I have heard a lot of complaining about why the Bulls could not have either LaMarcus Aldridge or Brandon Roy.  I was lobbying hard for Brandon Roy because he would complement Kirk and could play the point with BG.  The fact of the matter is:  I do not think Paxson ever wanted Tyrus Thomas.  Paxson had a plan to catch a big fish, and TT was just trade bait to entice Kevin McHale to move Garnett to Chicago, but everything blew up in Paxson's face when McHale decided only deal with his old friend in Boston.  

To fully understand my argument, you need to look at all the moves that happened around the time.  First, McHale rejected the best Bull's trade that included Tyson Chandler, so the Bulls were trying to sweeten the deal.  Paxson drafted the best athlete with the most potential, Tyrus Thomas.  He also understood that any deal for KG would take multiple players, so he made a slick draft day trade to grab an extra player, Victor Khryapa.  Victor would offset the loss of either Deng or Noce or both in his next trade.

Next, he wanted to dump Chandler for an expiring deal to give the Timberwolves some cap relief which would allow them to pickup a player in free agency to complement the rest of the players sent over in the KG trade.  Tyson Chandler was traded for PJ Brown & JR Smith, and this part of the deal was complete.   I'm not sure when the deal fell through or if JR Smith was supposed to be included, and I still don't think anyone understand why the Bulls gave away JR for nothing, but they did.  

Also in Paxson's master plan, he still needed a complementary PF/C to match up with KG, so he overpaid Ben Wallace to dismantle the old champs the Pistons and solidify the Bull's frontcourt.  This was going to allow the Bulls to have a 2 to 3 year run at the championship while the East was still wide open.  Everything was in place, but the deal never went down, and the summer backfired more than anyone could imagine.  

The Bulls are a mess and still have at least two glaring holes.  It is very depressing.  Tyrus Thomas was only trade bait, and Bull's fans have to watch both player selected by Portland develop into two players that could desperately help this Bulls team.  Paxson went fishing, and he didn't catch anything.   The worst part about going fishing is that if you don't catch anything you are left with no fish, and you realize you just had a boring day on a boat with bait.  Now Paxson has to decide what to do with the leftover chum (Ben Wallace & Tyrus Thomas).  Nobody likes chum if it stays around too long it is just going to smell and ruin your boat.