According to The Times, Luol Deng will reject that advice of his trainer, David Thorpe, and likely the Chicago Bulls, and play for the Great Britain National Team this summer.

Luol Deng will fly in the face of advice from his personal coach and, most likely, his club, the Chicago Bulls, to play for Great Britain in the European Championship finals this summer.

The 6ft 9in forward is at present sidelined with a stress fracture of his right leg that may require minor surgery, the latest in a series of niggling injuries that have plagued Deng since his international debut.

As is common in the NBA, Deng works with a personal coach during the summer, in his case David Thorpe, the respected media pundit. Thorpe echoed the Bulls’ concerns about Deng playing in internationals and advised him to take a summer off to recuperate fully.

However, the suggestion was rejected by Deng, who is adamant that he will be in Chris Finch’s squad when they play their EuroBasket group games against Spain, Serbia and Slovenia in Poland in September.

“I recommended to him that he take the whole summer off and not even train with me,” Thorpe said. “But Luol told me that was not acceptable. There is no way he is not going to help GB in some capacity. He will maybe not play as many friendlies. He will maybe adjust his schedule after consulting with Coach Finch and coming up with a plan that makes sense for everybody.

“Luol feels a sense of duty as far as GB is concerned but he also loves playing for the team and in the style that Coach Finch plays. That’s what’s driving Lu on and as soon as he is healthy, we will sit down with doctors from the Bulls and from GB to come up with a plan.”

I think that Luol Deng’s commitment to the Great Britain National Team is quite admirable. He has done a lot of good for basketball in Great Britain, leading them to qualification for the 2009 European Championships this summer. He has helped to recruit major talent to the Great Britain team, namely his friend and Chicago Bulls teammate, Ben Gordon. With Gordon on hand, Great Britain could be a major contender to win the European Championship this summer.

But Deng’s lack of respect towards the NBA team that decided to pay him $80 million is less than admirable. According to Sam Smith, he is jealous of the Bulls’ rookie, Derrick Rose. He has produced at unacceptable levels of production and efficiency this year, and many believe that his subpar production has to do with his nagging injuries.

One thing that has become clear this year is that Luol Deng is an injury prone player. His body just doesn’t handle the stress of strenuous physical activity very well. Playing for Great Britain will only add increased wear and tear on Deng’s body, which will make him more susceptible to being injured during the NBA season.

It would be wise for Deng, in terms of his NBA career, to just rest this summer. But for Deng, his career isn’t just about the NBA. Playing for Great Britain seems to be equally important to Deng as is playing for the Bulls. This is something the Bulls will have to deal with going forward. If they don’t like this, and see this as something that will just result in Deng getting injured every year, they might need to seek out potential trade suitors for Deng.

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Luol Deng will be out at least two more weeks, and then will decide whether or not he will have surgery.

MIAMI - Luol Deng is expected to be sidelined for approximately two more weeks after consulting Monday afternoon with an orthopedic surgeon who has extensive experience in treating tibial stress fractures.

After his rest, Deng is expected to test his injured right leg, which sources said has a small stress fracture in his right tibia, confirmed by additional X-rays taken Monday.

If the condition has improved to the point Deng can play through pain, he will finish the season without surgery. If not, surgery and a three-month rehabilitation process likely would occur.

Oh boy, this is not looking good. I hope Deng has a great recovery and comes back stronger than ever, but I have my doubts. The Bulls will have to seriously look at unloading Luol Deng to a team with capspace or even for an expiring contract if that is all they can get. Deng is definitely injury prone, there is no debate about that, but the question is whether when healthy, is Deng worth the price tag? Deng is a good defensive player, but he is completely inept offensively. If the Bulls are willing to commit to paying everyone, than sure, lets keep Deng around in case he ever gets healthy, and becomes productive again. But if it starts becoming a choice between assets, such as Deng or Gordon, or Deng or an extension for Tyrus Thomas, than trading Deng is probably the best course of action for the Bulls.

The Chicago Bulls released in their injury report news regarding Kirk Hinrich’s thumb injury from last night’s game. Here is what they wrote:

Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich was examined on Saturday by Dr. John Fernandez, and Bulls team physician, Dr. Brian Cole, both of Rush University Medical Center. The results of that exam confirmed the earlier MRI which showed a torn ulnar collateral ligament of his right thumb. The injury will require surgery, which will be performed on Tuesday, Nov. 11 at Rush.

Hinrich may be out as long as 12 weeks following his surgery. The injury occurred in the third quarter of Friday’s Bulls win over Phoenix. On the year, Hinrich has appeared in six games and averaged 8.3 ppg, 4.0 apg, 1.8 rpg and 1.33 spg in 24.5 mpg.

In his sixth season with the Bulls, Hinrich has appeared in 389 regular season games with the Bulls, and missed just 21 games during that span. Chicago’s first round pick (seventh overall) in NBA Draft 2003, he owns career averages of 14.3 ppg, 6.3 apg, 3.5 rpg, 1.30 spg and 35.0 mpg.

This pretty much takes care of the guard glut for the foreseeable future.  This is unfortunate for the Bulls as Hinrich was playing pretty decent basketball.  This obviously opens up a larger role for Ben Gordon on the team this season.