[Thanks to MPG for today's preview -ed.]

It's getting pretty tough to talk or write about these Bulls without imagining a trade.  At this point it's almost reflexive.  Rose makes a nice play...you wonder how well he'd run the pick & roll with with somebody who rolled.  BG drops thirty...you wish they had an interior to balance the scoring load.  112 games of ineptitude have hardwired us to scour draft-boards (draftexpress) and seedy trade-shysters (hoopsworld) for a lonely tittle of hope.  It simultaneously sucks and blows - which isn't just a description of Noah's conditioning.

So we look for scapegoats.  Not that there's a lack of genuine goats around.  Nocioni (rotate!), VDN (coach!), and Deng (bark!) have all taken their fair share of flak, and it's understandable.  Better to have a single, encapsulated problem than a metastatic mess.  That's the reason for scapegoats - it makes a complicated problem seem simple.  Or even solvable.

Lucky for us, tonight (6:30) we get to see a team that offers hope - the New Jersey Nets.

Hope to get a win?  Probably not.  The Nets, along with the Lakers, Celtics and Blazers, are uniquely suited to kicking our ass.  Derrick Rose struggles to contain penetration and Devin Harris (24.7, 6.4)  is the best pg in the East.  We're small at shooting guard and Vince Carter isn't just big - he actually has post moves.  And we all know the issues we have inside, where our centers are alternately too slow and weak to match up with Brook Lopez, to say nothing of the ersatz all-star, Yi Jianlian, who brings height, athleticism, and perimeter skill.  These Bulls seem hell-bent on giving career nights to every middling NBA grunt who's ever had a delusion of grandeur, so look for Yi to light it up.  Complicating matters is the fact that we beat New Jersey just a few weeks ago.  They're hungry; we're demoralized and divided.  Not good.

I mentioned hope up there somewhere.  I meant it.  Here's a team (New Jersey) that should be the model for the Bulls moving forward.  Just two years ago they were saddled with an over-the-hill Jason Kidd, the bloated contract of Vince Carter, and the somewhat redundant Richard Jefferson. A few trades later and they've assembled complementary young players to which that they've committed themselves.  Complementary: as in not redundant.

New Jersey, not coincidentally, is set up to be a major player in 2010. 

And after all, it's not as if the Bulls don't have talent, however misdistributed it might be. Rose has gone from viewed as "unready" to a player with an all-star floor and top-5 ceiling.  Gordon is having his best season. Thabo and Tyrus are showing signs.  Hinrich, Gooden and Deng have all had success in the past.  It'll give themselves something to talk about tonight - they're all are out with injuries. 

Let's hope Paxson isn't asleep at the wheel tonight when he watches what he should've constructed play what he has.  He can see what a few judicous trades can do. 

And there you go: you start to talk Bulls, you end up talking trades.

Alternative viewpoints at Nuthin'butNets, and Netsdaily.