Written by Dave Pustilnik | 25 January 2010

The trade deadline is less than a month away, and the frenzy is already beginning.  The Bulls made their first move of the season trading away Aaron Gray for Devin Brown earlier today.  Could this just be an early appetizer in preparation for some major moves the Bulls have in store?  Well according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, one of the most credible sources in the business, the Bulls are amongst a number of teams who have recently inquired about Amar'e Stoudemire.  We saw Stoudemire play a few nights ago, when the Bulls opened a can on the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix.  But man, Amar'e can play some serious ball and he played extremely well that night.  He plays extremely well pretty much every night.  He's made very impressive recoveries from injuries the past two years, and he looks to be in tremendous shape.  The Suns are very much afraid that Stoudemire will opt out of the final year of his contract to become a free agent, as they should be, and don't want to lose him for nothing in free agency.  Stoudemire will almost certainly opt out and demand something close to a 3 year max contract.  So clearly, the Suns want to trade him before the deadline, and according to Wojnarowski, they are shopping him heavily and entertaining offers starting right now.  The Bulls apparently top the list of teams inquiring about Amar'e.  This makes me happy, even if he does end up being a half season rental, because the Bulls can always re-sign him or just let him go and go for Bosh instead if things don't pan out.  There's no way a trade for Amar'e could actually hurt the Bulls, so if it gets done, fantastic. Beyond that, Adrian talks about how the Wolves are looking to acquire a small forward and aren't really looking for an Amar'e type player, even though they might have the pieces to trade for him.  So which small forwards are they looking at, none other than our very own Luol Deng.  Apparently the Wolves are looking to inquire about Rudy Gay, Deng, and Caron Butler.  All excellent young 3's.  It's not really made clear from the article whether the Wolves have actually already inquired about Deng, but I can't imagine who the Bulls would want from the Wolves.  Kevin Love is a good player, but Joakim Noah is too similar to Love and surely they cannot coexist.  Al Jefferson is certainly the most attractive player on the franchise and very good inside scorer and rebounder, but he's been injury prone lately, and he's had trouble playing next to Love, a Joakim type player, so that could mean he might play poorly alongside Joakim.  The only way I could see the Bulls doing a trade with the Wolves for Deng is if the Wolves are willing to take on Deng's salary and give far cheaper players in return or give the Bulls expirings.  It would be a cost-saving method in preparation for the summer of 2010.  But who knows if the Bulls would even want to get rid of Deng to save money, since he'll be a valuable selling point to any superstar we are courting in the offseason since he's a legit 3rd option scorer. Bottom line...let's hope the Bulls actually pull off an Amar'e trade.  If Amar'e decides to stick around, the Bulls suddenly become very attractive to whatever other superstars we court in the offseason.  I don't know what player wouldn't want to come play along side Amar'e, Rose, Deng, and Noah.  If he leaves, at least he helps us do something in the playoffs this season, and then so what, we'll go after Joe Johnson and Chris Bosh.  It's a win-win.  I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I'm not holding my breath, considering we've been through this with Amar'e before (see last season).