This past week, John Paxson appeared on Lunch With a Legend to discuss various issues surrounding the Bulls. Here is a recap of what was said during the radio appearance.

• The roster is better since the deadline deals.
• He would like to see an 8 or 9 man rotation with Luol Deng in there.  He is not sure what will happen with Deng for the rest of the year.
• The Bulls have a scouting staff.  It is Jay Hillock’s job to go out and identify players in the league who are a little undervalued.  The Bulls were on John Salmons since the beginning of the year.
• The key to making the trade happen was the willingness to take on Brad Miller’s contract for next year.
• There is still some work to do to prepare the Bulls for 2010.  The Bulls have options on their roster to allow them to do it.
• Paxson likes what Salmons can do off the dribble.  Longterm, he can play either at the 2 or 3.  He doesn’t have a lot of mileage on him because he didn’t play a lot of minutes so far in his career.  Salmons can be really good for a number of years.
• There is a definite injury in Luol Deng’s leg.  They have chosen to take activity away from him.  He is starting to run a little bit.  They have a treadmill that takes his body weight off of him.
• Luol Deng is the only one who can give an answer to why there is an organizational divide.  Paxson would have liked for Luol to tell the organization which doctors he wanted to talk to first.  However, the Bulls still got on board with the doctor Luol chose.  The Bulls’ diagnosis was right from the beginning.
• The problem with the Big Mac booing was that Kirk Hinrich had an unbelievable game.  Wishes that people would get in their cars saying what a great game it was, but they booed Kirk instead. You’d like to see the fans up on their feet cheering, especially when you beat the Pistons.
• Paxson has never claimed his free Big Mac after the game.
• He is not fearful that Luol Deng will not become the player they thought he would be.  He thinks that Deng is more of a system guy who plays off the strengths of others.  He still thinks that Deng will become a very good player.  He evaluated last year that the small forward position is a really valuable one.  He believes that Deng will have value and has value now.  Down the road you may have Deng to move in a deal, to which Paxson recovered with, “We don’t have any intention of moving Luol Deng.”  He has talked to teams around the league, and Deng does have value.
• He thinks that Neil Funk and Stacey King have a nice rapport.
• The Bulls have always battled the small backcourt.  John Salmons gives the opportunity to play with a bigger backcourt.  he thinks with Derrick’s size that can be a formidable backcourt, and that’ without talking about Ben Gordon, who Paxson thinks can play a terrific role for the Bulls.  He feels tha tthe Bulls now have some real scorers on the team with John Salmons, Ben Gordon, and Derrick Rose.
• Some of Ben Gordon’s future is financial.  Money deals aer becoming a reality in the league right now.  He would love to keep Gordon.  They tried the last two years, made substantial offers, and for whatever reason it didn’t work out.  He doesn’t assign blame to anyone for the failed negotiations.  They will have a chance to look at the big picture this summer and try to get him back.
• Again reitererated that he is the GM now and plans to be the GM.  If anything changes he will let everbody know.  Peter Vescey, the Suntimes, and David Aldridge were bogus and so out of reality.  The health stuff especially, he has no idea why Aldridge would bring that up.  he feels no obligation to lend credibility to these uys.  He thinks he proved that he is committed to the job at the trade deadline.
• Being able to break Larry Hughes big contract into two smaller pieces could help the Bulls make a trade in the future.
• When the Bulls got John Salmons they knew Thabo Sefolosha wasn’t going to play.  Of course, they could not have foreseen Luol Deng’s injury.  Having Sefolosha’s contract on the books next year would have caused some problems.
• They have another promotion going where they are going to be wearing a different color of green.  An environmental green.
• They are going to wear Los Bulls against the Heat.  Los Bulls and El Heat is the way the Hispanic speakers say it, not Los Toros.
• He thought Derrick Rose was terrific off the bat.  Has seen significant improvement in two areas: 1.  His shot has gotten more consistent, especially from the elbows.  2. His decision making has gotten better.  He thinks that Rose will probably be a higher turnover guy, but the greatest assist guy, John Stockton, was a high turnover guy as well.  He needs to grow on the defensive end.  he gets caught watching the ball a lot of the time.
• There was never a mandate for Vinny Del Negro to put Derrick Rose on the floor in clutch time.  They all know that Rose is the b iggest part of their future.  The whole organization wants to see him learn at the end of games.
• Had a preference for Rose to be in the game in the first Miami game.  Have to allow learning on the job when you hire someone with no head coaching experience.  The goal is to try to help Vinny become the best head coach he can be.  He is beginning to grow into that role.  Vinny is under contract the next couple of years, you don’t just give a guy a contract and then just get rid of him.  There is so much pressure to win, that decisions are made.  But if you do something like that, you have to ask yourself, what are you going to do.
• Paxson thinks we have a great opportunity to make the playoffs.  Maybe the biggest reason to make the playoffs is to get Rose some playoff experience.
• He can’t do anything about Noah and Thomas’ age and maturity.  The biggest thing for those guys was getting consistent time when the injuries occurred.  Noah is a guy who just cares about winning.  He thinks that Noah has played very well since getting consistent minutes and the starting job.  He thinks Thomas is similar.  When Drew Gooden got hurt, Tyrus Thomas got the minutes.  His ability at times has shown.  If tThomas would run the floor more, he would get a few more dunks a game.  Him and Noah have a nice thing going and Brad Miller is helping those two.
• Paxson throws things during games.  He kicked in the panel by the TV in the lockerroom.  He fins it frustrating that with all the things done to make players’ lives easier that you don’t see them recripocating what your doing for them.  There stll seems to be a distrust of the organization’s intentions which he cannot understand.
• The White House day was odd.  He first heard about Norm Van Lier when they were getting on the bust to the White House.  People were drawn to Norm because he was going to tell it like it was and people liked to hear it.  Norm was part of those Bulls teams that were endeared by the city for the way they played.  He remembers when they won their first championship that Norm felt a part of it.  The Bulls were so fortunate to meet the president, especially with the historical significance of President Obama.
• Paxson showed a picture of his son Ryan to Obama.  Paxson’s son Ryan, joined the military.  Paxson has great respect for every young person who decides to join the military.  Ryan’s path was a little bit different becauseh e was playing basketball, but felt it in his heart to enlist.  It shows that there are young people out there willing to take something more difficult on.  He is proud that Ryan, as a person coming from an affluent situation not having a sense of entitlement.
• Johnny Red Kerr was in a lot of pain for the last several weeks.  He was a good man.  He did just about everything for the Bulls outside of playing.  You can call him a homer ,but that’s because he loved the Chicago Bulls.  Today, it’s more analysis, but Johnny was going to tell you how much he loved the Bulls players.

