The Chicago Bulls lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 116-74 yesterday at the Rose Garden.

The Bulls’ problem remains the same, their front court is horrible. Whenever the Bulls managed to get stops, which was seldom, the big men wouldn’t box out allowing Portland’s big men to get offensive rebounds giving Portland a second shot to score.

Joel Pryzbilla had 14 points, 9 rebounds, and three blocks. LaMarcus Aldridge had 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 blocks. Greg Oden had 11 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks off the bench.

Ben Gordon had a bad game again, scoring 11 points and 3 assists, but he was the best player for the Bulls today. Gordon started to get a little hot during the 2nd quarter of the game. Ben Gordon currently has a 27 free throw streak going.

For the first time in his career, Derrick Rose failed to score in double figures. Derrick Rose finished the game with 6 points, 1 assist, and 3 turnovers. Rose had trouble dealing with shotblockers and got 3 of his shots blocked. Rose adjusted on one possession, hitting a fall away floater in the third quarter.

Brandon Roy scored 20 points for the Blazers.

There is not a whole lot that can be read from this game, except the obvious, that our front court is horrible and that we need to make a trade for a good big men.

These losses on the circus trip should not be taken entirely seriously as we’ve seen Bulls teams bounce back from bad circus trips in the past few years. Our model using all of the post-Jordan years predicted the Bulls only winning one game on the circus trip. The model using just the Gordon-Deng years predicted that we would win just two games on the circus trip. The Bulls might just have some mental block that is keeping them from playing good ball on the circus trip.

The Bulls next game is Friday against the Golden State Warriors.

Victor Bellan, aka Tech N9ne is reporting that the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trailblazers are in trade talks. The Blazers are reportedly offering Travis Outlaw and Joel Pryzbilla for Kirk Hinrich. The Bulls are said to be mildly interested, and seeing if the Blazers are willing to take Ben Gordon instead.

The Bulls, after the trade as stated above, would be in the luxury tax if they were to resign Ben Gordon to the reported approximately $59 million contract.

Not sure why the Bulls would do this one. Travis Outlaw will be buried behind Luol Deng, Andres Nocioni, and Thabo Sefolosha on this team. He does fit one role, that of a three point shooter, but you would think the Bulls would be able to get something a little better for Kirk Hinrich, at least an expiring contract.

If the Bulls do decide to make this trade, they should try to get Portland to trade one of their European prospects. That is Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Rodriguez, and Nicolas Batum. Rudy Fernandez would be the best case scenario, as he actually appears to have real talent. Rodriguez and Batum have high bust potentials, but it would be nice to have these prospects just in case they might pan out.

If Ben Gordon is the trade piece and not Kirk Hinrich, the Bulls better be getting Rudy Fernandez back. If the Bulls do the trade as is, with Ben Gordon (and the necessary supplemental players to balance the trade so it works under the CBA), the Bulls are just proving that they don’t care about winning, just being good enough to turn a massive profit. At least with Rudy Fernandez coming our way, we would be having some good talent coming our way.

I would personally not trade Hinrich or Gordon in any type of deal like this, except of course if Rudy Fernandez was involved. I think it is in the Bulls best interest to either package these guys with other players in a consolidation trade or to trade them for expiring contracts.

Also, with this rumor and the previous Brad Miller rumor, it looks like John Paxson is focused on getting the Bulls a legit center.

Source: Rumorpress.net