I’m sure Brian Scalabrine and Rasual Butler are relieved to know their Gatorade-and-towel handing out duties have been effectively cut in half. I’d heard a rumor that Scal’s towel-waving shoulder was starting to show signs of tendinitis. So: Whew!

Said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau: “We think they’re a great fit for us. Both are high character guys, both are shooters. And it’s insurance for us. And it also gives us an opportunity to rest some guys in practice, if we choose to do that.”

Certified NBA practice dummies. Nice.

Lucas is best known (assuming he’s remembered at all) for bricking two free throws with 12 seconds left in a one-point loss to the Nuggets back in November.

Meanwhile, Pargo is famous (read that: infamous) for shooting 34.6 percent from the field and 27.5 percent from downtown for the Bullies last season. Or, as I often put it, “slowly killing me one jump shot at at time.” His game log from last year could be accurately described as Kafkaesque.

But, hey, no big deal. Barring injury or catastrophic blowout, their contributions will include cheering from the pine and going crazy when somebody dunks or Derrick Rose hits some amazing shot.

The post Bulls sign “injury insurance” appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Jannero Pargo had a game-high 27. But what does it mean?

Well…huh.

Look, I’m happy the Bulls won. I’m also glad they didn’t mess around and just dropped the hammer on a bad team (well, minus New Jersey’s brief third quarter comeback courtesy of Jarvis Hayes’ three-point bombing). And I’m downright relieved they didn’t lose a second home game this season to one of the worst teams in NBA history.

But I’m not sure what this win means.

Let’s face it, the Bulls are a a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. This season has been so schizophrenic. Between Derrick Rose’s early season ankle woes, Kirk Hinrich’s busted finger, Tyrus Thomas’ broken forearm followed by his malcontent, John Salmons’ career-worst slump, the subsequent trading away of Ty and the Fish Man, Joakim Noah’s plantar fasciitis, Luol Deng’s recent calf strain that might have ended his season, and the fact that Chicago management approached this campaign as a throw away so they could preserve cap space for this summer’s free agent market…

…and I didn’t even mention that nobody outside of the Bulls’ front office has any idea about whether coach Vinny Del Negro is going to be around next season.

Simply put, the Bulls have never been able to develop a sense of identity this season. They have ranged from very bad, to merely bad, to mediocre, to sort of good, to pretty good, all the way back to very bad again. I don’t think there’s been a single time all season in which we could say: This is who and what the Bulls are.

And we still don’t know.

Technically speaking, Chicago is only 1 1/2 games behind the Toronto Raptors for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Now, the Raptors have lost eight of their last 11 games, with two of their three wins coming against the league-worst Nets and Minnesota Timberwolves. Chris Bosh has been questioning his teammates’ desire while the local media has been questioning Bosh’s desire.

And now tonight, the Bulls get a crack at the cellar-dwelling Detroit Pistons while the Raptors have to play the Heat in Miami. All these facts point to the distinct possibility that Chicago could be right back into the playoff race only days after a loss so crushing it felt like they had been mathematically eliminated for the next two or three seasons.

But we still don’t know.

Last night, Jannero Pargo led the team by scoring a game-high 27 points on 10-for-19 shooting. Pargo’s previous high in points this season had been 20 in the infamous Kirk Hinrich Meltdown Game. The last time Jannero scored 27 or better was for the New Orleans Hornets in a first round playoff loss to the Dallas Mavericks on April 25, 2008. The last time before that was when Pargo put up 34 off the bench during his first stint with the Bulls on March 26, 2004. That’s it. That’s the entire list of Jannero’s 27-plus point games.

So what does it tell us?

What does it tell us that Derrick Rose had a Rajon Rondo-like game: a game-high 9 assists to go with 7 points, 5 rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot? Or, for that matter, Taj Gibson’s dominance (22 points, 7-for-9, 8-for-10 from the line, 13 rebounds, 2 blocked shots) over Yi Jianlian (7 points, 3-for-9, 8 boards)?

Nothing? Everything?

I’m not sure anymore. I’m not sure the entire season means anything. Bulls management is treating it like an afterthought and maybe it is. Maybe all that really matters is which big name free agent — if any — comes to Chi-town for 2010-11.

