Much of the talk surrounding the Bulls this season is of the future, of how teenage prospects and first-round picks Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry will develop. Tim Floyd will coach them, Charles Oakley will guide them and, so management's story goes, matters will get brighter.

Almost lost in all this talk, especially since the off-season acquisition of Oakley, is second-year forward Marcus Fizer. But Fizer, like Curry, was a fourth overall pick in the draft, a player taken in a position that suggests "building block."

Fizer's rookie season, in which he combined inconsistency with stretches of solid play and finished with averages of 9.5 points and 4.3 rebounds and 43 percent shooting, doesn't lend itself to a conclusive judgment.

Whether Fizer will be a go-to guy, merely a solid 10-year pro or a disappointment remains to be seen. Certainly nothing that Fizer has done this preseason has been conclusive.

"He's got to continually allow things to come to him and not try to force the issue," Floyd said. "He's got to work on consistency in that area. He's a guy that we're going to rely on for some low-post scoring this year."