As the talk of trades swirls around Chicago's Eddy Curry ex-Bull Elton Brand is able to reflect on the benefits a fresh start can bring a player.  Brand was traded from the Chicago Bulls to the Los Angeles Clippers on draft night 2001 for high schooler Tyson Chandler.

"Definitely a fresh start can help you mentally," Brand said before the Clippers beat the Bulls on Saturday. "Just give you a new attitude, a new zest for the game. You've been down so long, so you go to a new environment, new people, new place - it can invigorate you."

"You feel disrespected a little bit," Brand said. "It kind of hurt. And you don't want to hear, 'Oh man, they shouldn't have traded you' and pats on the back. You don't want to hear that all day.

Now more than three years removed from his time with the Bulls, Brand has trouble believing his old team still hasn't turned things around.

"It just seems to me you've got to let the guys mature and grow and be a team," he said. "Everyone asks, 'Oh, Brad Miller, Ron Artest - how good could you guys have been?' You never know. I think we could have been pretty good."