But that doesn’t mean the players are giving up.

Said Rose: “We just got to keep this going. We got a good feeling. We came back from a terrible loss [on Thursday night]. I’m glad to see us play like this. We need to continue to play like this.”

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Advanced Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos

The post At least they beat New Jersey: Bulls 106, Nets 83 appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The good news: the Bulls are currently ranked 10th in Opponents Field Goal Percentage (.436), Opponents Three-Point Percentage (.325) and Defensive Rating (101.6 Points Per 100 Possessions), and they’re 11th in Opponents Effective Field Goal Percentage (.476). Chicago’s opponents shoot free throws at the league’s 12th-best rate (.759), but the Bulls have given up fewer free throw attempts (158) than any teams other than Milwaukee (155) and Charlotte (148). So you can officially label this year’s defense as a solid “okay” or even “better than expected.”

The bad news: the offense. As in, pretty much all of it. The Bulls rank 28th in Field Goal Percentage (.421) and dead last in Three-Point Percentage (.253). For the record, their three-point accuracy is more than 10 percentage points below the league average (.358). Wait, it gets worse: even their undefended shots have been woefully off-target: Chicago is 26th in Free Throw Percentage (.705…about five percentage points below the league average). Add it all together, and it’s no surprise the Bulls are scraping the bottom of the NBA barrel in Free Throw Rate (27th at .183), Offensive Rating (27th at 101.6 Points Per 100 Possessions), Effective Field Goal Percentage (28th at .440), and Points Per Game (28th at 88.6).

Sure, Chicago is 4th in Total Offensive Rebounds (111) and 5th in Offensive Rebounding Percentage (.293), but that might be a simple consequence of bricking so damn many shots (387 misses in 667 attempts so far this season). Those are a lot of offensive rebounding opportunities (also referred to as KBAs in some some circles). And anyway, where would the Bulls be without Joakim Noah, who is currently tied for second (with Sacramento’s Jason Thompson and Washington’s Brendan Haywood) with 34 offensive boards, and Luol Deng, who’s yanked down 26 of them? I’ll tell you: nowhere.

Wait, there is another bright side: Chicago is 9th in Turnover Percentage (.129), but even that might be deceiving, since they’re a slow team (23rd in Pace at 91.4 Possessions Per 48 Minutes) that spends a lot of time passing the ball around the perimeter and then jacking up long-range/low-percentage shots.

Simply put, scoring is a bit of a boggle for the 2009-10 Chicago Bulls.

Here’s a rundown of the three-point shooting the Bulls and their fans have been suffering through the past few weeks. Luol Deng is actually hitting 75 percent of his threes…but he’s only attempted four of them this season. Jannero Pargo — who was specifically brought it to provide another outside threat — is 3-for-11 (.275) on the season. (Although, to be fair, Pargo has been struggling with a creaky back. But still.) John Salmons is (prepare to throw up in your own mouth a little) 11-for-42 (.262) in the first eight games. Kirk Hinrich is 6-for-27 (.222). Brad Miller is 2-for-9 (.222). And Derrick Rose is 0-for-3. That’s it. At this point, Joakim might as well start chucking them up from downtown. I mean, even he couldn’t hit a percentage that’s much worse than the team’s designated shooters…could he?

There continues to be a lot of talk around the Windy City about the Bulls trading for a legitimate low post scorer, but even that might not be much help at this point. After all, Chicago opponents are laying back and clogging the paint because they know the Bulls can’t shoot. Even Dwight Howard would struggle to score through a quadruple team. Spacing is a problem because shooting is a problem. Derrick Rose can’t penetrate because there aren’t any holes to penetrate into. Rose has been canning a pretty decent percentage of his jump shots this season — which is great — but even that has been only out of dire necessity. This shooting situation is hurting Derrick’s ability to score and create for his teammates. And when Luol Deng or John Salmons manages to slice past their defenders, they find the basket area littered with road blocks.

So should the Bulls deal for an inside scoring force…or an outside shooter? Long-range snipers are usually cheaper and more readily available, and, at the moment, of greater necessity. Because until the Bulls can start spreading opposing defenses out a little, they’re going to continue to struggle. The most painful part of this whole mess is that the Bulls defense has been solid enough that they very well might have beaten the Raptors, Nuggets and maybe even the Heat if their offense had even been as good as “average.”

