I would say Kidd, Carter, and JO is far worse than the Celtics' threesome. And you're right they wouldn't have to gut their youth and depth. They don't have any to begin with.

Really? I haven't read anything other than the occasional trade rumor when it comes to him. But we hear that for every player. I don't think Paxson is comfortable with Sefolosha or Gordon at the PG spot, and I don't think bulls fans should be either. Would I be surprised or upset if he was traded? no. I don't expect it though, at least not until midseason since he's expiring too.

the off the court boozing doesn't seem to have been brought up as an issue for a very long time anywhere other than here.

46.8 without considering ANY cap holds



Ben Wallace: 15.5
Kirk Hinrich: 11
Ben Gordon: 4,9
Trus Thomas: 3,6
Luol Deng: 3,3
Chris Duhon: 3,2
Victor Khryapa: 1,9
Thabo Sefalosha: 1.8
Adrian Griffin: 1.6

46.8

holds on the rookie contract: 3.0

49.8


your math was probably just slightly off. we had no chance at darko.

Duhon is at WORST the 10th player on our roster. Unless you're putting him behind griffin, curry, gray, khryapa. which you shouldn't be right now.

Your math is off, edog. we were at 46.8 million without even including nocioni's contract in any sense.

The rookie salaries were just under 3 million.

leaving us with about 6 million in cap space. not enough to sign darko

plus he's not all that great and our bench would never score without noch.

I know you can go over the cap, I'm just saying about matching an offer sheet after spending cap money. You'd think the order would be reversed and you'd have to pay your own guys first.

I don't know exactly how the cap works but that's pretty shocking and unfair if we can sign a player before we match the offer on one of our restricted free agents.

Additionally, I have other reasons listed why I don't think we will have the caproom or a remote shot at those players.

Andres Nocioni is easily my favorite player on the Bulls since Rodman(/Jordan)

This is what bothers me about the WAIT TIL 07 posts. Besides Oden, we really have no shot at signing a big name free agent for a number of reasons

-We wouldn't have the caproom anymore
--This would mean that we did nothing this offseason
--This would mean that we traded away at least a few of the following for expiring contracts: Hinrich, Gordon, Deng, Nocioni, Our draft picks this year, Chandler
---Our team would be crippled if we traded all the good players we have for an outside chance at this team being amazing in a couple years
-All of the good players on that list will be resigned

The only base the wait til 07 idea has is that Oden might be in that draft, and we might have a chance of getting him with the Knicks pick. We can't really sway things too much there by our own doing.

regarding the pistons:

The whole not having a superstar thing because moot when you have 5 stars.

I wasn't expecting much from the Bulls as a whole this year, and they pretty much finished around where I thought they would. I expected Chandler to do much much better, but the sky isn't falling with him. I dont think this team will be worse off if they give him next year to do something. I also may be the only person with confidence that Chandler could score 10-12 ppg, including Chandler himself. There's no excuse for a player with his size and athleticism to not be able to score that much on garbage buckets alone. This offseason is particularly huge for Chandler out of any Bulls player. I think people would be far more disappointed if Chandler still couldn't catch a ball next year than there would be people upset that Gordon still can't dribble.

No way I can think of any dream scenario that would have Al Harrington in a Bulls uniform.

Anyways, Aldridge will be pretty decent I think. 20/10 in his third year is probably stretching it a lot. I think he's a tad overrated, though still the best selection as far as big men go.

I see our team next year as something like

Hinrich 16 ppg 7 apg
Gordon 19 ppg
Deng 15 ppg 6.5 rpg Noch 14 ppg 7 rpg(in less minutes than Deng)
Chandler 7ppg 10rpg 1.5bpg
Aldridge 9-11ppg 5-6 rpg

A well balanced line up, but still no one sticking out in particular. I still think having big men is a more glaring weakness than a tall two guard, so I hope we can trade up to get another decent big man in the draft. I'm not horribly sold on Aldridge, but know too little about Splitter or Bargiani. That being said, I have full confidence in Pax to make the right moves no matter what they may be. Right now, I think Aldridge is a pretty likely scenario. If not, all is not lost.