Luol and Kirk are overpaid for a WHILE. Joel has been great for us this year, and is relatively affordable. Talent wise, it's a great trade for us, but I am not sure I would pull that trigger; it would certainly be buying low for Deng. 28.4 0.422 0.388 0.735 0.7 3.2 3.9 1.2 0.6 0.4 1.11 2.10 10.7 34.2 0.427 0.300 0.836 1.3 3.6 4.9 1.7 1.1 0.6 1.68 1.40 14.2 is one of these lines HUGELY better than the other? One is way cheaper...
I think it's a good trade for both teams. Rose/Gordon (and Hughes) have made the Bulls a top team in the league at both guard positions. This trade allows the Bulls to become a player in 2010, in which they will surely land at least one big name, perhaps even Lebron James, but I think Amare Stoudemire with the Vinny connection would be the most likely. Joel Przbrilla is just the first center role player we move in. If the Blazers have a cheap three point small forward they could send us in the trade as well, that'd be great. Bulls would then hopefully have: PG-Derrick Rose SG-Ben Gordon SF-Thabo Sefolosha/Andres Nocioni PF-Amare Stoudemire/Joakim Noah C- Joel Pryzbrilla/Omer Asik As their rotation post-2010. Rose/Gordon will finally have both a big man scorer (Amare) and a guy to back them up on defense (Pryzbrilla and Asik). It's a reduction move, soley aimed at getting cap space, but for certain, guys are going to want to come and play with Derrick Rose, so we're almost assured someone out of the really good bunch.
You got luckier than people expected with Marc- but it was still an awful trade- made the Lakers an instant contender.
If the Docs don't think the injuries he struggled with last season are chronic then I'd imagine Portland would jump on this if it was offered. Deng can play on both ends within a team concept. Yes please! STOMP
Half the complaint was that they passed up the Bulls better package of Andres Nocioni, Tyrus Thomas, and Joakim Noah. By taking the Lakers deal, Memphis hit that one out of the park as best as they could. They'd be capital F fucked if they took the Bulls "better" deal. Even if the Bulls were willing to do the Grizzlies proposed counter offer (PJ Brown and Joakim Noah I believe) they would have been worst off. Good trade by the Grizz.
His injuries are a great source of mystery. He hasn't missed much time this year, but at a couple points a "sore back" has been mentioned. And apparently something seen in an mri on his back last year caused the NBA's insurance carrier to not fully cover his contract. This year he's been pretty routinely abused by more athletic players. Hakim Warrick and Rudy Gay both had their way with him last night. It's getting to the point of being quite frustrating. He was never more than an adequate athlete, but now he's playing like less than that defensively. Offensively he's not moving without the ball much, which used to be the great strength of his game. All in all, I don't like what I see, and it might be the first time I'd be in favor of the Bulls continuing their tradition of signing their young guys to big deals and then trading them pretty quickly afterwards.
Bulls need a big man. Rose/Gordon are clearly the two best players, and it's not even close. Bulls need a big man to make them a more versatile scoring team. The trade will accomplish two things. Give us the chance to get that star big man, and give us a good role player in Joel, who will drastically improve our interior defense. We are currently worst in the league in that area. We should be getting interior defense with Omer Asik in 2010, but it'd be nice to have some before then. It's just a redistributement of talent in the longrun, and the 2010 free agent will probably be quite a bit better than Deng as well, while Pryzbrilla would make more sense for our team than Hinrich.
Gordon is playing well, but he is a free agent. There is no guarantee that the Bulls will be able to keep him. And, even if they do re-sign him this summer, would his big pay raise mess up the cap space for 2010? I think this would be a risky move by Chicago, hoping that; 1) Joel could play big minutes; 2) Ben re-signs; 3) Amare comes on board in 2010. The funny thing is, back in the recent past, I thought the Bulls should have dumped Curry (as they did and got a good deal for it); and keep Chandler. Instead they dumped Chandler for nothing and made the run at Ben Wallace. That summer, I was prepared for the Bulls to sign Pryzbilla, who I thought was the best bet for them. Clearly Wallace was a huge mistake. And now a Bulls fan wants to come full circle and trade for Pryz. Seems too late for all that now. If the Bulls had got Pryz instead of Wallace, and had kept Aldridge, they would be in better shape with their front line right now. Of course, the butterfly effect says they don't get lucky with the lottery again and don't have Rose.
The 2010 cap space takes into account Gordon getting a big extension. The Bulls can simply create 2010 capspace by letting Gordon walk this summer, but that makes the Bulls a lesser team, makes them less attractive to 2010 free agents, and even if they were to still manage to get a 2010 free agent, the Bulls will only be stacking 2 stars instead of 3, if they were able to keep Gordon too. A 2 star stack doesn't seem like it will be enough with New York in position to double stack, Cleveland in position to double stack (and Lebron is by far the best player in the league, so a Cleveland double stack > than normal double stack). San Antonio has a triple stack, as does LA, Boston, and Portland should as well. Miami has the potential to get a quadruple stack, and could potentially get Gordon this summer. Oklahoma City also can make a triple stack, or a quadruple stack if they get lucky in the lottery this year, or just do good drafting regardless. I think Luol Deng can't be expected to be a "star" level player. Rose and Gordon are pretty much there already (star = fringe allstar or greater in this definition). So putting yourself in position to get a third star, and begin to get solid role players to put around your triple stack would be a good move.
2 things........ He will only play in 2 games prior to them deciding if they want to keep him the rest of the season and they called him "former star". When was he a star?
thanks for the well thought out response. From what you're saying, I doubt the Blazers would bite then based on the lead If in my post. I definitely don't want a subpar (by NBA starter standards) athlete at the 3, especially making max dollars STOMP
I smell a conspiracy. Portland/Memphis agree to a multi-player deal; to make room Memphis waives Darius Miles. Hmm...
