According to Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald, a league source confirmed that Denver has an interest in Bulls shooting guard Eric Piatkowski as a potential replacement for Voshon Lenard, who is out for the year with a torn Achilles' tendon.

If Denver decides that Nene no longer fits in, a logical trade could be Chandler and Piatkowski for Nene, Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Rodney White. Tskitishvili's contract is up and there's a good chance he won't stay with the Nuggets regardless.

Tskitishvili has been a disappointment throughout his short career in Denver.

While the Bulls are grateful that they have Scott Skiles as their head coach, those around the team are wondering how long he can last without blowing a gasket.

It is been a year of torment, stress and frustrations thus far for the Chicago Bulls, and while the team still wants him one has to wonder how much Skiles can actually take.

"He's very intense,'' Paxson said, admitting immediately the understatement. "One thing I hope is that when we have adversity, that he doesn't let it get to him. He just wants to win so bad and he really lets it get to him when we don't.''

"We do have a similar concept of the guys we like, and our relationship is really good in that respect,'' Paxson said of Skiles. "When we hired him, we knew he was very bright and we knew he was very intense. He's a no-nonsense coach, and people say guys like that can't work in this league, but Jerry Sloan's been doing it for 20 years.

"My goal is to have him here for a very long time. We have to make sure of that.''

Rookie Ben Gordon of the Chicago Bulls capped a career high 22 points with four free throws in the final minute to lead the Bulls past the Jazz and avoid a 0-10 start which would have set the record for the Bulls worst start ever.  

"It's really exciting, especially for the rookies, because it's our first win. We're going to celebrate a little bit. Everybody's happy just to get the monkey off our back," said Gordon, who also drew a charging foul on Matt Harpring in the closing moments to help the Bulls become the final NBA team to win its first game of the season.

The Bulls' 0-9 start ties the 1967-68 Bulls for the worst in their 39 seasons of existence and also marks the 37th straight loss on this annual extended November trip. With any luck, they will break the record on Wednesday in Utah.

Chicago cynics should hold their breath though, as the Hornets defeated the Jazz by a score of 76-75, on a night when John Stockton had his number retired.

"Both streaks are embarrassing," Eddy Curry said. "It's physically and mentally draining."

Denver and the Bulls have discussed a trade that would send fourth-year big man Tyson Chandler to the Nuggets, according to two league sources.

The trade discussions add to the increasing belief that general manager John Paxson will trade either Chandler or Eddy Curry between now and the February trade deadline.

The Knicks have been rumored to be involved in Curry talks.

It is likely that the Nuggets would have to deal Nene along with Nikoloz Tskitishvili, whose fourth-year option was recently declined by Denver.

Over the summer when Kobe Bryant was still a free agent, he met with Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager John Paxson to hear their sales pitch.

"They're going up," Bryant said. "They're just determined to get this franchise back on top. Paxson, his experience speaks for itself. He knows so much about the game and we had a great conversation just talking about the game of basketball, styles of play and so forth."

Kobe was then asked if he would have considered joining the Bulls if they had salary-cap room.

"Yes, definitely," Bryant said. "I was considering them anyway."

It's tough for Chicago fans to be too optimistic about their future, with no victories in the win column.

According to the New York Daily News, Isiah Thomas had another conversation with Chicago Bulls GM John Paxson in recent days, and it now appears that Thomas would be willing to trade Michael Sweetney for Eddy Curry.  

The two big market teams have been very active over the last few months, with both clubs significantly reshaping their rosters.

Thomas, the Knicks president, believes that Sweetney has a big upside, but Sweetney is an undersized power forward while Curry is a 22-year-old, agile 6-11 center.

Several executives feel that Curry will flourish once he leaves Chicago, his hometown.

The Bulls appear to be acting very patient in their negotiations to move Curry.

Last week, former Bulls guard Jamal Crawford suggested that Kirk Hinrich doesn't get much blame from team management when things go wrong.

According to Daily Herald writer Mike McGraw Crawford may have been wrong. Bulls Coach Scott Skiles had a beef with Hinrich following the Bulls latest loss, this time to the Clippers... he wants him to shoot more often.

