Family,
The bulls greatest weakness is their PG play when DRose is not on the court. They failed to take the back-up pg need seriously this off-season, getting rid of hinrich to clear space for lebron and also failing to sign chris duhon once lebron had announced his decision.
Forget Carmelo Anthony. The player the bulls need to acquire as soon as possible, and the player that I truly believe will put them over the edge is Chauncy Billups.
Chauncy's name came up in a number of possible deals over the summer when it was thought denver was trying to cut payroll and would also be dealing melo. Who knows about melo at this time, but the bulls need to make a strong play for chauncy NOW instead of waiting to see what denver wants to do with him once they do or don't trade melo. If the nuggets lose melo it would be silly for them to keep chauncy - they would be in full youth and rebuilding mode and would hand the reigns over to Ty Lawson, who IS the real deal.
Act now. Offer anyone on the bulls except the untouchable core (rose, noah, taj, boozer). I know no one wants luol's contract, and frankly I'm happy to keep him - he has been playing very very well this season, particularly on defense, thibidou knows how to use him, and he will be even better as a third option once boozer is back. Offer jjohnson, draft picks, and cash. Even consider giving up asik. Trade for chauncy: renegotiate his contract and give him a reasonable three year extension (the last multi-year contract of his career); guarantee him serious minutes (not always starting, but the same kind of minutes); let him relish the chance, as he winds down his career, to mentor the most exciting and athletic point guard in the league right now; explain to him that adding him to this mix to back-up and mentor rose, to teach him and help him develop his post game, and even to play alongside him at the 2 guard at times will give the bulls a championship caliber team right NOW and for a couple of seasons to come.
we need chauncy. Something tells me we can attain him. The future is now, and cj watson won't cut it. (And it's clear that thibidou is having trouble trusting him, even though he should be developing his bench this early in the season. He played watson for only about 4 minutes in the 4th quarter last night before bringing back rose).
PG: drose, billups
SG: bogans (played great in the denver game), brewer (my pick for player to watch, really starting to play well)
SF: deng, korver
PF: boozer, taj
C: noah, asik, thomas
This line-up will win a championship and its worth going into the luxury tax for: 2 all nba caliber players (rose and noah, who is a top 5 big man right now and not done yet), a perennial all-star (boozer), and chauncy who is a winner and absolutely dope, even if he doesn't make another all-star team.
Thoughts? I want to start a bring chauncy to chicago campaign.
EU
I have three counter-arguments
ReplyDelete1. There's no room in your rotation for Scalabrine. And while I originally would have said that sarcastically, I think he's played really well and stretches the floor nicely in a Brad-Miller type of way. I know when Boozer comes back it's going to be hard to find minutes for all the bigs, but I wouldn't mind Scal getting a small piece of the pie.
2. I seriously doubt Chauncey is ready to go into the Lindsey Hunter mentor role already. He's got a few more good years of being a 30-minute-a-night guy for a good team. But Derrick needs to be getting in the upper 30s for the Bulls to be competitive, and I don't know how well they'll work together as a tandem.
3. I know the Bulls haven't had the most success in the world standing pat instead of pulling the trigger on a trade (coughDengforGasolcough), but I really like how this Bulls team is developing, and I want to see them keep the chemistry they have. Honestly, 12 minutes of CJ Watson isn't going to be the difference between the NBA finals and a 2nd round knockout. I feel like the best course for the Bulls right now is to keep this core pretty much the way it is and give them time to develop.