What Players Should The Bulls Keep For The Future?, The Bulls Need A Rose To Brighten The Day Options

[SoxFan1]

I don't want to be too mean when I say this, but you are the same player that was overhyping Kirk and obviously that hasn't worked out for us. Kirk's still a decent player but he'll never be what you thought he would be.

I never thought Kirk was going to be some sort of superstar player. I just kept calling people like you out who totally undervalued him and made unfair comparisons to Steve Nash or Jason Kidd.

[heirdog]

I'm surprised I hadn't put my own thoughts in here...

Keep unless we get blown away (as in dealing them would somehow bring in a superior player):

Loul Deng
Joakim Noah
Tyrus Thomas
Thabo Sefolosha

Keep with conditions:

Ben Gordon (if the money is right and/or you can move Hughes, otherwise you might have no choice)
Kirk Hinrich (if you can't immediately find another starting PG)
Drew Gooden (if his expiring contract can bring us an impact then deal him, otherwise keep him around)

Trade at all costs:

Andres Nocioni
Larry Hughes


It's not that I hate Noc, his shooting ability has some value. The problem is that's all he really did last year, and he's getting paid like a reasonably good starter and is taking 25 minutes from younger and potentially better players. Ideally we'd pick up a backup combo guard, a late pick, or an expiring contract for him, but IMO any warm body would work as long as they don't bring a sizeable long term deal with him. I'd talk to Memphis about getting Kyle Lowry personally.

Moving Hughes might prove difficult. He has a fair amount of money left on his deal and two more seasons, and he's just not a difference maker. He obviously has some offensive skills and is a decent defender, but he takes a lot of bad shots (33.7% on 2-point jumpers this year, and he takes A LOT of them) and is a lot less useful when he feels like coasting or is pouting. It'd really help solve a bit of a log-jam at the 2-guard spot if you could move him for someone useful at another spot or an expiring contract, but the best you might be able to hope for is another awful contract. If you can deal him do it, if not I guess you have to keep him around as a backup combo guard and hope he doesn't cause any problems as he gets closer to being an expiring contract.


Basically they have to try to package one or two parts to try to get a stud player, which could be tough.

Other than that I'm not entirely sure what you can try to do to drastically improve the team, I don't like a lot of the other options out there. Baron Davis and Andre Iguodala would be intriguing, but I would imagine both will stay put. I guess I'd take Arenas if I could get him, but his stats seem to be better than his impact on your win total. I definitely don't want Jermaine O'Neal, but he'd actually probably be fairly easy to acquire. The likely restricted FA types don't thrill me either, Josh Smith would make our logjam at forward worse and would probably cost more than he's worth, and with his injury history Okafor is a risky play (he's also not the scoring big we need anyways). There are numerous other less than stellar options that'll probably be out there.

So basically...keep the same team

[Balta1701-B]

So basically...keep the same team

Were they that different from the team that went to the 2nd round and gave the Pistons an annoying scare the year before?

[ZoomSlowik]

So basically...keep the same team

Um, that's not exactly what I typed. Under my ideal situation 4 or 5 guys are dealt and two new starters are brought in, and even if we can't get those deals I'd still trade two (maybe 3) of the guys for whatever we can get.