Assuming Gordon is 6th man, possible trades for a bigger 2

[logical_art]

I wonder if Gordon would resign as a 6th man. If so, it opens up the two guard as a place to explore getting another impact player, preferably one that can attack the rim. Nocioni, Duhon, Thomas/Noah and a pick could land a good big guard and give the Bulls a killer perimeter quartet.

[JordansBulls]

Sometimes I get mad because everyone said that Brandon Roy was the best product in the draft in 2006, and the two best players from that class are on the Blazers in Roy and Aldridge.

Imagine this lineup now.
PG Hinrich/Duhon
SG Roy/Gordon
SF Deng/Nocioni
PF Smith/Noah
C Wallace/Gray

That team is a contender

[Red Larrivee]

Sometimes I get mad because everyone said that Brandon Roy was the best product in the draft in 2006, and the two best players from that class are on the Blazers in Roy and Aldridge.

Imagine this lineup now.
PG Hinrich/Duhon
SG Roy/Gordon
SF Deng/Nocioni
PF Smith/Noah
C Wallace/Gray

That team is a contender

That team is not a contender, but that team is highly expandable to become a contender and most likely could have made the deal for Kobe with no problems.

But I find it funny that in the 2006 draft, the best players in the draft were picked late.

Brandon Roy
Randy Foye
Rudy Gay

Why did people let these guys drop? Roy should have been #1 or #2, and it was just funny seeing how the most complete player in the draft wasn't a top 5 pick.

But can't blame Pax for not getting Roy. He had big man on his mind, and was 100% entitled.

[jax98]

It really isn't. We don't solve any of our front-court issues by drafting Roy over Thomas. We get a sick 3-guard rotation, but an even weaker front-court.

This team would be better:

Draft Rudy Gay & Ronnie Brewer.

Trade Luol Deng + PJ Brown + Filler for Pau Gasol. A year later, draft Joakim Noah, JamesOn Curry, Aaron Gray and sign Joe Smith. Then sign Melvin Ely with the LLE.

C Ben Wallace/Joakim Noah/Aaron Gray
F Pau Gasol/Joe Smith/Melvin Ely
F Rudy Gay/Andres Nocioni/Viktor Khryapa
G Ben Gordon/Ronnie Brewer/Adrian Griffin
G Kirk Hinrich/Chris Duhon/JamesOn Curry

But it's always easier to look back. I mean, we could have had Amare Stoudemire plus something extra for the rights to Jay Williams if we wanted to in 2002. We could also have chosen to not do the Elton Brand deal and draft Jason Richardson 4th in 2001. Then buy 3-4 second rounders and draft: Gilbert Arenas, Mehmet Okur, Earl Watson and Bobby Simmons. Then dealt Fizer + Crawford for the rights to Caron Butler & Nenad Krstic, and drafted Carlos Boozer in the 2nd round:

C Amare Stoudemire/Mehmet Okur/Nenad Krstic
F Elton Brand/Carlos Boozer
F Ron Artest/Caron Butler/Bobby Simmons
G Jason Richardson/Ron Mercer
G Gilbert Arenas/Earl Watson

As my post should indicate: Looking back doesn't change or mean anything.

[fudgie]

How about Gordan Giricek. He can be had dirt cheap, expirings and a second round pick would probably be enough to get him from Philly.

He's an option for short term help at the guard spots and won't cost us any trade assets.

[SuburbanOasis]

It really isn't. We don't solve any of our front-court issues by drafting Roy over Thomas. We get a sick 3-guard rotation, but an even weaker front-court.

This team would be better:

Draft Rudy Gay & Ronnie Brewer.

Trade Luol Deng + PJ Brown + Filler for Pau Gasol. A year later, draft Joakim Noah, JamesOn Curry, Aaron Gray and sign Joe Smith. Then sign Melvin Ely with the LLE.

