Back in July, the Bulls were talking with the Kings about a potential trade that would send Andres Nocioni and Cedric Simmons. According to the Sacbee, the Bulls and Kings are again discussing a possible trade, this time centering around the Bulls’ big men.

I’d be more inclined to keep an eye on the Chicago situation in which Miller could go there and the Kings likely would have their eyes on Drew Gooden, Joakim Noah, and perhaps Tyrus Thomas. The Bulls would have to send a few players the Kings’ way, as Gooden’s expiring deal is worth $7.1 million and Miller is making just shy of $11.4 million this season and $12.2 million in the final year of his deal next season.

A few tidbits to remember …

* Gooden has been on the Kings’ radar since he was hanging with the Maloofs two summers ago. He was the player offered in the Mike Bibby talks with Cleveland, a clear sign that Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie and vice president Wayne Cooper saw him as a decent fit in Sacramento. Gooden wasn’t the hangup in those talks.

* Petrie badly wanted Joakim Noah in the 2007 draft, and the second-year player’s struggles likely have done nothing to deter the exec who isn’t quick to change his opinion of players just because things don’t look so good from the outside looking in. Noah would give the Kings another young big to develop and hope he helps with their futile frontcourt.

* While Miller isn’t as motivated this season as he was last, he still is a Petrie guy. And when you’re a Petrie guy, that means he will try to make a move that is mutually beneficial for his team and the player. Chicago qualifies. While Miller has said he would prefer to retire in his home state of Indiana with the Pacers, he spent two seasons with the Bulls and Chi-town is only a three-hour drive from his home in Kendallville, Ind.

* Lest you forget, the Kings added a player to their front-office team last week, when former Kevin Martin agent and attorney Jason Levien officially began as assistant general manager/team counsel. As a quick side note, I’m told he was given the former office of fired coach Reggie Theus.

It would seem safe to say that the potential for communication between the two clubs has never been better, since just last summer Levien was successfully negotiating Luol Deng’s six-year, $71 million deal with the Bulls in which he dealt directly with Chicago owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

There is no reason for the Bulls to trade for Brad Miller unless they are unloading one of Kirk Hinrich or Andres Nocioni. A simple Drew Gooden and Andres Nocioni for Brad Miller trade works. Kirk Hinrich and one of the young big men also works. The Bulls also could give the Kings both Drew Gooden and Kirk Hinrich as long as the Kings are willing to trade a filler such as Shelden Williams back the Bulls way.

This deal seems to have more steam than others. As long as the Bulls are able to unload one of Hinrich or Nocioni, they will become players in 2010 and also get a legit center in Miller for the next 2 years. It’s hard to pass up that type of trade.

According to ESPN.com, the Bulls are prepared to let go of Thabo Sefolosha, Larry Hughes, and Tyrus Thomas in trades. Here is what Marc Stein wrote:

Sources say guards Larry Hughes and Thabo Sefolosha and forward Tyrus Thomas are the Bulls who are very much available. But the Bulls aren’t ready to part with second-year center Joakim Noah, one insider insists, even though Noah appears to have frustrated first-year Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro as much as Thomas has.

I would prefer not to trade Thabo Sefolosha. He has shown some good defensive stopper ability in the past, and could be a solid role player off the bench long term.

It really won’t matter whether the Bulls trade Tyrus Thomas or not. Thomas just doesn’t posess a whole lot of basketball skills and his jumpshot isn’t any good either. While he gets some nice shot blocks, his man defense is horrible, and he doesn’t quite dunk like he did his rookie year. Thomas hasn’t shown anything and usually when players haven’t shown anything this late in their careers, they are busts.

Larry Hughes is the guy that doesn’t make a lot of sense to trade. He is playing good ball, buying into the team concept, and he expires in 2010. Larry Hughes might just be becoming the victim of the Bulls’ love affair with Kirk Hinrich.

However, a Hughes trade is good if we are using his expiring contract for a good player. Maybe even a trade that involves Thomas and Sefolosha going out with Hughes. However, trading Larry Hughes for junk doesn’t seem like a very appealing option.

Hopefully the Bulls only trade Hughes if they get a really good player in return.

