Bulls Working Out Meeks, Blair, Budinger

I'll disagree with Budinger not using his athleticism at Arizona. Their offense didn't take advantage of him. He was playing the Rip Hamilton run-through-screens-for-40-minutes position for them this past year. His freshman year was dominated by Marcus Williams being a ball hog and his sophomore year saw more of the same with Bayless who was a scorer not a distrbutor. I have never seen him miss a well thrown lob pass for a dunk or layup and that includes high school and AAU where he would get several a game.

I salivate at the thought of Budinger and Ty Thomas running the break with Rose. He can finish with either hand and would be their 2nd best outside shooter after Ben Gordon. As stated, his defense sucks so there's no way he could be paired with Gordon for very long.

I couldn't agree more. I think a lot of it is head games between GMs/Front Offices.

Just a few weeks back Blair was the rage because he lost a bunch of weight. Now, his knees are a concern. But everyone already knew about them!

I like Budinger, but I think the Bulls can do much better at 16.

The thing that everyone seems to say about Budinger is that he's athletic, but he doesn't use it so much -- can jump, but only jump-shoots.

Also heard that he has gator arms.

And now we hear that Blair has knee/arthritis concerns. But then they said the same about Danny Granger. You start to wonder how much of this information is *mis*information.

I think Budinger will be around and he could be a good long term pick. Very good shooter and athlete. Needs a huge amount of work on defense, but he will be coming off the bench and playing 2nd teamers for the most part. Very high bball IQ and had to endure 3 different head coaches and 3 different shoot first point guards while at Arizona. Lute Olsen called him his best prospect ever during his freshman year. He never dominated as expected because of the PG/coaching situation and he tends to defer to teammates (sounds a little like the early season Rose).

Full disclosure: I know him and his family and my kids attend his high school (La Costa Cantyon). I think he has huge upside down the road as he gets stronger and works in a system that can hide his defensive liabilities. Also you won't see him geting arrested and smoking blunts with ho's on the beach. And he passed his SAT with flying colors.