[Thanks to bigballa10 for today's game preview (sign up!) -ed.]

The Bulls squeaked by a Lebron-less Cavs team last night and now look to move into the 8th and final playoff spot tonight against the lowly New Jersey Nets.  The Raptors will be on the road as well tonight, facing the Hawks tonight who are coming off a loss to the Pistons.  This is the perfect opportunity for the Bulls to control their own destiny.  It's also the perfect opportunity for a letdown.  The Bulls have a hard time winning in NJ for some reason (I know because I live there).  In fact, since I moved here from Chicago in November of 2001, I have seen the Bulls lose 13 games in a row @ NJ and 14 out of 15 overall.  The lone win came 12/28/08.  Good thing none of my co-workers are Nets fans.

The Nets are 4-4 in their last 8 games which include wins over the Spurs and Hornets (and a loss to the Bulls).  They are coming off two losses in a row, one to the Wizards and the other a total destruction by the Bucks.  This is the second game of a back to back for us and one that we not only need to win, but are expected to win.  That worries me.  Hopefully the team comes out with energy, effort, and focus tonight and puts this team down early.

The Bulls cut Jerome James today and signed Rob Kurz from the D-League for the remainder of the season.  Apparently, he's a good outside shooter and has some post game as well.  Maybe Vinny will give him a try since he sounds like he could definitely fill a need.

As a side note, I signed up for this preview with the intention of going to this game tonight.  Unfortunately, I won't be able to go and may not even catch the whole game because of work.  Here's hoping for a victory tonight and taking destiny into our own hands.

[Thanks to bigballa for today's game preview, though I assume most will want to be in the trade threads. -ed.]

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I have to say, this blog is a lot farther along than most of the beat writers and mainstream outlets.  We have been talking about how Salmons not opting out will mean they may have to renounce Tyrus to have enough cap space to sign a big name free agent since before the season began .  Now KC finally mentions that possibility.  One good thing is that Salmons says he doesn't have to have a great season to opt out.  At this point, I firmly believe the organization has no real plan for improving the team and just takes things as they come up.  I have been saying since the moment I found out they still won't have enough for a max guy as it stands now, that if that is really the plan, they need to go all in and move one of Deng, Salmons, or Kirk for expiring deals.  The real plan, making a profit, has been working to perfection but I'm hopeful that as the mainstream reporters catch up, more scrutiny will be put on GarPaxDorf to put a better product on the floor.

A lot of posts have been made here calling for VDN to be fired as soon as possible.  I certainly agree that he is not a very good coach and that is an area that needs to be upgraded for the team to get better.  Ok fine, he sucks but there are a few reasons why I don’t see him getting fired this season.

1. The Bulls have had injury issues to 3 of their top 7 players. 

Rose is just now bouncing back from the ankle problem and looking more like himself.  Tyrus is still out for a while longer, and Hinrich’s return is day to day.  The team as constructed, even being optimistic, is about a .500 or a little above that with everything going well (no major injuries, improvement from the younger guys like Noah, Rose, and Tyrus, vets maintaining the level they played last year).  There are two unproven rookies and 3 horrible vets as “depth” to help sustain injuries.  To put it simply, right now VDN doesn’t have much to choose from.

2. A tough early schedule.

Looking at the schedule, I can honestly say I expected the Bulls to have about 7 or 8 wins at this point.  They just so happened to have won some games I thought they would lose (San Antonio, @ Cleveland) and lose some I thought they would win (particularly these last two home games with Toronto and NJ).  What has many of us freaking out is how bad they looking doing it and how offensively and defensively inept they have been since the circus trip.  Some of this has to do with the injuries; some has to do with VDN.  Overall it’s a wash because they are still at 7-12 with a lot more home games coming up and guys (hopefully) coming back from injuries soon.

3. Vinny is still under contract.

JR is not going to pay two coaches at once, so the chances of getting a Jeff Van Gundy or Avery Johnson, guys with cushy TV jobs that can afford to wait for the right situation, are zero.  That means promoting one of the assistants (Bickerstaff?).  The problem I have with this is, the assistants are already over there and they obviously aren’t making much of a difference now so how much of a difference will one of them make without VDN? My guess is no difference.  Pretty much like when that guy who shall not be named took over for Skiles.  The teams sees these guys everyday so what difference is one of them going to make unless he has some radically different philosophy ala Phil Jackson versus Doug Collins?

As I see it, barring some major PR catastrophe or unless the team once healthy continues to get blown out, VDN will finish out the season and (hopefully) be replaced at that point.

I thought this was pretty interesting. I don't live in Chicago anymore so I had no idea the Bulls were involved in opening a high school. I know I'm reading too much into this but JR, Gar and Tyrus Thomas were on hand for the ceremony. Maybe Tyrus is in pretty good with JR.  Could this type of interaction with the boss help him get an extension? I was just a little surprised that it was Tyrus as opposed to say Derrick Rose.  Then again, it is a college prep after all so maybe Derrick wasn't the ideal person to bring out (sorry I couldn't resist).

Like a lot of you, I spent a lot of time speculating on things the Bulls can do to get better for the future.  One plan of action that the appear to be following is utilizing cap space on a free agent next season to try and take the next step.  It's been discussed on this blog in several posts that the Bulls will need to clear some additional cap space in order to sign a max type free agent (Bosh, Wade, LeBron) because with Salmons likely not to opt out and Hinrich still under contract, they will basically need to let Tyrus walk to have that kind of money.  I'm no salary cap/luxury tax guru, but I think a trade with the Houston Rockets could possibly help both teams this season and for the future.  A trade of Brad Miller, Kirk Hinrich, and Tyrus Thomas for Tracy McGrady and Luis Scola works for both teams.

How it helps the Bulls:

Tracy McGrady is often injured as we all know.  However, he is a bonafide star when healthy, we would be giving up two guys who will be coming off of our bench and one who we may possibly let walk for nothing.  He will miss the first month of the season but we have John Salmons to start at the 2 anyway.  He could really give us a go-to scorer in the playoffs as well.  Luis Scola is a solid PF that can score with his back to the basket, rebound, and defend.  The key to all of this is, that's $26 milion coming off the cap for 2010.

How it helps the Rockets:

Yao Ming is out for the year and they have no center currently so Brad Miller can move right in and be the starting center.  Kirk Hinrich gives them a solid guard than can play either 1 or 2, defend, knock down threes and run the offense.  The Rockets can take a one year flyer on Tyrus who, given a new team, new environment, contract year etc and see what he can do.  They get 3 starting quality players on a team that will be without McGrady for at least the first month anyway and won't have Yao at all.  Also, they will have about $17 million expiring in Tyrus and Brad Miller for 2010.

Luol Deng will play for Britain in the Olympic Qualifier this summer.  That's two guys now, with Nocioni wanting to be the third.  It's also possible that Ben Gordan may do the same (having been born in London).  There are positives of course, but right now, I can only focus on the negatives such as injuries, being worn down by the playoffs, etc.  

I recently came across this article on nbadraft.net and I think it's hard to argue with.  It basically makes the point that a superstar (if not more than one) is generally a prerequisite for winning the NBA title.  Also, check out the link to Robert McChesney's article on Real GM called "The SuperDuperStar Theory", which was written prior to the above article.  Perhaps that top draft choice for 2007 will yield a future superstar.