Chicago Bulls Offseason

[Derwood]

The Bulls need to sign every other team's best player and then get the top 10 draft picks

 

- every meatball

[KingCubsFan]

I think it's best to patch the team together for next year. It's going to be asking an awful lot to have Rose play at 100% by next year's playoffs, so I don't think it's an "all-in" type season.

 

Have Deng get his surgery, give Butler a ton of minutes and see if he can develop into something. Grab either a young vet point guard or a draftee with development potential and try to groom a cheap, long term back up for Rose. When the playoffs come around, do the best you can and maybe surprise some folks.

 

That's all I'm looking for out of next season. 2013-2014 you add Mirotic and hopefully he becomes an elite player. After that, you start thinking of cashing in on the Bobcats pick as it will only be top 10 protected in 2014 draft. Top 8 protected in 2015, and unprotected by 2016.

 

I think this team is set up for a wide window where the team can stay amongst the elite by reloading rather than rebuilding. But we may have to be a little patient and keep expectations low going into next season (sound familiar?).

I agree with this. Next year is a transition year, and I think the focus should be on Thibodeau. Go get a few busts from the past few drafts, give them meaningful minutes and see if you can get a long-term asset or two out of them.

[illiniguy]

I imagine this is similar to the 89 90 offseason. I don't think they need major changes to win a title. Let Wade age another year and get healthy.

[cubbyvirus00]

The only real threat in the EC is the Heat and in the west OKC. Those two teams as it stands now are easily ahead of Chicago.

 

In the next two years we'll be seeing the major drop off or retirement of KG, Pierce, Allen, Kobe, Duncan etc. This league now effectively belongs to LBJ, KD and Rose as the future.

[Flames24Rulz]

And it's essentially pointless to point to the Heat as some kind of team-building model. If they're your standards for "superstar collecting" or whatever the hell people are saying when they scream "ONE STAR AND A BUNCH OF ROLE PLAYERS" then you're doomed to nothing but disappointment; the Heat are an anomaly, not the standard.

 

I don't disagree with that.

 

I guess what I'm saying is I don't know how far the Bulls can go depending on a guy that was severely beat up this entire season to take them to championship status. Nobody knows how Rose's knee is going to hold up. It could be completely fine and he might not lose a step at all when he comes back. It could slow down his explosiveness, forcing him to change his game much sooner than he otherwise would have had to.

 

With modern medicine, I'm inclined to believe that he'll come back without a hitch. Still, the possibility exists that he might not be the same guy that we saw last year and this year, when he was healthy. Rose's health in the future is ultimately my biggest concern about this team heading forward.

 

They're not going to blow the team up or gut anything, nor should they. I'd just like a guy that can actually drive and get to the hoop because outside of Rose, the Bulls don't have a single player on the team that can create their own shot. They easily would have won this series if they just had somebody like OJ Mayo.

 

Sooooooo, just like every other sport then?

 

It took me until 2008 for me to realize that the MLB regular season is basically meaningless, so I'm a slow learner. Nothing like spending several months in first place only to be out of the playoffs in three days!

 

I'd argue that the NFL's regular season is meaningful just because you're not allotted many chances for error, but I could see the argument how that's not meaningful either when 10-6 and 9-7 teams are winning the Super Bowl.

[SpongeWorthy]

Our interior presence Carlos Boozer attempted 6 free throws the whole series against Philly

[Careless]

[ quote]“I thought I played well, especially with the kind of season it was,” Boozer said, when asked to assess his second season in Chicago. “We had the best record again in basketball, won our division again, had the top seed again, that’s all that matters, yo.”

Boozer, master of sarcasm?

[17 Seconds]

basically all we can really do (assuming we don't amnesty boozer) is look for a point guard who can hold down the fort until rose gets back. i like watson fine as a backup, but we can't have him starting at the point for the first 2-3 months of the season.

[Guest]

Rose had his surgery today. Apparently went well.

[17 Seconds]

if rose comes back from this injury and eventually wins a title, he might be the most loved chicago athlete of all time

[davell]

Without a major trade, it looks like the plan is to let Korver, Brewer, and Watson leave. With the luxury tax at 70 mill, we have the MLE and resigning Asik as the 2 main offseason to-do's. And we won't have a full MLE unless we use it before we sign Asik. Contracts are kicking in now, so unless we make a major trade, the new CBA is going to begin depleting us.

