainly, but Wade and Butler are hardly the first stars to take beef public. It’s a problem because Wade is supposed to be the model leader here, and his comments rubbed the more impressionable teammate the wrong way. If he wanted to inspire the young guys, he obviously failed. Zito Madu had some good thoughts on this in his piece on the debacle.

Wade seems unable to reach the Jerian Grants of the team. Is it because, despite his rings and résumé, he’s a newcomer? Should it then be on Butler to provide some positive leadership, or on Wade to work with long-tenured Taj Gibson? I think the answer is “yes” to all of the above.

And I do think Hoiberg is becoming a bad fit on a Butler-led team. Jimmy has asked for greater team-wide accountability in the past, and there’s no evidence the coach is offering it.

There’s also the matter that Rondo is OBVIOUSLY trying to get waived.

FLANNERY: Yeah, so that was the most Rondo move of all the Rondo moves I can ever remember. From the moral righteousness, to the bluntness of his critique, and the praising of the 2008 Celtics while leaving Ray Allen out of the photo was so perfectly Rondo.

And you know, he does have a point here. Close teams keep that stuff in-house and the Bulls are obviously not one close.

ON THE OTHER HAND.

He’s not a good player anymore and it sure seems like there’s an awful lot of dysfunction that follows him wherever he goes. How telling was it that people not only fell for the fake D-Wade response, but we’re like, “Yep. Nailed it.”

Sidebar: Assuming he does get waived, you think he winds up in Cleveland? Cause I’d be interested in who takes what side on that one.

ZILLER: Having enjoyed the Rondo experience thoroughly last season, I would wholly recommend the Cavaliers go a different direction. Three different disaster seasons under three different coaches? That’s officially a trend.

What good Rondo did is get it all out there — to hell with a Cold War, figure it out before it’s too late. Hopefully Wade can turn the conflagration into a source for unity going forward.

I am, however, a little worried about Jimmy. He’s never played better, but this isn’t his first drama rodeo either.

FLANNERY: That’s the whole ballgame right here. D-Wade will move on eventually. Rondo’s probably gone. Players come and players go. Hell, Michael Carter-Williams is already on his third team in four years. But Jimmy’s the one to keep if you’re serious about building a team around the guy.

Let’s be real about this: The Bulls don’t seem that interested in doing that. If you’re committing to a franchise player like Jimmy Butler, you don’t go out and add two more ball-dominant guards and you don’t keep dropping his name into trade rumors. Say what you will about Larry Bird’s strategy in Indiana (and I’m not a fan of his recent moves), but at the very least the word is out that Paul George is off limits. That’s what you do in that situation.

That said, Jimmy does have a bit of drama in him. Last year was a learning curve. This year is, man, I don’t know. I mean that. I’m really not sure whether his leadership style will be a positive or negative influence. I do know that he works his ass off and competes every night, and that’s a great start.

So, do you keep him and commit to a full rebuild while empowering him to take charge, or do you flip him at the height if his value?

ZILLER: The Bulls don’t have a whole lot beyond Jimmy in terms of youth, so it’d be a project, thus wasting key years of Butler’s prime. Wade has been pretty good, and the team’s actually not awful. So I think you lose Rondo, try to kumbaya it up, and do your best to improve the team in the short term. The worst that happens is it doesn’t click while Wade’s there, Hoiberg doesn’t take, and you try again in a year or so.

Unlike with, say, the Knicks, the stakes are not actually precipitously high in Chicago. There’s no reason to shop Butler, and I’m guessing just losing Rondo on the next interstate flight will improve morale. But man has that bizarre front office got to stop poking Jimmy in the eye.

FLANNERY: That would be my play too, but I think you could take what you have and build smartly in rapid succession around Butler.

This whole conversation takes us back to the same place, and that’s the front office. They desperately need capable shooters to put around Jimmy. I know that’s hard to find in this day and age, but they didn’t have to add a whole bunch of non-shooters. This is their mess, from the coaching change to the roster decisions to the team culture. I think that’s where you start.

But these are the Bulls and they probably won’t do that. So, they’re stuck.