Reinforcements on the Way: Part 1
An Analysis of the 2006 NBA Draft and its impact for the Bulls
By Joseph Slowik, Draft Analyst, TalkBulls.com

Thanks to ill-advised moves by Isaiah Thomas, the Bulls are set at the moment to have two lottery picks in the NBA draft. This could give the Bulls a much needed boost. They have two glaring weaknesses that need to be considered: a post player that is a threat on offense and a big shooting guard that isn’t a defensive liability. Will this draft help the Bulls fill either of those needs? Here’s the list…MORE

What about Tiago Splitter? People seem to be overlooking him in BUlls Draft talk

I'm gonna have to leave that qusetion up to Zoom. He's the expert. I've only seen his name mentioned as of late and my buddy was telling me he'd be a nice pickup.

Where's he slotted to go?

gotta look at the fact that he has 4 years left to play in europe.

so wherever he goes gotta wait 4 years.

6'11'' though, would be a nice addition

He projected to go in the top 10. I think Lamarcus and Tiago would be great draft picks for us.
Check out his profile: http://draftexpress.com/viewprofile.php?p=25

It seems like there is a problem with his contract. Will his team allow him to be bought out. IIRC a few Euro players have had problems when it comes to getting there contracts bought out.

Yeah i read something about him saying that he MAY not come to the draft becasue of that buyout. But i really hope he does come. one more question. Do you have an account on realGM?

may 14th hes supposed to sign his paperwork though? to be allowed to be drafted?

Ya, Bullsback. Tis I thats posted a few articles over there

I actually was one of the original writers for the Bulls site, Bulls4ever. But now I guess that actual specific bulls front page doesn't exist anymore??

Interesting. Its nice that while this is a down draft, at least there is a lot of options when it comes to our need position (bigs).

Could you imagine if this draft was weak but had a bunch of quality PG's. Oh man that would be awful

lol yeah thats all the bulls need, another small guy lol.

i still wish we could have gotten a big man this past off season or somthing but i guess not

My account name on RealGM is "StjoesBasketball22" just puttin it out there. lol

Splitter is not coming out. I remember reading something about it on the ESPN boards about 3 weeks ago.

That Deng avatar is so freaking boss. I love that think. It just had to be said

I left Splitter off the list for two reasons:

1) Everything I've read suggests that he'd be a mid to late first round pick, meaning we'd be reaching a bit if we took him. I also left Hilton Armstrong off the list for this reason, even though I kind of like him as a player.

2) He doesn't have a buyout clause in his contract, meaning he's either not going to enter the draft this year or he will seriously slide in the draft. This situation happened to Macej Lampe recently. He was widely considered a lottery pick, but his team in Europe made it clear that he was still under contract with them. He wasn't drafted until the second round.

I just noticed the "draft analyst" title next to my name. Sweet.

He would be a good pick with our 2nd draft pick....

I'd be happy drafting 2 low post players....Aldridge and Tiago.

drafting two post players is fine, but i think we'd be much better off trading the pick for a proven post player.

If we could package sweetney and both picks for garnett or bosh?

I guess that is unlikely.

I think a trade for a proven veteran is what this team needs. Notice the difference in the team's lack of leadership without AD this year. They miss him a hell of a lot more than they miss curry.

If we use both picks, the first one hands down goes to aldridge if possible.

The other pick i think we should trade with sweetney for cutino mobley or morris peterson, or draft someone with the pick of that ilk if available. What the bulls need is to put deng at sg or draft someone who has size and defense with a good outside shot (mobley/morris peterson). Gordon must come off the bench next year in a stachouse/ricky davis role.

Ronnie brewer comes to mind. So does Brandon Roy, which i hate saying as I go to U of I. I doubt either will fall far enough for our second pick though.

First off, just want to say welcome aboard

Secondly I think a trade is the best way to go, however I feel that we should be trading for our shooting guard while using our 2 first round picks (if we keep both and package Gordon and another player for that SG) on bigs.

We could get some athletism at the low post spot (and hopefully some scoring) while giving this team a legitimate guard that can actually defend and hopefully get to the free throw line.

Actually I have no problem with this team picking up Peja Stojakovic as a FA and let him take a SG/SF role with Deng doing the same and have Noc come in and get there minutes off the bench.

i do kind of agree with you.....

My thoughts for this summer have been the following:
-make deng the creater on offense
-bench gordon in ricky davis/stackhouse role
-start noc-he's earned it this year at both forward spots.

BUT I am willing to put noc on the bench as long as he isn't buried on it. I guess the more i think about it with him as a starter we could be good, but a bench of him/gordon/duhon/songalia/sweetney would be awesome. That's like some team's starting five on our bench. We could be elite. He should be the first or 2nd guy off the bench every night. He is a real impact player.

Oh man, now i have this feeling that the bulls aren't just going to become a 4 or 5 seed next year, but we could be really special, leap frogging the cavs and nets and pacers as the only non miami/detroit threats to come out of the east.

