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Bulls Thu Feb 19 2009
*UPDATE* Bulls Make YET Another Trade, Acquire More Spare Parts
UPDATE: Literally minutes before the trade deadline yesterday afternoon, Bulls GM, John Paxson, sent shooting guard/small forward, Thabo Sefolosha to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a 2009 first-round draft selection. Another fairly "meh" move by Chicago, but sure, okay, a first-round pick for a heretofore, unheralded and borderline draft bust, makes as much sense as anything else the Bulls have done the past three days...
The Bulls in their never-ending quest for relevance in the NBA trade season made yet another move by swapping Larry Hughes (and his grossly oversized contract) to the New York Knicks for league-wide journeyman, Tim Thomas, Jerome James and Anthony Roberson. Of the three obscure and, fairly, worthless acquisitions; Thomas is by far the most "household name," having averaged a "robust" 11.7 ppg through his career that has meandered from Philadelphia, Milwaukee, New York (twice), Chicago, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
As for Roberson and James, what can be said? Hmmm, well, James is over 7' which ties in nicely with GM Paxson's growing collection of over 7' players with marginal NBA talent, see: Gray, Aaron. Roberson likely was thrown in to make the deal work money-wise for the Bulls and Knicks.
The good news? Well, the Bulls no longer have to worry about Hughes' inflated contract nor his moodiness and general demand for more shots, more shots and more shots. Additionally, Hughes' departure opens the door for recent trade pickup John Salmons to work into the 2-spot alongside Ben Gordon. For the Knicks, Hughes could actually work out, as the last system he truly flourished in was with Washington's "shoot-first, ask questions later" offense back in '05-'06, which is a very similar system to Knicks coach, Mike D'Antoni's approach to offense. Still at the end of the day, the question remains: Have the Bulls gotten better and by most measures the answer is no, but! Chicago has no shed two huge contracts in two days (Gooden and Hughes) and they have gotten better --offensively at least, Miller = bad at defense-- at the center position with Brad Miller, while not going backwards by acquiring Thomas and Salmons. All without having to deal any of there young talent still under rookie (read: cheap) contracts.
