You’d think that being drafted in the first round of the 2009 NBA draft, starting for your team for almost half of the season, and getting selected to play in the Rookies-Sophomores game during All-Star Weekend would ensure that someone at ESPN would have a photo of you. Sorry Taj Gibson, those 20 points you put up and those 13 boards you brought down were not enough for the guys at ESPN to look too hard for a picture of you. So while you and the rest of your team whupped the 76ers last night, we get to look at “the other” A.I.’s mug on the ESPN recap of last night’s game.

Aside from the obvious East Coast bias that ESPN showed in slighting Taj Gibson, Saturday night’s game was extremely encouraging. Vinny Del Negro is such a masterful coach that both Hakim Warrick and Flip Murray already appear completely in sync in the Bulls system. If you twisted my arm I’d give some credit to the players themselves. Murray drove and kicked the ball out to open shooters on a number of occasions and the 3-pointer he buried from the corner near the end of the first half showed what the Bulls have been missing from the SG position. And Hakim Warrick will quickly become a fan favorite if he keeps this up. Stuffing a few of the lanky 76ers, throwing down that sick spinning dunk on Thaddeus Young, and crashing the offensive glass, he ensured there was no let down with the second team.

The Bulls seemingly have a reliable quartet of Power Forwards and Centers to work with now that Joakim is slowly coming back (let’s hope he gets into game shape soon, sucking on an inhaler is not what you want to see from your future All-Star Center).  More importantly, the entire team is realizing that they can win games in the paint and at the free throw line. During the second quarter the Bulls began to settle for a few 15 to 18 foot jump shots early in the clock and it allowed the 76ers to regain the lead. In the first half of the season, the Bulls would have continued to force shots and we would’ve awoken to Sunday morning articles bemoaning the Bulls’ inefficient jump shooting letting the team down again. Instead, coming out of a TV timeout, Rose and Deng began driving and slashing to the rim and either finishing or dishing off to our big men, and if the drive wasn’t there the Bulls ran their offense opting for the jump shot with less than 5 seconds on the shot clock. Conversely, the young athletic 76ers seemed gassed by the amount of work they were putting in on the defensive end and quickly resorted to isolated, step back jumpers and easy rebounds for the Bulls.

Last night was a great example of what kind of team the Bulls can be. Taj Gibson is a huge part of that, as his development allowed the Bulls to make the moves they made for this season and the next. Is it too much to ask for ESPN to dig a little harder for his picture on nights when he outplays guys like Elton Brand?

Is the lack of consistency his own fault or the fault of a Bulls organization that has tried to screw Tyrus at every turn?  On fanatical sites like Blog-a-Bull, you will get roasted for even implying that Tyrus is not the future of the Bulls.  Others like my father feel like he is an unmotivated, unfocused head case that can never make the jump.  Now that Taj Gibson is around, the issue gets complicated even further.  Gibson has been steady and reliable, though lacking the explosiveness that Tyrus can bring.

That brings me to something I read this morning from Hardwood Paroxysm, analyzing the Taj-Tyrus situation:

I wish nothing but the best for Thomas and hope he becomes a productive player. But I do have some questions which Bulls fans are a little too close to home to answer.

Why is it that two different coaching staffs over four years have elected to keep Thomas’ ass chained to the bench? Okay, Scott Skiles is a wackaloon that’s too much of a hardass and hates puppies. I get that. I watch Luke Ridnour play tons of minutes. I understand. But then for VDN’s crew to do the exact same thing? Oh, VDN sucks. Well, that’s fine, but you’re telling me with Del Harris on the bench last year, with all those assistants, and in such desperate times, that there’s no reason that Thomas hasn’t escaped the bench’s gravitational pull? There’s got to be a reason. Misunderstood by two different coaching staffs?

The component with Taj Gibson is frightening to me, in that I can see why they’re opting for him. He plays hard, he does what they want, he efforts towards doing what they’re looking to do. Thomas is the superior talent, but he doesn’t play well with the others. They’re role players, and Gibson knows his role. I can understand Bulls fans dismissing this, because the team’s not winning. It just seems to me that there’s got to be a point where you let him go and pray it doesn’t come back to haunt you. Because Thomas could turn into an explosive Josh Smith Jr. clone. Or he could go elsewhere and be stuck on the bench all the same.

We’re so far into Thomas’ pro career, and we still know almost nothing about him other than “he can jump really high.”

