After an 0-2 start to the season, the Cleveland Cavaliers were riding a three-game winning streak into Thursday night’s home game against the Bulls. Here are the highlights:

The Cleveland faithful might think that LeBron was fouled on his last drive, but after taking a couple of looks at it, I think it was a clean play. The defender is entitled to his space, and he’s allowed to jump in the air as long as he doesn’t jump forward. This is called the “principle of verticality,” which means that a defensive player is entitled to his vertical cylinder. Joakim Noah’s defense on the play wasn’t a perfect example of this (as his body was drifting toward the basket a bit), but it was a good defensive play. LeBron was in a tough spot and obviously jumped into Noah looking for the call and the refs didn’t bail him out.

There are a couple of other things to take from this game:

1. Mo Williams’ ineffectiveness
He was 4-13 from the field (including 1-7 from long range). He did have six assists, but Mo is a scorer and he needs to be more efficient than this.

2. The Bulls’ balance
Chicago had seven players score at least seven points, and Luol Deng led the Bulls with 15. Derrick Rose didn’t shoot the ball well, but still scored 14 points and dropped 11 dimes.

The Cavs drop to 3-3 with the loss, while the Bulls are 3-2.

The economy is really starting to take its toll on professional sports, and the NBA is no different. Bad contracts are bad even when the economy is pumping, but they really stand out in tough times like these. So I decided to look through the payrolls team-by-team to try to identify the worst contracts in the NBA. I expected to list 15-20 names, but I ended up scribbling down 68. That’s right, there are no fewer than 68 bad contracts in the NBA.

I didn’t include any of the players that are in the final year of their contracts because…well, what’s the point? They’ll be off the books in a few months anyway. Instead, I wanted to focus on those contracts that are going to haunt teams for years to come, so to be eligible, players have to have at least a year left on their current deals.

It’s tough to compare someone making superstar money to an average, everyday role player, so I split these 68 contracts up into three groups: the Overpaid Role Players, the Not-So-Super Stars and the Injury-Prones. I will rank them from least-worst to most-worst with the thinking that I wouldn’t trade the player for anyone further down the list but I would trade him for anyone previously mentioned. So, for example, if a guy is listed #7 within a particular group, I’m not trading him for anyone ranked #6-#1, but I would think seriously about moving him for a guy that is ranked #8+.

So let’s start with the role players and go from there…

(Note: In most cases, I don’t blame the player himself for his outrageous contract. The fault lies with the general manager that inked the guy to the deal. However, this rule goes out the window if the player has a history of only producing in his contract year – I’m looking at you, Tim Thomas.)

Here’s a quick list of the top 10 small forwards under the age of 26, ranked in the order of a combination of current performance and trade value (regardless of salary).

I’ll also list the player’s age and his Player Efficiency Rating.

1. LeBron James, Cavs
Age: 23
PER: 33.28
27.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 6.4 assists on a 20-4 team – can you spell M-V-P?

2. Carmelo Anthony, Nuggets
Age: 24
PER: 18.50
The Nuggets are sitting atop the Northwest with a 16-7 record and with the arrival of Chauncey Billups, ‘Melo is starting to play defense, as evidenced by his career-high 8.2 rebounds.

3. Danny Granger, Pacers
Age: 25
PER: 18.67
His boards are down, but his points and assists are up. I bet that the six teams that drafted other guys ahead of him – Magic (Fran Vasquez), Clippers (Yaroslav Korolev), Bobcats (Sean May), T-Wolves (Rashad McCants), Nets (Antoine Wright) and the Raptors (Joey Graham) – are all wishing they could have that draft back.

Offseason Movement: The Bulls were relatively quiet this summer, but they did manage to sign Luol Deng to an extension. They were unable to sign Ben Gordon to a long-term deal, so it looks like he’s on his way out of town. He’ll be motivated for his next contract and would be a good candidate for an in-season trade. The team also signed Vinny Del Negro as its head coach.
Keep Your Eye On: Derrick Rose, PG
The #1 overall pick should see lots of action in the backcourt with Kirk Hinrich sliding over to shooting guard. Physically, he’s ready to play in the NBA and has the makings of an impact point guard not unlike Chris Paul or Deron Williams. He needs to work on his jumper, but once he gets that going, watch out.
The Big Question: When is this team going to fulfill its potential?
For the last few seasons, the Bulls have seemingly been on the verge of putting together something special. They shot themselves in the foot when they (way) overspent on Ben Wallace and sent Tyson Chandler to New Orleans where he’s now emerging as a star. With a starting lineup of Rose, Hinrich, Deng, Drew Gooden and Joakim Noah, along with a bench that includes Andres Nocioni, Larry Hughes and Ben Gordon, the team has the talent to compete with anyone in the East. The question is chemistry.
Outlook: The same old same old. Once again, Bulls fans look at their team’s roster and see a group of very good players. Deng is the closest that the team has to a star, so in a way, the Bulls lack an identity. Until someone emerges, whether it’s Deng or Rose (or someone else), the Bulls will be a mediocre team with the potential to be a contender. It’s not clear what Del Negro will bring to the table in his first season, so come April, it seems likely that the Bulls will be fighting for a playoff spot down the stretch in the weaker Eastern Conference.

It was a long, arduous negotiation, but the Bulls finally locked up Luol Deng. I estimated Deng’s value to be $11-$12 million per season, and he ultimately signed for $11.83 million per season.

Given his modest background growing up in the Sudan and Egypt before moving to London, Deng stressed to the Bulls that he was not bluffing when he vowed to play next season on a one-year qualifying offer worth about $4.5 million for the right to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2009.

The Bulls then gradually raised their offer to a higher annual average that Deng turned down in October, when Chicago was limited to offering him a five-year extension and presented the 6-foot-9 forward with a five-year package worth $57.5 million. As ESPN.com reported earlier this month, Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf chose to personally handle the bulk of the negotiations with Deng’s camp as opposed to the standard practice of Paxson serving as lead negotiator.

This negotiation seemed like it had been going on forever, so it’s good to see the Bulls lock up their star. Now they just have to figure out what to do with Ben Gordon.