Bulls seek to take next step of winning playoff series

	Passing on dealing Luol Deng at the deadline looks like a good move by Chicago. AP

1. Were the Bulls smart to not make a midseason trade?

ANSWER: It sure looks that way. They've won 17 of their last 22 to almost secure the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference, and they're doing it without the low-post scorer that I and a lot of others believed would be mandatory to their playoff run.

If Chicago wins its season-ender Wednesday at New Jersey, or if Cleveland loses once more (at Philadelphia Tuesday or against Milwaukee the following night in Cleveland), then the Bulls will earn one of the easier brackets in the playoffs. As the No. 2 seed, they'd open with a best-of-seven against the dysfunctional Nets (though beware: Jason Kidd so detests Chicago coach Scott Skiles as a result of their time in Phoenix that Kidd will be at his Hall-of-Fame best in this series, as well as Wednesday's potential clinching game at New Jersey).

Next would come a likely second-rounder against the Raptors, in which the Bulls would hold home court advantage. Not until the conference finals would Chicago have to deal with Detroit, Miami or Cleveland.

The Cavaliers, should they maintain their current No. 5 position, must open with a harsh series against the defending champion Heat, though Game 7 would be in Cleveland. Should the Cavs survive that one -- most would predict otherwise -- they would have to win the next round on Detroit's home court before meeting Chicago or Toronto in the conference finals.

2. What were the Bulls offered in midseason?

According to league sources, the Grizzlies wanted to send 7-foot forward Pau Gasol to Chicago for a package including Luol Deng, Thabo Sefolosha and P.J. Brown's expiring contract. (The Grizzlies had relatively little interest in Chicago's draft picks.) It was proof that both Grizzlies president Jerry West and Bulls VP John Paxson see Deng becoming a dominant star.

"I know a lot of people thought we should have made the trade, and I don't know if it's right or wrong, but my confidence in Deng is obviously really high,'' Paxson said.

The ensuing absence of wing forward Andres Nocioni for most of February and all of March helped affirm Paxson's decision.

"With Nocioni out so long,'' Paxson said, "we wouldn't have had a small forward, so who knows what would have happened then.''

Without Deng and Nocioni, the Bulls would have spent the last two months trying to reinvent themselves offensively around Gasol in the post. It would not have been a simple transformation, and there's a good chance they wouldn't have been able to exploit their relatively easy schedule of recent weeks.

The Bulls don't need a low-post scorer to beat New Jersey, and they can probably get by Toronto without one. But Paxson pledges to come up with a tall scorer to complement Ben Wallace by this time next year.

Paxson's ultimate goal is to follow the example of Pistons president Joe Dumars, who made a champion of Detroit by stealing Rasheed Wallace without giving up a key player.