NBA Rumors

I had commented on the potential impact that real-life NBA moves have on our UPL environment before, and there's a major trade that could impact the O.N. Thugs in a major way. The rumor is Boozer to Chicago, Tyrus Thomas to Utah, and Kirk Hinrich to Portland. And considering that I not only own Boozer and Thomas, I also own D-Will, Roy, and Aldridge. From my perspective, there are some individual components to look at.

Impact on Utah: D-Will's going to make plays, no matter who's around him, it seems. They lose out an a legit low block scorer, but get to put AK-47 back into the starting PF role (where he was thriving a few years ago), and get to put Tyrus Thomas/Paul Millsap into the hustle man off the bench, which is what Tyrus Thomas was doing, anyway. The benefit is that Thomas would be, at worst the 4th big on the roster (whereas his playing time in Chicago was just confusing, with not only Brad Miller, Joakim Noah, and Luol Deng taking minutes, but also John Salmons taking minutes at the 3). Plus, having D-Will set up Tyrus in an offensive system (rather than just waiting for a rebound after Gordon or Salmons jack up a shot) should improve his scoring numbers as he'll get one or two more cheap dunks off of D-Will's work.

Impact on Chicago: They finally get a legit low post scorer. And having Boozer as a complement to Brad Miller (who's comfortable in the high post as a shooter/passer) will be nice. Noah silps into a clear role as the "hustle big" that every contender seems to had/have (Chris Andersen in Denver, Varejao in Cleveland, Leon Powe in Boston, etc.). Boozer can get his numbers anywhere, I think, and should still put up 18 points and 10 boards, at the low end (and if the Bulls play faster, maybe more).

Impact on Portland: They get an upgrade from Steve Blake, but also someone who can play some pretty solid D, shoot reasonably well from outside. But more importantly for me, he lets Brandon Roy have the ball in his hands more and doesn't take shots from Aldridge.

I think that I am rooting for this trade to go through, although this just doubly confirms that I botched the Boozer pick last year. I had picked Boozer because I thought that it would be cool to watch D-Will to Boozer for the foreseeable future, and passed up Dwight Howard. Whoops. Oh well. We'll see how things shake out, but it's looking more and more interesting, and it'll be fun to see what moves people make with their keepers.

-Chairman (aka O.N. Thugs)