Chicago Bulls

Nick Friedell looks at each player on the Chicago Bulls roster and how they fit in for the future. Carlos Boozer 2012-13 salary: $15,000,000 | Age: 31 | Season stats: 16.2 ppg, 9.8 rpg Season recap: Boozer was solid for the Bulls throughout most of the season, averaging 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds a contest in 79 games. He stayed on the floor and was a consistent option for coach Tom Thibodeau. He looked most comfortable on the nights when he was the first scoring option and delivered numbers for a team that was missing offense without Derrick Rose.

Bulls Head Athletic Trainer Fred Tedeschi has been named the recipient of the 2012-2013 Joe O’Toole NBA Athletic Trainer of the Year.

Ranking of most annoying players in this series: 1. Wade 2. Hansborough 3. Lebron 4. Birdman 5. Lance Stephenson's face Early 1st qtr 18-18. Burning questions: Will we get a competitive series? Will we see an end to the mandatory word count? Will Lebron commit a foul? Will Lebron get called for a foul? How many flagrants will there be in the series? Will Kerr make verbal love to the Heat? Will anyone dare stare down David West? Will anyone show up in this game thread? Go team from indiana, kind of... Ranking of most annoying players in this series: 1. Wade 2. Hansborough 3. Lebron 4. Birdman 5. Lance Stephenson's face Early 1st qtr 18-18. Burning questions: Will we get a competitive series? Will we see an end to the mandatory word count? Will Lebron commit a foul? Will Lebron get called for a foul? How many flagrants will there be in the series? Will Kerr make verbal love to the Heat? Will anyone dare stare down David West? Will anyone show up in this game thread? Go team from indiana, kind of...

Nick Friedell looks at each player on the Chicago Bulls roster and how they fit in for the future. Joakim Noah 2012-13 salary: $11,300,000 | Age: 28 | Season stats: 11.9 ppg, 11.1 rpg Season recap: Noah spent the early part of the season playing about 40 minutes a night and worked his way into the first All-Star berth of his career. Without Derrick Rose on the floor, Noah elevated his game on several levels and played the role of leader more than ever.

Phil Jackson said Wednesday that critics of Derrick Rose should back off the Chicago Bulls star, who missed this entire season after undergoing ACL surgery on May 12, 2012. "Leave him alone," Jackson said on "Mike & Mike In The Morning" on ESPN Radio. "This is a guy who hopefully ... still has another 10 years to play, let's not put him in under duress that may not be the right time. "He needs to have a training camp and go through the process of gearing up for another season the right way.

The order for the 2013 NBA Draft is now set after last night's lottery, with the Cavaliers grabbing the No. 1 pick for the second time in three years. Most experts believe that they'll take Kentucky's Nerlens Noel, who's currently rehabbing from a torn ACL. As for our Bulls, they will be selecting 20th in the the first round barring a trade. While taking the best player available is usually the way to go, there are a couple of specific positions I would like to see the Bulls focus on heading into the draft. Those would be center and shooting guard. A new batch of mock drafts went up after the completion of the lottery, and the majority of them have the Bulls taking a big. Let's take a look at them: Mock Draft Bulls' pick SB Nation Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Georgia, SG DraftExpress Gorgui Dieng, Louisville, C NBA.com Jeff Withey, Kansas, C ESPN (Insider) Dieng Sports Illustrated Steven Adams, Pittsburgh, C CBS Allen Crabbe, California, SG NBADraft.net Giannis Adetokoubo, Greece, SF/PF A few notes on each prospect listed: Caldwell-Pope: An improved shooter who took over half of his shots last year from beyond the three-point line. Did get his numbers on a garbage Georgia team, but he has ideal size and athleticism for an NBA 2-guard. He would add a nice scoring punch to a team that needs it. Dieng: A defensive monster who anchored the nation's top defense last year and helped lead Louisville to the national title. Has shown some improved offensive skills, including the ability to hit spot-up jumpers off pick-and-roll. He's already 23 and his ceiling may not be that high, but he seems to be a perfect backup to Joakim Noah, especially under the tutelage of Thibs. Withey: Similar to Dieng in that he's an older prospect who may never be a star, but could be an excellent defensive backup. He was one of the best shot blockers in the country the past few years and is a legit 7-footer. His athleticism isn't that special, but he's mobile enough and could flourish in Thibs' system. Adams: A physical specimen. He's a 7-footer with a 7'4 wing span that can jump well for a big man. However, he did struggle a bit in his one season at Pitt and is pretty raw. It would be tough for the Bulls to pass on him if he dropped this far simply because of his potential, but he might not be able to contribute right away. Crabbe: Improved his stock immensely at the combine. Has good size, length and athleticism and is considered one of the best shooters in the draft. Like Caldwell-Pope, would provide some nice scoring/three-point shooting to a Bulls team that struggled in both areas this season. Adetokoubo: The only thing I really know about this guy is that I've seen his name spelled like five different ways. He's a 6'9 forward who's currently just 18 years old and a guy who probably would be stashed in Europe for a few years a la Nikola Mirotic. Bulls could go this route if they don't want to add salary with a draft pick, but they really could use the immediate help.

ESPN analyst and former NBA player Tim Legler takes a look at what the Chicago Bulls need to do with Luol Deng as he enters the final year of his contract.

