Link via Supersonicsoul. The award winning Idaho Stampede head coach, Bryan Gates,  tells all about the mysteriously coveted Mouhamed Sene.

Sene has played 18 games for the Stampede, and he's averaging 11.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.06 blocks. In six games, Gelebale had a team-leading 17.8 scoring average and he sank a game-winning shot to beat Anaheim.

"Opportunity and minutes are the currency for development, and both Mo and Gelly have had the opportunity to play through their setbacks and manage their successes," Sonics general manager Sam Presti said. "They've shown us some growth."

Gelebale and Sene may have the NBA cache, but Gates hasn't disrupted team chemistry to cater to them. Sene has been a reserve in every game and Gelebale garnered one start because of an injury.

Tyrus Thomas, Joakim Noah, and Ben Gordon for Sene. I've heard salaries don't have to match in a trade when everyone is treated equally.

I ran across Eddie Johnson's leadership blogging on HoopsHype. After rolling my eyes, sighing, rolling my eyes again, and switching off the computer, I discovered some rational points. It's a long one on what I consider an insignificant subject matter, so I skimmed and scanned. I do appreciate that an oft-discussed subject was actually discussed by someone qualified to discuss it.

A coach wears a number of hats besides coaching his team. Father figure, policeman and fireman come to mind. He would much rather tell you he wants to coach and have a parental quality when needed, but he will be happy if he can place the responsibility of policeman and part-time fireman on one or, if he is lucky, a few of his players.

People ask me all the time why I have not gone into coaching. My normal response is that I have always been afraid that I might be too much of a disciplinarian and that method would be hard-pressed to accomplish if I were not coaching experienced and committed players who actually get it when it comes to the word Team.

Considering the college, pro, and international success the Bulls roster had prior to sucking this season, it seems like leadership and chemistry wouldn't be hard to come by. Unless Skiles is doing an excellent job of ruining everything.

It's hard for me to come down too hard on the Bulls players about leadership, because I personally think everyone of them would be a role player on any of the teams listed above. If you look at the Bulls roster, I don't think any of these players were the top guys on their college team when they got drafted. I believe they are still growing and sooner or later one of them will evolve into a powerful leader. But right now they have to do it by committee and they have failed miserably. The obvious choice is Ben Wallace because that's what the Bulls thought they were getting, but they forget the reason Detroit did not cry too much when he left town. It was because Wallace was becoming a complainer of minutes and strategy and not privately but at times publicly of Flip Saunders. So now you have a hard-working talented team that has no big-time player leadership and because of it Scott Skiles has to wear the hat and that's when players start to get tired of the coach.

I disagree that there's no big-time player leadership on the Bulls. A-Drain's checks are made out to "Big-Time Player Leader," and I already mentioned the Bulls are made up of players who have all the experience and qualities you would find in a leader. So what gives? This isn't complicated stuff. It takes plenty of mind reading on our part, but it's not rocket science. Mopey Iowans be damned, if you've ever endured a motivational speech you'd know that being a leader is never more than a 5 step process.

Link from PistonsNationBlog (Like Red Sox Nation, only not a marketing gimmick, and without a long history of racism). From MLive.com:

Arenas: You lose Ben Wallace, but you get Webber, so you've got scoring now. Now you lose that scoring five, what do you get? Maxiell? Yeah that's good.

Interviewer: Amir Johnson?

Arenas: Ha. So I'm going to go with Cleveland, the Bulls, Detroit, Milwaukee and Indiana.

Gilbert doesn't know last season's pace rankings, but he's just as high on Amir Johnson as I am.

The Bismark Tribune with the details:

Former Dakota Wizards coach Casey Owens has been replaced by Adam Tatalovich as video coordinator of the Chicago Bulls. Owens was with the Bulls for one season.

Owens spent four seasons (2001-2005) with the Wizards, the first three as an assistant and the last as a head coach.

Owens could not be reached for comment.

A piranha wrangler no more. Link from BBTF. Sucks for Twinkies fans, regardless of Rondell White, Ruben Sierra, and Tony Batista. Here's hoping he doesn't get Jim Hendry's job.

Some rumbles that the CTA bus route to the U.C. will be axed. Sayeth Mark Bazer:

With the team's first preseason game about a month away, this seems like an awfully odd time to eliminate the #19 "United Center Express" route.

While it's true that not all members of the Bulls take the #19 to games, most of the players and Benny do. In talking with such players as Ben Gordon, Chris Duhon and Kirk Hinrich, I get the sense that the potential of Doomsday coming to pass not only has the team confused but is severly impacting players' preparations for the upcoming season.

Commenter 'James' has some harsh words for our mass transit riding Bulls.

Man, what a lame subject! Who gives a flying $#%&! if the Bulls players use the CTA or not. As much as those steroid using idiots make, they can afford to take a taxi.

Posey was arrested trying to get a ride, so I'll trust the comment was straight from the heart.

SLAM ONLINE posted an excerpt of an Eddy Curry profile in their print edition. It's all puff, and Curry seems surprisingly confident.

"I feel like Dwight Howard is a great player, but past him and Shaq, it's me," he says, bent over a full plate of chicken alfredo. "Even if you look statistically, I was averaging more than any big man in the East."

His eyes drift into his plate for two seconds. Then suddenly he looks up, sits erect and proclaims: "I feel like I'm the dominant big man in the East."

Unfortunately it's only an excerpt; you'll have to buy a copy of SLAM to find out if Eddy had seconds. He was right about averaging more points than other Eastern bigs (Jermaine O'Neal was .1 PPG from Curry's 19.5 in 06-07), although Zach Randolph and Kevin Garnett are sure to blow away whatever Eddy does next season. They actually do other things besides score too.

A Q & A with new Raptor Carlos Delfino from Fiba.com. It's also the latest Nocioni-will-play-this-summer rumor. Delfino was asked about Nocioni's possible involvement with the Argentine National Team.  

Great, the more the better it will be. He's an experienced player, with bravery without comparison. I hope that he can make the team so he can help us. Welcome to the group. It doesn't matter if I know him well or not, I know that he will give a lot to talk about. He doesn't know fear and never backs up.
I could use a fresh denial from the Noche. How healthy can he be right now?

[From the Diaries.

This really bites. Not to pull a Bill Simmons, but couldn't a package around Duhon be just as good for San Antonio? (edit: maybe not if the Spurs were literally just wanting to dump salary. Vaseline Spoons will go to Europe and the contract can likely be torn up)

Butler would just be a perk, although I think less about him than I did a year ago as it's usually not a good sign to be cast aside by the Spurs. I also appreciate the dig at the Nocioni signing. 'Bonner's just as good' was my idea! -Matt]

So says Johnny Ludden.

The Spurs have agreed to trade center Jackie Butler and Argentine forward Luis Scola to the Houston Rockets for guard Vassilis Spanoulis, a future second-round pick and cash considerations, an NBA source said Thursday evening.

Houston needed frontline depth, and really didn't give up much for it. Ludden also mentions Matt "Bigger And Does The Same Things As Nocioni" Bonner was resigned by the Spurs for $9 million over 3 years. Note to Pax: that's how much and how long you pay a bench player.

If you're newish Butler was the Blogagbull free agent version of Sene last offseason.