LPKingsFan
All-Star
I can definitely understand the body of your post, even if I don't quite feel the same way. But the bigs you mention weren't necessarily within our reach. As for Chandler, we couldn't have matched New Orleans' offer - a big expiring contract and a serviceable player who could (theoretically) hold down the PF spot until Tyrus Thomas developed. If you were offered PJ Brown or Corliss/Pot who would you have taken? I would like to have had Steven Hunter, but I'd rather have SAR, and once we signed SAR we didn't have the cap room to sign Hunter. I'm not too sad we missed out on Elson -- I thought Jackie Butler was someone worth signing, but then again, his butt is firmly on the Spurs bench, and he's not much of a shotblocker anyway.
My nagging suspicion is Darko. Could we have gotten him for Bonzi's expiring contract since Orlando just gave up Cato? It would have probably meant no playoffs, but it could have been a savvy move. But at the time, of course, Bonzi was a part of our future. So it's tough to know.
Being that the Bulls are in desperate need of post scoring, one would have to believe that a SAR/Pot offer would be at least as good, if not better than, a PJ Brown. Sure, I'd rather have SAR than Hunter--but Chandler? Hardly.
Agree about Darko, and I think you may have to chalk that up as another casualty of our compete-but-not-contend strategy as of late. Focus on the present (a present in which we realistically have no title shot) at the expense of the future. Man, it would be nice to have Darko and Arroyo on this team now.