"I feel like right now Kirk's very tentative out there," Skiles said. "He has been except for the second half of the New Jersey game. It's just something we have to get worked out, because there's no question he's passing up shots that I'd like him to take."

Through four games, Hinrich is averaging 16.8 points while shooting 35.4 percent from the field.

As the talk of trades swirls around Chicago's Eddy Curry ex-Bull Elton Brand is able to reflect on the benefits a fresh start can bring a player.  Brand was traded from the Chicago Bulls to the Los Angeles Clippers on draft night 2001 for high schooler Tyson Chandler.

"Definitely a fresh start can help you mentally," Brand said before the Clippers beat the Bulls on Saturday. "Just give you a new attitude, a new zest for the game. You've been down so long, so you go to a new environment, new people, new place - it can invigorate you."

"You feel disrespected a little bit," Brand said. "It kind of hurt. And you don't want to hear, 'Oh man, they shouldn't have traded you' and pats on the back. You don't want to hear that all day.

Now more than three years removed from his time with the Bulls, Brand has trouble believing his old team still hasn't turned things around.

"It just seems to me you've got to let the guys mature and grow and be a team," he said. "Everyone asks, 'Oh, Brad Miller, Ron Artest - how good could you guys have been?' You never know. I think we could have been pretty good."

"I'm not trying to go nowhere," Eddy Curry said after the Bulls' practice. "There's no way I want to leave Chicago, under no circumstances. Right now, I'm just trying to get all this past me and move forward."

The trade rumors began on Tuesday night with Curry's first game of the season. Despite losing more than 30 pounds over the summer and working hard on his game, Curry again looked lost. He didn't take a shot until the second quarter, didn't play in the fourth and finished with six rebounds and three points.

Curry and the rest of the Bulls were showered with boos during the 94-74 loss to the Suns, which dropped them to 0-3.

Curry said he talked to agents, Darren White and Lamont Carter, after the game as he usually does.

"I just told them I was upset. That was just how I was feeling," Curry said. "I just was talking to them like I would anybody I felt was close to me. 'I'm frustrated and all of this,' and 'Losing and this and that and this and that.' I just didn't expect for it to get out."

But he awoke Thursday to learn that White was asking the Bulls to trade their 7-foot center, drafted out of high school with Tyson Chandler in 2001 to be the cornerstones of the next dynasty.

Only White hadn't gone to Paxson with his trade demand. He'd gone to the Chicago Sun-Times.

"I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it," Curry said. "I definitely had a few choice words for them yesterday. I said it was something that was definitely out of order. ... I never meant for it to get out like that."

Paxson wasn't happy, either, saying White and Carter should have come to him first.

"I'm sure he vented to his agent, and I think Darren took that as he's trying to protect his player so his first reaction is he doesn't want to see that happen again so I need to get him out of here," Paxson said. "When the reality is that none of us are doing any player a favor if we give him the easy way out. I think Eddy understands that."

Paxson met with the team Thursday to make sure the situation didn't become a distraction. Curry left that day's practice early to see a doctor after spraining his right knee, but he called Paxson later to patch things up.

When Curry returned to the Bulls' practice facility, the two sat down to talk things over.

"(Eddy) hasn't told me he wants to leave," Paxson said. "Eddy has made it clear that he did not authorize those things being said. It ended up being a story when it should be a non-story. It's done and over with."

For now, maybe. But with so much invested in Curry and Chandler and the Bulls still so bad, the futures of the prep-to-pro projects will continue to be a hot topic.

Paxson didn't offer either a long-term extension by the Oct. 31 deadline, so the two must have big seasons if they want the big bucks. Both will be restricted free agents this summer.

Six teams reportedly expressed interest in Curry after White's trade demand, and Paxson said he will continue to listen if teams call - just as he would with any player.

"I wouldn't be working in the best interest of the Bulls if I didn't," Paxson said. "You have to take calls and you have to look at every possibility to get better. We don't have a great, great player, so there's obviously no one on our roster that we would consider untradable. That's just the way it is.

"But," he added, "it doesn't mean we're going to go out and make a trade just for the sake of a trade."

And Curry said he's told his agents to back off and stop trying to line up a trade.

"This is where I want to be," he said. "Right now, Chicago is the only team that matters to me."