This isn’t so much an indictment of what we wrote for much of June and July — that a KG trade was inevitable and that the McLovins might as well pull the trigger as soon as possible — but a reflection on what might have been had they rolled the dice and carried the star player into this season. While we still think the centerpiece of Al Jefferson was a reasonable haul in exchange for KG, and the records of the respective teams really don’t play into this right now (yes, we know Boston is cruising while the McLovins are suffering), we do have to wonder what might have been considering the slow start and relative turmoil of the Chicago Bulls, long rumored to be KG suitors. The disappointing Bulls are 9-16, just fired their head coach and are being handled on an interim basis by Pete Myers, perhaps best known as the shooting guard who replaced Michael Jordan upon his gambling-mandated suspension first retirement. There are suggestions that more shakeups are to come in Chicago, where all sorts of good players have, for whatever reason, underachieved or at least failed to play well together. Had the McLovins held onto KG — again, not something we advocated, and certainly a risky move considering he could have walked away for nothing after the season and that teams generally lose leverage the longer they wait to deal someone in that situation — they might have been able to work a pretty good deal with the Bulls right now. Perhaps at least two (maybe three) out of Ben Gordon, Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng and Tyrus Thomas. Of course, the Bulls’ failure and desperation would have been hard to predict. Still, it’s food for thought. Would a mid-season KG deal for a Bulls’ package have been better for the McLovins than what they got from the Celtics?

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