Per KC Johnson:

While urging the need to move forward, Del Negro spoke volumes for the fourth-year forward. He didn't even guarantee Thomas will be ahead of Development League signee Chris Richard in Tuesday's rotation against the Pacers.

"It depends on matchups and what we need out there," Del Negro said. "Chris gave us a nice boost (Saturday). He's physical inside. He's a big, strong body. He's pretty familiar with our stuff. He got us some offensive rebounds and we converted on them, which was nice."

It's hard to argue with any of this.   Really, read the whole thing as there's no great way to summarize it all.

SGs/SFs FALL OFF IN THEIR 30s.  WILL JOHNSON BE AN EXCEPTION?

On one hand, Johnson has the athleticism, health and 3pt shooting to hold up better than, say, Jerry Stackhouse or Michael Redd.  But on the other hand, two red flags stand out to me:

• Despite Johnson's impressive resume, his numbers with the Hawks - 18.3 PER, .541 TS% - really aren't that impressive.  Those are Josh Howard / Michael Finley type numbers, not ones you'd commit $18+ mil a year till age 33 to.
• A dropoff at age 32 and 33 is all but guaranteed.  Michael Jordan and Jeff Hornacek were the only players to maintain their numbers through that age.  Jordan is Jordan, and took two years off; Hornacek logged only 14000 minutes through age 28 as a 3rd option.  Comparatively, Johnson will have played 26000 minutes through age 28, with many coming as a #1.

Players like Michael Finley and Jerry Stackhouse, who once effortlessly played 38+ mpg, broke down hard by age 31. Several players in the 18 PER crowd saw their PER nosedive by age 31 (Michael Finley, Rip Hamilton, Steve Smith, Jim Paxson, Alvin Robertson).  In fact, nobody with a PER below 19 from age 26-28 ended up with a 29-33 Score over max level.  (Btw, since Finley keeps coming up in comparisons, I decided to look them up side by side.  Really similar.  You don't want to click Finley's player card to see his stats after age 30.)  I'd say JJ's chances aren't good.

Did you see the warning shots?   Owners ready to play hard ball.

The proposal, a source familiar with talks said, includes rollbacks that could reduce maximum guaranteed salaries, both for veterans such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, as well as up-and-comers like Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose, to almost a third of what they would have been eligible for under the current agreement.

Perhaps the biggest shocker: The owners' proposal includes a provision that would require any pre-existing deals to be revised to conform to the new deal's limits.

The total value for a veteran maximum deal would be well under $60 million and for players currently on rookie salary-scale deals well under $50 million, the source familiar with the proposal said. Fully guaranteed maximum deals also could be a thing of the past, with the proposal allowing for less than half of any contract to be guaranteed.

The mid-level exception and other devices that allow teams over the salary cap to sign free agents also would be abolished, several sources said, effectively creating a hard cap.

Per a realgm user who's posted reliable information in the past:

Latest info I got is that Brendan Haywood has been informed that he could be going to Chicago for Tyrus Thomas and James Johnson.This comes from a player my guy represents here in Europe and is close to Brendan.

So I o off to Florida for a week to take the kids on their first pilgrimage to the mouse, the Bulls just knocked off five straight opponents above .500 while playing all road games, and I am basically cut off from the internet due to a crappy room.   I didn't check the scoreboard until the Bulls had played three games. 

Hometown kid Dwyane Wade will be at the United Center to take on the team who might throw some serious moneyat him in just a few months time. Chicago has been reported on several occasions to be interested in Wade as well as clearing cap space to sign another elite free agent.

Derrick Rose had a strong outing against Philadelphia three nights ago, but struggled from the floor at Atlanta. He didn't receive much help from his teammates, as the Bulls hit zero three-point shots on ten attempts.

In his latest really really really really long mailbag, Sam Smith blows the lid off of Chicago's best kept secret:

Aaron Gray, it seems, had an entitlement problem.

Sam: Yes, no good deed goes unpunished, eh. He refers to Gray saying when the Bulls were in New Orleans last week that he never got a chance in Chicago and would show he can play now and was glad he could do it for another team. He's been with the Hornets four games. They played him in one six minutes and he got three fouls. They made their statement as well. He's not an NBA player. Maybe he could be, but he has the worst attitude of so called white stiffs I've ever seen. There's always been this joke around the NBA that teams keep these big white guys at the end of the bench to have a white guy on the roster. It's nonsense, but most of these guys are useful for certain matchups, to give fouls and contribute some. Gray always saw himself as Bill Walton. His attitude was miserable. He'd yell at coaches about not playing, and you look at him three years later and he's still not in shape. Take a guy like Marc Gasol, who changed his body and became a productive player. Last summer, the Bulls had Illinois' James Augustine on their summer league roster. I lobbied for his signing, writing he'd fit well with the style players they had. But the Bulls felt they owed another shot to Gray and given his size he'd help. So this is how he repays them with cheap shots on the way out. Tells you all you need to know about the guy.

You'll notice the Bulls only said nice things about him after the trade.

The Bulls might have done, but apparently their website writers are prepared to mix it up a bit.

Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah has been shut down due to plantar fasciitis, and will likely miss every game before the All-Star game, if not more. So the Bulls head to Atlanta with Brad Miller as their starting center tonight.

The Bulls lost a overtime decision to Philadelphia two nights ago, and have lost two straight since going 5-2 on their western conference road trip. Derrick Rose looked comfortable against Philly, but couldn't overcome the Sixers' shot-making.
 

Realising that the playoffs will be nothing but a distant memory if his facist plants get any worse, the Bulls have used the upcoming all star break as an opportunuity to give Joakim Noah some rest, officially shutting him down until after the All-Star break.

The Bulls have opted to rest Joakim Noah and the plantar fasciitis in his left foot at least through the All-Star break and Noah is scheduled to return to Chicago for treatment Thursday night.

Noah clearly has labored through the last two games and didn't participate in the Bulls' light practice at Georgia Tech Thursday.

In much the same way that Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon likes to give a star player a day off before a day off, the Bulls will use the extended break to get Noah some respite. It won't heal the injury, but it will assuage some of the damage for a while.

(More baseball references needed. Definitely.)

To cover for his absence, K.C. Johnson reports that the Bulls will sign Chris Richard from the Tulsa 66ers of the D-League to a ten day contract. Richard was a member of the Bulls during preseason and training camp. Remember him? He was the big one that couldn't score.