I agree with him completely.  I’m not saying Tyrus won’t turn into Josh Smith Jr., I just feel like it isn’t going to happen in Chicago.  It just isn’t.  A great comparison for this in my mind is the Cedric Benson situation.  We all hated him and wanted to get rid of him, and now he is successful in Cincy.  While it’s annoying, does anyone truly feel like if we had given him just one more chance he would have become a star in Chicago? No.  I feel the same about Tyrus.  He may have the upside and even eventually pan out, but I am very skeptical that it could happen here.  Get something now for Tyrus while you still can.

Ball Don’t Lie:  Are these really two players that you want to hand guaranteed contracts to for the next two or three years? Johnson is athletic, no doubt, but at what point do we start to expect actual, you know, “production” out of athleticism when you’re 22? Gibson? You don’t draft 24-year olds. You don’t do it. Unless they’re 24 and absolutely dominating college ball, and he wasn’t. And you hadn’t heard of Gibson, either. Both players might make the rotation, sure, but with Blair still available?

Score: 4/10

Luol’s Dong:  [James Johnson]’s a good fit on the team, doesn’t indicate we’re shopping anyone (good news) but I was hoping we could pacakge our picks and get a better low post option. Whatever, right now everything depends on whether we re-sign BoGo and if Deng still has any skills.

Blogabull:  No trades? Pass on Dejuan Blair twice? Gar Forman looking like a zombie on national television, amazingly talking while John Paxson’s lips didn’t move?

This was far from Amare.

I suppose July 1st is just around the corner…but that brings us just as close to Ben Gordon walking as it does to any blockbuster deal (after cap figures are announced, etc.).

By The Horns:  Johnson has been criticized for inconsistency, lack of focus (scouts say he occasionally takes possessions off) and weight problems. Sounds awful Eddy Curry-ish, doesn’t it? I’m just sayin’…..Over his three-year career at USC, Gibson set the Trojans’ all-time record with 253 blocks, which also happens to be third-best in Pac-10 history. His age gives him maturity (or so the Bulls believe), and his wingspan(seven feet, four inches) gives him some serious length and shot blocking ability. However, he’s a wee bit on the skinny side — at 210, he’s almost 50 pounds lighter than the shorter Johnson — and his offensive game is pretty raw. So don’t expect him to bang bodies with the big boys or put up a lot of points.

Pippen Ain’t Easy: The Bulls instead opted for the talented James Johnson from Wake Forest. The immediate concern is that he is a tweener. He also liked to play more like a 3 at Wake Forest. Like Blair, he has a long wingspan and an NBA body, but he is much more athletic. Will he fit in at the 4? He better hope so, at least in the near future because Deng and Salmons will man the 3 for the Bulls. He’s an all-around solid player. I like the pick and he likely has more potential than Blair…Initially I was not pleased with the pick of Taj Gibson. My 2 first thoughts were: The Bulls just re-drafted Joakim Noah and then the Bulls just re-drafted Corie Blount. I take that back a bit.

The Bulls:

With the 16th and 26th pick, I was hoping the Bulls would take a big man and possibly a big 2 guard to replace Hinrich and/or Gordon.  At 16, there were still a lot of big men on the table, but I was pushing mainly for DaJuan Blair.  I know he’s a bit undersized height-wise, but he is a beast on the boards.  Instead the Bulls drafted James Johnson.

Then the Bulls had another shot at Blair with the 26th pick, but they had already drafted a big man, so they wouldn’t need another one, right?  That was the wrong assumption, as Gar Forman selected Taj Gibson from USC.  Another undersized big man to compete with TT, Noah, Miller, and now Johnson in the frontcourt.

My initial reaction to the draft was “Well, I don’t hate these guys, but we needed a legit big man, or at least a 2 guard that would be serviceable if Gordon bolts”.  The more I think about it, though, the more I realize that this might work.  Both Johnson and Gibson have pretty refined offensive games for big men and are skilled enough to see time at the small forward position.  On top of that, I realized that perhaps this lends itself to the Bulls new philosophy of playing a more uptempo pace.  Perhaps they wanted big men that could run the floor, which would explain why they didn’t bat an eye as Blair tumbled down into the second round.

Overall it was a solid draft that gets a B from me as far as grades.  And at the very least, Taj Gibson “gets the blueprint”, so there’s always that.

Around The League (The Highlights of the Draft and the Days leading up to it)

Flurry of Trades:

• The Spurs moved Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas to the Bucks for Richard Jefferson.  Wow what a steal for the Spurs.  They also sent Fabricio Oberto to Detroit for Amir Johnson.
• The Cavs responded by trading away Pavlovic, Ben Wallace, a 2nd round pick in 2010 and some cash to the Suns for 1 year of Shaq’s services.
• The Magic, who reportedly have received word that Turkoglu will be opting out of his contract after making this trade, were able to acquire Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson from the Nets for Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston and Tony Battie.
• The Wizards and Timberwolves made an interesting trade.  The Wolves sent Mike Miller and Randy Foye to Washington in exchange for Oleksiy Pechorov, Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila, and the #5 pick in the draft.  This trade looks very good for the Wiz, but very strange for the Wolves.  It leaves them with 10 forwards on their roster, and would lead to an absurd looking draft for them.

