By Sean Mackey
I hate September. It's a month in which sports writers start to speculate and concoct trade scenarios that aren't really going to happen just to make some headlines. The last few days have been perfect examples of this with the whole Carmelo Anthony debacle that's going on over in Denver. It was only a matter of time before Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski planted the first seed with a "breaking" story two weeks ago that Melo wanted out of Denver and then Marc Spears followed with a column Wednesday night dragging the Bulls into this mess.
Carmelo is supposedly telling his peers that he prefers a trade that will send him to New York or Chicago. However, I believe Chicago's name is just being penned to this report because of their possible trade pieces.
The Bulls are more than willing to give up Luol Deng as they attempted to do so all summer with zero takers. Deng's a great SF, he's not flashy and doesn't really have a 3 point shot but is a decent defender who can post up a little and hit down the mid range shot. Teams are scared of his recent injury problems and his ridiculous contact. Is he worth the deal he was given? Probably not but that was the price you had to pay for a top 10 SF with all-star potential 3 years ago. Will Denver mind taking him back? Probably not if they can grab Joakim Noah....and that was the big story of Thursday.
ESPN first reported that the Bulls were having internal discussions on whether or not to include Joakim Noah in an offer for Melo. Bulls fans are pretty divided on any sort of scenerio where Noah leaves. It should also be noted that Hoopsworld "insider" Andy Kennedy claimed Thursday afternoon that Noah had been offered a 5 year/$60 million extension. Rumors were immediately going around that maybe Noah thought he was worth more than that and may not accept the offer. Are the Bulls preparing to trade Joakim before another Ben Gordon like situation arises?
Joakim is a top 10 center and has argueably the best motor in the NBA. He also may be the most passionate player in the professional basketball and has a devoted fan following in Chicago. Would a team of Boozer, Melo & Rose be a big enough "big 3" to pounce Miami, Orlando & Boston? Who knows but losing Noah's leadership, rebounding and defense would probably really hurt Chicago in the long run. John Paxson has always been about improving the team for years to come, he's never been interested in a win now situation.
With all this being said, I sincerely have doubts about any of this Melo to Chicago noise. I'm sure Melo wouldn't mind coming here but losing Noah would probably be too much of a defensive hit to the Bulls. Doug Thonus over at Chicago Now made a good point that Boozer needs a defensive center to be effective offensively and I agree. You take Noah away who's going to provide that? However, if the Nuggets (and Melo) were to agree to a sign & trade sending Deng, Gibson, J. Johnson & the Charlotte pick for Melo, the Bulls couldn't (and shouldn't) pass that up. Adding one of the most prolific scorers of the past 5 years and throwing him on a team with a top 10 center, power forward and point guard would make the Bulls instant title contenders.
Chicago is one really good piece away from being a power house. If they could snag Carmelo away from the Nuggets, it would be a dream scenerio. However, until this actually happens I would suggest that Bulls fans not get their hopes up too high. The whole situation sounds like bored September NBA story just to cause some Real GM forum chaos.
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