Note: We will accept entries until midnight tonight, so keep them coming!
The Chicago Bulls, a chic preseason pick for Eastern Conference Champions, are now buried in the standings, eight games below .500. Apparent home run moves such as trading for Tyrus Thomas, trading away Tyson Chandler, and acquiring Ben Wallace have all seemingly backfired, at least this season. They've fired Scott Skiles, but they are 7-8 with Jim Boylan. This is a team that is once again mired in mediocrity, lacking an interior scoring presence, and without a true inspirational leader (thanks again, Kevin Garnett).The Bulls need to be fixed, and we're looking to you for suggestions. The Objective: Devise the best possible trade for the Chicago Bulls
Where to post your idea: in the comments section of this website, with submissions open until Sunday.
The Rules:
1) Each trade must follow ESPN's Trade Machine guidelines to be successful. You cannot resign players not already resigned. (sorry, PJ Brown)
2) Trading draft picks is allowed, but must follow NBA guidelines (no consecutive 1st round picks traded)
3) Each trade must be posted in the following format:
Bulls receive: (name), (name), (name), (any picks)
Team X receives: (name), (name), (name), (any picks)
Team y (if needed): (name), (name), (name), (any picks)
Summary: No more than 200 words here, summarizing the reasons for the trade
4) Three or even four team trades are allowed, as long as they work on ESPN's trade machine
Each trade will be graded by the staff on five criteria, with a possible of five points per category, totaling 25 points. Whichever proposal scores the highest on the rubric wins. Submit all trades as comments to this article.
The rubric:
A) Does it help the team you're trying to fix in the short term?
How much the trade will actually improve the immediate situation of the team you're trying to help? This could mean many different things; it could mean bringing in better vet character guys but downgrading talent, improving chemistry. or exchanging one good talent for another, and changing the talent distribution of the squad. In the end the real question is: how much does it do for this season?
B) Does this trade help the other team(s) involved?
For a trade to be realistic, it also has to have value to the other teams involved.
C) Does this trade help the team in the long term?
Will this trade improve the situation of the targeted team for years to come? Shedding big contracts for expiring money may hurt a team's immediate talent level, but in the long term the freedom afforded may enable an organization to drastically improve their roster. Also, taking on a huge contract to win in the immediate might tie up too much money in the long term to keep on winning (right, Pat Riley?).
D) Does the trade help the other teams involved in the long term?
E) How realistic is this trade for everyone involved?
Sure, maybe trading Eddy Curry back to the Bulls might beneficial move for the Bulls and the Knicks right now, but would both Jim Paxson and Isiah Thomas admit the trade was a debacle and go back on it? Maybe what a team really needs is to put Ron Artest right smack dab in the middle of their lineup to shore up their defense, but would a team risk anything on that guy right now?
Okay, you've got your mission and your guidelines, what's the prize?
Well the prize is that you get to publish an article on the front page of Celticsblog.com to tell the world why your trade proposal is the very best course of action! Everyone in Celticsblog nation will know your prodigious mind alone held the key (in the opinion of the staff) to drastically improve an NBA franchise! Plus we’ll throw a load of Tommy Points at ya.