[UMFan83]

Without a major trade, it looks like the plan is to let Korver, Brewer, and Watson leave. With the luxury tax at 70 mill, we have the MLE and resigning Asik as the 2 main offseason to-do's. And we won't have a full MLE unless we use it before we sign Asik. Contracts are kicking in now, so unless we make a major trade, the new CBA is going to begin depleting us.

 

We can replace Brewer with Butler, but its gonna be tough to get similar production from Korver and Watson with the veterans minimum. As bad as they were in the playoffs, they were valuable in the regular season, and I think Korver really struggled getting open without Rose out there in the playoffs. Even without Rose, Korver remains basically our only dangerous shooter. I'm not sure who they are going to be able to get for the vet minimum who can come in and run around screen after screen to get open and hit 40% of his 3s.

 

If the Bulls werent cheap, I'd suggest amnestying Boozer and resigning all 3. This way, you give Taj starter minutes, you keep most of your depth which carried us at times this year, and the difference between Boozer's contract and Brewer/Korver/Watson combined leaves you with $2.4 mil extra, which can be spent to replace backup PF and would probably net a better player than could be had for the vet minimum. But I just cannot see Reinsdorf willing to eat $50 million.

[davell]

I wonder how many games Rose and Deng miss to start the season? I think adding a solid PG is probably our biggest need, unless we find a trade for a true 2nd scorer.

[DivineBovine]

Without a major trade, it looks like the plan is to let Korver, Brewer, and Watson leave. With the luxury tax at 70 mill, we have the MLE and resigning Asik as the 2 main offseason to-do's. And we won't have a full MLE unless we use it before we sign Asik. Contracts are kicking in now, so unless we make a major trade, the new CBA is going to begin depleting us.

 

We can replace Brewer with Butler, but its gonna be tough to get similar production from Korver and Watson with the veterans minimum. As bad as they were in the playoffs, they were valuable in the regular season, and I think Korver really struggled getting open without Rose out there in the playoffs. Even without Rose, Korver remains basically our only dangerous shooter. I'm not sure who they are going to be able to get for the vet minimum who can come in and run around screen after screen to get open and hit 40% of his 3s.

 

If the Bulls werent cheap, I'd suggest amnestying Boozer and resigning all 3. This way, you give Taj starter minutes, you keep most of your depth which carried us at times this year, and the difference between Boozer's contract and Brewer/Korver/Watson combined leaves you with $2.4 mil extra, which can be spent to replace backup PF and would probably net a better player than could be had for the vet minimum. But I just cannot see Reinsdorf willing to eat $50 million.

 

Is amnesty of Boozer a realistic option? A lot of people mention this, and it certainly seems like a good idea. But I've never heard it even mentioned by any credible source. And I thought you're only liable for the part of the contract that another team doesn't pick up. Someone will pay Boozer decent money. It's not like he's making 400% of what he's worth, like Soriano for instance.

[davell]

The reason it doesn't make sense is with Rose and Noah's escalating salaries, the cap room we save by dropping Boozer is mostly eaten up without us being able to use it.

[CubColtPacer]

Without a major trade, it looks like the plan is to let Korver, Brewer, and Watson leave. With the luxury tax at 70 mill, we have the MLE and resigning Asik as the 2 main offseason to-do's. And we won't have a full MLE unless we use it before we sign Asik. Contracts are kicking in now, so unless we make a major trade, the new CBA is going to begin depleting us.

 

We can replace Brewer with Butler, but its gonna be tough to get similar production from Korver and Watson with the veterans minimum. As bad as they were in the playoffs, they were valuable in the regular season, and I think Korver really struggled getting open without Rose out there in the playoffs. Even without Rose, Korver remains basically our only dangerous shooter. I'm not sure who they are going to be able to get for the vet minimum who can come in and run around screen after screen to get open and hit 40% of his 3s.

 

If the Bulls werent cheap, I'd suggest amnestying Boozer and resigning all 3. This way, you give Taj starter minutes, you keep most of your depth which carried us at times this year, and the difference between Boozer's contract and Brewer/Korver/Watson combined leaves you with $2.4 mil extra, which can be spent to replace backup PF and would probably net a better player than could be had for the vet minimum. But I just cannot see Reinsdorf willing to eat $50 million.

