The Bulls were one of the busiest teams before the trade deadline yesterday, making three tradesk shipping out six players, and bringing back five.  Now tha the dust has settled, how do the Bulls stack up after the deadline, and what direction will they be taking the team?

Subtractions

• Andres Nocioni
• Drew Gooden
• Cedric Simmons
• Michael Ruffin
• Larry Hughes
• Thabo Sefolosha

Additions

• Brad Miller
• John Salmons
• Anthony Roberson
• Jerome James
• Tim Thomas
• 2009 San Antonio Spurs First Round Draft Pick

Starting by looking at the subtractions, the Bulls lost nothing of much significance.  Andres Nocioni was once an important cog in the Scott Skiles’ Bulls, but has really developed into a no defense chucker in the past two years.  Drew Gooden, while he could score from time to time, he was inconsistent, and not a very efficient scorer as a whole, and had weak interior defense.  Larry Hughes was no longer player, and said by some in the media to be a troublemaker.  Removing these three from the team could prove to be addition by subtraction.

Thabo Sefolosha was good sometimes, and played some good defense from time to time in his time here.  With the addition of John Salmons, he simply wasn’t going to play here.  A first round draft pick was good compensation for him.

Cedric Simmons and Michael Ruffin never played, so not much of a loss their on the basketball court.  Ruffin was one of the most active Bulls in the community season, and Simmons was very active as well, so I’m sure the Bulls will miss that aspect of having these two around, as both did a lot for the Bulls in terms of fan outreach.

Now, for the additions.  Jerome James and Anthony Roberson figure to never play in games for the Chicago Bulls, but Brad Miller, John Salmons, and Tim Thomas figure to play here.

Brad Miller is the new Antonio Davis.  That’s the way to look at this. He is the veteran big man who knows how to get things done in the NBA.  He can pass and shoot the midrange jumper, which will be big in the Bulls offense.  The Bulls also look to get a lot of leadership out of Miller. He will be a good guy to have around the team.

John Salmons is the second guy from the Kings that the Bulls acquired.  One thing to note, do not read too much into what Paxson said at the press conference yesterday.  Salmons is not the newly annointed great shooting guard of the Bulls.  Think back to the 2006 draft, and the press conference that followed it.  Paxson raved on and on about Viktor Khryapa.  The guy hardly played for us, and ended up being bought out.

This is not to say that John Salmons will not play.  He definitely will, and will be a rotation player.  He has a lot of talent, and I think starting next year, will be that elusive big guard, that backs up both Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon.  The bonus with John Salmons is that he can play at the small forward position as well, without the Bulls being undersized.  As long as the Bulls have four guards for these last 28 games of this year, Salmons role will probably be stunted.  But next year, if the Bulls trade Kirk Hinrich, which they nearly did at the deadline, then John Salmons will find himself in a big minute sixth man role.

Salmons isn’t quite as good as Paxson advertised.  Paxson was raving about his defense.  Just because Salmons is tall, doesn’t mean that he is a good defender.  On the season, Salmons has a D-Rtg of 116 and 0.0 defensive win shares, which makes him one of the worst defenders in the entire NBA.

You have to wonder how a guy like Salmons will hold up offensively when he joins a team like the Bulls, and is actually asked to exert some type of effort on defense.  With Salmons actually having to play defense, will we see his scoring efficiency fall?  Only time will tell.

Offensively, Salmons is pretty good.  He is averaging 18.3 PPG on 57.3 TS%, which makes him a really good scorer this year.  The one thing the Bulls needed was more efficient scorers, as they don’t have many guys that can score efficiently.  Salmons brings that component to the Bulls, joining Gordon as a player who has a TS% greater than 57%.  Salmons is shooting 41.8% from three point land.  Shooters are always welcome.

The big question is whether Salmons is just a one year wonder or not.  Prior to this season, the most Salmons has scored was 12.5 PPG in a season.  Outside of this year, Salmons hasn’t been a very good three point shooter.  Players as old as Salmons typically don’t make the kind of leap he has made this year.  This is eerily similar to the situation with Mike James in Toronto, an older player explodes for a big year on one of the worst teams in the league.

Does this mean John Salmons is a scrub in disguise?  No.  But he is not starter material, given his near league worst defense, and the fact that he has a better scorer and defender ahead of him in the lineup in Ben Gordon.  Salmons could make a good sixth man for the Bulls over the next few years, but anything more is just overreaching with him.

Tim Thomas is a decent acquisition.  He will be able to spread the floor with his jumpshot similar to what Nocioni did during his time here.  Thomas will do this in limited minutes at the power forward position.

What did these trades do for the Bulls in terms of building for the future?  It was simply asset building.

