So the big news this week in NBA land has been the cold-hearted firing of Scott Skiles - on Christmas Eve, no less!  But it’s not like you could find many reasons for keeping him around.  Yes, the Bulls tend to start slow every year, but this year the drought has been longer than normal, there’s been few signs of them pulling out of their funk, and there was clearly some discontent amongst the players.

So what does this mean for your fantasy Bulls players?  It seems like things can only go up from here - some of the biggest disappointments of the year have been in Chicago, and Skiles is a big fan of lineup-tweaking, making for unpredictable minutes and even more unpredictable performances.  Let’s take a look at who has the most to gain and the most to lose from a fantasy perspective over the next few weeks for the Bulls:

Ben Wallace - Wallace pretty much has to be the big winner here, for his own sake.  To put it another way, if he doesn’t turn it around with a new coach, he’s run out of excuses.  This was GM John Paxson’s big decision when the Bulls had all that cap room and a high draft pick two summers ago - he went with Wallace and Ty Thomas over Tyson Chandler and LaMarcus Aldridge.  While it’s clear to most of us that he made a pretty awful decision, with no real head coach to stand tall again Paxson, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Paxson force his big investment onto the floor a little more.  It’s no secret that Wallace and SKiles weren’t exactly best of friends - it only took a month before Headbandgate was in full swing, and Wallace was disappointing last year and has been absolutely awful this year.  But remember what he supposedly told Paxson last week - “He quit on us, so we’ve quit on him.”  He didn’t exactly have nice things to say to the press either after the firing and he should be a little pumped up and playing with a little more energy now that he’s out from under this mess.  Look for him to get back to his typical 35 mpg and possibly even back to his double-digit rebounding ways as he tries to prove that the problem was SKiles all along, and his game is just fine.

Andres Nocioni - Perhaps nobody has suffered more from Skiles’ whimsical lineups than Nocioni, who has tempted fantasy players for years with his 3-point potential and his nice scoring and rebounding numbers.  His per-minute numbers suggest that if he got starter’s minutes, like 35 mpg, he’d be at least a 20/7 guy with 2 threes and decent steals and blocks, as well.  The question is, as it has always been, where he’s going to get those minutes.  There’s a logjam at PF, as usual, with guys like Joe Smith, Tyrus Thomas, and Joaquim Noah all getting minutes.  What’s worse, Aaron Gray has been playing fairly well at C, meaning there’s less big man minutes to go around.  The other option that has been discussed is putting Ben Gordon back into his 6th man role and moving Luol Deng to the 2, and letting Nocioni get more minutes at SF.  We’ve got to see how this shakes out but there’s a better chance now than ever before for Nocioni to pick up some extra minutes, and if you’ve got an extra roster spot, he might be worth a look.

Kirk Hinrich - Hinrich has been quietly - and very slowly - pulling himself out of fantasy purgatory with some respectable performances the last few week.  He’s crept up to 75 on the APR over the past month and is at 51 over the past 2 weeks.  But just when you think things are going well, he plops down a performance like last Friday - 1-5 from the field, 0-1 from three, 2 points, 2 assists, 4 turnovers.  But what Hinrich has going for him more than anything else these days is the lack of depth at PG for the Bulls.  The only true PG on the squad is Chris Duhon, who has been out-of-favor with management due to his partying ways and was apparently on the trading block this summer.  So whoever the new coach is, you’ve gotta assume that he’ll give Hinrich every opportunity to play his way out of this funk.  Let’s hope he gets out of it.  Whatever you do, don’t sell low on Hinrich just yet.

Ben Gordon - Ya think Gordon regrets turning down that 5-year, $50M contract extension?  Gordon’s value is falling faster than anything outside of the housing market right now and he’s the most obvious change to be made by the new coach.  He’s a FA this year so Paxson doesn’t have any reason to let him play and try to up his value, and guys like Nocioni and Thabo Sefolosha, faves in Chicago, could be cutting into his playing time.  In fact, while he’s not worth his own paragraph, Sefolosha was expected to play a large role on this team before Skiles apparently shattered his confidence early in the season.  So Thabo could be in line for some more minutes himself, and those will undoubtedly come at the expense of Gordon, who has been playing a little bit better in December (particularly in his 3-point shooting), but still is falling flat on his typical numbers.  A move to the bench and a 6th-man role might be oncoming for Gordon, but it might be for the best overall.

The rest - One thing you can say about Chicago is that they’re not short on talent.  The issue is going to be who gets on the court.  Right now the guys I’ve listed above, plus Luol Deng, are probably the only guys worth owning but next in line would probably be Ty Thomas, who will be given a chance to play but will struggle to see the minutes he needs to counter his streaky performance.  But guys like Joe Smith, Jo Noah, and Aaron Gray, while occasionally tempting, will likely still be stuck on the bench far too often to have value.  So it goes.