Hinrich--much better in the past 4 yrs than he is currently.

Gordon--ok maybe he's about the same as he is, but I'm sure on a numbers perspective if the guys around him were playing better, Ben's numbers would be better.  I don't think he's playing awful, he just is a hot and cold kind of player.

Luol Deng--sure injuries have slowed him a bit this year, but he still is a solid player and is like Captain Kirk having what seems to be a career bad year.  I wonder if new offense and a fresh start with all new coaching staff could help Deng and Kirk.

Larry Hughes--this guy is proving that he can at least be the old Washington Larry, which is a borderline star in this league.  Sure he makes a bit of money (a bit too high) but he's not that overpaid, and he fits our team well (given that we still lack a true superstar or inside performer, I'm fine with Larry driving the lane).

Tyrus Thomas---if we could crack the code with this guy, tha alone could make us an Eastern elite team (we have too much depth to be as bad as we are).

Thabo Sefalosha--this guy's got mad skills too and is improving on offense.

Joakim Noah--Come on, he's a great energy player with a lot of untapped skills. He also seems to have a very high BBALL IQ, something very exciting for a rookie at this level.  He also seems to publicly have leadership qualities, another huge plus.

Andres Nocioni. I know Matt and a few others hate him, but he's a guy who can do a little bit of everything. He's no star, sure but he can add a level/stir up the pot and give our team a different look depending on if he's Andres the 3pt shooter or Andres the slasher.  He has to avoid being Andres the chucker, but I think a lot of that has to do with him being Andres the competitor and seeing Captain "Ho-hum", and Luol--why didn't I sign, and our resident hot and cold chucker Ben Gordon this year....Andres is the biggest competitor on the team (although who knows what Joakim could become).

Drew Gooden, a very servicable role playing big man.  A little better than just a role player, but not a star either.  He's another good to have on your team guy, and was a nice pickup for the Bulls, even though it cost us Joe Smith (who is having his best year ever, or maybe since he was in his first and second year in the league).

And even Aaron Gray could be servicable.

There's too much talent on this team.  Sure we're missing the bonafied superstar, but we have more depth than most teams in this league, and if it weren't for 5 of our big guys being huge disappointments (Hinrich all year, Gordon's slow start, Deng's slow start, injuries, and slow recovery, and the marginal improvement of Tyrus over his solid rookie year, and of course the corpse) maybe we wouldn't be where we are today.

I have to think fresh blood/fresh coaching staff, not Skiles' old cronies who these guys turned off back on Dec 1 anyway could get our main guys back to at least their former selves.

If we got everyone back to their former 3-4 yrs selves, we just need to crack the Tyrus code to be very good next year.....add another rookie hopefully a top 6-10 pick at worst, and tehre you go.  I'd give a go with this team, I can see why Larry Brown would like what he sees....I just don't understand why this team sucks.

Plus he's a natural defender, which always has lower PER stats than an offensive player....

Ben Wallace's highest PER when he was fabulous and one of the top 2-3 Centers in the league probably maxed out around 15-16 (I don't know the exact, but I know even Hollinger has stated that that is a flaw in his calculations)....

It's hard to get consistently solid contributions when you play 25-30 minutes one game and 3-9 minutes the next, that would even cause a negative impact on guys like Kobe....It also can cause guys like Jerome James to at one point (a week or two ago) have a PER of 46.8...