[From the FanPosts. -ed.]

Looks like what many of us have been waiting for us finally posted at Draft Express .

Here's what we want:

Michael Beasley measured at 6-7 without shoes, and 6-8 ¼ with. His wingspan in 7-0 ¼ and his standing reach is 8-11. He did fairly well in the combine, lifting the 185 bar 19 times, jumping 35 inches on the max vert, but measuring a slightly high body fat at 7.7%

and

 

Derrick Rose came out a bit shorter than advertised, at just 6-1 ½ in shoes and 6-2 ½ in. He has a 6-8 wingspan, a 40 inch vertical and ran the 3/4 court sprint very fast at 3.05.

Alfonso Soriano suffered a non-displaced fracture of the middle finger of his right hand on Sunday. He is expected to miss 3-5 days.

Soriano suffered the injury while trying to catch a ball in practice

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/

Doesn't seem to be too serious.  Let's this doesn't turn into something chronic.

It sure is cold in Chicago now.........

Paul Forrester of SI.com produced an Anti-All Star team and the Bulls manged to secure 2/5ths of the starting 5!  Way to go guys!

G: Kirk Hinrich, Bulls -- While Ben Wallace is a prime suspect in the death of Scott Skiles' coaching tenure in Chicago, Hinrich was the one in the library with the candlestick, helping Colonel Mustard do the deed. Hinrich averaged 10.1 points on 33.1 percent from the field in November, when the Bulls went 3-10 to dig a hole from which they've yet to recover. Though Hinrich has played better lately, he's still shooting only 40.8 percent and a career-low 31 percent from three-point range for the season. C: Ben Wallace, Bulls -- No one can argue Big Ben hasn't been busy this season -- posting his worst rebounding and blocked-shot marks in nine seasons, butting heads with former coach Skiles and getting into a spat with rookie teammate Joakim Noah. That's leadership most teams couldn't pay enough to avoid; the Bulls, though, get the privilege of paying $15 million this season to call Wallace all their own.

Espn is reporting that  Jason Kidd will miss the All Star Game  b/c his wife
beat him up again.  Ok, actually, it's because he's got a creaky lower back from carrying the Nets for so long. Am I at 300 words yet??  

Obviously, this is significant b/c Stern will get to chose a replacement and Gordon/Deng SHOULD be in the running for the spot.  Hopefully Stern's marketing people inform him that Chicago is the 3rd largest market in the NBA and it would be good to have someone on the Bulls make the squad.

[From the Diaries. I have a mega-post waiting in the bullpen, which I'll post in the morning. Till then we can go back to the trade machine. It's past midnight on the East coast and they still haven't lifted the 12/15 trade restrictions for recently signed Free Agents. What the hell, ESPN.com?!? -Matt]

Tonight the Trib is reporting that the Bulls offered PJ Brown to Denver for Marcus Camby as part of a 3 way Philly-Denver-Chicago Iverson deal.  Now, does KJ Johnson expain the rest of the deal?  No.  But I'll try. :)  One possible deal would be this.   Or, Denver could sweeten the pot a little for Philly with this. I'd assume that some draft picks would be included as well.  

Personally, I think Camby's awesome...for 60 games a year.  The length of his remaining contract matches Ben Wallace's deal as he's signed through the 2009/10 season and has $23.6 million still coming to him.  Camby's only played more than 66 games ONCE in his ten year career.  Seeing as he hasn't missed a game yet this year, his annual injury is probably right around the corner.  

*Update* - Since I first posted this diary, the story was pulled off the Trib's website. Coincidentally, David Aldridge just reported a similar potential trade during the Spurs-Hornets game on TNT. Even though the Trib pulled their story, You can still Google "Bulls Camby" and see part of the remaining article "Bulls Fish for Camby" [The original link is back up. -Matt]

[Big thanks to Jobu for doing tonight's game preview -Matt]

Tyson Chandler:  Good Riddance!  or  The One That Got Away???

Tonight will be the first of two meetings against the New Orleans - Oklahoma City Hornets and the Bulls.  The Hornets come in tonight as the better team with a record of 8-7, compared to the Bulls 5-9.   The story tonight is, of course, about the Bulls' first game against former franchise cornerstone Tyson Chandler.  Chandler was dealt to the Hornets last July shortly after the Bulls signed Ben Wallace.  Chandler brought the Bulls PJ Brown and JR Smith who was, perhaps prematurely, dealt on to Denver for a pair of 2nd round picks.  

