Not a good week for former Bulls

Unfortunately, the day before training camp is inevitably followed by the opening day roster deadline. By 6pm Eastern time on Monday evening, NBA teams have to submit their opening day roster, which can be no larger than 15 players. And so this week, NBA teams have been trimming more ruthlessly than a masochistic sheep shearer.

(No idea what I just said there.)

Last weekend, when I wrote about the players I'd least like to trade for, I mentioned that there were 502 players under contract in the NBA at the time. A mere five days later, that number has been reduced to 441. And it's not finished yet.

A quick glance at the list of waived players this month includes names such as Rod Benson, James White and Dan Dickau, players forever on the brink of the NBA for whom this camp journey is something of an annual ritual. In amongst the names are some ex-Bulls players, significant or otherwise. A more exhaustive list follows this colon:

1. Aaron Miles
2. Frank Robinson
3. Juan Dixon
4. Garrett Siler
5. Courtney Sims
6. Mario West
7. Mike Wilks
8. Michael Sweetney
9. Antonio Anderson
10. Dontell Jefferson
11. Chris Richard
12. Steven Hill
13. Curtis Stinson
14. Rob Kurz
15. Andre Barrett
16. Luke Nevill
17. Russell Robinson
18. Darryl Watkins
19. Jake Voskuhl
20. James White
21. Kurt Looby
22. Dontaye Draper
23. Keith Brumbaugh
24. Maceo Baston
25. Shaun Pruitt
26. Diamon Simpson
27. Romel Beck
28. Garrett Temple
29. Will Conroy
30. Rod Benson
31. Demetris Nichols
32. Lawrence Roberts
33. Anthony Roberson
34. Taj Gray
35. Jerel McNeal
36. Thomas Kelati
37. Michael Fey
38. David Monds
39. Mickael Gelabale
40. Leon Rodgers
41. Mike Taylor
42. John Lucas
43. Anthony Tolliver
44. Andre Brown
45. Alade Aminu
46. Charles Gaines
47. Dominic James
48. Marcus Hubbard
49. Mark Tyndale
50. Jared Reiner
51. Devin Green
52. Jack McClinton
53. Mustafa Shakur
54. Alonzo Gee
55. Will Blalock
56. Bennet Davis
57. Brian Hamilton
58. Earl Barron
59. Larry Owens
60. Chris Hunter
61. Sun Yue
62. Joe Crawford
63. Warren Carter
64. Gabe Pruitt
65. Ron Howard
66. Michael Ruffin
67. Tre Kelley
68. Morris Almond
69. Dionte Christmas
70. Brandon Bowman
71. Stromile Swift
72. Sean Singletary
73. Rashad Jones-Jennings
74. Carlos Powell
75. Dan Dickau
76. Raymond Sykes
77. Quinton Hosley
78. Donell Taylor
79. Ime Udoka
80. Jarron Collins
81. Lanny Smith
82. Melvin Ely
83. Curtis Jerrells
84. Dwayne Jones
85. Paul Harris
86. Ronald Dupree
87. Goran Suton
88. Alexander Johnson
89. Spencer Nelson
90. Vincent Grier

That's 90 waivers in a little over three weeks. Not bad going.

Included in that 90 players are 12 players who were under contract to the Bulls at one point or another. Three of them were our own waivings, of course (Hill, Stinson and Richard), whose inclusions in the list were probably a bit unfair. As for the rest, the noble nine that rode into the valley of death were Barrett (Cleveland), Dupree (Utah), Sweetney (Boston), Wilks (Atlanta), Nichols (Indiana), Roberson (Clippers), Reiner (Timberwolves), Ruffin (Oklahoma City) and Voskuhl (Dallas).

All nine went to camp with valid chances of making their respective teams, and all had to win certain battles to make the team. But they all lost. Sweetney lost to Lester Hudson, Wilks lost to Othello Hunter, Barrett lost to Coby Karl, Ruffin lost to Mike Harris (himself a former Bulls summer league team member), Voskuhl lost to Shawne Williams' expiring contract, Roberson lost to Kareem Rush, Nichols lost to Luther Head, and Dupree lost to Wesley Matthews. Even when it looked like he'd won a spot, Jared Reiner lost his spot when the Timberwolves traded for Nathan Jawai, cutting Jared two days before their game in his home town. Ouch.

There are other ex-Bulls in the league, of course, and some of them made the league via training camp. Linton Johnson signed a non-guaranteed deal with the Magic that he is still clinging onto, and Stephen Graham appears to have won a spot with the Bobcats. (As you may well have forgotten, Stephen Graham played three games for the Bulls back in early 2006. Nothing happened in them.) Memphis still has one cut to make to meet the 15 man roster limit, and Thomas Gardner is a strong candidate to be that cut, but he's hanging on in there at the moment. Tim Thomas signed a guaranteed deal with the Mavericks a couple of months ago, but their roster crunch and his injury cast a small level of doubt about his spot on the team, one which he's ultimately staved off. And while it still seems inevitable that Houston is going to waive Brent Barry, they still haven't done it yet. So that's something.

The other ex-Bulls in the league, that have a measure of job security, are Jamal Crawford, Joe Smith, Tyson Chandler, Drew Gooden, Malik Allen, Darius Songaila, Eddy Curry, J.R. Smith, Ben Wallace, Kevin Ollie, Ben Gordon, Ron Artest, Brian Skinner, Shannon Brown, Chris Duhon, Andres Nocioni, Roger Mason, Elton Brand, Thabo Sefolosha, Trenton Hassell and Larry Hughes (for now). That's a total of twenty seven ex-Bulls in the league, which is not bad going. But there were thirty six a fortnight ago, and that was much better. I figured we could shoot for fifty.

Sadly, after a genocidal week like this, it's not to be.



(As always, if ever you need an update on a former Bulls player, whether they're retired or not, I an obsessive compulsive enough to take all requests. Even for the likes of Steve Goodrich.)