BENCH: Gordon/Nocioni/Duhon/Songalia/Malik Allen/big guard?/whoever
STARTING FIVE:
pg-hinrich
sg-peja/paul pierce/draft pick-big guard who can defend and score
sf-deng
pf/c-Chandler
c/pf...and the #1 pick of the the 2006 nba draft is....lemarcus aldridge or a trade for garnett, bosh, al harington, chris wilcox, or tim duncan (just kidding)

Here's my ONLY PROBLEM with bringing in a big guard and not moving deng to the 2 and running the offense through him. It has to be someone who can coexist with another star. IMO Gordon has severly slowed Deng's development, which is why he is just coming on recently. I know pierce worked well with antawn walker. Ray allen was with the big three. I could definately go for either of them. Or we go for garnett for a trade for the pick and someone and get brandon roy or ronnie brewer in the draft. Bottom line, deng's development into a super star cannot be hindered.

You can say that again. If we are looking for Garnett, any package that doesn't start with Deng/Hinrich and picks will probably get laughed at by Minnesota.

Well, if nothing else, you know as well as I do that Minny will scoff at every trade offer
unless Garnett actually demands a trade.

And here's the real key...combine the fact that we do have salary cap space and we have a ton of draft picks in the next 2 years...if it does happen that KG demands a trade...we don't have to offer something for Garnett that is fair...we have to offer something for Garnett that is better than what other teams offer.

And since right now there's almost no other teams in the league with this combination of young, cheap players, draft picks, and salary cap space...we're at least in a decent position to make that deal.

The question isn't "What is Garnett worth" or "What would it take to get Garnett", the question is: "If Garnett demands a trade, what will it take for our offer to be the best." If you're asking the first 2, then you wind up with our entire starting lineup. If you ask the last 1...then we stand a chance at winning that deal, since Minny will almost certainly be looking for cap room.

Jas, you're slacking. Where's the second part I sent you? Don't make me have to come after you.

I see the Bulls making a hard play for Al Harrington via free agency. A signing like that, along with a Thomas draft pick would really help the bulls in the middle.

we do not need another chandler on the team we already have one second aldridge will have a beetter over all carrer in the bigs then thomas. all thomas can do is tip ins, olly upps, and rebound for the put backs.

If the bulls get the #1 pick, we'll see who the Bulls like better. Either Aldridge or Thomas would be decent choices, as long as the Bulls can get a proven scorer down low like a Harrington or a Gooden. [Though I did read somewhere that Thomas was the guy the bulls want, with no mention of Aldridge--I'll try and find the link]

Either way, the Bulls can't expect their draft picks to carry them to the playoffs in 07. They should be playing supporting roles in 07, with the potential to carry a team in a few years.

why in the he!!would we want thomas all he can do is the same as tyson he can not post up at all if any one through the draft i want aldridge.

Like I said, we'll see who the Bulls want--it doesn't matter who you are I want. And Thomas has been mentioned for the bulls

The Bulls have Tyson locked up long-term. Thus, as has been mentioned previously, Aldridge is a better fit for the Bulls than Thomas.

As far as Al Harrington goes, I would much rather see the Bulls upgrade there via trade (see Garnet or Jermaine O'Neal). Harrington strikes me as a tweener SF/PF and he seems to be quite the liability on the defensive end. I just don't see him being a Skiles player and I would rather the Bulls not overpay for him.

I agree with everything you said. Harrington is the type of guy that isn't really a starter on a good team. He's a little bit too much like Shareef Abdur-Rahim. The guy can put up great numbers for a horrible team, but he didn't even start in Indiana. I don't think he really fits here because he's very similar to Loul Deng and we need a better rebounder at PF.

Hard to start with Artest and jermaine in front of you...

Artest beat him out for the job, it's not like he was an established All-star at that point. Plus if they really thought that Harrington was the answer, they would have never traded for him. Harrington had 3 and a half years in Indiana before Ron got there to establish himself, and he didn't really do it.

Look at his numbers on Indiana. They're very similar to Loul Deng's, which is about what you could probably expect when he isn't the main offensive option on a bad team. He's going to probably get a lot more money than he's worth from someone.

i have lots of trust in JP and what ever deals he makes seem to be the best for the team in the long run i think that he would not be the best option but they might see something in him that we all do not see. (he also did come out of high school so he did not get that collage expierance like chandler.)

I thought I would interject something here in this discussions of Bigs. Keep in mind of been drinking for the whole first half... But out of curiosity... are all these 6'8"-7' tall guys a whole lot more self concious about stuff like boogers and nasal hair? Because they ought a be.

i am starting to think that we will go with roy in the first and then get a good low post scorer like O'Bryant ar splitter even though i have heard that he is not going out i have also heard that noah might be going sence his stock can not be any higher.

O'Bryant isn't exactly a good low post scorer. There aren't really any good ones in this draft. The closest is Aldridge. Honestly, the most efficient in this draft might be Paul Davis and J.P. Batista, but the former is soft and weak and the latter is too short and slow.

I really like davis, hes a solid pf, but IF we get the first pick aldridge is the standout

If we had a 2nd round pick, I'd love to grab one or two guys like the two I mentioned. I honestly don't think there'll be too much difference between them and a lot of guys that go in the first round. There are like 6 or 7 guys that are decent, but after that who knows. We'd be reaching quite a bit if we used either of our picks though.