The Chicago Bulls are taking a hard-lined approach into this offseason after yet another disappointing season.  Hopes of having Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry, the two ex-high school bigmen taken in the same draft in 2001, take them to the next level last season was a failure when both turned up to training camp out of shape.  Curry was carrying excess weight and Chandler wasn't in the right conditioning, putting the Bulls on the backfoot from the start.

This season things will be different.

K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes that coach Scott Skiles recently told Curry that his work habits between now and the June 24 NBA draft could play a part in off-season personnel decisions.  Curry has been working out at Hoops the Gym with trainer Tim Grover and has visiting the Berto Center every 10 days so management can monitor his conditioning.

All indications are that these sessions have gone well, but Paxson and Skiles want Curry at the Berto Center so they can better monitor his conditioning and weight and to pace him through drills.

Chandler, however, has impressed management with his off-season commitment.

Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune urges the Bulls to trade the number 3 pick they received in last night's Draft lottery.

Since this is widely considered to be a two-player Draft, getting the third pick leaves the Bulls out in the cold.  
After Emeka Okafor and Dwight Howard, there?s not good enough.

All the Bulls really were given is the chance to take a risk on somebody like Duke freshman Luol Deng.  He?s got ability but is not enough of an upgrade.

?He's not a slasher to beat someone off the dribble, a requirement for the pro game,? Smith writes.  ?Is he better than Mike Dunleavy? Probably not. Wally Szczerbiak? Probably not yet. Though Deng looks like he would do well over time, could he use a teammate who can be double-teamed? Sure.?

The Bulls need somebody ready to contribute minutes and quality, like Wally Szczerbiak, Antawn Jamison, Shane Battier, Al Harrington or Shareef Abdur-Rahim.  

Smith also discusses the possibility of trading No. 3 for a player and a lower pick, and sizes up some sleepers in the Draft.

Dwight Howard?s older cousin, Kevin Samples, told the lottery-pick-to-be "he ain't ready for this."

Howard, 18, is in fact likely to be the first or second player chosen on the June 24 Draft.  And with this comes instant stardom, attention, and unwanted distractions.  

Howard?s parents have decided that their son will live with a relative at least for the first two years, and Samples is ready to take on the job.  

This is becoming common practice in the NBA as the average age of Draft entries drops.  

Chris Bosh lived with a cousin last year.  LeBron James lives with an uncle.

Samples is 24 and will help Howard manage his calendar, clear his life of trouble, and ease his transition to the life of professional basketball.

Bulls general manager John Paxson likes the idea of drafting Connecticutt forward Emeka Okafor or Duke swingman Luol Deng with his top-6 in this year's NBA Draft.

"There's no question [Okafor is] going to make a difference in this league on the defensive end," Paxson said. "He fits that role of defender, rebounder and hard worker. He still has a ways to go offensively. But if you look at where he has come from, there's no reason to think he's not going to get better. He has all the qualities of being a legitimate NBA front-line player for a long time. And I think that can happen rather quickly."

However, he seems higher on Okafor like most all gms than Deng.

"He will have to expand his game because he's not in the athletic category that some other guys are," Paxson said. "But he's a basketball player. And he's just getting better. He has great length (7-foot wingspan). And he has a work ethic that will make the most of his ability."

The Draft Lottery is May 26 and the NBA Draft is June 24.

The pool of underclassmen entering the NBA Draft is filling up.  Only 14 underclassmen entered the Draft in 1990, compared to 34 in this year's Draft as of yesterday afternoon.  The deadline to declare for this year's Draft was 11:59 P.M. last night.  The league will release the complete list this week.  

Early entrants make the teams' pre-Draft preparation and Draft-day choices far more challenging.  "This is going to be the toughest draft to analyze," said Marty Blake, the NBA's director of scouting, "and I've been doing this 52 years."

The flood of youth also boosts the likelihood of increased trade activity all the way up until and through Draft night.

Another coach bites the dust. This time it is happened in New Orleans.

After only one season as head coach of the New Orleans Hornets, Tim Floyd was fired today.

With Terry Stotts fired by the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, five NBA coaches -- all in the Eastern Conference -- have lost their jobs since the regular season ended less than a month ago. Boston (Doc Rivers) and Philadelphia (Jim O'Brien) have hired replacements; Toronto is still looking for a new coach.

Floyd was hired by New Orleans last summer with the expectation of guiding the Hornets deep into the playoffs in the team's last year in the East before switching to the tougher Western Conference."

With this season in the books, Floyd's career NBA coaching record is 93-235.

The Chicago Bulls are having trouble with their second-round pick from 2003 Mario Austin and it seems to be getting worse.

It is a battle between two agents and if everything isn't smoothed out, Austin might be able to play with the Bulls summer league team.

It started when his former agent Bill Duffy got him a $2 million contract with CSKA Moscow in Russia but after one of Austin's lungs collapsed and he returned home and fired Duffy for failing to inform him of a non-guaranteed contract offer from the Bulls.

Now, he has a new agent, Jason Levien, who "filed sworn affidavits from Austin and Jamie Knox in a New York federal court" on Thursday.

"The affidavits claim Bill Duffy, Austin's former agent, and Duffy's attorneys used threats to reach a settlement on a contract Austin has with CSKA Moscow, circumventing Levien in the process."

"A judge has agreed to hold a hearing investigating the conduct of Duffy and his attorneys on May 11."

Bulls general manager John Paxson considers off-season conditioning enough of a priority that he included several references to it in what basically amounts to a letter of apology and thanks to season-ticket holders, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes.

"The organization let you down," the letter read in part. "But that's going to change, and very quickly. [Preparation] starts with a commitment from our coaches and players?everything from very rigorous off-season practice and conditioning to appropriate mental preparation to a spirited training camp."

In the players end of season meetings Paxson made it clear that he expected players to take two weeks off and then be working out at the Berto Center in early May.

So who turned up?  Only Ronald Dupree, Linton Johnson, Jannero Pargo and Kendall Gill, who isn't even expected to return.

"We only had a six-month season and teams will be playing well into May and June," Paxson said in the late-season interview. "You need time to decompress. But our guys can't get out of shape. It's critical to any development they make that they maintain conditioning. To lose that and try to get it back is difficult. We saw that at the beginning of last season."

The Denver Nuggets look to be in the market for a shooting guard this summer, someone to step up and take over from veteran Voshon Lenard.  Lenard is currently signed for the next two seasons at $3 million per annum, but the Nuggets hold a buyout option in each of the next two summers.  Lenard wants to remain a Nugget, and he did lead the Nuggets in scoring during the playoffs, but according to Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News he did slump at the end of the season and has never been the most versatile player.

Players on the Nuggets radar this offseason for the shooting guard position are unrestricted free agents Brent Barry (Seattle) and Stephen Jackson (Atlanta), and restricted free agents Quentin Richardson (L.A. Clippers), Manu Ginobili (San Antonio), and Jamal Crawford (Chicago).  Crawford said Sunday he's looking for a long-term deal with the first year worth more than the midlevel exception of about $5 million.

"I'm definitely interested in Denver if Denver is interested in me," said Crawford, who averaged 17.3 points and scored 50 in a late-season game. "I watched them closely during the playoffs. I heard they might be looking for a shooting guard."

The problem with a restricted free agent is his current team would have 15 days to match an offer. So it would be a risk letting Lenard go, then waiting on an offer sheet.