C Ben Wallace/Joakim Noah/Aaron Gray
F Pau Gasol/Joe Smith/Melvin Ely
F Rudy Gay/Andres Nocioni/Viktor Khryapa
G Ben Gordon/Ronnie Brewer/Adrian Griffin
G Kirk Hinrich/Chris Duhon/JamesOn Curry

But it's always easier to look back. I mean, we could have had Amare Stoudemire plus something extra for the rights to Jay Williams if we wanted to in 2002. We could also have chosen to not do the Elton Brand deal and draft Jason Richardson 4th in 2001. Then buy 3-4 second rounders and draft: Gilbert Arenas, Mehmet Okur, Earl Watson and Bobby Simmons. Then dealt Fizer + Crawford for the rights to Caron Butler & Nenad Krstic, and drafted Carlos Boozer in the 2nd round:

C Amare Stoudemire/Mehmet Okur/Nenad Krstic
F Elton Brand/Carlos Boozer
F Ron Artest/Caron Butler/Bobby Simmons
G Jason Richardson/Ron Mercer
G Gilbert Arenas/Earl Watson

As my post should indicate: Looking back doesn't change or mean anything.

Technically Tyrus hardly ever plays, so a "weaker" frontcourt isn't necessarily true. We would have a great backcourt, and practically the same frontcourt that currently resides on our team. With the exception of the fact that we would have fewer players, so dispersing minutes would be easier.

I also seem to remember some of the filler that Memphis wanted was either Tyrus, Thabo or both. Which means without having drafted Tyrus, that trade would have been difficult if not impossible to make.

I wasn't supportive of Noah or Tyrus as draft time, and still have questions about both. But in terms of making the team better you can't recount past, you can only look to the future.

[jax98]

"But in terms of making the team better you can't recount past, you can only look to the future."

That was kind of my point with that previous post

[ikeziskash]

Fransico Garcia would be nice as well. I would like Paxson to make At least one deal here soon. Show us something

It's even possible we lose a trade talent wise but it helps the team because we NEED a big SG or a post scorer more than we need a glut of hustle PF's and undersized guards.

[ikeziskash]

tclg is right; Maggs is a FA and will want $$. We're not going to keep both him and Gordon.

Azubuike would be great, but I doubt that GS is going to deal him. Trading him instead of Pietrus would be crazy.

Which brings me to my next point: Pietrus sucks, as Magilla wrote. He plays terrible D and he's not that great on offense, either. If a taller guard plays badly on D then there's no great reason to have him in instead of Gordon-- what's the point of the extra height?

I would take a chance on Green if he could be had cheaply, although not right now (since he's going to test the FA waters in the summer). He plays poor D but he has enticing upside. I'm sure that other teams will feel that way, too, so he'll wind up getting paid more than we would give him.

Finally, I've said it before and I'll say it again: Thabo and VK to Phoenix for Raja Bell. They clearly like Thabo, and they apparently inquired about him as recently as November 2007, and VK is an expiring deal (they're always looking to save money).

Kirk 32/ Du 12/ BG 4
Bell 20/ BG 28
Deng 36/ Noc 10/ Bell 2

That makes us really crowded in the backcourt, but next season if we were to let Duhon walk (or trade him before the deadline) we could have a backcourt of Kirk, BG and Bell, which would be pretty good IMO. Good defense on bigger SGs from Bell, great scoring when needed from BG and point guard duties shared by Kirk and BG (lion's share to Kirk).

I like the trade for Bell a lot. He is EXACTLY what the Bulls need.

[BobbyBulls]

-= original quote snipped =-



That team is not a contender, but that team is highly expandable to become a contender and most likely could have made the deal for Kobe with no problems.

But I find it funny that in the 2006 draft, the best players in the draft were picked late.

Brandon Roy
Randy Foye
Rudy Gay

Why did people let these guys drop? Roy should have been #1 or #2, and it was just funny seeing how the most complete player in the draft wasn't a top 5 pick.

But can't blame Pax for not getting Roy. He had big man on his mind, and was 100% entitled.

The thing is Roy was the perfect guard to play next to one of our combos. A big guard that can create shots for others and can run an offense just doen't come along very often. I can think of Kobe ... someone will have to help me out. We could always have traded the other combo guard for the big. I wish he could have done something similar to when he got both Gordon and Deng. Then maybe we could have got both Aldridge/TT and Roy. Portland didn't give much up to Boston for the Roy pick.