The bidding season

Over at The Cavalier Act, Amar is forming his free-agent wish list. The Cavs have plenty of cap room this summer (especially if they renounce rights to Zydrunas Ilgauskas), and after finding Lebron his sidekick, Amar's next ideal target for bidding would be Tyson Chandler:

At 7′1″ and a lanky 235 pounds, Chandler may be a defensive monster in waiting. He has shown more than just flashes of defensive mastery this year, and at the tender age of 22, he has plenty of room to improve on his young career. But with no first round draft picks to offer and no one on the roster outside of James worthy of a serious look, the Cavaliers would be out of luck if the Bulls match any offer. A sign and trade would be out of the works. The only players on the Cavs that would draw interest would be Luke Jackson and Anderson Varejao, and if Chandler is signed to a big offer sheet, those salaries might be hard to match in a trade. It would be brilliance on the part of the new general manager if he gets Chandler to Cleveland, and it may be very possible if Chicago is reluctant to keep both Curry and Chandler.

I responded in the comments section relaying what John Paxson has said all year: that they plan to match all offers for Chandler and Curry. Again, with Curry's health problems its hard to prioritize right now, but even with Eddy at full strength I believe Tyson is of more value to the Bulls. As John Hollinger wrote in this seasons' forecast: This is the kind of player Chicago should be trying to keep, not trade.

Between the Bulls teen towers along with Stromile Swift and Samuel Dalembert, young bigs should have their paydays coming this summer. I think Chandler's role as 7th man, neither a starter nor even a bench player with the accolade of 6thMan award winner Ben Gordon, may see his value depressed around the league to the point where he will not be offered anything beyond the Bulls scope of compensation. I don't foresee any contract near the league maximum value going towards Chandler (or Curry for that matter), and barring that happening I hope Paxson keeps true to his word.

The hangover

It's been 3 days since the Bulls final game of the season, and I'm still gathering thoughts. So much to say, yet not much that wouldn't be repetitive of what's been said by myself and you guys at Bulls Blog over the past 7 months. While this playoff series was winnable, a playoff series victory wasn't as important as gaining playoff experience for this young team. And losing to a talented (if occasionally bafflingly stupid) Washington Wizards team doesn't take away from what a great season this was. I don't think anyone in their right mind could have anything but praise for everyone up and down the organization for giving us such a fun season.

But that can adulation will last only a few weeks :-). While the team has no draft picks this summer, there is plenty of work to be done by Exec. of the Year (whether he wins it officially or not) John Paxson. Paxson claims he wants the whole team back, but we all know it won't be that simple. But before we get ahead of ourselves with who to target and who to re-sign, there is still Eddy Curry's health lingering over any avenue the team can pursue.

This summer will hopefully see some changes here. I obviously need a links update, and some sort of banner to place on the top of the page (anyone an amateur photoshop artist who wants to help??). I also will look into moving to a non-blogspot domain.

For now I'll be enjoying the playoffs, but the posts will keep coming even though the Bulls have been eliminated. And maybe I'm squandering a chance for proper reflection by not providing a full retrospective of the season at this time. Such things have already been done by the Bulls Report and Roche, besides.

But in the meantime I'll take the time for everyone who's been commenting, emailing, linking, and just reading this blog through the ride of this season. The team's success undoubtedly led many of you here (although the quality blogging had you stay, right?), and it made blogging this season way more fun than the 03-04 campaign. Although complaining and ranting about a bad team is fun in it's own way.