I want to see a lot of this tonight from Luol Deng. That is all.

Another forgettable finishing performance, indeed.  Skiles and Gordon both said after the game that they are not panicked.  I think however, any random sampling of 2 people from the city of Chicago is panicked enough for the whole team.  While Kobe chants were not heard inside the UC last night, walking out of the United Center yesterday people could be heard screaming for KOBE!  My take:  We are still being too quick to judge this team. Even if we end up starting 0-6, we ought to give em a chance to play out of it.  Too many fans want results now.  The Bulls had a bad week.  Agreed.  But lets be honest, they are shooting horrendously.  They are 29th in the league in FG%.  27th in the league in 3pt%.  Opponents are shooting the lights out on us (see last night).  And oh yeah, there’s also the list of ten other things I mentioned yesterday.

Chicago sports fans in general are too demanding.  People seem to forget that in the last 12 months, we’ve had the Bears in the Super Bowl, the Cubs winning the division and making the playoffs, and the Bulls going deeper into the playoffs than they have been since the ‘98 championship season.

T.J. Simers from the LA Times thinks Kobe is worth practically "everyone on our roster, Alfonso Soriano, Brian Urlacher, and The Picasso."  Those are the kind of trade talks that really send me far and away against a possible Kobe trade.  The truth of the matter though? Simers is correct in the sense that there cannot really be a deal worked out unless it does include at least 3 Bulls players.  We just have to completely gut our team to get Kobe.  Try the ESPN trade machine.  See what you can get to work and you will see what I mean.  The salaries below speak for themselves.  How can we make a trade without Wallace (whom the Lakers apparently want no part of due to his contract), or Hinrich (whom we cannot afford to lose)?  If there is not a third team involved, we basically cannot trade unless we give up some serious stars (Deng, Hinrich AND Gordon), in return for Kobe and some lower paid Lakers.

                                                                              Bulls vs. Lakers Salaries

 In other news, Luol Deng will be interviewed today on Nike Basketball.

juuuuust get rolling already, guys!

Here are the problems I see the Bulls facing, and my proposed solutions to getting a winning streak going.  We are not as bad as our record, and you must remember three games does not make a season.

-Not shooting the ball well. 
Everyone has bad shooting nights, but we have got to start driving through the lane, looking for easier buckets and getting to the foul line.  And how about getting Gray some more PT so we can score some buckets in the paint? Give him a chance to do what he did in the pre-season.  Skiles’ rotation mentality leaves some of our bench players (and maybe starters) too nervous/fearful of messing up that they do not get a chance to play freely.  See Tyson Chandler statistics since leaving the Bulls.  The Bulls players know if they mess up, they could get yanked at any second.

-Luol Deng is not getting involved enough
‘Nother Great article by Morrissey : We need to get Luol Deng the ball more. 

-Kirk Hinrich’s foul troubles
Captain Kirk has to be a bit less aggressive to start the game.  I know he gets hosed on the foul calls a lot, but at this point there is nothing he can do about that except try to play off his man a little bit.

-Lack of confidence
This will just come once the victories start piling up.  Getting that first win will go a long way.  We all remember  a couple years back when the Bulls started 0-9 and still eventually made the playoffs.

-Pressure situations.
Clearly opponents know we are looking to get the ball to Gordon in the 4th quarter.  They are ready for it and we need to draw up at least ten plays where we can take advantage of teams hording over Gordon.  We have a couple other guys who can score, and we need to hit them in pressure situations.

Contract issues/Trade Rumors
-Not much we can do on this front.  But it has to affect a player’s performance.  Put yourself in Ben’s or Luol’s shoes.  Of course you would want to have a fantastic individual season (statistically speaking), and that has to be in the back of their minds during every game.  During every free throw.  After all, a couple missed shots, or a couple extra turnovers per game could cost you a million dollars.

-Ben Wallace’s ankle
Sit Big Ben until he’s healed!  He’s not contributing that much right now, and Thomas and Smith could lead our front court just fine for right now.

Many other things, including turnovers, allowing opponents to get too many offensive rebounds, over reliance on the 15-20 foot jumpers, could have made this list.  Just fixing a couple of these issues will result in the Bulls getting some wins.  Next game: Tuesday Night vs. Clippers who are without Elton Brand.  My prediction: Bulls by 12.