Bulls down 19-18 to the Hornets.

Dang Balta your dedication to Chicago sports is awesome. I didnt expect anybody to continue to make Bulls game threads... The scary thing is the team is only 1.5 games back of the playoffs... Yikes... they seem competitive and can possibly win this game.. Well probably not

12 minutes for Tyrus, 11 minutes for Noah, 15 minutes for Gooden, 8 minutes for Gray.

We didn't go to the small lineup in the first half. I'm absolutely stunned. And happy.

Solid 3rd quarter gives the Bulls a 10 point lead going in to the 4th.

Recent history suggests the Bulls will now go to a small lineup, will be unable to defend, block shots, or rebound, and will magically lose the game.

The good news is we haven't gone to a small lineup. The bad news is we're now up by 1.

From what I can tell, Boylan has hardly used any subs at all in the 4th. Is there some NBA rule that says its a bad thing to continue a normal rotation throughout the 4th quarter?

D'oh...here comes the panic "Take Noah out and replace him with Sefalosha" small lineup. Watch this implode again.

Hmmmm. Blowing another 4th quarter lead, I see.

And there goes the lead thanks to a 3 by Paul and an Alley-Oop to Chandler. Small lineup DOMINANCE!

Think the Hornets can get to 40 again this quarter? It'd be a fitting end.

Another 4th quarter choke-job. The team shows its youth. We blow. Playoffs are pretty much out of the question if we remain a 3-quarter team.

So, from the moment the Bulls went to the small lineup with about 4 minutes left, we were outscored by about 12.

And of course, Tyrus played 0 minutes in the 2nd half.

33-13 in the 4th. UGH!!

Jeez, what the hell is the problem!? Can we just not choke for once? This is getting frustrating...

Extremely. I'm really just plain pi$$ed off. I. like an idiot, follow these games and get my hopes up all the time, thinking "Oh! They're gonna win this one!". Just to have it end up like this time after time. You'd think I'd get it by now.

I would love to be Tyson Chandler where all you have to do is roll off the pick and you get a chance to slam it down everytime. What a great player CP3 is, and Tyson's right; if he don't win MVP, it's a damn shame.

ALL of our attention should be on the NBA draft. We WILL be in the lottery. Go to www.nbadraft.net for excellent scouting reports and mockdrafts heading toward the offseason. Lets face it this season is over, the team needs to be revamped, they need a veteran go to guy, im not sure who is out there, but Pax needs to change the philosophy of this team if he wants to contend in the imediate future.

I think the only definite keepers on this team are Gooden and Thabo to be quite honest.

Umm, Noah and Deng have to be on there as well.

Eh, in another year we'll probably be griping about Gooden's defense and lack of consistent effort. At least that's been the MO in the past. Right now I'm with Slav though, those 4 look pretty decent.

I agree as well. A core group of Thabo, Deng, Gooden, and Noah is all I want to keep for sure. The rest should be trade bait. Preferably, Nocioni and Gordon would be the first to go.

We get ourselves a pure PG who will penetrate and dish the ball as well as a good legitimate, low-post scoring player, we'll be right back up at the top of the East. Thabo has shown great overall skills, and you have to love his size and defensive effort. A healthy Deng is one of the best mid-range shooters in the game. Noah has proven he can play some good D and rebound the ball very well, and his offensive output has been far better than Ben Wallace's already.

If we could swing a Gooden/Gordon/Noc for a star PF deal, and then find a veteran distributor or trade for a more pass-oriented PG, I'd like our team's chances a lot more. As good as Gooden has been for us, if you can throw him in a package for a legit big man, you have to do it. Looking at this years possible FA's, Jose Calderon is a guy I would love to have at PG, as well as someone who has been great for SAC in Beno Udrih. Other guys who could become FA are Jermaine O'Neal, Emeka Okafor, Elton Brand, Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas, and Baron Davis. It's highly unlikely we do anything though, unless it's a sign and trade, which might be the case for Brand or O'Neal.

It's a total pipe-dream, but imagine Calderon/Thabo/Deng/Brand/Noah. I like it. I like it a lot.

What value will they get back for Gordon and Noc... an overpaid role player that never saw a bad shot he wouldn't take and a one dimensional short SG who thinks he's worth >50 mil?

Whether Gordon thinks he's worth that much may not matter this offseason if no one offers him anything close to that deal (And I sure as Hell hope the Bulls don't).

Personally, I think that the team might be best served trying to package the pick, Gordon, and Noc, or Gordon and Hughes, or one of those guys and Noah/Tyrus if we find an available big man for someone. The 2 names that pop in to my head as available might be Brand and Arenas. Depending on how Houston's story ends Yao might legitimately be available also.

I'd trade Tyrus before Noah 14 days a week.

I definitely have a hard time seeing us get a legit star without giving up at least one of Deng, Tyrus or Noah, and the stock on those first two has slid a bit this year. Steals like the Gasol trade and the Marion deal don't happen too often. Our pick probably won't have particularly high value either as it's likely to be around #10 in a draft that's short on sure things. Because of that, I don't really see a quick fix, they're probably going to end up dealing Gordon/Hughes and Noc for one productive player with an iffy contract and hope that Thabo, Tyrus and Noah improving makes up some ground in the standings.

Point 1: I'd like to agree with you that steals like the Gasol trade and the Marion trade don't happen too often...but my problem with that is, we seem like we keep seeing them. The Garnett trade might fit in that category too. Iverson was moved for what seemed like pennies on the dollar. Seems to me like we've seen a lot of those deals in recent years.

Point 2. If the stock of Deng and Tyrus has slid this year...then it makes very little sense to trade them right now...because their stock has the ability to go back up if they're developed properly!

1) I think you and I have different definitions of the term "robbery". I certainly don't consider getting back a 23 year old franchise big man that's better than anyone on the Bulls' roster like Minnesota did a robbery. Though it's obviously worked out well for Boston and they may have been able to get more in the past, for the purposes of this discussion we're talking pure value. Even in deals like Tracy McGrady, Shaq, and Iverson they still had to give up above average players, young players with promise, expiring contracts and/or picks (Steve Francis, Lamar Odom and Caron Butler, Andre Miller to a lesser extent). We don't really have any easily expendable expiring contracts besides Gooden, and for the purposes of this discussion we're talking about deals that don't involve guys that could be key parts of those deals like Deng, Tyrus and Noah.

You can still really only count on one hand the number of deals where a team got a star player back for a package with less than or equal value to Gordon, Nocioni, and a late-lotto pick. Gasol, Marion, Iverson, and Carter are really the only ones that immediately come to mind. I suppose you could argue a few more: Baron Davis (wasn't really this healthy or productive at the time), Ron Artest (unique situation), plus guys like Antawn Jamison and Jason Richardson that are good players but not really great and make an awful lot of money. The other issue is how many of those deals might be out there? Most of the disgruntled true stars have already moved. Brand and Arenas in sign-and-trades are really the only possibilities I see out there, and both are coming off major injuries that could conceivably scare people off.

2) I'd agree with that, I have a hard time seeing us get full value for those guys. I'd say Tyrus is a lot more moveable than Deng though, in order for it to be productive to deal Deng you'd have to get a legit star player back, for Tyrus a productive starter without a cap-crushing deal would seem fair given his performance (thought it'd be more likely that he's the #2 piece in a bigger deal). The other problem is that with Tyrus his value can still go down from here as teams become less convinced that he is going to pan out, with Deng even in a rough year he's been a pretty solid player when healthy. Both could be difficult though.

omg yeah your right, I can't believe I forgot about Noah. Deng is iffy for me but he's still very young.