To Melo Or Not To Melo: What Chicago Bulls Lineup Wins a Championship?

Carmelo Anthony has made it clear that Denver is not the place that he wants to be. Rumor has it that he wants to be traded to either the Bulls or the Nuggets. The Bulls appear to have the more attractive assets, including defensive stalwart Joakim Noah. While Anthony is a fantastic NBA player, which player is more valuable to the bulls?

With Carmelo:

PG: Rose, Watson, Lucas III

SG: Brewer, Korver, Bogans

SF: Anthony, Korver, Johnson

PF: Boozer, Gibson, Thomas

C: Dampier?, Gibson, Thomas

With Noah:

PG: Rose, Watson, Lucas III

SG: Brewer, Korver, Bogans

SF: Deng, Korver, Johnson

PF: Boozer, Gibson, Thomas

C: Noah, Gibson, Thomas

Being a fan who lives in Dallas, I know that Eric Dampier is hardly someone you want starting at this point in his career. However the real question is how this team matches up with the best in the league.

Lakers:

-Who guards Pau Gasol? Who guards Andrew Bynum? The lack of post defense really hurts the Bulls in this case. The Lakers also have Ron Artest who is one of the few people who can handle a player of Anthony's stature one on one. However the Bulls have a player who can handle Kobe relatively one on one in Ronnie Brewer, and a point guard who can destroy Derek Fisher on offense and defense. It really comes down to who scores more, Gasol and Bynum or Rose and Boozer. 

Odds: Lakers 55/45

-Noah plays great post defense against Gasol, Boozer is better than Bynum, Kobe still gets somewhat handled, Rose destroys Fisher, and Deng and Artest cancel each other out. So it comes down to Rose vs Kobe being guarded by Brewer. Eventually I think they fall short, but it will still be a good series.

Odds: Lakers 52/48

Heat:

-This is the team we could probably get away without Noah. Brewer takes Wade one on one. Melo and James match each other scoring-wise. Rose DESTROYS Chalmers at the point. Boozer and Bosh will virtually cancel each other out. Our depth and strength at point guard might actually give us an edge over them.

Odds: Bulls 55/45

-In this case, the Bulls still have a good matchup. Brewer can handle Wade one on one. Deng has actually played good defense against James in the past. Double LeBron, Brewer takes Wade, Noah completely handles Bosh, and you have Boozer AND Rose to wreak havoc. 

Odds: 50/50

Magic: 

-We get destroyed in this matchup. Dwight will DESTROY anybody that we throw at him. Nelson is a good point against Rose even. Brewer can handle Vince Carter. Carmelo will need to go off to beat the Magic, but I just don't know whether he can overtake Dwight Howard's dominance against everyone else.

Odds: Magic 51/49

-We play much better against Dwight. However the other question is whether we have enough offense to beat the Magic. We'll be a fantastic defensive team, but we still need to score more points than them, which I think will be the main problem. If we can pick up a scorer at the trading deadline without giving up Noah, I think that will be good enough to beat this team. But as it is, I just don't know. 

Odds: Magic 52/48

Bottom Line: Do we really better ourselves that much by trading for Melo? Yes, we improve, but we don't have enough to beat the better bigs in the league against the Lakers and Magic. Either way we can't go wrong, but I'm for keeping Noah and trying to get Melo without giving up Noah, perhaps at the trading deadline for some of the assets we picked up this offseason. If we have to give up Noah, I vote we just wait.