You wonder if Gar had the chance to do things over agian if he wouldn't have signed a backup center instead of Dunleavy. There are still some unsigned centers out there: Timofey Mozgov, DeJuan Blair, Aaron Gray, Cole Aldrich?
The Bulls had interest in Mozgov before. Blair is a PF, no? He'd be a terrific pickup, IMO. But he had some issues in San Antonio that led to him basically getting benched. Head case?
I doubt that Forman has second thoughts. Dunleavy adds wing shooting/scoring and that was the priority. Thibodeau became much more comfortable with Mohammed as last season progressed. Also, Thibodeau isn't hesitant to use Gibson and Boozer at C. I agree that the 13th roster spot will likely be a big, but I don't think it's a matter of filling a gaping hole.
Yeah, no second thoughts about Dunleavy. I don't know what to expect from Camby -- or whomever they get for spot 13. 40 is pretty old for a center. I don't think he could be expected to be the difference maker. Having Nazr as your backup makes one nervous, however.
Bulls fans have to accept a couple things. If Rose goes down, we're completely screwed. If Noah goes down, we're pretty much screwed. Before this starts a thread condemning Bulls management for allowing such a situation, Miami's completely screwed if James goes down and OKC is completely screwed if Durant goes down.
In other words, we're really screwed if Kurt has to play. Unlike last season where we were really screwed if he didn't. (but weren't ... we made 2nd round without him)
Here's a head scratcher. Nazr Mohammed has a no trade clause in his contract and a 15% trade kicker. Brilliant GM work there. Probably had to sweeten the pot so the Bucks wouldn't sign him.
Right now my preference is to forget Marcus Camby and sign Malcolm Thomas if he clears waivers. Really, what does a 40 y/o Camby get you that a 36 y/o Nazr doesn't? How long until Thibs trusts him? If we had to, how many minutes could he play in one game anyway? I don't like the answers to any of these questions. Thomas is smaller, but much more capable and familiar with Thibs' system. If we're looking for a last resort big man I'd rather go with him.
Understand the point, but disagree, mainly because I suspect that Thibodeau's not all that high on Thomas. Thibodeau has seen a lot of Thomas over the past year or so. Thomas was on the team for the last 16 games last season and only played in 7 of them, and only once for significant minutes. He played in 3 playoff games, small minutes and all in a mop-up role with the Bulls getting blown out. If Thibodeau thought he was worth keeping, they could easily have kept him for the minimum salary and still gone out and signed a Camby type.
We're in the dark a bit on this one. If you believe posters on realgm who claim to know MT personally (and I always do), he was told to expect to get an invite to camp, so that the decision to cut him came "out of the blue". I think it's clear they didn't see him as someone they were going to count on for a major role, or as someone worth making the investment to "develop." In contrast to SST's favorite new player, the other MT, for whom we let go an established, but limited player, to make time for Marquis to grow.
You give Bulls' management more credit for altruism than I do. I think that they believe that if at some time in the future, they want Malcolm Thomas on their roster, they can get him or someone like him without much of a problem.
DeJuan Blair 24 years old Whispers about him likely having knee problems as a pro, so he slipped badly in the draft a few years back. Ended up getting snatched up by the Spurs where he won the starting C job for 2+ seasons. He fell out of favor this year and they just cut him after cutting his minutes to very few. As near as I can tell, he's had no knee problems or at least he's been able to play in all the games. He's only like 6'7". An Unseld kind of center - he's very heavy for 6'7" at 265 lbs+. He may also have done well at C because Duncan is really a C. Seriously, though, we could actually use a backup C who we would be thankful to have on the roster should Noah go down for a stretch of games. Nazr ain't that guy.