From Hoopsworld evening scoop, Bill Ingrim reveals more on the Bulls food situation. It turns out that five players were fined, including Ben Gordon. It also turns out that the Bulls provide food within the locker room to their players.

Every once in a while you run across a story that makes your jaw drop. This is one of those.

There’s a story in the Chicago media today about head coach Vinny Del Negro fining three players for eating in the locker room before a recent home game. HOOPSWORLD has learned that the number of players fined was actually five, but whether it was five or three, this story keeps getting wierder.

We’re talking about a team that provides food (at least a fruit tray) to the visitor’s locker room before each game and makes food available to their own players as well. It’s also a team that has never had an issue with players eating before a game, even at their lockers. Ben Gordon has often taken ribbing for his habit of making - not just eating, but actually whipping out condiments, constructing, and eating - peanut butter sandwiches in his locker before games.

So all of a sudden Del Negro decides to not only go off on a group of players, but also fine them for eating in the locker room before a game. Fines were less than a thousand dollars each, but still it’s a strange way to make a point.

It seems to be par for the course for Vinny Del Negro, however, who is going to great lengths to try and establish his authority in the locker room. Given that he’s failed to do it in any traditional way, he beginning to do it in ways that make him seem small and petty.

In case you’re wondering why it’s a bad idea to hand an inexperienced coach the head chair for an NBA franchise, you’re starting to see it in Chicago. Del Negro got the job despite his complete lack of experience coaching at any level, and the Bulls are now bearing the brunt of the consequences for that decision.

This is a team that fired Scott Skiles at about this time last season because his shrill, power-hungry ways were alienating players. Now it seems they replaced him with someone equally as shrill. It would be almost impossible for the Bulls to fire him this season without becoming even more of a laughing stock in NBA circles, but don’t be surprised if he’s one of the first ones picked off next season.

Things are going to get really ugly in Chicago, and that’s not a good situation for a team with so many young players seeking identities and veterans who will be walking away as free agents this summer.

When news first came out about Vinny fining Tyrus Thomas, Larry Hughes, and Joakim Noah for eating in the locker room, it all seemed really strange to me. I was thinking in the back of my mind, what about Ben Gordon’s pregame PB&J’s? I just figured that since Gordon wasn’t listed in the players mentioned, he was doing his eating somewhere else. Turns out my original inclination was right, and that Gordon wasn’t doing his eating elsewhere. What type of long standing team rule could there have possibly been? Remember, this is the team that wouldn’t let Ben Wallace go onto the court with a headband, so surely they would enforce other silly rules as well.

It was never a secret that Ben Gordon liked to enjoy a pregame meal. Here is Ben Gordon speaking about his pregame delicacies a few years ago: “I eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before every game. Whoever invented that was smart. That’s got to be one of the best sandwiches ever.”

Pregame meals aren’t just something that the Bulls “no good” players came up with. Early in his career, Kobe Bryant used to eat Big Macs before games. Now, he eats much healthier of course.

It is ridiculous for the Bulls to be enforcing such a rule. Logically, a rule book would have been passed out, and players reading it would have objected at a silly rule. It’s hard to see a player who reads as much as Gordon does not reading the rule book. He surely would have objected as one of his pregame rituals was outlawed. Perhaps the Bulls just hand out food in the locker room to try to tempt their players, kind of like God putting a snake in the Garden of Eden.

These players are hardly bad seeds, they’re just feeding their bodies so they can go out and perform a professional sport at the high level. It’s not like they are doing some pregame drinking like Shawn Kemp.

If true, it is a good thing that the Bulls are prepared to let Vinny Del Negro go. If they fire him after the season, there is a wide array of prospective head coaches they could go after. They could sign former Mavericks coach, Avery Johnson, who has the highest regular season win percentage of any coach in NBA history. Or they could go after Boston’s defensive guru, Tom Thibodeau.