Not so sure this is a great move for the Bulls. The majority of the cap space they'd created is now tied up in Ben Wallace for the next 4 years & I'm not sure he makes them an elite level team. They'll be a 50+ win side, for sure, but a team challenging for a title? I'm not so sure. They now have 3 athletic, offensively limited 4/5 men in Tyrus Thomas, Chandler & Wallace. Who is scoring in the low post for them?

Having said that, someone has to progress from the East, and without Wallace, I don't see it being the Pistons. The Heat obviously would start favourite, but they still need to stitch up GP, Mourning & Riley before they're even as good as they were last season.

All of which means things are opening up quite nicely for the Cavs. If Hughes can stay fit, Shannon Brown provides a spark off the bench and LBJ keeps improving, I see them as being a contender to take out the East.

I actually think this makes the East weaker, if that's possible via a personnel move within the conference. I'd say they now have 1 elite team (Heat) 3 very good teams (Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland) and some good teams (Indiana, Washington, New Jersey).

Good work Chicago! Now this has been done, watch closely for the Chandler/Marion deal...

I don't fancy their chances of snagging Marion, but if they manage to pull that off they would well & truly move into the elite category!

So what piece do people think they need to acquire for Chandler? Is Ben Gordon a starter or better suited to 6th man?

ATM would it be fair to assume their starting 5 would look something like this :

PG - Hinrich
SG - Gordon
SF - Deng
PF - Nocioni
C - Wallace

Chandler
Sweetney
Thomas
Duhon
Sefolosha

If they're able to get a solid starter-level player at the 2 or 3 spot and bring Deng or Gordon off the bench, I think they'll be a very good shape.

Hopefully Luke can find some room on the end of the bench. They will need all of the 7 foot foulers they can find when they face Shaq in the playoffs.

There are RUMOURS floating around the Chandler could be traded to the following teams:

- Straight swap with NOOK for PJ Brown (god knows WHY the Bulls do this!!!)

- Sign and trade with Atlanta, Harrington going to the Bulls, and Chandler donning a Hawks jersey (Atlanta do this in a blink!!!)

- Trade with the Jazz. Boozer for Chandler

- Trade with GSW. Murphy for Chandler

On a good note for the Hawks, it looks like Speedy Claxton will sign with them. This is a great move if the Hawks pull it off. Speedy is good enough to be a starter, and this will push JJ to the SG. They are starting to look good. If they jag Chandler and Speedy I'm putting them in contention for the 7th/8th seed in the East.

They should trade Childress, seen his jump shot?? terrible and he really doesn't bring much to the table.

TR - the Bulls may do the PJ Brown swap because he only has 1 year remaining on his contract, thus it would open up cap space for them to chase a decent priced free agent again next season.

I think the Chandler/Harrington trade would work for both parties. I still fancy Harrington will be headed back to Indiana though.

The Jazz & Warriors trades would both make sense for the Bulls, I think. Murphy & Boozer are more offensively inclined than Chandler & the Nocioni could either start at the 3 spot, or back up the 3 & 4 spots.

Massive signing for Chicago, this addition will take a first round playoff exit team into the Conference Finals.

I'd keep Chandler as well, unless the trade offers for him are too good to refuse.

Hoop, completely forgot about PJ's contract. Makes much more sense now, especially since Big Ben will do the same job Chandler is doing now, and PJ is still a decent banger on the boards with an expired contract.

Yeah - PJ would still be solid for 15 minutes a game, and a good veteran to have around for the kiddies.

All depends on what they think they'd be able to do next off-season with the money it would free up.

The Wallace deal with the Bulls is actually worth more in the vicinity of $60 millions as oppose to the originally reported $52 million.

Devastating from a Pistons point of view - however does mean we could upgrade to a C that can play D and even put up some solid offensive numbers.

Forgot to add, maybe the Pistons could move Sheed to the 5 and slot Mcdyess into the starting 5 at the 4 spot? What do people think?

not a bad idea Bizzy, can Mcdyess handle the rigours of all game, every game though?

DB5 - I think that's the biggest problem with it. McDyess has proven that he's still capable of being a spark plug off the bench, but when it comes to play 35 odd minutes per game, I'm not certain he can cope with it.

While R. Wallace & McDyess are competent defenders, obviously Big Ben was an outstanding defender and their interior D is no longer intimidating.

They were already a pretty thin side, and now their most solid bench performer could be starting, it doesn't leave much backup.

They're in talks with Bonzi Wells apparently and I think he'd be a good fit as 6th man for them.

yeah Hoop Addict, i read that as well, Bonzi would be a good fit, though they will need size now...Magloire anyone?
GO BULLS, bout time we had a decent shot blocking centre..Sorry Longley/Cartwright/Perdue....

I hope as a Pistons fan this isn't going to happen. We'll all know for certain when ink goes to paper July 12th. Ben Wallace would be a pretty big snake if he did leave, saying his heart is in Detroit one minute, then leaving the next for a lousy $1 million extra per year over 4 years. I mean, Dennis Rodman never got comparative money in his playing time (I'm talking comparative to the time period, not actual $$$, because I know salaries have skyrocketed since then), and he arguably did more for his teams than Wallace does

very happy with the addition of speedy claxton to the hawks.finally a pg signed.we played a whole 82 game season with no pg last season.

Yeh well good luck to big ben, if he needs to feed his family and support himself i congratulate him, but is he really gonna make all the difference at chicago? Chicago have got heinrich, gordan, iochini and now him... is this gonna transform them to a first round playoff team to a conference team? No IT AINT. THEY NEED ONE MORE Scorer to complement these guys, Marion would be great. Detroit got some work to find a gd solid centre who can play gd D and score more than BEN. Otherwise i think that detroit can once again go for the championship, solid experinced team and they wont be favourites which will suit them just fine, bring on 2006/2007 season and rememeber

DETROIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTT BAAAAAAAASSSSSSSKKEEEEEETTTTTTBBBALLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BAD BOYZ 4lyfe

p.s GERMANY R GONNA BEAT ITALY TONIGHIT< > VIVA LA DEUTHCHLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GROVE

um.... chicago buying wallace was the best thing that they could ever do. now they have the perfect center player... BBBBBBBBBEN WALLACE.

PS. italy are gonna destroy germany tonite... cheers wizz