[From the Diaries. And don't call me Matty. -Matt]

Sorry if I'm stealing you thunder Matty, I just wanna make sure those of us who do not have the pleasure of having Hi-Speed DO have the pleasure of reading vague and slightly infuriating comments such as

"Wow look at tyrus"

"Gee, these commentators just said something really funny"

or

"OMG! Tyrus got hurt"

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2377~2435~568&teams=8~8~4

Duhon + Krappy  for Nazr Muhammoud

In addition, we would want some combination of picks. I figure we look for a total of +4 points in picks with points working out at

Det's #15 pick = 6 points
Det's Own 2007 pick = 4 points
Future Det first rounders = 3 points
Det 2nd Rounders = 2 points
Future det 2nd rounder = 1 point
Our own future first rounders =  -3 points
our 2nd rounders = -2 points
future 2nd rounder = -1 point

Amazing indepth study of trading picks aside, I think this trade should benefit both parties.

We get a big man who can score, and has much experince (pistons and spurs); we lose a troublesome PG, and Krappy (two guys constantly in skiles' doghouse [even though skiles loves duh....weird])

Furthermore, Det doesn't jump on the opportunity because of the loss of future picks, and we take on an icky salary but make up for it by still having the MLE to chase someone like Ely or Gooden, and get future picks

Just checked the time of tomorrow's game, and on the ESPN scoreboard page, it has the NJN-Bulls game as being on ESPN.

Thank god for all of us outside Chicagoland. This could only suck if chicago lays an abortion on the court...must think happy thoughts, must think happy thoughts.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/scoreboard?date=20070418

From bulls.com

"New! Chicago's game on April 18 at New Jersey will now air on WGN and ESPN (6:30 p.m. CT)"

Real nice article about Johnny Red Kerr at NBA.com   Being a youngin' and from outside of chicagoland, I wasn't able to grow up with the influence of redd as many of you were able to, so it was great reading. Highly recommended (and some great old clips)

http://www.nba.com/features/kerr_070222.html

[Whoa, forgot to put this up tonight, sorry. Blame Illini basketball. Thanks to Miles for this sorry game preview ;-D -Matt]

VIOLET PALMER! She's atrocious...she's married to hue hollins in terms of godawful officiaitng.

Anyone know why ZaZa is starting...he killed us last time

btw  i still think my game preview was aaaaaaaaaaaaaamazing

Here's to hoping that this is the best of the rest

or to winning by default:

Bulls have sucked last two games. Hawks have sucked last 49 years (last time they won more than 1 playoff series). The hawks have to leave their F*ed up arena with the boxes all on one side to play one of the better home teams in the league. If the bulls screw this one up there's going to be some swearing going on.

I decided to play Sam Smith for a while. The pistons need a PG, and are looking to deal one of their big men, probably Nazr, for a PG. My suggestion is Victor and Du for Nazr

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2377~2435~568&teams=8~8~4

That would leave us with a roster at the end of the year as

1. Deng
   
2. Gordon
   
3. Nazr
   
4. Griff
   
5. Hinrich
   
6. Thabo
   
7. TT
   
8. Big Ben

we resign noch, making him the ninth player...we then can use our first round pick to make it 10 and the 2 2nd rounders bump it up to 12.

You can take the original nazr for du and victor trade further

we thrrow in our 2008 first round, and 3 2nd round picks, for the pistons 2 first round picks (cheapo players can be included if one side views it as one sided)

that would give us 3 first round picks...one in probably the high single digits (knicks pick) and two in the low 20's (orlando by way of detroit, and detroit). We could then combine these three picks with someone high in the draft that didnt land oden (think philly, memphis, seattle) and take their top 3 pick. This gives us a solid foundation for the future, with the continued development of thabo and tyrus, and high draft player.

OR

we could use the three picks and take three centers and pray to god one of them works out.

In conclusion:

trading nazr for duhon and victor solves a short term problem of lack of inside scoring. furthermore, it gives the pistons what they need, but we make out better in the long run (as they ahve used their MLE...and we still ahve ours). With a starting line up of

Nazr
Big Ben
Deng
Gordon
Hinrich

with TT, PJ, Noch as the first three off the bench (with malik, sweets, thabo, and griff in the wings) gives us a team that would be a solid favourite for at least the ECF, if the not finals.

Furthermore, the inclusion of picks allows us for a chance to land someone who will take our team deep into the playoffs for many years to come

Reports from most major sports outlets have Chris Webber signing with the Pistons after he clears waivers on tuesday. He says that he's flying home to spend MLK day with his family today (which begs the question, if not with his family, where has he been), and will then join the pistons after they sign him.

