Thursday, February 19, 2004

Like Getting Coal on Christmas

That's what it feels like when your team doesn't trade anybody on the deadline. Given the multitude of players traded in the past couple of weeks, I suppose it was hard to expect a bunch of deals to go down. In fact, the only major trade of the day was the Pistons getting a 3 month rental of Rasheed Wallace for the equivalent of a handful of magic beans. That Joe Dumars is something else.

That considered, what's even more surprising is that Marcus Fizer didn't get traded. This is the same player who has been rumored to be dealt ever since he got drafted. (mysteriously drafted I may add, considering they had Elton Brand). The talk with the Clippers (for Ely/Dooling) cooled off supposedly, and discussions with Orlando were dashed after learning that Gordan Giricek was traded to the Jazz. The other big trade possibility involving Jerome Williams going to the Sixers also never came to fruition.

Its not the fact that trading players for the sake of trading them is a good thing. I can only assume that GM John Paxson entertained many offers, and just didn't feel like he got the right one. Its just that on the trading deadline its fun to analyze newcomers to the team, their impact, contact, etc. So what Bulls fans are left with now is what we had before. A unit that's been playing well lately.

Friday night's game is against possibly the best team in the NBA, the Kings. They do have deficiencies coming into the UC though, with Brad Miller being out and the fact that they played the night before (and lost) to the Timberwolves. Its probably sad to admit, but I'm actually excited to see the game tommorow. Who thought the possibility of a 3-game win streak would be so exciting?