Who Had Dec. 12th in the Pippen Pool I don't care if My Man Sam(tm) made the joke already. I made it when he first broke down a few days into the season. And I'd link you too if my blasted permalinks worked....and if those meddling kids didn't get in my way. Anyway. Scottie's having surgery, and may actually retire. Now I know the retirement talk was all over the local papers today, but lets wait till it happens before we all go nutso. What is the case right now is a 5 million dollar player who's missing another month, and isn't going to make the total of 50 games that he and John Paxson hoped for. Which means it's time to second guess the move. At the time of the signing I liked the move predicated by the assumption that he'd stay healthy. Now that he obviously isn't healthy, the move's not looking so good. But looking at the other main summer option, Ira Newble, it could've been worse. Newble has been ineffective, injured and even put in the Paul Silas doghouse to give Ricky Davis some company. But there was another option out there at the time that got me thinking, James Posey. A good defender at the 2 or 3, Posey is younger, and right now better than Pippen or Newble. He's putting up about 9 and 4 for the Griz this year, in an average of 26.5 minutes per game. Those minutes might even be lower in the coming weeks due to the addition of Bonzi Wells giving them a surplus of swingmen. So obviously Jerry West and the Griz couldn't have been *that* happy with Posey. So maybe he wasn't going to be a savior here, but he would've been a better option than Pip or Newble right now. But you know what? Maybe another appeal of Pippen all along was that his 2 year deal would be less than what was required of Posey or Newble. What's wrong with giving them a big contract? Well the team already has a guy on the roster who already fits that bill, Eddie Robinson. He's back from the respritory infection that kept him out the past couple of games, forcing us to watch the Linton Johnson III experience. And with Pippen out now at least a month, its E-Rob's time to shine. He's actually been playing pretty well so far this year, but will get a major minutes boost from the 20 he's been averaging thus far. Consider it an opportunity to finally see what he can do. He'll probably never be the 6 million dollar man Krause projected him to be, but he could definately fill in as the starting small forward. As I always say, he's pretty much untradeable, so might as well hopes he turns his career around while in a Bulls uniform. Game tonight is at Milwaukee...and I decree it's winnable.