Who We Got

The best thing about this trade, as sbulls9030 has pointed out, is that dumping Wallace is simply addition by subtraction. Maybe he'll be better for Cleveland, with his typical 2nd half improvement, playing alongside a true center and with someone who can get him easy dunks. None of that matters. We need to see what we have in Noah and Tyrus, and Boylan didn't seem inclined to do that until Paxson forced his hand. Thank God he did.

As for what we got in return, well, it's not great, but considering we only gave up two aging vets who combined are averaging 16 points and 14 boards, it's also not horrific. Larry Hughes is much-maligned and in a lot of ways rightfully so. He's absurdly overpaid, and any hopes that he can return to being a "20 point scorer" should be mocked as the ridiculous little pipedreams that they are. He's only done it once in his entire career, and it took him 18 shots a game to do so. (He averaged over 20 for a third of a season early in his career while at Golden State, and that was while taking 21 a game.) Needless to say, any team with Larry Hughes taking more than 12 or 13 shots a game is not going to be good.

HOWEVER, there's another interesting trend I noticed while going over his career numbers. In the one and a half seasons that Hughes averaged 20 pts., he also got to the line more than 7 times a game, and over his career, he's gotten there 4.5 times a game, which would lead all Bulls this year. So while Hughes is a pretty horrible shooting guard (he never shot over 41 percent from the floor as a Cav), he can get to the lane (and the line), and it could be interesting to see how he plays the point alongside a good shooter like Ben Gordon. Of course, Boylan will probably start him at the two alongside Hinrich, which seems to me a recipe for disaster.

Drew Gooden is putting up remarkably similar numbers to Joe Smith, but there are some important differences. He is a horrible jumpshooter, which could provide some problems in the Bulls' offense if Boylan doesn't adjust. (And again, I'm not optimistic.) However, Gooden is a better rebounder than Smith (particularly on the defensive end) and he also seems to be a better finisher inside than Joe, especially when he dunks. Whether those percentages will stay as high when he's not on the receiving end of beautiful open looks courtesy of LBJ, however, is an open question. I'm also a bit concerned that Boylan will try him out from time to time at center, as it now looks like it's either Noah or Grayboy there. That would be a mistake. If we're really in a pinch there, I'd much rather see Tyrus. And again, that's really what should be most hopeful about this deal: We should get to see a lot of Tyrus and Noah. Pax has done the best he can to make that happen. Now it's up to Boylan. Say a prayer.