Monday, August 30, 2004

Fine Tunin'

As KC Johnson wrote monday morning, Bulls GM John Paxson still has some ideas concerning what to do with the roster. After Paul Shirley got waived (weeks ago....who knew?), here's how the team stands:

PG: Kirk Hinrich/Frank Williams/Jannero Pargo/Chris Duhon
SG: Ben Gordon
SF: Andres Nocioni/Luol Deng/Eddie Robinson/Chris Jefferies/Scottie Pippen
PF: Tyson Chandler/Othella Harrington
C:   Eddy Curry/Antonio Davis/Dikembe Mutumbo/Cezary Trebanski

That's 16 players listed, although Pargo and Duhon have not signed contracts yet. Like I said earlier you would think only one out of those two will make the team. Jefferies and Trebanski have a guaranteed year left in their deals, but are relatively inexpensive. If there are no deals they can be included in before the start of the season, I wouldn't be surprised to see Jefferies waived and Trebanski sent back to whatever Soviet Bloc hellhole he calls home.

There will undoubtedly be some kind of buyout situation with Pippen. The only reason it hasn't happened already is Pax is still holding him as a possible trading chip. It would be a huge surprise if he is on the court for the Bulls this season.

And that glaring hole in the SG spot is still there, so the reported Mutumbo deal for a tall-ish shooting type to fill that void could very will still happen. Eddie Robinson could potentially be that man to take that spot, but as shown by his 'dedication' in the past, he'll probably be sitting in his reserved seat in coach Skiles' doghouse.

This is all of course contingent on no major happening. For the umpteenth time: don't trade Curry or Chandler. Mostly because of their obvious lack of value. The team will get back players that are nowhere near what these to *can* be if they make 'the leap'. I know I'm probably in the minority when I say this, but lets give this baby Bull experiment one more ride, ok?