The Front Page

Luol Deng has just completed his stint with the Great Britain national team this summer in the EuroBasket Qualifying tournament, leading Great Britain to a spot in the 2011 EuroBasket tournament. Deng finished the tournament averaging 22.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.9 steals, 0.9 blocks, and 4.1 turnovers in 38.8 minutes.

Luol Deng's performance in this tournament hasn't been too much out of line with what he has done for the Bulls these past few seasons. He scored 22.6 points on 52.9 ts%. With the Bulls last season he scored 17.6 points on 53.1 ts%. His efficiency was pretty much the same, and the increase in scoring was a result of a greater volume of shots.

How he scored his points was quite a bit different though. Deng saw an uptick in his efficiency from three point shooting, which he doesn't normally have in the NBA game. 42.4 percent of his shots came from three, and he made 39.3 percent of his threes. It's hard to see if this will translate to the NBA next season for Deng. The FIBA three point line is closer than the NBA three point line, so that could have some affect. However, in the NBA last year Deng shot 38.6 percent from three (which is in line with his FIBA numbers from this summer), but only 7.6 percent of his shot attempts were from three, so he didn't see the efficiency benefits that a significant number of three point attempts can have.

Luol Deng being able to make the three point shot with consistency would be big for the Bulls next season. If Deng can hit the three, that will space the floor better, giving Derrick Rose more space for his drives to the basket. Deng has shown an ability to hit the corner three in the NBA (41.5 percent last year), so it could just be a matter of Deng just being reluctant to hoist the long balls, rather than not being a good shooter from that range.
...

As the World Championships quickly approach, it has become clear that this year will not be an easy ride to the gold medal for Team USA. Over the weekend, the USA beat Lithuania 77-61 and Spain 86-85.

In the Lithuania game Team USA only scored seven points in the first quarter as their offense was completely stagnant. The next day against Spain, Team USA barely hung on as Derrick Rose scored the last four points of the game to secure the tight victory.

Through the scrimmages it is beginning to become clear of who the key players will have to be for Team USA to be successful.

Kevin Durant - The most obvious of these players is Kevin Durant, the NBA's leading scorer from last year. He is the focal point of the team's offense and will be the guy they look for to produce offense for them when the offense goes stagnant.

Derrick Rose - He should be the secondary star of the team and the floor general at point guard. When Rose has been in the game during these exhibitions, the team's offense has been flowing much better than any of the other point guards. He creates opportunities for his teammates on the fast break with his blazing speed and opens things up in the half court with his quickness to the basket. No point guard on the any of the team's at the World Championship will be able to keep up with Rose's speed and quickness.
...

The Chicago Bulls are in talks for Portland Trail Blazers guard Rudy Fernandez, according to OregonLive.com

This is an opportunity that the Bulls should attack in full force. Rudy Fernandez is about as good of a fit next to Derrick Rose as they are going to find. Fernandez is a career 38.7 percent three point shooter, and he set the record for most threes by a rookie just two years ago. Shooting is what the Bulls need more of, and Fernandez is one of the best at it. In addition, Fernandez is athletic, and could play on the break with Rose.

The only asset that the Knicks have that they would be willing to trade for Fernandez is Wilson Chandler. Chandler has shown some talent, averaging 15.3 points for the Knicks. But I can't see the Blazers trading for another perimeter player when they already have Brandon Roy, Nicolas Batum, and Wesley Matthews occupying the spots where Chandler would play. In order for the Knicks to land Fernandez, they would need to convince the Blazers to wait on their 2014 draft pick before collecting anything from the trade. If the Blazers have been looking at the Bulls over the past few years, they might see the value in stealing the Knicks picks (#2 pick and #9 pick for Bulls in 2006 and 2007).
...

Now that some time has passed, it is easier to begin reflecting on Lebron James' decision to sign with the Miami Heat and join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Lebron has received a lot of criticism from fans, retired NBA players, and columnists for "selling out" in order to win a championship by joining a super team that would clear an easy path for him to win the championship.

In truth, I don't really think this is a valid argument. In Chicago and New Jersey he would have been able to still bring Chris Bosh with him, or at least a comparable player in Carlos Boozer.

