Anthony Who?

The news of Derrick Rose being among the finalists for the U.S. roster in this year's FIBA World Cup is not surprising.  Since this a Bulls blog though, I will prioritize an even less surprising story.  Don't worry though.  I'll compensate with some Rose on Team USA stories in the future.

Anthony Randolph's Bulls tenure lasted 2 1/2 weeks with no basketball to show for it.  Randolph, who was acquired along with the rights to Doug McDermott for the Bulls' two first-round draft picks, became a piece of currency yet again.  He was traded along with two future second-round picks to Orlando for the rights to European center Milovan Rakovic.  Then, as a final piece to signify Randolph's value to both sides, it was reported the Magic plan to waive Randolph and his expiring $1.8 million contract.

What all this has done is provide a great look into the economics of the NBA.  If a player is about to become a free agent and nobody wants to take up valuable cap space to keep said player around, it's just that easy to cut their losses to improve their roster in the way they see fit.  In the Bulls' case, this move had to be made to free up salary space for Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic.  As for Orlando, we saw the Bulls do this with Andrew Bynum in the Luol Deng trade back in January.  The Bynum acquisition was a mere formality and the Bulls promptly cut him.

As for Rakovic, 29, it's hard to tell if he'll ever sniff the NBA.  The last selection of the 2007 draft by Dallas, Rakovic wasn't in Orlando's plans.  It's only the latest personnel move for a player who has bounced around from country to country since 2003.  He hasn't had many honors to speak of and by this point, it appears he'd only be sitting at the end of a bench in this league.  Staying in Europe his best option for now.

All we need to do now is wait for the Bulls to officially amnesty Carlos Boozer and this offseason will most likely be finished.  I know we don't really want to remember him anymore, but it will only fair to take one final look at a productive, but frustrating player who was never worth the contract he received.  Until then, keep working on your game on both ends.