Trade Rumblings

There are some rumors flying around that Portland Trail Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard is trying to wrestle Luol Deng away from the Bulls.  Deng has always been a favorite of Pritchard’s, but the forward is not likely to be going anywhere, for a number of seasons.  First of all, Deng has been playing much better this past month than he has since 2007.  He’s looking like the player that the Bulls thought they were awarding that big contract to this past summer.  Also, since Deng just signed that new deal and is a base year compensation player, there are a number of trade restrictions that the Bulls would have to bypass in order to move him.  Last, the team as a whole has looked pretty good since Vinny Del Negro settled on a starting lineup of Deng, Derrick Rose, Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah.

The trade chip that Portland is dangling in front of everybody is Raef LaFrentz’s expiring contract.  It essentially represents approximately $13 million of cap space.  Better yet, the contract is what is known as a super expiring contract; that is, insurance is paying 80 percent of the salary for the remainder of the season.  Still, it seems unlikely that the Bulls trade anyone aside from Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes at this point.

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