normally ...

don't read sam smith - but this is good stuff about the upcoming trade deadline ...
The Bulls seem better positioned now that it appears they do have a future star in No. 1 overall draft pick Derrick Rose. But having someone like Rose, do you build with him now with some well placed trades and not risk waiting until 2010 and maybe being shut out? Or give up one season with the chance to get a true star like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire, and suddenly be a serious championship contender with enough decent pieces that will have been cultivated by then? Of course, you could do all the right things and it still may not work. It's why the sports business is easier to second guess than manage.

...

And so we get back to the Bulls.

They are in position for three options:

1. Identify a core now, perhaps Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Thabo Sefolosha and Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, or some combination, and trade Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden and maybe their No. 1 draft pick for players. One team you could see entering in a deal with the Bulls would be Charlotte, and maybe you go for the defensive big man in Emeka Okafor and give them the kind of hard playing types Larry Brown would prefer like Hinrich, Nocioni, Sefolosha and maybe Noah. You might take back someone Charlotte doesn't desire like Adam Morrison. Those numbers don't work yet, but you could find something. Though that's just one potential example.

2. Let go Drew Gooden and Ben Gordon after the season, trade Nocioni and Hinrich for expiring deals and make a free agency run this summer for someone among those who could be free agents, including Carlos Boozer, Lamar Odom, Al Harrington, Mehmet Okur, Anderson Varejao, Shawn Marion, Allen Iverson, David Lee, Ron Artest, Rasheed Wallace, Jason Kidd, Michael Redd and Chris Wilcox.

3. Cash it all in while marking time next season and try for the big strike in 2010 with money to go after at least two top players to go along with Rose among LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson, Dirk Nowitzki, Ginobili, McGrady, Steve Nash, Marcus Camby and Ray Allen all potential free agents. Or one to combine with perhaps someone picked up this coming summer, like the Magic hoped would work in a second run at Duncan.






rose won rookie of the month again ...

Rose ranked second among rookies in scoring for the month of December (16.3 ppg), first in assists (6.2 apg) and second in minutes (37.3 mpg). The first-year guard led the Bulls in assists in 12 of their 15 games for the month and tallied double-figure scoring efforts in all but one contest. Rose became just the fifth rookie in Bulls history (joining Kirk Hinrich, Michael Jordan, Reggie Theus and Jay Williams) to record a 20-point, 13-assist game when he accomplished the feat on Dec. 29 at New Jersey.