DA BULLS

The NBA Trade Deadline has come and gone, and the Bulls are in better shape today than they were yesterday. Yes, they're probably worse for this season, but not by an awful amount.

The first trade was dumping John Salmons for Joe Alexander and Hakim Warrick. Yeah, those guys pretty well suck, but Salmons had an option for next season that he was definitely going to exercise, so the Bulls needed to find a way to get rid of him despite him being a solid player. It's two expiring contracts, so it's really exactly what the Bulls needed to pull off in a trade for Salmons.

The other trade hurts. The most exciting player in the NBA, Tyrus Thomas, was traded to Charlotte for Acie Law, Flip Thomas, and a future first round pick. The contracts, again, are expiring, so that's really what the Bulls were looking for as well as adding future talent which the first round pick helps with. It really sucks to see Tyrus go, but he was never going to be good for the Bulls. The worst coach in the NBA, Vinny Del Negro, and him never got along, and the Bulls weren't going to make much of an offer to Tyrus this summer because of that. If the Bulls had manged to get Mike D'Antoni, Tyrus Thomas would probably be as productive as Shawn Marion was in his prime, but there's no going back now. This trade's biggest impact on my life is that the Charlotte Bobcats become my third favorite team in the NBA, behind the Bulls and the Thunder. They now have my two favorite former Bulls in Tyrus Thomas and Tyson Chandler. Maybe the Bulls should stop drafting guys named Ty (or James Johnson for that matter).

What the trade means is that the Bulls can, without a doubt, max out one player this offseason. I am the eternal optimist, and I don't see why they can't get two of the free agents available. Basically, they'd just need to get rid of Hinrich or Deng. Now, in my dream world, the Bulls will pursue LeBron and Bosh. If you're Toronto or Cleveland, don't you have to jump at the chance to pull off a sign and trade to get either Hinrich or Deng. Cleveland could put Deng in LeBron's spot, and probably only lose 20 more games. That's a great trade for them. So the starting five of the 2011 NBA Champions will be Joakim Noah, Chris Bosh, LeBron James, Kirk Hinrich, and Derrick Rose. But clearly Vinny Del Negro cannot lead these guys, so who should they get to coach? Well, there's a lot of teams that have tried to lure him out of the NCAA for NBA jobs, but he has always turned them down, but with this talent, I think they can manage to get this iconic coach to lead these guys. You know who I'm talking about...

The Man, The Myth, The Hair

Steve Alford will lead them to 82-0 baby. Plus, the Bulls will also have the 6th Man of the Year when they give the league minimum to the man.

THUNDER DOUG!

I'm all boned up over here.

-Joe