Dwight Howard and Monta Ellis Will Not Be Chicago Bulls and Here's Why

Dwight Howard to the Chicago Bulls! Monta Ellis will be the newest Bull! The speculation around major moves that will add another superstar to the Bulls are endless. But are they even rational or sensible? Truthfully, the answer is that they are just not going to happen. 

First, it's not like the Bulls are in rebuilding mode. They won an NBA best 62 games and made it to the Eastern Conference Finals in their first year with this basic core, and with their new head coach Tom Thibodeau. 

That doesn't mean they are a complete team in need of nothing. They do need a shooting guard.

It does however mean they are more in a need of tweak than of rebuilding. You don't replace your car engine every time you need an oil change. Talk of Howard or Ellis is just silly because any trade to obtain them would require a massive overhaul to a team in need of tweaks. 

Such theoretical trades usually involve sending a plethora of players, including either Joakim Noah or Luol Deng for either Howard or Ellis. That would mean digging two holes to fill one, and in the Howard case, the hole you'd be filling isn't even the hole that needs filling. 

Beyond that, these speculations undersell the value of Deng or Noah to the team. What they bring is not measurable by points or PER. The two players are the pulse of the defense of the team, and this is a team which wins based on its defense. Deng and Noah are key aspects to the team's identity. 

Now certainly in Howard's case, there wouldn't be a hole at center in a trade. The scenarios involving a trade aren't just for Noah though; they usually involve Noah and either Carlos Boozer or Deng for Howard and JJ Redick.

Therefore you end up replacing two starters with one starter and no matter how great that starter is, you create a hole. That's not all though. 

While you might theoretically be able to put together a best case scenario that would make the Bulls better for a season, the problem that would arise from that trade is that they wouldn't have enough money to re-sign Derrick Rose next year. Howard's max contract could potentially put Rose out of reach.

So then the question becomes, are Howard and Redick worth Deng, Noah and Rose?

Beyond all of that is the notion of whether this whole "superteam" direction is one the Bulls should even take if they could manage to keep Rose? The Mavericks established that a team that has one superstar and a deep rotation is better than a team top heavy with superstars.

The Bulls are closer to being "the Mavericks" right now than they are to being "the Heat." Why abandon the formula that worked to fasten on to the formula that failed?

With Ellis the Bulls would be sending Deng for Ellis, which would mean that they create a host of major problems in order to solve one more minor problem. They have a defensive identity and Ellis is not a good defensive player. So right away, even just adding Ellis could create some issues in solving other. 

However the loss of Deng would be huge. The Bulls would have an even bigger hole to fill in a new starting small forward. There aren't that many available who can give you 17 points per game as a third option and consistently defend the best perimeter player.

In other words, which is harder to find, an upgrade over Keith Bogans or a replacement for Deng? Bogans is arguably the most replaceable starter in the NBA.  

Whether you're talking about Howard or Ellis, once you set aside the fascination with combining superstars to create super teams, it's not likely that either trade would make the Bulls a better team. 

That's precisely why the Bulls management isn't even considering it. They haven't exactly been secretive in their intentions for next year. They have one goal: get an upgrade at shooting guard and it's not going to come at the cost of Deng. 

If nothing else, all the speculation is silly simply for the reason that it's not happening.

Whatever kinds of crazy trade speculation the blogosphere summons up, it's not Bulls management talking about it and if they aren't talking about it, this is just something that exists nowhere but in the imagination of lockout starved imaginations with nothing better to do.

Bulls fans shouldn't take that kind of chatter with a grain of salt—they should just take the grain of salt and set the chatter aside. Politely put, masculine bovine excrement doesn't taste better with salt, not even if you're a Bulls fan.