 

Is amnesty of Boozer a realistic option? A lot of people mention this, and it certainly seems like a good idea. But I've never heard it even mentioned by any credible source. And I thought you're only liable for the part of the contract that another team doesn't pick up. Someone will pay Boozer decent money. It's not like he's making 400% of what he's worth, like Soriano for instance.

 

If a team under the cap places a bid, then the Bulls are not liable for the part of the contract that the bid covers. From what we saw of the amnestied players last year though, teams under the cap are rather reluctant to give up that space for a flawed player like Boozer. The Bulls might be able to save 4 million a year under that scenario, but I can't seem them saving much more than that, and it could be less because the market is so limited and teams might gamble to try to pick him up on the cheap.

[UMFan83]

The reason it doesn't make sense is with Rose and Noah's escalating salaries, the cap room we save by dropping Boozer is mostly eaten up without us being able to use it.

 

Right but we still have the MLE that we can use this year. The idea is if you amnesty boozer and resign 2 or 3 of Brewer, Watson and Korver, you will have more money to use for the MLE without going over the tax line, which is the real issue.

 

The Bulls will not use more than the veterans minimum (~$1.2m) to replace 2 of those 3 guys (with Butler taking the other). If we amnestied Boozer and signed those 3, there is a $2.4 million difference in salaries, meaning hypothetically we could spend more on replacing boozer.

 

So either $1.2 million to 2 different players, or $2.4 million for 1 player.

 

PS this is all just a fantasy because I don't think there's anyway the Bulls will even consider amnesting Boozer.

[Guest]

if rose comes back from this injury and eventually wins a title, he might be the most loved chicago athlete of all time

Seriously, were you not alive for Jordan? Payton?

[SouthSideRyan]

if rose comes back from this injury and eventually wins a title, he might be the most loved chicago athlete of all time

Seriously, were you not alive for Jordan? Payton?

 

[expletive], I think Sosa would have an argument

[SouthSideRyan]

The thing is, if you let Watson, Brewer, and Korver go and Rose and Deng are out for half the year, what kind of record does this team put up? They should still be able to make the playoffs without an issue, but that could easily wind up a 6 or 7 seed unless you make that MLE really count.

[davell]

If it looks like Rose is going to miss half the year and we do very little to upgrade anything, plus lose some key pieces, I wouldn't be above punting next season. Run the team through Boozer and Deng, try to enhance any trade value with them. Get Butler lots of PT, same with whoever is drafted this year, to try and develop them somewhat as rotation guys anyway. Have a lottery pick in 2013, bring over Mirotic, and let Rose get himself completely healthy. Maybe by then, Boozer has gone away somehow.

[wolf stansson]

The thing is, if you let Watson, Brewer, and Korver go and Rose and Deng are out for half the year, what kind of record does this team put up? They should still be able to make the playoffs without an issue, but that could easily wind up a 6 or 7 seed unless you make that MLE really count.

Maybe I'm being too much of a sports nihilist, but if you're not winning it all, what does it matter? If you think you're closer to a title by shedding salary and setting up a move or moves down the road, you should do it even if it makes you weaker in the short term.

[SouthSideRyan]

The thing is, if you let Watson, Brewer, and Korver go and Rose and Deng are out for half the year, what kind of record does this team put up? They should still be able to make the playoffs without an issue, but that could easily wind up a 6 or 7 seed unless you make that MLE really count.

Maybe I'm being too much of a sports nihilist, but if you're not winning it all, what does it matter? If you think you're closer to a title by shedding salary and setting up a move or moves down the road, you should do it even if it makes you weaker in the short term.

 

Unless you're talking development time for Butler-2012 draft pick, I don't see how shedding those 3 does anything for the Bulls.

[Guest]

If it looks like Rose is going to miss half the year and we do very little to upgrade anything, plus lose some key pieces, I wouldn't be above punting next season. Run the team through Boozer and Deng, try to enhance any trade value with them. Get Butler lots of PT, same with whoever is drafted this year, to try and develop them somewhat as rotation guys anyway. Have a lottery pick in 2013, bring over Mirotic, and let Rose get himself completely healthy. Maybe by then, Boozer has gone away somehow.

 

I'd be pretty surprised if next year's Bulls team doesn't make the playoffs and is a lottery team. I suspect they'll get about 1/3 - 1/2 the season with Rose and Deng and, barring injury, will have a full season of Noah, Boozer, Gibson and Hamilton.

[Soul]

What a bunch of defeatist nonsense this thread is turning into.