Things we know: the Bulls are cool with parting ways with Kirk Hinrich (and John Salmons), if they can get some expiring contracts in return. The Lakers — who are looking for some perimeter defense — have inquired. The Celtics inquired back in December. And with Ray Allen possibly getting dealt off the C’s now, there’s a chance Boston could be back in the picture.

But might the Bulls be better served trying to deal with Houston for Tracy McGrady? It’s an idea Chris Sheridan throws out in his chat today: “I think if they can do a McGrady deal in which they clear John Salmons and Tyrus Thomas along with Hinrich to clear room for a second max free agent, that’s the more preferable route.”

And you know what? This would be the more preferable route. The Bulls would clear Hinrich and Salmons off the books, leaving them with even more money to work with to go after two max guys. And they’d be getting McGrady in return, instead of some spare parts — Adam Morrison! — from the Lakers.

This is a more risky proposition, though: The Bulls traded for Devin Brown for some insurance if Hinrich or Salmons were dealt, yet, if T-Mac comes up lame (which is always a concern), the Bulls are suddenly staring at Devin Brown and Jannero Pargo at the 2-guard.

Also: You really have no clue what you’re going to get from T-Mac; he didn’t play enough in his limited run in Houston to see what he can do now that he’s back in playing shape.

Further, and this is certainly worst case, if the Bulls end up not netting a top-line shooting guard in free agency (Joe Johnson/Dwayne Wade), they could be razor thin at that position. Brown’s and Pargo’s contracts will be up. Salmons and Hinrich will be gone. And it’s unlikely, at least at this point, they’d want to try and re-sign T-Mac.

But other than that, this could be a nice coup for the Bulls as T-Mac would likely be the best talent they could get in return for Hinrich, and it would set them up the best for the free-agent market this summer.

Yesterday, for a litany of reasons, I decreed T-Mac to the Bulls sounds nice, but may not be all that realistic of a scenario.

Yet, Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald chimes in with this today:

Sources suggested the Bulls are open to acquiring McGrady, who is just 30 years old.

The 6-foot-8 swingman is the NBA’s highest-paid player at $23.2 million, but his contract ends after the season. A trade with the Bulls would almost have to include the expiring contracts of Brad Miller and Jerome James.

The Bulls might also be interested in moving John Salmons to guarantee a larger amount of cap space next summer. He’s owed $6.5 million next season but has an option to terminate the deal and become a free agent.

Without Salmons on the payroll, the Bulls could have more than $20 million to spend on the 2010 free-agent class.

These three contracts add up to about about what T-Mac is making, so it’s a nice little equal swap. But again, I come back to what i said yesterday: the Rockets are also hoping to acquire some value here. Expiring contracts are always nice because it gives you more options once the season is over instead of being locked into another team’s discarded trash for a few more years, but I don’t see anyway Salmons uses that option to terminate his deal.

He’s likely not going to get $6.5 million in the open market, so why even risk it by exercising that option?

And if the Rockets aren’t looking for a longer-term player unless he’s a piece for the future — see: Bulls players with actually upside and talent, as I mentioned yesterday they’d would likely have to give up — then I don’t see why they’d go for this. Salmons isn’t the type of player they’d want in their system beyond this year for his potential expiring contract.

Unless the Bulls are willing to give up a better player, or the Rockets become desperate because they can’t find a better deal anywhere else, the odds of this happening are pretty slim.

Tracy McGrady has left the Rockets for good, and they’re now looking to trade him. He’ll come up to Chicago to train at Attack Athletics in the interim. Some pros and cons about T-Mac joining the Bulls …

PROS: The Bulls are lacking a scoring punch since Ben Gordon signed with the Pistons. Tyrus Thomas has returned yes, but I wouldn’t exactly call him a volume scorer, at least not on a consistent level. T-Mac can come right in and fill that void, and add a little buzz to an otherwise forgettable season.

CONS: The Bulls are going to have to give up too much. The Rockets don’t seem amicable to a buyout for McGrady, because they want to at least get something of value back for him instead of just letting him walk. Adding T-Mac to a lineup of Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Tyrus Thomas and Luol Deng might sound nice (though, I’m not sure who plays the 2 here, those are just the team’s best players), but it’s unlikely this would even be a lineup the Bulls could toss out on the court, as one or two of these guys would have to be shipped in return for McGrady. The guy is also making a league-high $23 million this year. The Bulls are just over luxury tax level now with their $69,967,615 payroll (2009-2010’s luxury-tax threshold is $69.920 million). Depending on how a deal is structured, adding McGrady could put them even higher into the luxury-tax zone. Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t want to pay any more luxury tax.

This might only be a one-year dam plug, as McGrady’s contract expires after this season anyway. I suppose this makes it attractive for the Bulls: they can get McGrady on a one-year loner and not worry about him taking up cap space, so they’ll still be well-positioned for a top-name free agent this summer.

And I suppose if T-Mac works out, they could bring him back. But considering his history of injuries and the money he’s probably going to want, this likely isn’t a good option for the Bulls.

VERDICT: Notice all the cons? It’s an intriguing prospect, but it probably ain’t gonna happen. Vote no on T-Mac.

The Houston Rockets are one of the most oddly comprised teams in the NBA. There’s Tracy McGrady, a one-time superstar secretly (at least to him) moved to the dreaded “second fiddle” role. There’s Shane Battier, the most underrated-turned-overrated player because of a New York Times magazine article. There’s Ron Artest, nicknamed “Crazy Pills,” which says enough. And, of course, there’s Yao Ming, the towering pride of Chinese basketball who remains somewhat of a potential-riddled enigma because of his inability to stay healthy.

That particular trait — lack of health, particularly in his foot — appears to have manifested itself into a pretty scary problem: Yahoo! is reporting! that Yao could be out a very, very long time, even if the Rockets won’t admit it quite yet (they have said “indefinitely” but that’s essentially worthless with the season over).

“The realization has hit them that this is grave,” one NBA general manager said.

[...]“It sounds like he’s missing most of next season, if not the entire 82 games,” one league executive who has had recent discussions with the Houston front office told Yahoo! Sports. “That’s all that [the Rockets] will concede quietly, but they know it’s probably much worse.”

In other words, Yao could be done, well, forever. Which would be awful for a large number of reasons. First, of course (I think), is the fact that the Rockets will be worse without him on the basketball court. Second, as Ziller noted at the ‘Haus, “the run will be over” for this current Rockets’ nucleus: T-Mac was rumored as a potential trade possibility to Orlando and Artest is a free agent. Yao being done — even for the season — would force Houston’s front office to seriously reevaluate where they stand heading into 2009-10.

And possibly the most damaging aspect of Yao’s long-term absence could come in the form of an economical blow, given that everyone in China loves the big man, and there are two freaking billion people there, the Rockets would stand to lose a tremendous amount of revenue across the board. Not to mention Battier will have probably seen his last All-Star ballot.