In terms of liquid assets going into next year, the Bulls have Brad Miller’s expiring contract, Jerome James’ expiring contract, Tim Thomas’ expiring contract, young prospects Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, the rights to Omer Asik, their own 2009 draft pick, and the 2009 draft pick of the San Antonio Spurs.

In addition to those, the Bulls also have Kirk Hinrich and John Salmons, who some teams are sure to be interested in.

The Bulls now are loaded with tradeable assets.  Paxson is ready to swing a blockbuster trade.  It is just a matter of waiting for the time to come.  It could happen at the 2009 NBA draft, or prior to the 2010 trade deadline.

The small flaw with this plan is that it depends on the actions of other teams in the league.  But I feel this is a brilliant plan.  When Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, and others start becoming available on the trade market, Paxson is ready to make a deal.

That was kind of the plan going into this trade deadline.  The Bulls tried to get Amare Stoudemire for the expiring contract of Drew Gooden and some young prospects.  It didn’t work out, but Paxson has reloaded the Bulls with expiring contracts to give it another go next year.

Following this trade deadline, the Bulls future looks much brighter to me.  A key to all of this, is for the Bulls to re-sign Ben Gordon.  He is their best scorer, and will be crucial in this team becoming great.  Yes, Gordon isn’t good enough to lead a team by himself.  But as one of the best three pointers in the game, the fourth best fastbreak scorer in the NBA this season, and a tradtionally clutch scorer, he is exactly what you want out of one of the complementry players around Derrick Rose. As long as the Bulls re-sign Ben Gordon, they will be in a position to become a championship caliber team with one, big blockbuster trade at the deadline next year.

John Paxson gave a press conference following the 2009 trade deadline.  In the press conference, Paxson used the word “component” over and over again.  Here is a recap of what was said during the press conference:

• Paxson started off the press conference by stating that he is the general manager of the Bulls, that he is not resigning.  He is here, and will continue to be here.
• Moving Andres Nocioni was hard for him.  The first time he saw Nocioni play in the Kings Cup in Spain was how he played for the Bulls for four and a half years.  Nocioni represented everything that Paxson wants out of a player who puts on the Chicago Bulls uniform.
• Paxon thinks that both players acquired from the Kings fit the Bulls really well.  The Bulls were in need of a big guy who fits what they were trying to do offensively.  Brad Miller is a good passer.  The Bulls run a lot of stuff at the elbows where the big guys have to pass and do dribble hand offs.  Paxson thinks Miller will help the young bigs.
• John Salmons is in Paxson’s mind, and underrated player.  The Bulls have been looking for legitimate size in the backcourt for sometime, and they think they finally have it in Salmons.  Salmons can also play some small forward.  Paxson likes that Salmons had to earn his way as a player, and feels that those guys who had to push themselves to become good players “get it”.  He was a big component to the Bulls making the trade with the Kings.
• The Bulls had been looking to move Larry Hughes.  Paxson told Hughes and his agent tha thy wold do whatever they could to move him.
• Tim Thomas can space the floor like Nocioni used to at the fourt spot.  After trading Nocioni, the Thomas component made a lot of sense in the Knicks trade.  The situation with Thomas is completely different than a few years ago.  Vinny Del Negro played with Thomas early in his career.
• The other players that the Bulls received from the Knicks were just part of the business, where you have to take on some guys.  Anthony Roberson will just be a practice guy.  Roberson is from Florida, and might be able to keep Joakim Noah in check.
• After the Brad Miller trade, he felt that Thabo Sefolosha wasn’t going to be playing much and would be the odd man out.  The Bulls got a first round pick to him, and Paxson found that to be a component of a good two days.
• Paxson thinks that it is always difficult to make a lot of seasons mid season and expect it to all mesh right away.  He is confdient in what they did as they did not give up any starters and added a component that they think can make the team better right now and looking towards the future.
• Likes the four components of Brad Miller, Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas, and Aaron Gray in the front court.  Thomas has been coming into his own a bit and playing better with more consistent minutes.  Joakim Noah has been playing better as well.
• Thinks veteran players who already know the NBA will have a better chance of blending in with what you already have.
• Right now, everyone is talking about the players that will be available in 2010, but what’s really important is to see how the NBA landscape changes with the economy.  Paxson thinks you are going to see more teams that have flexibility be able to trade into players for financial reasons.  Paxson feels that the Bulls have positioned themselves well for next year as they now have three fairly large expiring contracts, and those are always really valuable.  He is going to try to keep his eyes open to see what might become available using those.
• The Bulls will have the opportunity to do something with Ben Gordon again this summer.  The Bulls have not ruled out keeping Ben Gordon.  They may have to do another move in the summer that makes sense if they re-sign Gordon.  Paxson says that he understands the value that Ben brings to what they’re trying to do.  Gordon’s ability to score is important.  But the Gordon situation is down the road.  There is nothing that Paxson can do today to allow him to definitively know what will happen.  He respects and values Ben.
• Right now, Paxson is very pleased with his backcourt wings and thinks they improved there today.
• The Bulls had several deals on the table that they would have done, but the other teams in the last few days were thinking about it, and didn’t want to do it at the end of the day.  He is comfortable that he has done everything in his power to lookat every option available and every player available.  Given what was avialble, he feels that the Bulls did what they needed to do.
• Brad Miller has always been a good 15 to 17 foot shooter.  That is the one thing that the current bigs don’t have.  When Sacramento acquired Miller, they ran a lot of the Princeton Offense, which required all players to be able to dribble, pass, and shoot.  As long as big guys know how to play on the court htey will function very well on the basketball court.
• Paxson thinks that the Bulls are a better team on paper now than they were 36 hours ago.
• John Salmons was really key in the whole thing.  He gives the Bulls a guard with size, who can defense, and who can post up a little bit.  He believes that him and Luol Deng can play together, and that they could slide Salmons over to the three, and Deng at the four, and play Gordon at the two, with Derrick at the one.  As long as the Bulls can move the ball and get shots, they are going to be a good team offensively.  Salmons gives the Bulls a defensive component.
• Vinny will make the decisions on who starts.
• Salmons has been playing better for a few reasons.  Sacramento has been playing a little quicker tempo.  Salmons has shot the ball better this year from the perimeter.  That was not always a strength of his, but he’s shooting a little over 40% this year from three.  Everyone in the league sees a players prime from 27 to 31, as that is when they have it both mentally and physically.  Paxson really likes that Salmons has good ball skills.  He feels the game now requires players to put the ball on the floor and make plays, and Salmons can do that.  Salmons can play in screen and roll situations.  With his size, he doesn’t always get trapped and overwhelmed with bigger players.
• Not totally there yet if the Bulls want to pursue 2010.  Going into this summer, if the Bulls made one other move they would be positions really, really well.  The big names are out there in 2010, but the reality of that is that most of them will re-sign with their current teams because they can make so much more money on their current teams.  The Bulls are looking at the economics of the businss that at the trade deadline next year, they have expiring contracts and trade chips.  Hope a significant player becomes available because a team is unable to retain him.  Already saw that with Tyson Chandler being traded to Oklahoma City.  Wants to be ready when those deals present themslelves.
• Thinks there are some players that would like to be paired with Derrick Rose.  The Bulls have to position themselve sto be able to do that and sell what they got there.  Rose is a really good selling point for the Bulls.
• The Sacramento trade was a basketball deal, and they tok on some salary in order to do it.
• Couldn’t quite accomplish everything in one full swoop.  Tried, but it didn’t come together.  They will have chances in the next year to significantly improve their team.
• The Bulls will receive San Antonio’s pick in the trade with the Thunder.
• Paxson talked with Steve Kerr a lot.  Amare Stoudemire obviously didn’t get moves.  He felt over the past 5 to 6 days, the reality was that Stoudemire was not getting traded.  It speaks of the environment tha they’re in that those things are even being considered.

