I wonder what that means for Nowitzki’s sucky Italian cousin. I thought the whole point was he and Bosh would be the starters, but it looks like he could get burried.

being here in Indy, I don’t think I’d do that were I the Pacers. TJ Ford scares the hell out of me with his back issues. O’Neal, on the other hand, doesn’t scare me quite as much because I figure even if he loses some of his athleticism due to his knee issues, he’s still going to be a pretty effective player.

Really, consider Marcus Camby or Antonio McDyess as good examples. They both went through a couple years of injury issues, but are still very effective players.

As a Bulls fan, I sort of like Hinrich/Hughes or Hinrich/Noc or possibly even Hinrich/Gooden for O’Neal. Mostly because we just really, really need a 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 sort of trade, and because O’Neal would be a heck of a frontcourt option.

As far as getting the deal done, I think the Pacers would at least somewhat consider a Bulls offer because I can’t imagine they’re eager to take on Ford. But if they’re just hellbent on saving money, I suppose they can save more from the Raptors and can force the Bulls to offer Hinrich/Gooden, which is probably the least helpful deal from our perspective because it doesn’t get rid of our two biggest contract deadweights (Hughes and Noc).

So Meh. After thinking about it I don’t see a lot of value for us unless we can move Noc or Hughes in the deal. If we only move Hinrich and Gooden, we probably make it that much harder to move the other guys because we now less to package the crummy two with.