Update! Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm saw this post and did a little extra digging for additional information about the Bulls’ ranking for attempts, field goal percentage and assist percentage (percentage of makes that are assisted). Here’s what he found:

At the rim: 26th attempts, 24th percentage, 21 AS%
<10 feet: 21st attempts, 7th percentage, 5th AS% 10-15 feet: 11th attempts, 5th percentage, 2nd AS% 16-23 feet: 1st attempts, 26th percentage, 7th AS% three: 27th attempts, 30th percentage, 5th AS% free throws: 25th attempts, 26th percentage, 26th free throw rate As Moore put it: “The Bulls take the most attempts in the lowest efficiency areas. The most efficient shots are shots at the rim (proximity), threes (more points, more likely open), and free throws (undefended). The least efficient shots are 10-15 feet and 16-23 jumpers. You’re likely to both be defended there, and they’re harder to hit. The Bulls are bottom 10 in attempts in all the efficient areas and top five in both of the inefficient areas. What’s more, they’re top ten in assisted percentage from the least efficient areas. Translated, the Bulls are throwing a ton of passes that result in mid-range jump shots, and very few that result in layups and dunks.” Moore concludes: “The sum of all this for the Bulls should be ‘Play smarter, not harder.’ They’re working really hard and that’s evident in their defensive stats, but on offense, they’re targeting low percentage shots, not converting anything easy, and not drawing fouls.” It’s a great theory. It is. But there are problems with it. Look at the starting lineup of Rose-Salmons-Deng-Gibson-Noah. Only one of those five guys can be considered a three-point shooter (Salmons), and he’s slumping so badly that he’s probably seeing bricked threes in his dreams. Deng, Gibson and Rose are strictly midrange shooters. We all know Joakim scores most of his points off putbacks and short-range bunnies. Hinrich is off-target from downtown, and Pargo is struggling with that sore back. And I’m sorry, but Brad Miller shooting more threes isn’t a solid option. Furthermore, until the team’s marksmen — Salmons, Hinrich and Pargo — start knocking them down, or someone else is brought in, Bulls opponents are going to keep clogging the lane, denying clean chances at the rim. So if the team can’t hit threes and the paint is clogged…how is the team supposed to get the most efficient shots?

The post Shooting apocalypse appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The timing of Ty’s outbreak is a more than a little dubious, considering it happened the day after he failed to reach a before-the-deadline contract extension agreement with the Bulls. Given Thomas’ history, it’s understandable that some people are calling shenanigans. Regardless of the circumstances, all I could think was, “Uh oh.” It was definitely one of those I-sense-a-disturbance-in-the-Force moments.

Of course, Ty’s absence shouldn’t have mattered, not with the Bulls playing at home against a bad team (the Bucks) missing its best player (Michael Redd). But whether it was missing a starter or just an extension of everything that’s been wrong with the team since their season opening win over the Spurs, the Bulls flat-out sucked in the first half.

Chicago fell behind 25-13 after one quarter and 43-29 by halftime. They couldn’t shoot. They couldn’t defend. They couldn’t hold onto the ball. In all honesty, the Bulls looked like a group of guys at the YMCA who had never played together before. Even when somebody was able to break free for an open shot, passes were delivered so poorly that the player receiving it lost that crucial split-second advantage.

By the time Brandon Jennings (who had a game-high 25 points) nailed a triple at the 5:39 mark of the third quarter, the Bulls were down an astonishing 18 points (56-38). It was unthinkable. The Bulls were getting blown out at home by the Bucks? Really?!

If you look at the final stats, you might wonder how the Bulls pulled this one out. They shot 39 percent as a team, bricked nine free throws (including six in the fourth quarter), and gave up 23 points off 19 turnovers. Thank goodness the Bucks really are so bad they failed to capitalize against a team in a funk. But more than that, thank goodness for Luol Deng and Jannero Pargo.

Deng was, without question, the player of the game. He didn’t have the best shooting day (7-for-16), but oh man was he aggressive. How aggressive, you ask? Well, he grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds (including 7 on the offensive end) and earned 11 free throw attempts (of which he hit nine). If there are any Bulls fans still questioning Luol’s physical and mental toughness, they should go back and re-watch this game. His effort kept the Bulls alive.