Draft Day

• Blake Griffin went first and Hasheem Thabeet went second, so no surprises there for the most part.
• The Timberwolves, with 6 picks overall and 4 in the first round, stunned most of us by selecting three point guards with the 5th, 6th and 18th pick, respectively Rubio, Flynn, and Lawson.  Then they traded Lawson to Denver for a future first round pick.  Now there are reports Rubio may stay overseas (probably because he hates the cold).  So it looks like the Wolves may have in fact gotten just one point guard.
• The Warriors took Stephon Curry one pick before the Knicks and just like every other year, a bunch of New York jackasses at Madison Square Garden got to boo like idiots.
• Hansborough went 13th to the Pacers, and Bulls fans let out a collective sigh of relief.  It’s not that he sucks or anything, we just don’t want him.
• At the 23rd pick, the Kings selected Omri Casspi.  The guy looks like he could be a beast, and he might get some run with the Kings, which would make him the first Israeli player to ever play in the NBA.
• At the 24th pick, the Mavs selected BJ Mullens, and then turned around and traded him to the Thunder for Rodrigue Beaubois taken with the 25th pick.
• The Knicks purchased the Lakers 29th pick for about $3 million in cash considerations.
• Apparently (and this seems very strange to me), the Blazers are sending Sergio Rodriguez, Jon Brockman, and the 38th pick to the Kings for the 31st pick, where they took Jeff Pendergraph.
• Both Sam Young and DeJuan Blair, projected as mid to late first rounders, slipped well into the second round.  They were selected 36th and 37th by the Grizzlies and Spurs respectively.
• There was a lot of second round trading of picks, but none that were all that notable beyond maybe Budinger, picked 44th (yikes, thats a bit of a drop) being sent by the Pistons to the Rockets in exchange for cash considerations.

Yesterday, Gar Forman and the rest of the Chicago Bulls organization continued their exhaustive efforts to build our team according to The Blueprint.  For those who are unaware, The Blueprint is the Bulls’ fool-proof “draft a blue chipper from a power conference” plan that has yielded moderate success every other year. It has become engrained in the organization that The Blueprint cannot be abandoned lest we repeat the horrors of our past.  We all remember the tragedy of 2001, where Jerry Krause, hopped up on Jagermeister and Lipitor, ditched The Blueprint selecting Eddy Curry and trading for Tyson Chandler. One need only look to two years earlier in 1999, to see the potential success that The Blueprint can bring to the organization.  In that year, Krause, in a much more lucid state and impressed by his draft picks’ mothers hand size, selected Elton Brand and the cerebral Ron Artest in the same year.

With Forman, the foreman of the Bulls Draft Crew and a PhD in History from The Universitat Socialist in Prague, at the helm, the Bulls have exhibited a vigorous allegiance to The Blueprint, scheduling workouts with ten players for Wednesday, June 10th, eight of whom played at programs that routinely find their way into the Sweet 16 in March.

Yet this is all unnecessary since the smartest basketball player ever to play the game worked out for the Bulls on Tuesday.  That player is Taj Gibson.  No he’s not the precocious younger brother of Tia and Tamera from “Sister/Sister” fame.  He’s a 6′9″ beast of a power forward (funny that the USC site lists him as 6′9″ but the Bulls had him at 6′10″ in listing their scheduled workouts!) who played under the tutelage of former Bulls head coach, Tim Floyd at University of Southern California.  While his physical attributes are impressive, he let on to his immense brain power during an interview with media shortly after his workouts.

During that interview, Gibson explained that he figured out the offensive system the Bulls were running simply from the drills the Bulls staff ran him through. Is Gibson the Batman to Vinny “the Riddler” Del Negro, who haunted the entire Chicago Bulls fan base and blogosphere this year with his cryptic timeouts where he would seemingly draw up 24 second violations? Maybe Gibson can clue us in to what “system” Vinny plans to unveil, since he couldn’t possibly have been insinuating that such a “system” was in place last year.

So here’s to Gar Foreman and hoping that on June 25th at Madison Square Garden, he picks the hometown kid from Brooklyn, NY, Taj Gibson, and Bulls fans everywhere can rejoice in finally getting a translator for Del Negro’s own version of The Blueprint.