Who's This #24 Guy on The Bulls?

On a night where Johnny Red Kerr was honored for his career, the Bulls came through with a great victory. As I've said in earlier posts, this team has no identity. For stretches they play like a team that can be a legitimate playoff team, and then other times its like they don't even understand the basic concepts of team defense. After winning 5 of their last 8 (7 of which were on the road), this team is starting to look like that playoff team again.

One thing is different this time from the previous stretches of great play. Amid swirling trade rumors, Tyrus Thomas has exploded in the last 10 games or so. Not just exploded, but he looks like he can keep this up. He is averaging 15.6 pts and 9.8 rebs in his last 8 games. Do you think you know where this is going? Do you think I'm going to have second thoughts about dealing him to the Suns for Amare?

Are you crazy? Even if this little explosion by TT keeps up, his fg% during that time has been 47%. An excellent fg% perhaps, but for a big man it is just average. Either one of two things happens now, he continues to shoot that jump shot and miss it pretty regularly, keeping his fg% below what would be expected from an elite big man OR he stops shooting it and raises his fg% to maybe 54-55% but averages only about 12 points a game. I don't see how either option makes him as valuable as Amare. Amare is young, averages about 20 pts and 10 rebs for his career, and most importantly makes most of the shots he takes.

The truth is I'm thrilled that Tyrus is playing well right now. If something finally clicked for him, it's win-win for the Bulls. Either we keep him and he is a much improved player, or we deal him (please do the right thing Pax?!) and get THE Amare Stoudemire in return. Worst case scenario is it doesn't work out with Amare somehow and he walks in 2010, leaving us about $15 million in cap room for that magical free agent summer.

Amare to Bulls Is Starting To Look Like a Real Possibility

This is going to drive StevieY19 crazy, since he believes that the Suns would be crazy to do any deal for what he terms "a pile of Bulls garbage", but according to www.rumorpress.net (not the most reliable, but they have been right about a lot of things in the past):

As we all know, the Bulls and Suns have had lengthy discussions about a possible trade that would send All Star big man Amare Stoudemire to Chicago. The Bulls are very much in the running to land Stoudemire, as GM John Paxson is willing to package just about any deal with mutliple players involved to get him, except for Derrick Rose of course. One scenario that is very possible and has been discussed the most would be a deal that would send Drew Gooden, Tyus Thomas, Thabo Sefoloshia and a 1st round pick to the Suns in exchange for Stoudemire. However, Steve Kerr would like Joakim Noah added to the deal as well. Phoenix will continue to talk with other teams to see if they can either find a better deal, or wait and see if the Bulls will add Noah to the trade. The Bulls want Stoudemire so much, that adding Noah may just happen. Even then, the ball will still be in the Suns court as they have multiple teams to work with and several deals to weigh out, the highest bidder will win.

What do you think, StevieY19? Should the Bulls just throw in Noah now? I'm not saying they shouldn't, but where does that leave our frontcourt? Could we go out and get a capable back-up now? If this deal happened with Noah involved, would that mean Gray would start the rest of the year and Noce would back up Amare? It's still worth it, but we would need some kind of plan to back those guys up. I'm not trying to see Noce getting 25 minutes at the 4/5 position. Just do it Pax.

Also I'm not seeing how this resolves any of our bad contract issues. Pax would still have to turn around and deal Hinrich, Hughes, and/or Nocioni to get us far enough under the cap to hope to resign Amare, keep Ben Gordon, or go out and get some pieces to make up for the loss of all those bodies.

Projected Lineup If The Trade Went Down:

PG: Rose, Hinrich
SG: Gordon, Hinrich
SF: Deng, Nocioni
PF: Stoudemire, Nocioni
C: Gray, Stoudemire, Nocioni

I'll take it.