This is as stupid as the "We're not trading Luol Deng for one of the 10 best basketball players of all time" crap the Bulls pulled last time a potential huge trade was discussed. Joakim freaking Noah is not untouchable! I hope they are just saying this to start bargaining high because they think they can keep Noah and still swing Melo. At the time the Kobe deal was being considered the Lakers were pretty mediocre/bad compared to what they're doing now. The thought was that by giving up some combination of Hinrich, Deng, Gordon, Thomas, etc. that we'd just be swapping their situation for ours. Rose wasn't in the picture, Noah was an unknown. It looks worse in retrospect because Deng and Kirk had a bad couple of years and we never got any better. You put Kobe on a team with Nocioni as your #2, a headcase Noah, and Duhon at PG and you're probably not all that good. I'm not sure that many people were going to be traded with Deng. The team the Bulls have now has a very solid supporting cast to go along with Rose and Boozer even without Noah. The Bulls have a 1B guy with Rose who could become an all-out stud someday. But to get anywhere in the east you need a big boy now and Anthony is that type of player.