Goodbye and Good Riddance

It's all over.  The Tyrus Thomas era of Chicago basketball is over.  Thanks for the memories.  Go Rockies.

The Bulls accomplished two things on Thursday when they traded Ty Thomas and John Salmons' beard for similar players with expiring contracts. 

First of all they ridded themselves of the walking, breathing bad jumpshot/poor decision-waiting-to-happen known as Larry Hughes Tyrus.
Secondly, and most importantly, the Bulls have cleared up the cap space neccesary to re-sign Ben Wallace or possibly some other big-time player in this summer's free-agent madness.


Looking back on Tyrus's time in Chicago, he has been a tease.  The NBA is full of guys like Tyrus, who have tremendous upside, but just skate by on their raw ability.

Watching him play on a regular basis is maddening.  When Ty comes into the game you know it will be less than 5 possesions before he does something abjectly retarded.  Like not hustle back on defense and allow his slower whiter opponent to beat him down the floor for a lay-up, or inexplicably decide to take a jab step and throw up a bad fade-away jumper.

Enough on Ty, I wish him the best with the Bobcats.  I'm sure that he'll get along great with Larry Brown.

Looking forward, the Bulls have cleared enough cap space to sign one max contract this summer.  That means that they can hopefully sign one top-flight player to compliment what they already have.

Here is a list of the Bull's top free agent options, starting with the worst option and ending with LeBron.

6. Amare' Stoudamire: Fear the Goggles

I'm really hoping we don't get Amare.  He has been in the perfect situation for him in Phoenix and failed to become an elite player. 
The Suns just ask him to run around with the perfect PG for him in Nash, not play defense, and dunk on people, but somehow he has become unwelcome there to the point where they have tried to trade for the past two years.
Also, I'm gonna propose a Kevin Gregg Rule to not bring in any more players who wear odd sport goggles.

5. Dwyane Wade: The band-aid is symbolic
It may seem wrong to have Wade below Boozer and Joe Johnson because he much better player (and will always be), but he is not a good fit for the Bulls.

My first concern is that he will be an awkward fit with D-Rose.  They are both players who base their games almost entirely off of penetration and need to have the ball in their hands to be effective.

The second worry about Wade is his age.  He is 28 years old this season, and has likely peaked as a basketball player.  Wing players who go to the basket hard are like NFL running backs or milk from Aldi, they tend to expire quickly. 
Their bodies can only take so much abuse before they begin to deteriorate.  To stay successful after their late 20's they need to change their game and become more perimeter-oriented, like MJ did and Kobe is doing now.
I hope Dwyane keeps his play up, because I love watching him, but for now it's not worth the risk for the Bulls.

4. Carlos Boozer: Spanish for Charles Drinksalot
A solid player and he fills a need for the Bulls as a low post scorer.  The problem is that Boozer is not the kind of player that you can base a championship team around.  I feel like he would take the Bulls from a slighty above mediocre team to a good team that can't quite contend for a championship (like Utah now). 

You would need to sign one more good player to be a contender with Boozer, and with the money that they would need to pay him, that doesn't seem possible.

3. Joe Johnson: Loves angry old white men.  Possible future best friend of Lou P.
Another guy whose age is a concern, as documented by Blogabull blog. The post gets into what happens to shooting guards after they hit 30 (Johnson is 28).  JJ isn't quite as much of risk for drop-off as Wade due to the perimeter nature of his game, as well as his health to this point in his career.

The key with Johnson is how seamlessly he would fit in with the Bulls.  He is a guy who could come right in and spread the defense with his shooting, and provide a consistent scoring threat.  Johnson would allow Kirk to come off the bench and be the 6th man.
He would be able to make the Bulls a very interesting team (if not a contender) right away.

2. Chris Bosh: Gets a second paycheck for being team mascot
Bosh would be quite a haul for the Bulls.  Right now he is rivaling Dwight Howard as the best big man in the league.  He is putting up 24 and 11 a night compared to Howard's 18 and 13.

Bosh is another guy who would fit perfectly with the Bulls.  He would be great for the high pick and roll with Rose, with his ability to knock down the jumper.  Bosh can also give the Bulls the low-post scoring that they sorely lack.
Bosh is a must have if the Bulls hope to be a championship team soon.

1.  LeBron: We would like to be witnesses
Only because he will likely end up as the greatest to ever play the game.  The Bulls needed to deal Deng or Kirk in order to free up the cap space to sign two monster free agents. 
LeBron has repeatedly said that he would love to play with Bosh someday, and there is a shot that they might sign with the same team this off-season.
It would obviously be a long shot, but if you have a chance to bring in LeBron and then as a bonus Bosh, you need to take that shot. 
I'm sorry Kirk, it's not because I don't love you.