The Bulls grabbed the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference from the Bucks after a 117-102 win. Hear from former coach Scott Skiles on his team’s loss to Chicago. Plus, the Bulls talk about confidence and Kirk Hinrich’s injury.

Two former Chicago Bulls have returned to the team in recent days, in the hopes of making the team a playoff contender. One of these is Brad Miller, the 7-foot center who is a native of nearby Indiana. He played college ball at Purdue and still owns over 900 acres of Indiana farmland, where he spends much of his off-season. Brad wore a Bulls’ uniform for 105 games from 2000 to 2002. His most recent stint in the NBA was with Sacramento. He is excited to play for a team with playoff hopes. The Kings, one of the worst NBA teams, have had no hope of the playoffs since December.

Miller will make his Bulls debut Wednesday, February 25th, in his home state against another of his former teams, the Indiana Pacers, at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. When asked about his trade from the mild weather of northern California to the frigid winters of Chicago, Miller indicated that he couldn’t be more pleased. ”At this point, it’s awesome,” Miller said. ”I know my mom’s happy. She’ll see her granddaughter that’s  been hiding out in California for the last two years more. It’ll be fun to have her back where I grew up and being able to drive there instead of flying. California’s its own country, basically. I mean, it really is. I enjoyed my time there, but being home at this point in my career, having a chance to go home, is awesome.” He went on to talk about being on the same team with such veteran guys as John Salmons, Jerome James, and Tim Thomas. “I’m excited…“ he reiterated. Well, Brad, we are too!

Another big man returning to the Bulls is the aforementioned Tim Thomas. Acquired in a trade with the New York Knicks, who got Larry Hughes from Chicago, Thomas was back with the Bulls Saturday. He even went to dinner with Coach Vinny Del Negro. It’s a safe basketball bet that he never enjoyed a repast with former Coach Scott Skiles when he tenured with the Bulls 3 years ago. In fact, his relationship with Skiles was so bad that Chicago paid his $14 million salary to stay away from the team for several months before he was waived on March 1, 2006. Guess who was in the Phoenix Suns front office when they picked up that waiver on Thomas back then. You guessed it… Vinny Del Negro. The coach was also a teammate of Thomas for two years in Milwaukee. Although Thomas has been consistently pegged as an under-achiever since he came to the NBA from Villanova, Del Negro has high regards for him. ”I have a really good relationship with him,” Del Negro said. ”He’s a good guy who wants to play and win. Everybody has their opinions. All that matters now is my opinion and how we’re going to work together. He knows he can help us. That’s why he’s here. How he works into everything, we’ll just have to wait and see. I feel the guys who are starting now are playing well. We’ll try to move the new guys around as best I see fit.” The coach has faith in Tim Thomas… and so should we.

Bob Bagley… basketball betting analyst

Andres Nocioni appeared on Mully and Hanley to discuss the trade which sent him to Sacramento. Here is a recap of what was said in the interview:

• He was not shocked by the trade.  He had read a lot of rumors about the trade, so he was not surprised.
• It feels bad because he has to leave the Chicago Bulls.  He loves the team, he loves the city, he loves everybody.
• He is fine with the trade.  He understands the situation and why he was traded.  He is going to try to play as hard as he can in Sacramento and go there and play his game.
• Feels he was not having one of his better seasons.  Thinks it might be because of the system change after Scott Skiles left.  He is trying to figure out what he needs to do to be much better next year.  I is completely his fault for why he wasn’t playing very well this year.
• It is really tough for everybody because they were playing together for a long time.  He really appreciated what his teammates did for him.  He really appreciated playing with Luol Deng, Thabo Sefolosha, and Kirk Hinrich.
• He feels that playing for the Chicago Bulls was a great opportunity to play in the NBA.
• Nocioni thinks that Derrick Rose is going to be one of the best point guards in the NBA.  He thinks the Bulls are playing much better now and is certain that they will make the playoffs.  He understands that the Bulls needed a big guy, and thinks Brad Miller is a good player, who will help the Bulls a lot.
• He thinks that Vinny Del Negro is doing a much better job right now.  Thinks that Vinny is doing a great job as coach and that Vinny is a good communications guy.  No complains about Del Negro.
• Nocioni finished the interview by thanking Bulls fans.

You can listen to the interview at 670theScore.com

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 113 to 104 in a battle for the Eighth playoff seed. The Bulls entered the game 2.5 games behind the Bucks for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference and left the Bradley Center trailing just 1.5 games.

The Bulls only had four players on their bench tonight: Lindsey Hunter, Aaron Gray, Thabo Sefolosha, and Kirk Hinrich. The small bench was a result of the Bulls trading Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, and Michael Ruffin earlier in the day.

