Thursday, January 22, 2004

The Limbo Cam

You know, that dumb thing at the United Center that puts a limbo stick on you and you have to somehow limbo in 2 dimensions....somehow. Well right now the Bulls are seemingly on the limbo cam, how low can they go? This past week has seen the bar going lower and lower, first the awful blown lead to the Wiz, and a loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday putting them in the Central Division cellar. And just like those on the limbo cam, the Bulls are getting embarrassing to watch.

So with all bad teams, its a lot more fun to talk about what's off the floor than what's on it. And its been a hot rumor that Jamal Crawford is going to the Knicks. It's hard to believe that any new reports out of New York are credible since Jamal Crawford has been reportedly going to the Knicks for the better part of 3 years. They have a new GM who has shown to be active, but the Knicks are still woefully short on tradeable assets. All of what little prospects and draft picks they had were shipped to the Suns. In terms of short-term contracts or young players left, the Knicks have aging big men like Travis Knight, Othella Harrington, and Kurt Thomas, or marginal young players like Mike Sweetney and Frank Williams. The most recent proposal I read had the Knicks offering Frank Williams and Shandon Anderson for Crawford and Jerome Williams (or Eddie Robinson). While this would take a bad contract off the books, getting Anderson in return pretty much negates any savings. And if you've been reading lately you'll know that I like Frank Williams, but point guard is the very least of the Bulls' concerns.

Basically Paxson's strategy will be to package Crawford with one of the Bulls' bad contracts (Williams, Robinson, or Antonio Davis) to either get cap relief, young wing players, or draft picks. While cap flexibility is nice for mid level free agents or trades, I sincerely doubt that the Bulls will get far enough under the cap to make a run at the likes of Kobe Bryant. Plus that plan failed several years ago, didn't it? In regards to getting picks and young players, I don't see Pax giving Crawford away, so the picks will have to be at least in the lottery, and the player will have to have at least proven something in this league, something I sadly cannot say for the young core of the Bulls.