ESPN's NBA Season previews, including picks from their guys for how teams will finish, are up. Here's the page for the Bulls.

This is kind of in the same vein-- Here is opposing scouts look at the bulls by SI

A majority of ESPN peeps picked the Bulls as eastern conference champs. Chris Sheridan is a moron if he thinks that Kobe is going to make the Bulls better if they trade Gordon, Deng, and Tyrus Thomas for him. Marc Jackson also hedges his bets with the Celtics if Kobe becomes a Bull.

If Kobe is on the Bulls with whatever we have left we are already a top 2 team in the East. See Lebron and the Cavs of last year.

How about see the Lakers of the last 2 years. Kobe isnt going to elevate this team to top two by himself. if Deng is there, sure, but if Gordon Deng and Thomas are shipped out, then Kobe is going to be in the exact situation he is in now, hence the reason he will veto a trade if Deng is involved.

Not the exact same situation... the Suns/Mavs/Spurs won't be able to knock him out of the playoffs until the championship series.

and defensively, the bulls would be pretty dang good. Although, aside from Kobe, I'm not sure where the offense will come from.

The most wins they've had post-Shaq has been 45 (with 42 and 34 the other two, though Kobe missed some time the last one). Even in the East that only gets you about a 5 seed the past few years, and probably a bit lower this year. Even if you add a few wins every year because it's the East that's really only one year as a real threat (and that's being somewhat generous considering they had a better record against the West last year and a comparable one in 04-05).

If they have to deal Gordon and Deng plus other parts to get him, you don't end up a whole lot better than a healthy Lakers team, which is likely not good enough to beat the Pistons, Celtics, or Raptors much less win a title. You end up in that mass of other teams with Cleveland, Washington, Miami, New Jersey, and Orlando. You'd still have no post presence, basically all you do is go from two good scorers to one great one and lose some depth.

I really don't see how a lineup of Kirk, Kobe, Noc, Smith, and Wallace is a real upgrade or makes us a title contender, especially if it costs you Tyrus and/or Noah as well. The starting lineup might be a wash, but your bench is extremely weak and your team is a lot less balanced. That essentially turns you into the Cavaliers, which isn't really a good thing. So they made it to the Finals after Lebron went nuts in a game 7 against Detroit. BFD. They got blasted in the Finals last year and are not terribly likely to make a return trip with the conference being a bit deeper and better this year. You're already essentially considered a top-3 lock in the East, I don't see why you make that deal unless you get Kobe on the cheap.