I think this is an atrocious move for the pistons. First, it uses one of the limited salary cap exemptions the pistons have (I would beleive it's the Minimum Player salary cap exemption, but I don't know what the veterans minimum is for webber). Secondly, they don't need a PF. With the continued development of Jason Maxiell, and the always legit play of McDyess, it seems that Webber would be taking minutes from players who are already playing well. On the offensive side, Webber needs the ball to run through him, while the pistons make heavy use of screens, and billups is the Floor General. The Pistons already have one PF who plays far away from the hoop, and anyone who has seen webber play this year knows that he has no post moves left. And we don't need to touch webber's "defense" Finally, the idea of signing Webber as a veteran makes no sense in the decrepit pistons locker room - the major players have all been to multiple playoffs, multiple finals, and won a ring.

But as a bulls fan this is fantastic news.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2731833

Looking at the 23 games until all star break, i figured the bulls should (as a conserative estimate) be able to go 15-8 (for a record of 34-20). The Coach of each all star side is the head coach of the team with the best record at break (and the coach can't be the same two years in a row). I'm thinking that if the bulls go 34-20, we should be able to hold off the cavs or wiz (the cavs having to take a west coast swing through the tough teams, and the wiz being, well, the wiz) and that would make Scott Skiles the head coach of the East. In that scenario, I could picture any of the core + wallace on the East's bench (depending on how nepotistic and cocky Skiles wants to be).

So we come to two points. One; record aside, do you want to see Skiles as coach (and thus the bulls having a, no pun intended, bullseye on their back, or continue to operate under the limelight (focus on the east being the heat, cavs, pistons, and wiz). Secondly, how do you rank the team in order that Skiles would take.

My Rankings

1. Deng (career year, stats are better than most of the east's top forwards, hard working, young).
   
2. Wallace (a true skiles type player, seems to be slightly incosistent)
   
3. Hinrich (what can you say about him that hasn't been said. If gay marriage is ever legalized in Illinois, Kirk's GF better watch out for skiles)
   
4. Noch (see wallace)
   
5. BG (my feelings are that skiles wouldn't put him on because there are guards that do what he does, and don't piss off skiles as much)

I'm looking at nbadraft.net (its never to early) and I was curious about our 2nd round draft picks. I've listed them by year.

2007:
Chicago's Own Pick
Knicks Pick (via the Curry Trade)
Nuggets Own Pick* (JR Smith Trade)

However, we lose the Knick's pick to the Sixers via the Thabo draft.

So I beleive this year we get our pick, and the nuggets pick

2008:
Our Own Pick (Which we lose to Portland as part of the T2 draft)

2009:
Our Own Pick
Knick's Pick

*We also recieve a future Nuggets 2nd round pick by way of the Leon Powe draft by boston

So essentialy, we have 6 2nd round picks in the next 3 years. I am left with a few questions.

1. Have I done this correctly - I poured over media releases from draft night and the trades and think I have interpreted it correctly, but am quick to point out, even I, am prone to errors
2. How and when is the nuggets future pick (by way of boston) determined. Is it up to us, Den, Bos, the league? Boston has a number of 2nd round draft picks laying around (and a dearth at the same time due to the wheelings and dealings of draft night. I didn't want to spend the next 2 hours sorting out the celtics mess)
3. With all these 2nd round picks, would it make sense to package a number to get a 1st rounder (think a rebuilding franchise - Philly, a kg-less Minny, a Pau-less moved memphis franchise, The knicks...). Or would it make sense to use in a superstar trade. Or would it make sense to just use them.

My opinon is that this stockpile of picks will probably be used in one of the first two options. On our current team the only ones we can assume wont be here for a long time (or at least front office wont attempt) would be Sweets, Malik, and PJ). It seems we have most of the pieces in place and wont need to use 2nd round picks as filler.

I could see a possibility where we trade one of our solid end of bench men (Khrappy for example, even though we extended his option), package him with some picks and get a solid, if not spectacular 4.

Any thoughts?

I'm going to the game tonight....anyone else.

Could be kinda weird, but we could meet to put a face with a name on the board..

i'm not going to say where I'm sitting or my phone number, but if you're going and wanna meet up e-mail me at greengar@msu.edu

One-line diaries are prohibited on McCovey Chronicles. Give your diary a bit more thought, then give it another shot. If you have nothing to add to your proposed diary, then it probably belongs as a comment under another appropriate thread.

The minumum is 300 characters.

Audio League Pass

Continue reading this post »

Bulls Roster
2006-07 Roster
Malik Allen
Martynas Andriuskevicius
P.J. Brown
Luol Deng
Chris Duhon
Ben Gordon
Adrian Griffin
Kirk Hinrich
Viktor Khryapa
Andres Nocioni
Thabo Sefolosha
Michael Sweetney
Tyrus Thomas
Ben Wallace

That's 14. Word on the street (chicagosports; realgm; daily hearld) has it that we're probably going to pick up Schenser. Assuming the lithuanian (we really need a good name for him) and schenser will be sent to the NBDL that still puts us at 13. Looking at the list, besides the two rookies, all 11 of those players started games last year.

