Bulls roster set for start of season: minimum spots, microscopic worry

The release of Keith Bogans was mentioned before the preseason opener, but what wasn't was the nearly simultaneous release of Jannero Pargo, and the report that the Bulls roster will stand at 13 for now.

Lets see if I can do this without looking it up! (man, I hope so*)

Starters:
PG: Rose
SG: Hamilton
SF: Deng
PF: Boozer
C: Noah

Bench:
Guards/Wings: Brewer, Korver, Watson, Butler
Bigs: Gibson, Asik

*(OK, true story: I totally forgot Scal, and thought the Bulls had cut Lucas. Of course, they don't really count...unless you want to get to 13.)

The Bulls are ridiculously deep in the rotation (especially if Jimmy Butler is competent), a trait that will be a huge benefit in this lockout-compressed schedule. But the end of the roster moves are still kind of surprising. Lucas and Scal are coaches/mascots, so the need for an emergency PG and Kurt Thomas replacement is still there...though it looks like the Bulls are content waiting for said emergency.

Joel Przybilla was mentioned by KC Johnson last week, but with the bizarre caveat that the former Blazer wanted to spend the holidays with his family first. That's actually a really enticing name compared to Mike McGraw's suggestion of old standby Chris Richard, who I believe lives in the UC parking garage.

Then there's the question of why bother to release Bogans. He thankfully wouldn't be a starter again, but was probably not a bad value at the near $1.7m he would've been making if his contract was guaranteed. Going by last year's cap, a minimum salary for Bogans this year would be $500k less that, so maybe the Bulls are figuring that there's no reason to pay a dime more than that minimum, risking him being picked up by another team. Weirdly enough, so far Pargo is the one with a contract before Bogans.

I also think there's something to be said for coach-proofing here. If things somehow didn't start off spectacularly for the Bulls this year (crazy to think, I know), there could be cries for going back to what worked. And maybe this is being insane, trying to stop fantastical future non-arguments in my head more than Thibs actually doing it, but I don't mind having Bogans gone simply to avoid that possibility. I mean, we'll get 'do the Bulls miss Bogans and Kurt Thomas being old in the locker room?!?' theories instead, but still.

Also, maybe Bogans isn't as deferential (hyperbolized to being near-braindead at times) as we've been lead to believe, and wouldn't actually be content going from starting 82 games to sitting them.

What does all of this mean, actually? I guess nothing. Ten, maybe eleven, of the guys can actually play, that's better than most rosters. The lack of practice time this season means my usual philosophy of getting young and hungry players makes even less sense than it may have before. This is obviously all very minor in importance compared to the Hamilton acquisition and what that meant.

But I do find it interesting that the Bulls went with the bare minimum roster spots, and do still have some holes if they encounter an injury, and again aren't taking the opportunity to maybe get rights to a prospect in the DLeague. I'll be very interested to see Sham's 2012 figures to see how close the Bulls are hugging that tax line, as they could be really working within tight (though self-imposed) margins all season.