I'm getting this sick feeling in my stomach that once again the trade deadline will pass, the bulls will have done nothing, and everyone will go on talking about the development of this player, and the potential of that player, and the Bulls will slide down down down past mediocrity to truly awful basketball (hint: we've seen their potential in that regard already this season).

If there's even a whisker of a chance to get Amare or Bosh we need to trade everyone but Rose to get them. A team with 2 legit stars at complementary positions is a team that can fill in the other spots with ease. I don't care if it means giving up Tyrus (whose upside is basically Amare now, as has been pointed out), Deng, Hinrich, Noah, Gordon. 

In the past there have been good reasons that trades didn't happen - the Kobe trade was never a reality outside of wild rumors, we didn't have the pieces to get KG (no Al Jefferson), and Gasol is not such a stud that I'm too upset about not coughing up the financial relief that Memphis was looking for.

But there have been enough no-deals to get me thinking that there is something wrong here. The Gasol no-deal is the first hint of that. I think the Bulls are stingy - not with paying out money, but in trades it seems like they want a "win" or no trade, rather than mutually beneficial trades. The Suns have said they are not trading Amare because none of the offers have been good enough. Are you telling me the bulls are not capable of making a good enough offer? Of course they are - they don't think it's worth it - and that, in my opinion is idiocy. There is no way they are not a better team with Amare Stoudemire or Chris Bosh on the court (2 true stars) than with any number of 2nd tier very-good-but-not-great players. The of the second tier are not better than one from the top - the math just doesn't work that way. and don't be teased by the "emergence" of tyrus or noah - if they haven't shown it until now, there's really no reason a month of good play should change your mind. They certainly are not first tier guys.

So, whoever the heck is running the bulls right now - please pull the trigger.