Tyson is having a very good, if not excellent start to this year averaging 11.9 rebounds a game while (shot) putting in about 6 pts and a block a game.  He's doing all this while averaging a career high 31 minutes per game.  As we all know too well, Tyson's "demons" aren't so much in his head, as they are on the court wearing striped black and white shirts.  Since fouling out of the first game, Tyson hasn't collected that 6th foul again this season!  While this may not seem like a big deal, consider the fact that Tyson finished last season with 298 personal fouls - just three behind league leader Al Harrington.  

For those outside Chicago, the primary focus of the Hornets is SuperStar Sophomore PG Chris Paul.  Paul comes in averaging 17.9 ppg, 8.6 ast, 3.9 reb, and 2 steals a game.  The lone offensive weak spot in his game appears to be long range shooting as he has connected on only 4 three-pointers all year.  Hopefully the Bulls guards back off Paul a touch.  The Bulls are catching the Hornets at an opportune time as starting forwards David West & Peja Stojakovic are likely both out of tonight's contest with injuries.  Check out Hornets247.com  for more of an inside scoop on their squad.  

As far as the Bulls go, hopefully Ben Wallace is over "Headband-gate" and wants to show us why he's worth so much more $$$ than Tyson.  

Go Bulls!  

[From the Diaries. Well this is pretty random. I knew following the scrubs sent down to the D-League all season would pay off some day. Although...I don't remember Andriuskevicius doing much down there (7.0 ppg and 4.2 rpg in 18.9 mpg is what the bulls.com article says, I'll try and locate a full stat page). At least it was small-for-big (and youth). -Matt

UPDATE: Here are his 2006 Summer League stats. 16.5mpg, 6ppg, 3.3rpg. Also seems to foul a lot...he'll fit right in. ]

Bulls.com is reporting that Eddie Basden was traded to Cleveland for Lithuanian center Martynas Andriuskevicius.  Ok, that's the last time I type that guy's full name out.  Can we get a nickname please?  

Here's what Pax says about him:

"Martynas is a young big that we view as a player who needs development with his strength and skill, but has the potential to make it in this league," said Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations John Paxson. "We are always looking for size and skill, and feel he is a young player that we are willing to take a strong look at." I remember back  during the Euro Draft craze, Chad Ford menioned this guy as a potential Top 5 pick.

Eddie, we hardly knew ye...

Did you know ( Da na na, da na na!)

That in 72 games (1865 minutes) Eddy Curry had 19 assists all of last year. That's .3/game folks.  

To put that in perspective, Steve Nash had two games this past year where he had  19 or more assists.  Ironically enough, Nash's season high 22 assist game was a game Curry got to witness in person, as it was against the Knicks.

Nothing like a little Curry bashing to get the weekend started.  It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!  
 

Now comes, yet ANOTHER great story involving a Minnesota athelte and the law.  First Randy Moss hitting a cop, then the Love Boat, then the Whizzinator and now this:

http://www.startribune.com/511/story/525140.html

Just make sure you get to the bottom when it describes what "caused" the accident!

I thought I was over him.  Nope.  

After watching him average 31 ppg, 10 reb, 4 ast, 3 blcks, on 59 FREAKING PERCENT shooting - it hit me.  Seriously, I'm not trying to be a downer b/c it's not my thing.  But man, IF ONLY????  

For the past few years when the Clippers were still terrible and Tyson's ceiling wasn't so obvious, I didn't see it as such a bad move.  My usual response was "His teams don't win anything!  Why pay top dollar for that?"  Watching him this year though is like thinking you're over an old girlfriend only to see her a couple months later and it just hits you.  Damn.  

You know, I went back to look at the "2001 NBA Draft Grades" that the national media put out and they were all overwhelmingly positive about the move.  I remember feeling the same way as  back then  every high school big man was either the next Jermaine O'Neal or KG.  Well, here we are approaching the 5 year anniversary of "JerryGate" and we're still looking for his replacement.  

So, let hope we get a little love from the ping pong balls tonight and Pax gets what he needs to either draft or trade for our new big man.    Just writing this all down makes me feel like I'm over Elton and ready to move on...until I see him next year that is.