And how about Jannero Pargo, huh? The dude wasn’t even supposed to play against the Bucks because of a sore back. But the Bulls needed him. And badly. Not only because he’s a natural spark plug, but because the team’s lack of three-point shooting was allowing Milwuakee to clog the paint and hover in the passing lanes. Pargo was in the game just over a minute before drilling his first three, and after that the Bucks’ defense was finally forced to scramble around.

Pargo finished with 10 points (4-for-5, 2-for-3 from downtown) in 14 minutes, but those numbers tell only part of the story. His plus-minus score (+18) tells the other part.

Derrick Rose was soundly outplayed by Jennings until the fourth quarter. Fortunately, Rose came alive, scoring 10 of his 16 points in the final stanza, which included a couple long jumpers (from 16 and 17 feet out) and two dunks (courtesy of sweet dishes from Brad Miller). It was good to see the kid come through in the clutch. That’s the future of Chicago Bulls basketball. It has to be.

Of course, there was added drama as Chicago’s poor foul shooting gave the Bucks a chance to steal the game. The normally reliable Brad Miller — an 80 percent career foul shooter — went only 4-for-8. And Joakim Noah bonked two freebies with 13 seconds left that could have iced the game. Instead, the Bulls had to sweat out an ugly miss by Ersan Ilyasova before victory was assured.

Was it good to win? Absolutely. But the Bulls still played very, very poorly and, in some ways, deserved to lose. If they don’t get their act together, things could get really ugly in Cleveland on Thursday night.

The slump continues:
John Salmons scored only 7 points on 3-for-15 shooting. He was 0-for-2 on layups and 2-for-12 on jumpers. And watching his body language, you can tell it’s in his head now. At times, he was trying to guide the ball into the basket instead of just shooting it. Take a few deep breaths and relax, John. It’s going to be okay.

Layup watch:
The Bulls were 5-for-16 (31 percent) on layup attempts against the Bucks. That makes them 37-for-85 (43 percent) for the season.

TrueHoop Network:
Jeremy from Bucksketball: “Things were so perfect. The Bucks were up 18 with 6:56 left in the third quarter, the defense was swarming, every loose ball was going the Bucks way, turnovers were being forced and the Bucks were hanging in their offensively. But when things were their bleakest for the Bulls, Deng, Brad Miller and Jannero Pargo led the Bulls all the way back when Pargo hit a three with six minutes to go in the fourth. As described above, the Bucks had a shot in the end, but were unable to convert.”

Extras:
Recap, Box Score, Play-By-Play, Shot Chart, Photos.

The post Bulls pull off daring — and slightly depressing — 83-81 win over Bucks appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Name: Jannero Pargo (pronounced Juh-NAIR-oh)
Position: PG/SG
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 185
Birth Date: October 22, 1979 (29 years old)
Birth Place: Chicago, IL
Number: 2
Nicknames: None
College: Arkansas
Drafted: Undrafted (2002)
Experience: 6 seasons
Previous team: New Orleans (2006-2008)
Contract: $1.9 million in 2009-10
Expect: Instant scoring off the bench
Don’t expect: Shooting efficiency

On offense:
Pargo is a classic shoot-first point guard who seems to regard creating for his teammates as a solid second option. In many ways, he’s a shooting guard trapped in a point guard’s body. Pargo’s offense comes from spot-up jumpers (out to three-point range), midrange jumpers off the pick and roll, and pull-up jumpers off of drives that stop short of the basket. Notice how the three main facets of his offense included the word “jumpers”? That’s because, like Kirk Hinrich, Pargo’s game is jumper-centric. During the 2007-08 season — his last in the NBA — 84 percent of Pargo’s field goal attempts were jump shots. And since only 43 percent of his converted jumpers were assisted, it’s clear he’s looking to create his own shot.