Kirk Hinrich played great in what might be his last game as a Chicago Bull. Kirk Hinrich had 31 points on 8-14 shooting, also going 5-8 from three point range. Hinrich really was the guy leading the Bulls to victory tonight, having a nice fourth quarter scoring the basketball. Hinrich also had 4 steals in the game.

The referees swallowed their whistles a lot tonight. A no call when Hinrich was hit by Charlie Villanueva when driving to the basket caused Hinrich to become heated. Hinrich used his anger positively, going on a scoring barrage just after this.

If Kirk Hinrich leaves the Bulls tomorrow, he was able to sneak in one last milestone. On his first three of the night, Kirk Hinrich passed up Scottie Pippen on the Bulls all time career three point list. Kirk Hinrich, who is at 669 three pointers as a Bull is now all alone at second, only behind Ben Gordon, who has 716 three pointers as a Bull.

Hinrich’s backcourt mates, Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon added in 18 points each. Rose had 9 assists to go along with his 18 points. Rose was really sloppy with the ball tonight, committing 7 turnovers.

Ben Gordon had his 18 points on just 6-15, making his offensive effort just mediocre efficiency wise. He had some nice moves to set up his shots, he just wasn’t hitting a lot of them tonight.

Luol Deng added in 21 points on 9-17 shooting. Deng started off the game strong, scoring 16 points in the first half, but really cooled off in the second half. The problem with Deng is a chucker. Like Nocioni, who was just traded, Deng puts a shot up nearly every time he touches the ball. Deng isn’t an offensive artisan like Ben Gordon, who works hard to get good looks to score the basketball. Deng instead just takes whatever shots he can get. When they’re going in, all is good. When they’re not, Deng looks like a scrub. This lack of good shot selection is the reason for Deng’s low true shooting percentage this season.

Richard Jefferson scored 32 points in just 28 minutes tonight. Deng and Sefolosha really weren’t doing that great of a job guarding Jefferson. The Bulls were probably at their best defensively at the three spot when they went to the three guard line up and Hinrich guarded Jefferson.

Charlie Villanueva scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Villanueva made a lot of body contact with Bulls players tonight, but the referees just let a lot of that slide. Some would complain about the officiating, but that is good physical basketball.

The Bulls front court was solid tonight. Joakim Noah had 4 points 9 rebounds and 1 block. Tyrus Thomas had 8 points 4 rebounds 2 blocks and 2 steals. Nothing special tonight, but they played good interior defense.

Ramon Sessions added in 12 points for the Bucks.

Both Vinny Del Negro and Scott Skiles were hit with technicals tonight.

This is the Bulls final game before the trade deadline, which is tomorrow at 2 PM CT.

With this win, the Chicago Bulls improve to 24-30 on the season.

From the Inside the Bulls blog that the Chicago Suntimes hosts, Brian Hanley wrote:

Minutes after coach Vinny Del Negro told media to ask his players if they respect him, Ben Gordon was seen by some of the same media confronting Del Negro and using expletives toward the coach in a Berto Center hallway. Gordon was upset at being fined for breaking a team rule. “I respect Vinny, everybody respects Vinny,” Gordon said, declining to go into detail. “This is not a `respect’ issue. It’s a non-issue.” Del Negro declined to comment through a team spokesman.

It will be intriguing to find out which team rule Gordon broke. It could be the ridiculous “no eating in the locker room” rule that he broke. If not that, probably something equal in ridiculousness.

The one thing that is certain of this is that Vinny Del Negro has gotten the one player who doesn’t cause waves to cause waves. It never happened under Scott Skiles, despite having his role yanked around, because Ben Gordon respected him. Jim Boylan couldn’t even get it to happen.

Vinny Del Negro stands alone in this department, getting the ultimate professional to lash out publicly against his coach. There is a good reason for this, Del Negro is the worst coach that Gordon’s ever had. Scott Skiles took the Bulls to the playoffs three times, Jim Boylan won 42.9% of his games coached. Del Negro? 41.9%. Del Negro is doing a worse job as coach than Jim Boylan, who some Bulls fans refuse to speak his name, and Del Negro has Derrick Rose on his team, Jim Boylan did not.

There is no use keeping around Vinny any longer. He is stunting the development of Derrick Rose and causing unrest throughout the rest of the team. The situation Del Negro came into was ideal. A talented team that disappointed that added the top pick in the draft. The team should easily be sitting in a playoff spot, but Del Negro messed up. It’s time for John Paxson to end this charade that Vinny presents as Bulls coach, and fire Vinny Del Negro right now.

Doug Thonus has released the 84th episode of the Bulls Beat podcast and he has some great inside information on the state of the team.

