The Chicago Bulls have players in the rumor mill for quite some time and now a wild idea from ESPN NBA Insider David Thorpe has cropped up.
Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson are two players that have long been rumored to be on the way out of Chicago but no trade has been made as of to date.
Gibson is coming off an injury, while Noah just saw his season end recently with a shoulder injury. To date, there is nothing feasible on the table for the Bulls, although that piece from Thorpe somehow inserts the New York Knicks star into the fray.
The Bulls and Anthony have a history. A couple of years back, the team made a serious pitch to drive in the high scoring forward, but Anthony eventually settled to remain in New York.
For some reason, Anthony trade talks have come up recently, and the Bulls are the latest team to be linked (once again to him). Unfortunately, the odds of seeing that happen right now are complicated.
Anthony has a no-trade clause in the contract he signed with the Knicks. This means that if ever he would leave New York, it will be on his own terms.
Second is that Noah is injured. It is unlikely that the Knicks would want to take in someone who will need months to recover and get back to form. An alternative scenario for Noah is to see Gibson and Pau Gasol.
Gibson is seen a good fit to the triangle and everyone knows that Gasol lived it when he was still in Los Angeles with Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher. However, Gasol is no longer as young as he used to be so there is an age issue here.
But will the Knicks give up their no. 1 scoring option to make it happen? Seeing Anthony jump ship and join a scoring-heavy team in the Bulls brings up a couple of questions, but it could depend on whether or not coach Fred Hoiberg can pull some strings together.
