Assuming we sign LeBron & Bosh and now don't have Kirk Hinrich...who will be the Bulls shooting guard?

If the Bulls can't trade Deng, we will probably start LeBron there.

But, if the Bulls can trade Deng, I'd think they should pursue Allen strongly due to the Thibs connection, or Morrow (even though he's a restricted FA)

Thoughts?

I'd go with Morrow first, then maybe Ray Allen or JJ Redick.

those seem to be the 3 guys the bulls would likely target. but i would target ray allen first.

With the machinations of not having a true MLE it appears, I think we can write out Allen as not making much sense. The Pietrus/Gortat for Deng swap would make a lot of sense to me there.

I'd also put out offers to try to hold onto either Flip Murray or Devin Brown for depth at that position

Gortat's contract worries the heck out of me. He's going to be your #4 big at best behind some combo of FA/Noah/Gibson/Asik, and you're paying him $7 mil a year through '13/'14. That's pretty awful, at least Deng is still a useful player.

Hence why if you can somehow dump Dengs contract, Allen or Morrow could be had.

After this season, I don't care one bit about contracts. If we land 2 top level guys, then all Gortat's deal is to me is a luxury tax bill, and if JR can't find a way to make money on a team that can win a title every year then the Buss family is going to laugh at him.

If, somehow, we fail to land anyone, I still can't care about contracts, because we're not going to be offering anyone max deals, between the lockout looming next year and the necessity of resigning Noah and Rose starting this year.

So why not just hang on to Deng then if you don't care about contracts? It's still the same amount of money for the next two years and you can wait and see if something better comes up, or at least something with a slightly less ridiculous contract. At least Deng can actually contribute even if he has to come off the bench. Pietrus has some value as a shooter, but he's not good enough to be basically paying $12 mil for him by taking Gortat too.

NO ONE has an unlimited budget, not even the Lakers. That's why they let Trevor Ariza go and why they're trying to drastically cut Phil's pay. Having Gortat make $7 mil as your #4 big man can easily cost you someone like Gibson when he's due for a raise or a free agent they might have used the MLE on before but won't because their payroll is $80 mil.

Morrow will NOT be on the Bulls. Forget about that name.

Because a guy paid $11 million a year isn't going to be very happy getting 8-10 minutes a game, and we've seen what happens to a team when a poorly constructed roster forces the coach to go with a small lineup as a standard part of his repertoire.

Deng is overpaid he needs to go

If we don't sign a big name or trade for anyone (besides lebron), why not just start Deng at the 2? He plays good enough D to guard opposing 2's, even though he's not really a great shooter

So your solution is to do a trade that results in a guy making $7 or 8 mil playing even less? Besides, you can easily get Deng more than 10 minutes a game in a variety of lineups as a wing player, though it's less than ideal playing Lebron or Deng at the 2 and though Lebron could definitely play the 4 in spots that's not going to happen often assuming Bosh signs.

I'm not pro-Deng by any stretch, but giving him away for Pietrus doesn't really help the situation. You'd still have no really dead-eye shooters on the perimeter and a complete lack of backup perimeter players. Trying to move him to someone like Sacramento for Udrih and Garcia makes far more sense, or Atlanta for Williams and Bibby.

Wonder if the Magic would have any interest in doing a sign and trade involving Reddick instead of either of those guys.