One player would have to be on the IR (or whatever the name is post-cba) every night. Besides the occasional player in skile's dog house after a shitty practice (i'm looking at you sweetney), I would have to assume that Khraypa, or dare i say T-2 would be on IR most nights. Assuming we resign schenser, heres what I think our 15 man depth chart would look like.

PG: Kirk/Duhon/Thabo
SG: Lil' Ben*/AG/Thabo
SF: NOC/Deng/T-2
PF: PJ/Malik/T-2/Khrapya#
C: Big Ben/Sweets/PJ/Luke#/Marty#

# DNP
*Can we start calling him gentle ben...haha

Any other ideas; I still think theres a good possibility that our decent players who will be buried (Khrapya, Malik, Sweets) will be trade bait for a better player (a 4 probably) and couple of stiffs

During my daily reading of all puerto rican newspapers; i came across this

 málaga. Serios problemas para el juego interior del Unicaja. El pívot puertorriqueño Daniel Santiago está cada vez más cerca de la NBA tras el partido que disputó la semana pasada con su selección ante EEUU. El boricua anotó 12 puntos y capturó 4 rebotes en una actuación que ha despertado el interés de algunas franquicias norteamericanas. El propio jugador aseguraba en el periódico puertorriqueño El Vocero que ya ha entablado contactos con algunos equipos como Minnesota, Sacramento y Chicaco Bulls.

"Es algo que significa mucho para mí porque estoy trabajando para regresar a la NBA", indicó el todavía jugador del Unicaja. "Estamos hablando con muchos equipos, hay mucha gente que vio el juego [el partido ante EEUU]. Hay muchas cosas positivas que están diciendo sobre mi actuación y eso es algo muy bueno, así que vamos a ver qué pasa", expresó el boricua.

El pívot puertorriqueño indicó que en estos momentos está "muy concentrado con su selección" y que su objetivo es "hacer un buen Mundial para poder jugar en la NBA". Su marcha a la mejor liga del mundo trastocaría todos los planteamientos de Sergio Scariolo, máxime cuando ayer se conoció que Dalibor Bagaric ya es nuevo jugador del Akasvayu Girona. El hombre que estaba llamado a ser el relevo de Daniel Santiago se ha cansado de esperar al Unicaja y ha firmado un oneroso contrato con el equipo gerundense. El ex jugador de los Chicago Bulls percibirá en Gerona cerca de un millón de euros por temporada.

Su fichaje por el Akasvayu modificará los planes de la entidad cajista, que veía en Bagaric el recambio perfecto de Santiago. Ahora, el club tendrá que explorar nuevamente el mercado, aunque en la agenda de Juanma Rodríguez y de Sergio Scariolo ya existían otros nombres. Lo preocupante, tal y como aseguró hace unas semanas el bresciano, es que en la posición de cinco existen muy pocos jugadores del potencial del pívot boricua. Otra opción que manejan tanto Juanma Rodríguez como Sergio Scariolo es esperar a los descartes de los equipos de la NBA, aunque esta alternativa sería muy arriesgada porque comprometería en demasía la confección final de la plantilla.

No obstante, el equipo malagueño seguirá aguardando la decisión final de Santiago, aunque esa espera no será eterna. La directiva cajista sostiene que la opción de romper el contrato que vencía el pasado 15 de julio pasaba por una oferta procedente de la NBA. El plazo ha expirado y, por el momento, ningún club se ha dirigido al Unicaja.

Por otra parte, el club cajista aguarda la decisión que tome el Etosa Alicante en caso de que ejerciera su derecho de tanteo e igualara la oferta del Unicaja por De Miguel. En Alicante ven muy complicado que esto se produzca porque el club debería destinar el 20 por ciento de su presupuesto para que el pívot internacional continúe vinculado al equipo que entrena Trinfón Poch. La decisión final no se conocerá hasta el próximo lunes.

Now my spanish is rusty, but i did glean that the bulls and daniel santigo...a beast for the PRNT, are talking. ANyone fluent in spanish wanna translate?

Today the Bulls Waived Othella Harrington. Though he wasn't a fan favoruite, he did alot for the team. Whenever the guys went on a big run, he was always the first one toc ome and congratulate them during a time out. He didnm't post amazing stats, but 7.7 & 4.6 were very respectiable, especially for a team lacking a post prescense. I remember one game that he single handidly won for us...he went for like 18 or 20 against the magic or hornets or someone. Without O, the team wouldn't have been the same, and we may not have made it to the playoffs. So good Luck O, you helped us, and I hoped we helped you