Not much going on in this post, just some links that popped up at the end of the season that I found interesting. We will be getting heavy into offseason talk soon enough, though it's a long way to July... Rob Mahoney at SI.com had a list of impending free agents who boosted their trade value in the playoffs, and unsurprisingly two Bulls made the list in Robinson and Belinelli. This will (may?) be addressed in a separate post, but it looks like Beat Writer Consensus (BWC!) is that both will be gone. Doug Thonus at Bulls Confidential really wants Nate to stay. The Bulls could offer him a 3 year deal starting at around $3m, and Doug hopes they do at least that: Jimmy Butler's more of a three, Kirk Hinrich and Teague are both ones. Nate Robinson doesn't exactly fit that bill either, given his size. However, Nate brings the skills the Bulls desperately need at the SG position. He's their Jason Terry. What we've seen with this Bulls team is that they've lacked creators and scorers. They've had enough defense to hang in games with Miami, but when push comes to shove, they don't have the guys who can score against them consistently. Nate Robinson can be one of those guys, and while he's not the star powered second scorer we'd all want, he's the best scorer we can get....If you're serious about winning, and you know you can't bring in another scorer through trade/free agency, you simply can't let Nate go. The Bulls need a guy to make shots....Yes, they likely need someone who's better at it than Nate Robinson. Sure, they'd like that guy to come in a package that fits better alongside Derrick Rose. Absolutely, this isn't the ideal pairing. However, it's as ideal as the Bulls are likely to get for three million. As someone who's blogged 9 of these past 15 seasons, I really enjoyed Trey Kerby's ranking of the post-title Bulls years at The Basketball Jones. I personally rank this past season lower and the '06-'07 one higher than he does, though may be completely related to my naivete at the time. But I really do think this past season was more of a slog than anything. Yes, there were some fantastic moments (and GIFs), and the 3 amazing playoff wins (Game 4 and 7 against Brooklyn, Game 1 against Miami) that in a way made everything worth it. But over the entire span of months watching every game it's been kind of a drag with all the injuries and other aspects of a 'water-treading' season. I very much look forward to this team being a potential juggernaut again instead of rooting for effort. Rooting for effort takes too much effort!Gothic Ginobili is a bit even more down than me, calling it a 'terrible, god-awful season'. He does make the point that there was nothing to be learned from that Miami series, they categorically beat Chicago's brains in. I agree, there's nothing in that series that tells me that they can beat the Heat next year. But there wasn't going to be anything from it, with so many players out and limited. The best we could hope for is stealing a game and we did it. It was cool. And not to end on another down note, but here's a lengthy profile of Jerry Reinsdorf from the Sports Business Journal. As you would imagine, it focuses more on his true love of baseball, but there are a couple of Bulls tidbits. They're weird and mostly indeterminable tidbits, but this one sounds like Reinsdorf was trying to even further limit the Bulls (unused) financial advantage, based on this story from his son (and current Bulls president) Michael Reinsdorf: I’ve had discussions with him about situations that have gone on over the years, and it surprises me where he sides. I’ve said, ‘What are you doing? This is not good for the Chicago Bulls.’ He just said, ‘Mike, you have to do what’s right.’ I still struggle with that sometimes. It’s a learning process. I lean toward doing what’s good for the Bulls. I hope one day I can become how my dad is. Like I said: weird.

The legend of Nikola Mirotic continues to grow by the day. The Bulls' draftee was named ACB League MVP after leading Real Madrid to the best record in the league. And if you want some crazy Bulls parallels, Mirotic, 22, became the youngest MVP in league history. Sound familiar? Prior to this, the youngest MVP in ACB history had been Marc Gasol, so that's pretty good company. Mirotic averaged 12.6 points and 5.5 rebounds on the year as Real Madrid racked up a 30-4 record, winning the league by four games. He shot 50.5 percent overall and 43.5 percent from three while shooting 80.7 percent from the line. This all contributed to a final "ranking" of 16.2 (no clue how this is calculated), which was fourth best in the league. I still really haven't seen this guy play much besides a few highlight videos and some grainy online footage, but he clearly is a pretty special player. Winning the MVP in that league at such a young age is no joke, and it's also worth noting that Mirotic helped lead Real Madrid to the finals of the Euroleague before falling short against Olympiacos. Of course, we know that because of his Real Madrid contract and the NBA rookie scale, Mirotic isn't coming until 2014 at the earliest. At that point, the Bulls could then use cap room or an exception to sign him. That would seem to muck up the grand 2014 Plan a bit, but who the hell knows what that plan is anyway? Nevertheless, I'm definitely excited for this kid whenever he does come over. I know some are worried that he may never actually play for the Bulls, but hopefully that would be because he was included in a package for an established star player. Although I don't know if the Bulls should be trading Dirk 2.0...

May 21, 2013; San Antonio, TX, USA; Memphis Grizzlies guard Mike Conley (11) reacts in game two of the Western Conference finals of the 2013 NBA Playoffs against the San Antonio Spurs at AT The Chicago Bulls may be out of the NBA playoffs, but that doesn’t mean the NBA is over entirely. Here’s what happened last night. Down 1-0 in the Western Conference Finals, the Memphis Grizzlies went into game two against the San Antonio Spurs knowing a loss would put them in a difficult hole to climb out of. Of course, they trailed by double-digits for much of the second half, so that was bad. However, the Grizzlies rallied from 18 down to force overtime. They pounded San Antonio inside and on the glass, overcoming a dismal shooting night along the way. Of course, it wasn’t meant to be. San Antonio took the lead in overtime and led by 3 points with 10 seconds remaining after Tony Parker split a pair of free throws. Unfortunately for the visitors, Jerryd Bayless bricked a three on the ensuing possession, and Cory Joseph split his own pair of free throws to put the game away. Here’s how Ricky O’Donnell of Blog-A-Bull put it: Leave it to the guy who looks just like Carlos Boozer to blow it in the playoffs — Ricky O’Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) May 22, 2013 (Don’t believe him? Here’s Boozer, and here’s Bayless. Or is it the other way around?)