T-Mac Rumors

First off, don't let the last two wins over Minnesota and Detroit fool you. The Bulls still stink. Those teams just stink more.

Trading deadline is about a month off, so that means the rumors will fly fast and furious for the next few weeks. First up is T-Mac who is disgruntled in Houston and is actually in Chicago working out with Tim Grover. And BTW, why don't the Bulls just hire Tim Grover to run their practices? Probably can't afford him.

The Bulls are interested in T-Mac, probably more for his huge expiring contract than for his time on the floor. They've already said that they won't give up Noah for that and I agree with them. Noah has perhaps played the most consistently well of any of the Bulls this year. A bit more than a year ago I predicted that he would be leaps and bounds ahead of Tyrus and he's proven me correct. So, no Noah for McGrady.

Now how about Salmons, Miller, Jones and change for T-Mac? Now that is a tough call. There's no question that T-Mac is extremely talented. The two big knocks against him is that he is injury prone and he has a bad (lazy/indifferent) attitude. You might also add in that he is vastly overpaid, but if you are looking for an expiring contract then that may actually be a positive.

Salmons has taken a huge step backwards this year. Miller is getting older, and no one will miss Jones or anyone else they toss in. So, here's what it comes down to. Is Salmons going to recover and start playing as well as he did during the latter part of last year? And would T-Mac come into Chicago with an improved attitude and a reasonably healthy body?

It's a close call. I think that if the Bulls want to go the T-Mac/expiring contract route, then they must also find a way to dump Deng, Tyrus, and probably Hinrich (contract) as well. If they can do that then I have no problem blowing up this team and building around Rose, Noah and whatever big free agents they can sign.

However, if they can't do that, then adding another lazy, indifferent player to this team is not a good idea. Could you imagine T-Mac, Deng, Tyrus and Rose on the court at the same time? Teams would average 125 points a game against them as they all sulked down the court when it was time to pretend to play defense.