Bulls’ culture built on survival and deception

Trailing 15-0 in the first five minutes of any NBA game is a travesty — a lack of urgency and preparation in plain sight.

Having it happen at the United Center is an embarrassment.

That it happened against the Heat, who eventually beat the Bulls 116-108, however, was a flat-out indictment, another reminder of what this clueless Bulls organization wishes it could be and futilely strives to be.

It stung ownership, and maybe that will be the final straw that’ll lead to some much-needed changes at the top, as the Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

The Heat have a winning culture, an elite coach (Erik Spoelstra), a two-way superstar (Jimmy Butler) and money coming off the books after this season to add young, talented players who accept criticism rather than run and hide from it. That type of culture would be embraced in Chicago.

What do these Bulls have to show for themselves? A dumpster fire of dysfunction, kicked out into the middle of the street for all to see.

Rebuild? How do you rebuild when the foundation is a low-budget cement mix stolen off an abandoned truck?

So the fact that it has been open season on coach Jim Boylen and the players in the wake of a dismal start is hysterical as well as misguided.

No one in the house is potty-trained, and yet fans and the media are getting upset that Boylen, Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen go on the carpeted floor wherever and whenever they want.

This organization is built on excuse-making and finger-pointing, and that policy has been rewarded with job security. So Boylen and his players are supposed to break through somehow despite all the rot in the organization?

You know why Boylen calls out superstars? Because former coach Fred Hoiberg didn’t. That irked vice president of basketball operations John Paxson and adviser Doug Collins to no end. When they did get on Hoiberg about being tougher with players, he went after young players in practice or the eighth man on the bench.

That also helped get Hoiberg fired.

When veterans such as Butler and Dwyane Wade got after young players privately and publicly, they were suspended by the organization and portrayed as bad guys in the narrative spoon-fed to the media, and eventually they were gone.

“The culture,’’ Butler said last week when asked about the difference he already has experienced with the Heat, “I feel like everybody plays so hard. And the young guys ask to be led. You tell them something, and they want more.’’

Do you think Pat Riley would somehow get upset with a vet calling out an underachieving rookie?

So we’re angry that LaVine and Markkanen don’t know how to lead and aren’t learning accountability with the urgency we feel they should?

When general manager Gar Forman is allowed to operate and thrive with excuses and deception, that becomes your culture.

Welcome to Bulls basketball.

Firing Boylen or making trades would change what exactly?

There are about five elite coaches in the NBA — and one who isn’t coaching in the league (Tom Thibodeau) — so to think this start is simply about X’s and O’s is inaccurate. Star players cover up a lot of bad. Even David Blatt made the NBA Finals with LeBron James’ Cavaliers, and Steve Kerr was thought to be the second coming until his Hall of Fame talent suddenly was stripped away.

This is about having an attractive culture, landing or developing superstars and sustaining that structure. Everything else is excuses, finger-pointing and self-survival.

Or, simply put, what the Bulls excel at.