From Sam Smith’s blog on Bulls.com:

It goes back to this preseason when the Bulls, Wizards, Nuggets and Clippers were in talks for a massive player deal. Those rarely come to fruition because of so many moving parts, though sources say this one was getting serious before Hughes got hurt and then Kirk Hinrich. I usually don’t pay much attention to these scenarios since GM’s talk all the time and come up with some crazier stuff than my e-mailers. And presumably everything has changed since the Nuggets later dealt for Chauncey Billups and the Clippers for Zach Randolph. I’ve heard different versions of this, but the Bulls supposedly were getting Chris Kaman and Antonio Daniels after everything settled. Who knows how close it ever was. But despite what the Clippers have been saying, they have had long interest in dealing Kaman, now out two weeks. And I’d assume especially now with Randolph playing well with Marcus Camby.

The Bulls should continue to pursue Chris Kaman. Kaman is averaging 13.9 PPG 9.4 RPG 1.9 BPG and 1.9 APG so far this year. I still do not see why the Clippers are intent on trading Kaman, but if they want to be foolish, Paxson should pounce on the opportunity to get a good center.

Paxson should start by trying to trade for Kaman using Hinrich, Nocioni, and the young bigs. But if the Clippers don’t bite at that, Paxson should not hesitate at swapping Luol Deng for Chris Kaman. The Bulls could easily reach a trade involving Deng, despite his BYC status, by using Drew Gooden as the filler. Trades involving Tyrus Thomas as the filler are also possibly, but much harder to use, and involves exploiting a loophole in the CBA involving the minimum salary trade exception. Luol Deng and Tyrus Thomas for Chris Kaman and Brian Skinner would be an example of this.

By swapping Deng for Kaman, we get a better player at a more important position given the construct of our team, while doing no damage to our 2010 plans. If we still are unable to find a taker for Kirk Hinrich or Andres Nocioni by the start of 2009 free agency, we can turn our attention away from 2010 and focus on building through 2009 free agency and leveraging the contract of Larry Hughes.

In this scenario, we would also be able to re-sign Drew Gooden with no concerns of it messing up our 2010 plan. Losing Deng would not be that painful, as Shawn Marion and Ron Artest are likely to be available for the MLE this summer. Creating a starting lineup of Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, Shawn Marion, Drew Gooden, and Chris Kaman would not be too bad of an alternative plan to 2010. We would have competent players at all positions.

Hopefully the Clippers remain intent on trading Chris Kaman and the Bulls get lucky and land him. He would be a great addition for this team.

According to the morning report on Hoopsworld.com, Ben Gordon wants to remain a Bull, has always wished to stay with the Bulls, but the money is still an issue.

While the luxury tax was an issue in offering Gordon a contract next season, those problems are unlikely to come up again this offseason because of Drew Gooden’s expiring contract.

The Bulls real problem is finding their way into the picture for the 2010 free agency. Letting Drew Gooden walk in free agency, or signing him to a short, two year deal, is a given if the Bulls want to get into the mix in 2010.

After not giving Gooden a contract that is lasts more than three years, the Bulls next task is to play the trade markets. The Bulls have three players who will for sure be under contract in 2010 and those are, Luol Deng, Derrick Rose, and Joakim Noah. The Bulls will then probably look at trading Kirk Hinrich, and probably Nocioni as well.

The Bulls have a problem working towards creating cap space for 2010 if they cannot find a take for either Kirk Hinrich or Andres Nocioni. If the Bulls still have Andres Nocioni and Kirk Hinrich under contract next summer, John Paxson will have to decide whether to re-sign Gordon or not. Not re-signing Gordon would make the Bulls a less desirable destination for some of the 2010 free agents, while simultaneously flushing a third overall draft pick down the toilet. However, there are a host of players that are better than Gordon available, and if they were able to land one of them, it would make letting Gordon walk look brilliant. If they cannot land one of the superstars, the move could end up costing the Bulls, or making the free agent signing a lateral move.

If the Bulls re-sign Gordon with Hinrich and Nocioni still under contract, Paxson could go directions immediately. The first direction is to continue pursuing trades involving Hinrich and Nocioni, and try to get in the 2010 game. The second direction would be to sign a solid free agent like Shawn Marion to the MLE this summer, while the rest of the league is scared to spend money. No matter what direction the Bulls choose to take in this scenario, they would be able to leverage Larry Hughes expiring contract for something good. Going the first direction, a Hughes trade would be the result of the Bulls not finding a taker for Hinrich or Nocioni. Going the second direction, Paxson could proactively seek trades involving Hughes’ contract.