Ben Gordon has so far, according to Thonus, been acting internally like he has one foot out the door. Gordon has felt disrepsected by the organization, especially after the Bulls pulled their contract offer to Ben off the table and would not allow him to sign a long term contract

Off the record, everyone around the Bulls organization says that they want Kirk Hinrich over Ben Gordon and that they think that Kirk Hinrich is a better fit next to Derrick Rose than Ben Gordon. So far, Ben Gordon really has not been working with Derrick Rose in the way that Kirk Hinrich has.

Kirk Hinrich has been working with Derrick Rose even while injured, trying to be Rose’s buddy. Hinrich has tried to help Rose with some defensive things during games. The Bulls like that Kirk Hinrich has been a good organizational player and are very high on Kirk because of his devotion to the team.

Ben Gordon feels so disrespected from all of this, that he might be willing to agree to a trade when Kirk Hinrich comes back because he fears that his minutes might fall through the floor.

Gordon, if traded, loses all bird rights. Therefore, the team he is traded to, if they wish to maintain Gordon, has to have cap space to re-sign Gordon. Therefore, for Gordon to be traded, one of two things will have to be going on. The first possibility is that Gordon got strong indications from a team like Miami last season that he feels there is no risk of being a player with no bird rights. The second possibility is that a team like Miami, who will have capspace next offseason, will trade for Gordon now to get him adjusted to their system earlier than next offseason.

A team like San Antonio could be the perfect team to grab Ben Gordon as a one year rental. The Spurs could offer the Bulls some players that expire before 2010 in exchange for both Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni. For a team like the Spurs whose window is closing, one year of Gordon would be worth it to them.

Also, according to Thonus, Vinny Del Negro is the man in charge. The offensive and defensive systems that the Bulls run are all his. Bernie Bickerstaff, Del Harris, and Bob Ociepka are just working with the players to help them improve and implement Vinny’s system.

Joakim Noah has remained pretty upbeat still. Noah is still trying to work hard. He feels that he is going to get things done.

Tyrus Thomas on the other hand is starting to get bullish. Thomas is disappointed in how his season has gone so far. Scott Skiles had told Tyrus not to take jumpers. Del Negro’s staff came in and told Thomas that it was okay for him to take jumpers. After his bad shooting games to start off the season, they came back and told him not to take jumpshots. Thomas is disappointed that they did not let him work through his shooting struggles a little longer.

You can listen to this podcast at bullsbeat.com

The Chicago Bulls fell to the Milwaukee Bucks 97 to 90 at the Bradley Center early tonight.

The Bulls got a great performance out of their perimeter tonight. Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, Larry Hughes, and Luol Deng combined for 74 of the Bulls’ 90 points. Unfortunately, the Bulls only got 16 points out of their front court.

It should be clear what the team’s problem is. It’s definitely not Ben Gordon and likewise, definitely not Derrick Rose. It’s not Larry Hughes, and not really Luol Deng either, although he hasn’t been spectacular. It’s the horrible big men. Paxson needs to make some kind of trade soon, because the Bulls’ big men have few redeeming qualities.

Ben Gordon was especially spectacular tonight. He didn’t have a great overall game, but he scored 15 straight points for the Bulls in the third quarter to rally the Bulls back into the game by himself. Gordon finished with 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 assists. Gordon has been rebounding the ball very well as of late, similar to what Jason Kidd does, albeit, not as good. This might not be a bad thing, given how bad our big men are at rebounding. Gordon also did a solid job on Michael Redd, limiting him to 13 points on 6-11 shooting.

Scott Skiles did a good job adjusting to Gordon’s hot scoring. Skiles began to meet Gordon with double teams and switched Luc Mbah a Moute onto Gordon, which helped slow him down.

Luol Deng had a good game for the first time in a long while. Hopefully this wasn’t just a one time occasion, in which Deng wanted to have a big game against his former coach. Deng had 21 points on 9-14 shooting, although he did his usual fourth quarter disappearing act. Disappearing act or not, any production out of Deng like this is great. This is the player we expected Luol Deng to be all year. It is pretty simple, Luol Deng has to make his jumpshots to be an effective player.

Derrick Rose was solid tonight. Rose finished with 18 points, 9 assists, and 4 steals. Unfortunately, Rose was sloppy with the ball tonight, turning it over 5 times. A lot of Rose’s assists had nothing to do with anything he was doing, but rather he got them by passing to Gordon off screens who was on fire in the third. Rose did have two very nice alley-oop passes though; one to Deng and one to Thomas.

Larry Hughes had 13 points off the bench, and did a good job from long range, hitting 3 of 4 three point shots.

Luke Ridnour had a solid game for Milwaukee, scoring 12 points and dishing 10 assists. Richard Jefferson added in 21 points.

Charlie Villanueva and Dan Gadzuric tore up the Bulls front court. Villanueva had 23 points and 10 rebounds and Dan Gadzuric had 11 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Gadzuric did a good job of altering some of Rose’s layup attempts.

As usual, the Bulls need major front court changes before they can be a consistently good team.