Basketball - Luol Deng Misses Trading Deadline

With NBA’s trading deadline looming, all players were at tenterhooks. However, Luol Deng was mighty relieved after the deadline elapsed. During the trading period, the rumor mills were working overtime and Deng’s named was being mentioned as a possible player who would be traded. Now that the fear of trading has gone, Deng has use his time fruitfully and continue improving his game.

Deng said that he found it difficult to handle the constant rumors and could not block them out effectively. He further added that when his name kept surfacing, he kept wondering whether there was any truth to the rumors. He insisted that he knew he would not be traded and that helped him to keep focus on his game.

The rumors, however, did not affect Deng’s game negatively. Earlier this month when the Bulls were on the Western road trip, he was the pick of the players and was considered to be the best Bulls’ player. Even after the deadline elapsed, he continued to play well.

Though Deng does acknowledge that with trading deadline gone, a weight has lifted of his shoulder as he knows for sure that he would play for the Bulls the remaining of the season. He also says that now people would stop questioning him about his trade off.

Deng received a lot of support from Bulls’ veteran players like Ben Wallace, P J Brown and Adrian Griffin who helped him by telling him that this type of rumors were all part and parcel of basketball.

Last summer, Deng concentrated on improving his mid range jump with startling effects and now he wants to improve his low post game. Now with the trade off rumors laid to rest, Deng wants to spend time using his 6 foot 9 length to improve his low post game.