The only problem is that, despite his smooth and fundamentally sound shooting stroke, Pargo’s percentages are terribly low. For his career, he’s connected on 39.5 percent of his field goals and 36.5 of his three-pointers. In his six NBA seasons, Pargo has only shot better than 40 percent twice: 40.7 percent in 2003-04 and 40.9 percent in 2006-07. He’s never shot 40 percent from beyond the arc (his career-high in three-point percentage was 38.8 percent in 2006-07). During the 2007-08 season, Pargo’s Effective Field Goal Percentage on jump shots was 43 percent. His eFG% was only 46 percent when he took the ball to the hoop.

So while Pargo can and will fire it up without hesitation, he’s not a terribly efficient shooter. He’s streaky, though, and he can carry a team with his hot flashes (and kill a team when he goes cold). On an up note, Pargo has hit nearly 85 percent of his career free throws. Unfortunately, he rarely makes it close enough to the rim to draw contact, so he’s averaged only 0.9 free throws in 315 games.

Although Pargo isn’t great at creating open looks for his teammates, he’s a solid passer who can run set plays rarely makes bad decisions. During his last season in the league, Pargo dished out 192 assists while accumulating only 43 “bad pass” turnovers. That works out to 4.5 assists for every pass he throws away. For some perspective on that number, Steve Nash averaged 3.7 assists per bad pass last season.

On defense:
Pargo is relatively short and slight, which at times can make him a defensive liability. He simply doesn’t have the size or strength necessary to man up against big guards (especially shooting guards) or fight through aggressive picks. Pargo tries hard to make up for his physical limitations by being aggressive, adhering to fundamentals (stance, footwork, staying in front of his man, etc.) and using his quick hands to deflect or steal lazy passes (although, for his career, he averages only 1.2 Steals Per 36 Minutes). Basically, Pargo is a solid defensive point guard as long as he isn’t physically overwhelmed.

Miscellaneous:
During the summer of 2008, Pargo signed a one-year contract withthe Russian Super League team Dynamo Moscow. The following January, he negotiated a buyout from his Russian club and signed with the Greek League club Olympiacos Piraeus. Pargo was released by Olympiacoson May 5 of this year and signed with the Bulls on July 13th. So basically, he missed one full NBA season. Moreover, he averaged only 3.5 points and 1.4 assists per game in the Euroleague, which makes me wonder how he’ll adjust to playing against NBA-level competition again. It’s not a huge deal, because he’ll be playing limited minutes off the bench…but it’s worth noting.

Summary:
Pargo isn’t big and doesn’t have great hops, but he’s quick, focused and determined. He can handle the ball and initiate the offense, but Pargo is first and foremost a sniper who’s looking to score. His offense runs hot and cold, but that won’t stop him from bombing away. Pargo won’t shoot a high percentage, but he won’t make a lot of stupid mistakes, either. Results may vary, but he will give his all on offense and defense. Pargo doesn’t have what it takes to start on a regular basis, but he’s an effective roleplayer and can provide a spark (not to mention scoring bursts) when coming off the bench.

Update! From Henry Abbott of TrueHoop: “To me his greatest play to date was his reaction to being assaulted by a frustrated Jason Kidd. The Hornets had the game in hand. Pargo went down really hard, but broke his fall, did some kind of dive roll and literally came up clapping. No way his spirit was broken, and he wasn’t about to let Kidd keep him from a great moment of Hornets basketball. The Hornets, of course, won the game and the series.”

Another Update! From Visiting Thunder Fan (Jax): “I’m from OKC, and got to watch Pargo play with CP3 for a year. At first, no one really knew what to expect from him. At first, it seemed like he missed every shot he took, and I thought he’d be the 3rd string guard on a poor team. But, it didn’t take the guy long to turn into a fan favorite. Yes, his jumper started to fall, and he took TONS of shots just to bail his teammates out of a bad offensive play. But it was his attitude that won people over. Pargo is fearless. Last 10 shots didn’t go in? So. We’re down by 20? So. It’s me and four 8th graders against the Dream Team? So. Let me at ’em. The dude’s got an ironclad face and a warriors mentality. That Hornet’s team almost made it .500, but other than CP3 and David West there was no offensive threat (Peja was hurt). Rasual Butler turned into a decent scoring wing that year, but hadn’t been terribly impressive the previous year. At times, there was just no one that seemed to know who to go to or what to do, and Pargo just strong willed the team out of their slumps.”