Nonetheless, it is good to hear that Gordon wants to remain a Bull. Hopefully Paxson can find a taker for Hinrich or Nocioni this season so the Bulls can avoid another scary summer when it comes to free agency in 2009.

Victor Bellan of rumorpress.net, a Chicago Bulls insider recently answered some questions from Bulls fans.

Here are the main points from the Q&A:

• The Bulls very likely will make a trade, although closer to the deadline.
• Vinny is playing Hughes for two reasons.  1. He feels Hughes can contribute.  2.  Him and Paxson are afraid benching Hughes could create a distraction for the team.
• The Washington Wizards were mildly interested in Hughes.  The Bulls would love to trade him to Washington.
• The Bulls have shown interest in Al Harrington, Zach Randolph, and Chris Kaman.  The Bulls would love to trade for Kaman, but the Clippers don’t want what the Bulls have to offer.
• Bulls feel their best chance at landing a 2010 free agent is Dwyane Wade.

You can view the entire Q&A at rumorpress.net

According to theKnicksblog.com, the Bulls and Warriors were close on pulling the trigger on a trade that would have sent Kirk Hinrich to the Warriors in exchange for Al Harrington.

A source has told TKB that the Warriors and Bulls were getting ready to pull the trigger on a Kirk Hinrich-Al Harrington swap earlier this month right before the Bulls guard suffered an injury to his thumb. Hinrich damaged ligaments to his thumb in a win against Phoenix a few weeks ago and required surgery. He will be sidelined for up to 3 months.

The Warriors then went into a stalemate with Harrington until trading him to the Knicks on Friday for Jamal Crawford. Harrington told reporters he wanted to be dealt to New York “back in April.”

Hinrich would have fit a bigger need for the Warriors at point guard, but the combination of Harrington’s hold out and Hinrich’s injury forced them into going after Crawford, who Donnie Walsh resisted on trading before okaying a deal after Crawford’s poor performance in Boston last week.

The source assured TKB that if Hinrich stayed healthy he would have been dealt to Golden State for Harrington and the Knicks would have had to keep Crawford.

This is a real shame that this trade did not go through. Harrington would have given us some solid big man contributions for the next two years. Harrington is not anywhere close to being a star, but he is a competent NBA level big man, which is more than you can say about Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah. He would have made the Bulls a substantially better team this year.

Also, Al Harrington’s contract expires before 2010 and would have allowed us to become a player in the 2010 free agency.

The good news from this is that it appears that the Bulls are ready to move on, in a new direction, away from Kirk Hinrich. This is a barrier that the Bulls have had so much trouble with as Hinrich should have been traded away as soon as we drafted Derrick Rose, regardless of how the Gordon situation turned out. Hopefully the Bulls will be able to find a suitor for Hinrich when he comes back from his injury in February.

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According to ontheinside2 on the Oregon Live Forums (a massive Blazers forum that is part of an Oregon newspaper’s website), the Bulls are discussing a trade that will send Kirk Hinrich and Cedric Simmons to the Portland Trail Blazers for Raef Lafrentz and Sergio Rodriguez.

ontheinside2, according to Blazer fans, is a reputable source who has broken news in the past, such as the Zach Randolph trade.

This trade is valid under the CBA. This trade would make a lot of sense form the Bulls side. Raef Lafrentz is a big expiring contract. By trading Hinrich for Lafrentz, Paxson will be doing two things: 1. Sending a message to Ben Gordon that he is their preferred second guard to Rose and 2. We are commencing with the 2010 plan.

One problem that remains with this trade is that the Bulls take on $1.854 million in extra salary in the trade. This trade is actually detrimental to getting back under the luxury tax threshold. But if the Bulls are hellbent on getting under the luxury tax threshold, they can simply trade Tyrus Thomas out for a 2nd round pick swap option or something like that.

The Bulls also cut Demetris Nichols earlier today, which might have something to do with getting our salary down closer to the luxury tax threshold.

This will be a great trade for the Bulls as it sets into two motions two things. Ben Gordon being here long term and the Bulls making a run at another star in 2010 to add to the Rose, Gordon, Deng core.

Here is a link to the original O-Live forum post.

Lafrentz Salary Update

In 31 more games, 80% of Lafrentz’s salary becomes covered under insurance, so the Bulls will make up all of their luxury tax losses through those savings if they make this trade.