The Chicago Bulls could for the Washington Wizard’s Brendan Haywood, in a rumored deal that would send Tyrus Thomas and Jerome James to Washington, according to a RealGM user, who is said to be reputable.

The Bulls would come out as major winners in this trade as Brendan Haywood is the best player in the trade, and he is also an expiring contract. Haywood is averaging 9.7 PPG 10.3 RPG and 2.1 BPG this season.

After such a trade, the Bulls would have a big front court with Brendan Haywood, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, and Brad Miller in the big men positions. I would move Joakim Noah down to the power forward position and start Haywood at center. With Noah and Haywood manning the big positions, I think the Bulls would be dominate defensively.

To make the trade work under the CBA, someone else would have to go out from the Wizards side.

I am not sure of how reliable the guy who is supplying the rumor is, but if a trade with these principles is on the table, than the Bulls front office needs to jump on it

According to Chris Broussard on True Hoop, the Chicago Bulls are trying to trade Kirk Hinrich, and they are using Tyrus Thomas as a sweetener in trying to get rid of Hinrich.

As for the Bulls, Kirk Hinrich is ahead of even Tyrus Thomas on their list of players they’d love to trade. In fact, Thomas is being offered around the league as a sweetener in any Hinrich deal. But with two years, $17 million left on his contract after this season, there’s not a great market for Hinrich.

It makes sense that the Bulls would like to move Hinrich. His contract could prohibit the Bulls from signing a free agent to a max contract if John Salmons opts in to his contract for next season, which could prevent some of the players from coming to Chicago in free agency this summer.

A trade that is thrown out in this article is Kirk Hinrich and Tyrus Thomas going to Houston, as the main components of a trade for Tracy McGrady, who is an expiring contract. However as Broussard writes, teams aren’t in a rush to trade for Hinrich’s contract, which is probably considered a bad contract around the league with the way Hinrich has played this year.

Broussard throws out the idea of Houston wanting Joakim Noah, as he writes:

Chicago, which has definite interest in McGrady, also has the combination of young talent and expiring contracts the Rockets are looking for. There is a Bulls player Houston covets, but it’s not clear who that is. Since the Rockets surely realize that Derrick Rose won’t be traded, logic suggests it’s Joakim Noah.

A package of Noah, Brad Miller and Jerome James (the latter two have expiring contracts) would work financially, but sources say the Bulls have no desire to part with Noah.

The Bulls would obviously want to take no part in getting rid of Joakim Noah for a half season rental of Tracy McGrady.

It appears that Chris Broussard is misinterpreting what the Bulls intentions would be in trading for Tracy McGrady are. If the Bulls were to trade for Tracy McGrady, they wouldn’t be trading for McGrady the player, they would be trading for his expiring contract. Therefore there is no reason that they would throw away a good young talent in Noah to have marginal cap space benefits for next season. If they are going to trade for McGrady, it will be some combination of expiring contracts, and a long term contract that they wish to get rid of (Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, or John Salmons).

I think the Bulls best bet might be to try to work out a package around John Salmons. Salmons has played better than Hinrich this season, and has at most, one less year left on his contract than Hinrich (and a smaller contract at that), and Salmons may even choose to opt out after this season, which would leave Houston, in this scenario, with no contracts going past this year.

Salmons could also choose to opt out if the Bulls keep him, but a trade like this where the Bulls package John Salmons with definite expiring contracts for another definite expiring contract would allow the Bulls’ front office to sleep easy at night, as they would have certainty that they will be able to offer someone a max contract in 2010 free agency.

Early in the day, I wrote about a trade rumor being discussed on 670 the Score that involved the Bulls receiving Kirk Hinrich. Here are the exact quotes from the Boers and Bernstein show regarding the rumor:

Try this on for size, as something that is percolating. And as of now, this is all I can tell you. I’m not going to tell you this is a done deal, or that it’s even close, but as far as something that is out there as a possibility. Hinrich, Tyrus Thomas, and at least one pick to the Toronto Raptors for Chris Bosh.

As I said earlier, this trade is too good to be true. This trade doesn’t really have much benefit for the Raptors. They come away from the trade with the worse talent and the worse contract situation.

I think the Raptors would be willing to trade Chris Bosh before the offseason, but it’s not going to be in a trade like this, which worsens their cap situation by taking on a bad contract and someone up for an extension. They’re better off just letting Bosh walk in free agency. I think the Raptors will look into trading Chris Bosh at the deadline, because they stink, and Bosh will have the option to go join Dwyane Wade in Miami for the max this summer, which puts the Raptors odds of retaining him low.

If the Raptors do trade Bosh, it will be some combination of expiring contracts, young talent, and draft picks. The trade that would make sense for the Bulls and Raptors to do would be Brad Miller, Joakim Noah, and the Bulls first round draft pick. That is the type of trade that is going to land Chris Bosh at the trade deadline, not the one mentioned above.

