Flat Bulls need New Air

With the circus making its annual invasion of the United Center, it is no surprise a stink awaits them. The source of that stench, however, is surprising. Few would expect that that stink is coming solely from the Bulls. With the Blackhawks actually playing well and reminding Chicagoans hockey still exists, the 2-10 Bulls are left alone in their early season misery, unable to duplicate the early season success of their stadium-mates.

Twelve games into the season, the Bulls are off to their traditional slow pre-circus start. Every year they have gotten off to slow starts under Scott Skiles, but this one is the most puzzling. In years past, the team was young and hadn’t played together much. This year, though, there are only a few new names and the core players have now been together for four years.

Watching the Bulls play through their first twelve games, the team looks flat and it appears all the Kobe talks have affected their play.

As rookie Joakim Noah said, other teams are doing whatever they want on the Bulls. Skiles called out the rookie for giving his assessment after playing only his first NBA game, saying someone else should be saying it. Hey, Scott, if you don’t want a rookie speaking the truth, then whom do you suggest? Kirk Hinrich? Ben Gordon? Ben Wallace? Loul Deng? Andres Nocioni? The truth is, the team has no outspoken leader.

In addition to being distracted by the Kobe talks, this team is pretty much the same team they were last year. A nice group of role players but no one with a killer instinct, and they still lack a dominant inside presence.

There are two solutions to the team’s problem: Kobe or a big man who can score inside, like Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies. Following a summer in which the Bulls lost out on the Oden-Durant sweepstakes and saw the Boston Celtics acquire Kevin Garnett, John Paxson is running out of options to add that final piece to the puzzle to return to dominance.

While it may seem easy, just make the trade and all is fixed, it is tougher than it appears. I recently asked Chicago Tribune basketball writer Sam Smith how the Bulls can make the salaries match for Kobe, if they could have signed Gordon to an extension and then trade him, as the Lakers original demands of Deng, Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, and Noah would not add up to equal Kobe’s salary. He said if the Bulls signed Gordon to an extension, it would not help. As for making the salaries match for someone like Kobe or Gasol without giving up Hinrich or Wallace, the two highest salaries on the team, he said the Bulls could still sign-and-trade P.J. Brown, put whoever the Bulls and Lakers agree upon trading, and then throw in fillers to make them match.

Further complicating matters on the Kobe front is the trade kicker in his contract that says if he is traded, his salary will increase by 15 percent. Knowing how owner Jerry Reinsdorf likes being a cheapskate concerned more with making money than winning, it is unclear if he would approve a deal that adds $20 million-plus to a Bulls payroll already over the salary cap and luxury tax limits.

While it is going to be very hard to add that final piece, Paxson must eventually pull the trigger if he wants to return the team to dominance. Otherwise, this team will just be a pretender.