End of Summer Vacation

Hasn't been much of a vacation for several Bulls playing international ball, most notably Deng, Rose, and Omer Asik. And it is a mixed bag for the Bulls on whether this is good or not.

For Asik, it is probably all upside. Turkey may be the only country to have sent its best players to the FIBA World Championship, and they are playing at a high level. I haven't seen Omer yet, but by accounts he seems to be doing about as well as he can. He probably needs all the practice he can get. There is a fairly good chance that Rose will face off against him in the championship.

Likewise, I think it is good for Rose to play. He needs work on defense, and on just about all aspects of the game that does not include accelerating towards the basket. I'm a huge Duke hater, but Coach K knows what he's doing and Rose can learn a lot, both from him, and from playing alongside a savy guard like Chauncey Billups. I know if he winds up getting hurt our season is toast, but I think the experience is worth it.

On the other hand, I don't think it is in the Bulls' best interest to have Deng be the one man show on the UK team. The UK isn't in the FIBA tournament, so Deng played in eight other qualifying games for the UK, mostly against weak competition. We certainly don't need Deng feeling more encouraged to jack up those long twos, or to think that he's a main offensive weapon.

The biggest end of summer news remains Camelo Anthony's attempts to get Denver to trade him before the season starts. Supposedly, he is pushing for either the Bulls or the Knicks, but Denver has no obligations other than to try to get the best deal for him They certainly don't want to lose him the way Bosh and LeBron deserted their old teams. Rumor is that the Bulls offered Deng, Taj, Johnson and change and that Denver wanted no part of that. Nobody wants Deng and his bloated contract without getting a lot back in return. So now the talk is that Noah is in the mix and discussions are going on.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I've said before that Carmelo seems like a perfect fit for the Bulls and would be worth the trade. On the other hand, we'd really be hurting in the frontcourt without Noah, and we'd be devastated by losing both Noah and Taj. Could the Bulls really win with such a thin frontcourt roster?

I really don't expect Denver to give up Anthony without getting either a major player back in return or large expiring contracts. The Bulls don't have the latter and Noah is pretty much the only guy they could sanely offer.