Conspiracy Theory...

After reading Deng will be out for AT LEAST 2 games and Gibson at least 1, even though u know it will be more in both cases.  I started thinking, that maybe this might be a shrewd move by management to set up for this offseason.  Follow me for a second....

-- We all know this is a tough stretch we're going thru right now, even with Deng and Gibson healthy, we're still taking L's

-- Maybe they have realized (like most of us did a while ago) that by making the trades to get cap space, we've lost a lot of D, and losing Noah kills boards and D.

--  Y not get these guys some rest during this period of time so that when Noah is ready to come back, we're still not dealing with nagging injuries from Deng and Gibson.

--  At the same time, we keep Hinrich out there (even though he has been dealing w/ minor injuries)  hoping he'll step up a couple of times, look good and help us maybe win a couple of these games.  Throw James Johnson into the starting lineup and let him sink or swim.  Hopefully, he at least treads water. 

--  If we win great, keeps us in the playoff hunt until the reinforcements can get back.  Looks great on the organization and most importantly D. Rose leading this team to victories.  We're straight for the offseason.  We'll be the most attractive spot if u want to win Championships, PLURAL, within your contract's life for any of the FA to be this summer.

Here's the kicker tho..

-- Say we start losing, which in all likelihood is going to be the result.  Well, we may have to say goodbye to the playoffs.. But the couple of L's, that we may have snuck out wins from with a banged up Deng and Gibson, now give u a better chance at keeping ur 1st round pick, and not having to swap with the Bucks.  It would really suck to have to go from like #11 to #18.  And gives u a better chance of getting lucky and moving up to grab Evan Turner (dreams I know).

-- Ok we don't lose that much, and look pretty respectable, but miss out on the playoffs (most likely scenario).  Then we have a mid 1st round pick and two tradeable assets in Hinrich and Johnson, if they can at least do decent jobs in their extended time.  That's three pretty good assets in a trade for a guy to team with a max contract guy. 

I'm just saying....