More Pargo:
NBA.com profile
ESPN.com profile
Basketball-Reference profile
82games.com Player Stats
Wikipedia entry

Bonus video:
I couldn’t find any highlight films, but here’s some video of Pargo hitting a trick shot.

The post Scouting Report: Jannero Pargo appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

This is a nice pickup for the Bulls. Pargo is a solid backup guard who proved in New Orleans that he can come in off the bench and be a valuable contributor. He’s also a Chicago native who played for the Bulls from 2003-2006. Go here for the scouting report on Pargo.

Pargo’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, said: “I think he’ll pick up where he left off in New Orleans when he was one of the top sixth men in the league. I think he could have done better (financially) if he waited a little bit longer, but he didn’t want to lose the opportunity with the Bulls. We just thought it was a good fit.”

Don’t you just love NBA player agents? It’s like they all went to school at Used Car Salesman University. I’m not sure Pargo could have earned much more than that, particularly considering the upcoming Salary Cap Apocalypse.

As I pointed out yesterday, the Bulls had only about $2.4 million to play with before reaching the luxury tax threshold. So unless Gar Forman works out a trade for Carlos Boozer— which, frankly, seems pretty unlikely — this will probably be the last significant move the team makes during the offseason.

But by limiting Pargo to a one-year deal, the Bulls will still have financial flexibility next summer even if the salary cap drops again. As of now, the Bulls should have only seven players under contract for 2010-11: Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, John Salmons, Joakim Noah, James Johnson and Taj Gibson. The combined total of those deals will be about $38.6 million. If the cap is in the $50-ish million range, the team will have $12 million or so to sign someone from the Summer of 2010 Free Agent Class.

I know the team hasn’t made The Leap this summer. We lost Ben Gordon and we didn’t acquire a big-name player. But, assuming Luol Deng is healthy next season, the Bulls should be at least solid (if not spectacular) at every position with a handful of capable backups to spell the starters. And, thanks to intelligent cap management, we will be in the running for a major upgrade one year from now. All in all, not bad. Not great…but not bad.

The post Jannero Pargo: A Bull once again appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Some Bulls fans are wondering why the team hasn’t been aggressively pursuing free agents, particularly Ben Gordon, whom they lost to the Pistons. As always, the answer is all about money.

As reported by Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald, the NBA finally released the new salary cap and luxury-tax threshold: “For the second time since the cap was instituted in 1984, the number dropped. The new cap is $57.7 million, about a million less than last year. The luxury-tax threshold is $69.92 million. The mid-level exception, which is supposed to represent the average salary, is $5.85 million.”

What does that mean for the Bulls? A lot.

McGraw crunched the numbers for the 11 players the team already has under contract and the qualifying offer they made to Aaron Gray. Read ’em and weep:

Brad Miller $12.25 million
Luol Deng $10.37 million
Kirk Hinrich $9.5 million
Jerome James $6.6 million
Tim Thomas $6.47 million
John Salmons $6.35 million
Derrick Rose $5.18 million
Tyrus Thomas $4.74 million
Joakim Noah $2.46 million
Aaron Gray $1.0 million
James Johnson $1.59 million
Taj Gibson $1.04 million

Total (including Gray): $67.544 million
Luxury tax threshold: $69.92 million

As you can see, the Bulls are already about $10 million over the new salary cap. Even worse, they’re within a couple million of the luxury tax threshold. Remember, for every dollar the Bulls go over that threshold, they have to pay a dollar in taxes. With the economy swirling down the toilet, that’s a penalty almost every NBA team has been bending over backward to avoid. The Bulls are no exception.

Even assuming the Bulls retain Gray, they’re still required to have a 13th player on their roster. Some teams even sign 14 players as an injury contingency. So, if Gray ends up wearing red this season, that means the Bulls have just under $2.4 million left to sign one or two more players. Realistically, the team could end up spending most or all of that money Jannero Pargo. And there’s no guarantee the Bulls can or will do that.

