Deng, Rose are a start -- now, target D-Wade
Luol Deng wants to save a troubled world. That is a beautiful sentiment, yet for $71 million in guaranteed scratch, I'd prefer a player who can conquer the basketball world. The Bulls had no choice but to sign him, if for no other reason than they have nobody else who scores consistently, which is vital when you've centered your existence around a teen point guard who likes Gummy Bears.
But really now, Deng isn't a star as much as a solid fixture, an ornament who will make a mid-range jumpshot and do amazing work in the community. The "NBA Cares" ad campaign adores him, as does Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, who quickly entered the negotiating fray once Deng threatened to opt out and become a lame-duck player next season. It isn't often when a small forward denounces Darfur at a downtown rally, then schools Tayshaun Prince at the United Center. You can't let such a human being escape your organization, especially when your other players blow off practices, get coaches fired, do 106 mph in a Land Rover and might be carrying a cup full of Hennessy cognac down a city street at 2 a.m.
(Sun-Times file)
What you need to grasp, though, is that a team with Deng, Derrick Ros e and a hodgepodge of wayward talent isn't guaranteed a postseason spot anytime soon, particularly when the next regular-season game Vinny Del Negro coaches will be his first. No, the Bulls are close enough to a watershed summer in NBA free agency that they must focus on it. Twenty-three months may seem a long time, but it isn't, not when Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh become free agents in July 2010 and other franchises already are plotting to sign them. James probably is bound for New York, where he'll either join the restructured Knicks or his soul brother, Jay-Z, with a New Jersey team headed to Brooklyn. Bosh will flee Toronto and look at Orlando and Western Conference teams.
And Wade? Which town is he from again? Where did he recently purchase a church called the Temple of Praise for his mother, a former inmate who used and sold drugs and now has her life together? Where did he spent part of his summer, rehabilitating his surgically repaired left knee and hanging out in gyms and restaurants? And that TV ad where he pulls up in a $50,000 SUV at an inner-city playground filled with kids?
"Hey, what's up? I can use some help," he says, removing the apparatus for a basketball hoop from the vehicle and erecting it on the spot.
Yep, the commercial was filmed on the South Side of Wade's hometown, Chicago, where he unloads an avalanche of basketballs from the backseat, flips the SUV keys to a c oach and takes off up a hill on a bicycle. "My dream," Wade says, "is to leave the world a better place than I found it."
Does that sound like a guy whose body might be in Miami but whose heart and soul still are in Chicago? Depending on how the Heat perform the next two seasons with the player the Bulls didn't draft, forward Michael Beasley, Wade is capable moving on and signing elsewhere. If so, the Bulls would be as viable a destination as anywhere, particularly if Rose and Deng develop a bond and some of the other dopes grow up and start reaching their potential. Whenever he is asked about the future, Wade never commits fully to finishing his career on South Beach, a signal he'll have Fave Five openings on his cell phone.
"A lot can happen in the next two years," Wade said a few days ago.
The Bulls should interpret that as an invitation. With Rose on his rookie deal and Deng the only contracted player approaching a maximum level, Reinsdorf and general manager John Paxson should begin the complex process of clearing out cap space so they can pursue Wade in earnest. Assuming he recovers fully from his knee surgery -- and knowing his mental and physical toughness, he'll be good as new, beginning in the Beijing Olympics -- this is a scorer and leader who would maximize Rose's ballhandling talents and allow Deng to be a second-option scorer and eventual lockdown defender. Advance planning forces diff icult decisions, of course.
Meaning, Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich must be among the purged.
Like Deng, Gordon was distracted last season after rejecting a $50 million extension offer deemed lowballish. Unlike Deng, who still managed glimpses of quality play, Gordon regressed considerably. He never has played defense, and now, you suspect his offensive production is too erratic to warrant $50 million, much less than larger deal he wants. As it is, Reinsdorf fell in love with Hinrich and got burned by a five-year, $47 million extension. Both have their charms -- Hinrich hustles and plays defense, Gordon can be a dangerous gunner when his head is right -- but they don't fit into the team's new evolution. Hinrich should be traded, even if Reinsdorf is dragged with him to the airport.
And Gordon? If he'd like to sign with a European team, as he suggested Monday, that might be his best opportunity to command big money. In the wake of Josh Childress' signing with a Greek powerhouse, middle-of-the-road players should look at the Euroadvantages -- some teams pay for a player's taxes, housing, cars, even a live-in maid (hold your punchlines) -- and consider better deals overseas. I was impressed when Gordon knew how the weakening American dollar stacks against the Euro these days. Time to fly?
"Definitely, its a possibility, now with the Euro being so strong, Gordon told the media. "Josh did i t. It just depends on what the individual wants and what he can put up with. Its definitely something that seems interesting. But ideally, Id like to be here playing in the States for the team that drafted me."
There are too many guards on the roster to accommodate a high-priced Gordon, even with his 18.6-point average that is padded by occasional huge games. A sign-and-trade deal makes sense for the Bulls and Gordon, but that assumes other clubs have high interest in him. If management was choosing between Deng and Gordon, Ben is the loser in a game finalized by Deng's Aug. 4 ultimatum. "I don't blame him for making that move," Gordon said of Deng's posturing. "At some point in time, you have to be the aggressor. It's kind of like we've been negotiating since last summer. I don't think there's any reason why it should be dragged out this long, and he feels the same."
True, if Reinsdorf and Paxson had been a bit more generous last summer, maybe Deng and Gordon would have had better seasons and the Bulls would have reached the playoffs again. Instead, the duo rejected the offers, wigged out over the Kobe Bryant trade rumors and never recovered in a dreadful season in which Scott Skiles and Jim Boylan were fired. That is an old story.
The new story revolves around Rose and Deng. In two years, the Bulls will need a superstar to complete the latest rebuilding plan. His name is D-Wade.
"Yes, it is," as he says in the commercial, based in Chicago USA.