I think that all things were pretty much equal, whether he was joining Devin Harris/Derrick Favors/Chris Bosh (or Carlos Boozer)/Brook Lopez in New Jersey or Derrick Rose/Luol Deng/Taj Gibson/Chris Bosh (or Carlos Boozer)/Joakim Noah in Chicago compared to Dwyane Wade/Udonis Haslem/Mike Miller/Chris Bosh in Miami.

I think the Miami team is a little better in the short term, while the Chicago and New Jersey teams are setup to give Lebron a stronger supporting cast for more years. But in any of the three destinations, Lebron James would have a juggernaut of a team that would be monumental favorites to win the championship.

For anyone that wants to criticize Lebron's decision to go to Miami because he is taking the easy way out, they should not offer New Jersey and Chicago as teams he could have gone to and have a challenge winning the championship. With any of those teams, Lebron would be challenging the Bulls' 72 win record.
...

The Chicago Bulls have done a nice job addressing their short term perimeter rotation with the looting of the Utah Jazz to bring Kyle Korver (to address their shooting needs) and Ronnie Brewer (to address their slashing needs). Now the Bulls should look at addressing their long term starting shooting guard position, and the perfect player to fill this role is Xavier Henry, the Memphis Grizzlies' draft pick.

Right now Xavier Henry is involved in a ridiculous contract dispute with the Memphis Grizzlies over how much of the rookie scale he should be paid. Team's have the option to pay rookies anywhere from 80 percent to 120 percent of the rookie scale. It is common practice for NBA teams to give their rookies the maximum 120 percent of the rookie scale allowed, but the Grizzlies are for some reason trying to force Henry to sign for 100 percent of the rookie scale.


...

Yesterday afternoon the Bulls came to an agreement with free agent Carlos Boozer for $76 million over 5 years. The agreement came later in a day that saw free agents Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh both commit to Miami.

With Wade, Bosh, and Amare gone, it looked like the Bulls could potentially miss out on all of the top free agents, but that all changed when the Bulls got Boozer.

Carlos Boozer is a very sound signing. 19.5 points and 11.2 rebounds last season. He is the low post scorer that the Bulls have lacked since they traded Eddy Curry in 2005...only Boozer is better than Curry and can rebound too.

The Bulls now have a solid core in Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Taj Gibson, Carlos Boozer, and Joakim Noah. My only fear is that this team will become a lot like the Utah Jazz. A very good team, but one that's always on the outside looking in on the championship picture.
...

As the 2010 free agency process continues to draw itself out, it appears now that Lebron James and Dwyane Wade have drawn each other into a stand off. Both are fearful of the other joining the Bulls' championship ready supporting cast.

I think that Wade would like to go back to the Miami Heat and Lebron James would like to go back to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but both are strongly considering making a move to the Bulls to avoid being shutout from championships in the years to come.

After signing either player, the Bulls would likely pair them with Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer. It is simple, go to Chicago, and you dominate the East for the next few years.

While Chicago is the safe choice that would assure either player with a championship, it doesn't mean either will end up in Chicago, because each player's heart appears to be with the teams that drafted them.

But the Bulls are in the mix because of the threat of the other guy going there and setting up their dynasty. Neither guy wants to commit to their own team before seeing what the other does.

If Wade commits to Miami first, than he has to worry about Lebron James going to Chicago and shutting Wade out from future championships. Likewise, if Lebron commits to Cleveland first, he has to worry about Wade fleeing to Chicago and forming a super team that shuts him out from winning a championship.
...

In what Chris Broussard and the rest of ESPN would call the fluid situation of free agency, the situation has shifted so that the Bulls could be in play for Dwyane Wade, according to Yahoo Sports.

...

Free agency is coming upon us fast. 2 days, 6 hours, 39 minutes, and 23 seconds left according to ESPN.com's Lebron tracker as I start writing this article. So now is the time to make some predictions on where players will sign in free agency. I don't have any inside information myself in regards to free agency, so these are just some best guesses based on the information that is available.

Starting of course with the Chicago Bulls....
...