First of all, I think Deng is a great young player. He has tremendous upside and potential. Plus, he hasnt been plaing basketball very long.

With that said, Noch will start at SF for the Bulls. Noch is currently the best and most complete player on the Bulls roster. He brings more heart, desire, intensity and madness than almost any player in the league.

He was amazing the last couple of months of the season as well as in the playoffs. He was the main reason we made the playoffs...15 double double's in the last 20 games(I think or something like that)...WOW.

Deng basically disappeared against Miami. He has a bright all star future, but he is not there yet. I think we will see a big improvement this year...but remember how much Noch improved from his rookie year...basically doubling his scoring and reb totals...plus he added a 3 pt shot.

I fully expect Noch to bust his ass again all summer and make another huge leap. I guarantee Skiles and Pax gave him another list of things to work on...and he will.

Noch is going to have a breakout year...Especially since we will have Big Ben and a legit PF to take pressure off of him.

He is the most complete player on this team and is truly the mvp of the bulls...until we trade for KG

I wouldnt be surprised to see Deng start over Noc, and i wouldnt be surprise to see Noc start over Deng. (if we keep them both) What about tyrus?

-Anyways, it doesnt matter which one starts. Im sure Scott Skiles would like to see Noc come of the bench because of his energy that he brings to the game. Vice Versa w/ Deng.

- And i dont know if Noc is gonna be busting his tail over the summer like you said. I think he's practicing w/ his Argentinan team or something like that. And i dunno if he's really gonna get a chance to "work" on his game. So dont be surprised to see pretty much the same thing from Noc as we did this season. That being said, i do think that Luol Deng will make a nice jump from last year to this year. Remember that the guy didnt even get a chance to work on his game last year due to injury.

-Scott and Pax told him to be more of a leader next year. And i dont think they gave him a long lists on what to work on because Noc is already a pretty complete player as of right now. So i dont know about ur "gurantee"...I think they just want Noc to polish up everything here and there...

Thats not our decision to be made...

I agree, I think Deng will be the starting SF. And I also think that Hinrich is the most complete player on the Bulls, not Noc.

I concur Kirk can score, dish out dimes and also, IMO is a Top 5 rebounding point gaurd and his defense is very underated.

Deng is our starter, but Noc could very well be the starting 3 and just because Noc doesn't start doesn't mean he won't get a ton of minutes.

I don't think Noc will start over Deng, but I am willing to bet we see a lot of....

Duhon
Hinrich
Deng
Nocioni
Wallace

... as a starting 5

I bet not. The whole point of 2guards this offseason was to not have to start hinrich at the 2. Besides, paxson already said that BG7 is our starter. If not him, than thabo or maybe JR smith if that happens.

Deng will probably start because we have two post players in the starting lineup right now. Deng is a bit quicker and is better at guarding SF's. Nocioni is a bit of a tweener. He's a solid bench player that can shoot, but he is just not a starter on a good team. The only reason he put up those numbers towards the end of the year is that Deng was hurt, missing 3 games and getting fewer minutes in the ones he played. He's not going to get that many minutes and shot opportunities again.