Bulls blown out by Sixers

It's all relative though, I'm not sure Williams turns down $50m.

Krause was really pushing for Floyd to come in before the 97-98 season, but JR knew if that happened, Michael would retire (again) in a heartbeat.  He didn't want to pass on a chance for at least one more title. (Hell, I still think the Bulls could have won in '99.  Remember, Pippen missed 35 games at the start of the year and the Bulls still finished 62-20, tied for the best record in the league)

Remember, after Jackson was signed at the start of the season, Krause made the comment "Phil Jackson has been signed on as coach for the upcoming season, it will BE HIS LAST as head coach of the Chicago Bulls!"

I liked thabo starting, and i liked  ben gordon coming off the bench for instant offense. I actually wouldnt mind gordon starting and thabo coming off the bench to relieve gordons short comings (no pun intended), i dont like hughes as nothing more then a reserve. If i were coaching i would tell hughes straight up, drive, slash, and dont take a shot that is not within 10 feet of the basket, because he seems to be able to get the line alot better then anyone else.

I sure hope so.

I'll defend him on this one point.

I think he would actually like to start Thabo with Kirk but you have to factor in Thabo's injury and they already have said they would like to limit his minutes for the rest of the season.

If that indeed is the case, Thabo not starting should be justified

1. One option is to buy out Hughes and pay him $26M to stay home.  Since he's not playing, how do you fill those minutes?  I'd argue you probably need to re-sign Ben Gordon then.  I'd even argue Hughes is 80% the player, on the whole, that Ben is.  If I had to win a game, I'd want Ben.  But then you're paying him probably a minimum of $16-17M, and perhaps more over the same period.  So you get a cost of $42M and a slightly better player on the court.
2. A second option is to continue to play Hughes and hope you can trade Ben Gordon for something.  Let's say you can get a late lottery or mid first round pick for him.  Some folks will grown I spose, but there's plenty to like if you use that pick wisely.  Every year there's a Thad Young, Al Jefferson, Josh Smith, or Tayshaun Prince sort of guy around.  So you end up paying $2M or so to get a guy like that.  And while that guy is coming around, yes, you've lost Gordon, but Hughes is still 80% of what Gordon was and you've got to pay him anyway.
3. You let Gordon walk for nothing, or he takes the QO.  This is a pretty damaging outcome because you don't really get any long-term replacement, except Hughes, who isn't very good to start with.
4. You resign Gordon for whatever, and spend $42M.  OK, but if you're going to do that, you have a pretty hard time doing anything else for the next few years. How does that work with Thabo?  And how do the minutes go around? You also miss out on a way (combining him with Gordon) to move Nocioni off the books, since he's clearly overpaid too.  

'stud' Thabo turns over the ball more than 'BBIQ -100 LOL' Tyrus Thomas.

A big problem with our team is that there is no one really good enough to unquestionably claim minutes but no one so bad (besides Duhon and some trash from our recent trade) that should be taken out of the rotation.  We got a ton of mediocre players who all want 30 minutes a game and might do a little better if they got it.  As fans we can list the ones we'd rather be getting those minutes, but none to me stand out as people who should be getting those minutes if I were judging them be league standards. I like Thabo, but even at his best he is just one in a pack of so-so guys.