It’s also possible the Bulls will try to fill out the last couple roster spots with players from their summer league team. Pippin Ain’t Easy posted the Bulls’ summer league roster, and there are some potentials there: “Actual Bulls on the roster consist of new draft picks James Johnson and Taj Gibson as well as Anthony Roberson, Linton Johnson III and DeMarcus Nelson. The Bulls will play five games from July 14-19 at Cox Pavilion and the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV. Others included are some players with memorable NCAA Tourney experience/performances: Lorenzo Mata-Real from UCLA was a fun player to watch during the tourneys. James Augustine from the Illini and their 2005 tourney run. Taurean Green filled it up and won with the Gators.”

I said “potentials,” not “great potentials.” The bottom line is this: Bulls management wants to avoid the luxury tax while maintaining financial flexibility for next summer. They’re willing to bide their time and field an average to slightly-above average team this season, in the hopes that they’ll be able to make a move at the trade deadline or next summer. All I’m saying is, don’t expect John Paxson and Gar Forman to bring in any major help for the 2009-10 campaign.

The post The numbers crunch appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Now that Ben Gordon is a former Bull, it looks like former Bull Jannero Pargo might be coming back to Chicago.

Pargo spent the last year playing overseas, first for the Moscow Dynamo (who had to buy out his contract due to financial difficulties) and then Olympiakos in Greece (otherwise known as the team that stole Josh Childress from the Atlanta Hawks). Now he’s coming back to the NBA, and both the Bulls and New Orleans Hornets (whom he played for prior to bolting for Moscow) are interested in re-acquiring his services.

Pargo isn’t going to replace Ben Gordon. Not by a longshot. Pargo’s career averages — 6.9 PPG, 39.5 percent shooting, 36.5 percent from downtown — barely match what Gordon would do on a really bad might. Fortunately, the Bulls wouldn’t ask him to be Ben Gordon Part II. They would simply need him to be a solid, steady, veteran contributer off the bench. And Pargo excelled in that role when he was with the Hornets in 2006-07 and 2007-08.

If the Bulls sign him, he’d make a great (and cost-effective) backup.

Update! The scouting report on Jannero Pargo: Here’s the skinny from Pargo’s DraftExpress player profile:

Overview: “A tremendous scoring combo guard. … Possesses only average size and physical strength for the point guard spot. Shows good quickness and lateral speed. Won’t play above the rim, but can get there occasionally. Plays with a scorer’s mentality, and isn’t known for his playmaking skills. Incredible shot-maker from the perimeter, but is a bit streaky. Never gets rattled, and never loses sight of what he brings to the table. Will play tough defense. Tough player in general with outstanding intangibles. Has become a useful role player. … His playoff performances with the Bulls and then the Hornets were huge for his career.”

On offense: “A good offensive point guard who will run the pick and roll and hit spot up shots from the perimeter. Displays a very fundamentally sound shooting stroke and can stretch the floor after he initiates the offense. Good catch and shoot guy. Just as capable off the dribble. Would much rather pull up than attack the rim due to his lack of size and leaping ability. Has the quickness to create separation off the dribble. Can absolutely take over a game at times with his stroke, and change the complexion of the contest — making him a tremendous option to bring off the bench as a change of pace guard. If his shooting stroke isn’t on, though, he can become a liability. Never been known as a terribly efficient player throughout his career, partially due to his struggles converting shots around the rim. Not quite as good as a pure point guard as he is as a scorer. Has improved significantly throughout his career in that respect, though. Used to be very turnover prone. Handles the ball well, and while he may not be a great creator, he is a very solid passer. Very rarely gets to the free throw line. Handles pressure well, and can hit his free throws at a very high rate. Plays within himself, which is a trait that took him time to develop. Extremely confident.”

On defense: “A very good defender who uses his quickness to hawk the ball, but does not have great length at 6-2. Can be a real nuisance for less athletic point guards. Moves his feet extremely well and maintains a low stance. Will get too aggressive sometimes and get beaten off the dribble, but not often. Commits some fouls by nature of his assertiveness. Does his best to keep the ball out of the lane. Not a risk taker, but plays with a physicality that allows him to be a very good defensive point guard. Struggles when forced to defend shooting guards, though, which happens fairly often. Not strong enough at times to fight through screens on the pick and roll. Lacks the height to contest shots and make an impact on the glass, but will run down long rebounds and do his best to get a hand up when he can.”

The post The Bulls want Jannero Pargo appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.