In a rumor being discussed on 670 the Score, the Chicago Bulls would send Kirk Hinrich, Tyrus Thomas, and draft picks to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Chris Bosh.

Now the positive that this rumor has going for it, is that the trade works under the collective bargaining agreement. However, the positives of this rumor end there, as someone would have to be a fool to believe there is any validity to this rumor.

The Raptors would be trading for a scrub in Kirk Hinrich, who is shooting 36.7% from the field this year, the opportunity to give Tyrus Thomas a raise or let him walk, and a non-lottery draft pick, as the Bulls would surely make the playoffs with Bosh on the roster.

This would be the biggest steal in NBA trade history. At least in the Pau Gasol trade, the Lakers were forced to give up expiring contracts and a good young prospect in Marc Gasol, who was still on his rookie contract. In this trade, the Bulls get to dump a bad contract in Hinrich and another player who is up for a contract extension in Thomas. Talk about a deal!

Most things that sound too good to be true, are too good to be true. I think this is one of those things.

According to Mike Jones, a former Washington Wizards beat writer, Caron Butler and Mike James could be traded to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Kirk Hinrich and Jerome James.

The Wizards might not have a hard time dealing Caron Butler in a package deal with James, however, but not to Houston. I’m hearing Butler and James could be headed to either Miami or Chicago. Some of the pieces Washington could be trying to get back from Chicago, the source said, could be Kirk Hinrich and Jerome James.

The trade puts a little more money on the Bulls’ salaries next year as Caron Butler makes $1.56 million more than Kirk Hinrich next year. Mike James’ and Jerome James’ expiring contracts cancel each other out. Past next season, Butler’s contract is more favorable than Hinrich’s, as it expires after next season, while Hinrich’s contract has an additional year.

Caron Butler is having a down year right now, averaging 16.9 points on 52.0 TS%, but that is still world’s better than Hinrich’s season, in which he is averaging 8.5 points on 44.7 TS%.

If this is trade is indeed on the table, the Bulls should take it, and then find away to move John Salmons for an expiring contract in order to keep their 2010 flexibility as good as possible. The trade is a no brainer talent wise, as even in his down year, Butler is a significant upgrade over Hinrich.

According to Sam Smith, in his latest mailbag, the Knicks were trying to acquire Kirk Hinrich in exchange for Jared Jefferies.

I heard it was Hinrich the Knicks were trying to get for Jeffries not Tyrus for Harrington.

At first look, this trade idea sounds absurd, as Jeffries has had a reputation as a bad player on a bad contract for a couple of years now.

However, because of Kirk Hinrich’s complete uselessness on the basketball court, this trade is reasonable, as there is little difference between the on court product of Kirk Hinrich and Jared Jeffries.

The Bulls should keep on looking to see if they can find a fool to take Kirk Hinrich in exchange for an expiring contract, however, they are unlikely to find such a fool. If there are no better offers for Hinrich by the trade deadline, the Bulls should accept this trade.

The Bulls would have more cap space this upcoming offseason, as Jeffries makes less than Hinrich. But they also lose one year in contract when going from Hinrich to Jeffries. Jeffries could be used at the trade deadline next season as an expiring contract, in order to net the Bulls a useful player in return.

According to Sam Smith, the trade rumors that would have Tyrus Thomas being sent to the New York Knicks in exchange for Al Harrington have died down.

Well, that was a fun week with the Tyrus Thomas/Al Harrington rumor. Just about everyone on both sides seems to have thrown cold water on it as more speculation than reality. It does make some theoretical sense as the Bulls need scoring badly as they rank just barely ahead of the Nets at the bottom of the league. Are we talking shootout at the UC Tuesday? And the Knicks, well, who knows what they need. Harrington pretty much has gone off on a scoring spree since the rumored appeared, averaging 26.5 points and 9.5 rebounds and telling Knicks reporters that being mentioned in trade with a guy with a broken arm is like being offered for “a bag of balls.”

This trade never seemed to make sense from the Knicks’ perspective. While Al Harrington isn’t in their plans past this season, it is hard to seeing Thomas being in their plans past this season as well, as it would seem they could sign better players, such as their own David Lee, with the remainder of their 2010 cap space after they sign their max free agent.

If you are only keeping either player for one year, Al Harrington is the much better option. He is averaging 20.1 points per a game, and he is doing it on an efficient 57.1 TS%.

The trade would obviously be incredible for the Bulls. They would improve their near league worst offense, by adding an efficient 20 points per game scorer. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the Knicks are going to gift the Bulls Al Harrington, so the Bulls will need to find some other way to improve their pathetic offense.