Kirk Hinrich, Derrick Rose, and Vinny Del Negro talked about the trade talks surrounding the Bulls regarding Amare Stoudemire. Rose and Del Negro both think that Amare Stoudemire will be a good fit.

Steve Kerr appeared on 670 the Score this morning on the Mully and Hanley show to discuss the looming NBA trade deadline. Here is a recap of what was said.

• Steve Kerr is doing fantastic.
• Wouldn’t mind Derrick Rose to help get an Amare deal done.  (Jokingly)
• The Suns are a team that is in transition and needs to make some decisions.  They are listening to what’s out there for the entire team.
• He has a great relationship with Amare Stoudemire.  He feels it is best to be really open with the players.  Players need to understand that they’re probably going to be traded at one point in their career.
• Certain guys around the league are untouchable.  Kobe, Lebron, Wade, but those are the exceptions rather than the rule.
• These things usually go right down to the deadline, with deals not being made until Wednesday or Thursday.
• Feels he must be related to Johnny Red Kerr because all Kerr’s are somehow related.  He enjoyed being around Johnny and listening to his broadcasts.  He remembers that three or four times a year that he would be stuck with Johnny’s bar tab when he was checking out of a hotel.
• Steve Kerr will miss the ceremony tonight because he has business to tend to in Phoenix.
• Finished the interview off by saying, “Hopefully I will see you soon down the road.”

The most intriguing part about the interview was how Kerr ended it, by saying, “Hopefully I will see you soon down the road.”  Why is the general manager of the Phoenix Suns hopeful that he will see some Chicago radio hosts again?

Otherwise, Kerr didn’t offer too much new on potential trades.  He just stated what everyone knows, the Suns are a team in transition and they are talking to a lot of teams about trades for lots of their players.