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Now I generally don't get my NBA insight from Sam Smith, but as someone who attended Saturday night's game against the Pistons, I have to agree with his assessment that the performance of Joakim Noah--who provided a hugely energetic shot-blocking/rebounding/be-everywhere-at-once effort down the stretch--may signal that the Bulls might want to go a different direction.

I am still an advocate of Wallace as a Bull, as he still possesses far more playoff experience than any of the current rugrats, and despite recent flare-ups with Noah and others, he dictates a certain sense of authority. Wallace, like Scott Skiles, served the purpose of pushing the Bulls to that "next" tier. On the other hand, as a starter, Wallace is sapping a certain amount of energy from a hungry still-defensive-minded team with solid young rebounders like Noah and Tyrus Thomas. Would Wallace ever accept diminished minutes, much less a bench role? Hardly.

Smith tosses out one of his famous fantasy GM deals of Wallace to the Lakers for Kwame Brown and Vlad Radmanovic, which is preposterous though fun to think about for both teams. There is a chance that contenders may want to take a hard look at Wallace as reinforcements for dealing with KG, Duncan, Stoudemire, etc. during the playoffs. But the fact remains, Wallace and his $28.5 Million left are solidly the property of the Bulls right now. And as "Take a Critical Look at Pau Gasol Day" arrives once again, as Chicago faces Memphis tonight, the Bulls are going to have to make some serious frontcourt decisions if they want to make it back to the playoffs.