WrigleyField 22

The more I think about it, I don't even think they would really want Noah. They would have to take on Deng, assuming there isn't a third team who would flip an expiring their way. So thats quite a bit of salary already. Then Noah is on the last year of his contract, so they'd be dishing out a ton of money for him. Wouldn't they rather get 3 cheap years of Taj, who is probably a better Nene complement and the additional picks (I'm assuming if we substitute Noah for Taj it would be at the expense of a draft pick or two). Deng, Taj, Charlotte Pick, Chicago 2011 & 2013 first rounders or Deng, Noah, (and all the money tied to them) and either Charlotte pick OR our 2011 & 2013 picks Which is better for the team looking to rebuild after losing their star?

I don't necessarily have a problem with taking a hit this year by trading for Melo except for the fact that I really do struggle envisioning a team built around him and Rose. Someone mentioned what worked for Denver: having guys like JR Smith on the outside and Nene/Martin crashing the boards. The problem is we don't have the shooters like that, other than Korver who is a 25min guy at most. Billups is also a really good 3PT shooter. Thats something Rose could develop yet, but right now he hasn't proven it. Then Boozer is obviously better than Nene or Martin, but to ask him to simply crash the boards and fill the role they did is way under-utilizing him. He is going to be most effective as the number 2 option where Rose is running the P&R with him a lot. In order to do that, you are going to minimize Melos effectiveness. Now the team would have enough talent to be a playoff team for a long team, but I really question its ability to get to the next step. Now a Deng/Taj for Melo would have the same limitations really, but at least we would still have our top 10 starting center. Theres a balance you can take IMO between overwhelming talent and good fit. You can deal with a certain amount of poor fits if the talent is there, see Miami Heat. We'd be a lesser version of the Miami Heat, with less opportunity to add role players.

haha, thats good

I keep trying to justify why it would be worth it to move Deng and Noah for Melo and I just can't do it. I don't see a team in which the sum of everyone is greater than the individual parts. While its true you pretty much need a superstar to win in the NBA, every NBA champion also had a team in which the teammates more or less complemented each other. I look at this line up and don't see it: Rose-Watson Brewer-Bogans Melo-Korver-Johnson Boozer-Gibson Gibson-Thomas-Asik For Melo to be the player he is, I'm not sure that Rose and Boozer are utilized to the best of their advantage. We haven't really improved the 3PT with that team much either, our biggest weakness. And in order to do so we've taken a sizeable chunk out of our rebounding ability. Then there is the defense that we lose. I could deal with the defensive lost or the rebounding loss. Both? I don't think so. Now while I don't think the current team is a contender, neither is the new team. Closer? Maybe, but not enough closer. Not when we may very well already have a player capable of being in Melo's league within the next 1-2 years. A lot of star players make the big jump their third season: Melo, Bosh, Paul all made clear jumps in their third year. That doesn't guarantee anything for Rose, but I'm willing to put my faith in the chance that he will, especially when you look at his stats were like when he was healthy last year. And now he has the perfect post player to play off of. Melo would take a lot of that away, and I'm not sure how much of a net positive it would be, if at all. The Bulls are set up with many assets come December 15. I think they can be a little picky. Sure people will tell you players like Melo don't come available all the time, but I'd say that is no longer the case in today's league. Star players are involved in trade discussions all of the time now. We'll have our chance.

Agreed, I would have taken him on the Bulls for that. Would have even given him partially guaranteed.

Celtics to sign Delonte West.

Rudy Fernandez does not warrant that sort of additional attention. No, but Delonte West would. I'm actually beginning to like West as an option better than Rudy. More well rounded offensive game and can play defense. Sure he is liable to go crazy, but Rudy is liable to just leave for Spain. At least West going crazy would be entertaining. Let's keep our assets.

Embrace it.

I'd say most Bulls fans have grown to adore Noah and his ugliness. If West could come here and put up his career averages without pulling any more desperado moves, I think the same will happen. Besides it's not like we're attractive anyways. Boozer, Deng, and Gibson all look funny. Bring on the ugly.

Well the Wolves only had to pay $500,000 of the contract as it wasn't fully guaranteed, so it was a cost cutting move. If he wasn't crazy, he was worth the contract he was signed to though.

So, Delonte West was waived. If the Bulls can't make a fair trade for Rudy(ie-2011 First round pick), would you go for it? Rose-Watson Brewer-West Deng-Korver-Johnson Boozer-Gibson Noah-Thomas-Asik His vet minimum would be $1,069,509. I think we could get him at that or slightly more on a two year deal with the second unguranteed. Sign an extra D-League level guard and big man, and call it an offseason.

Seems like the last five pages is all about Lebron. He isn't on the Bulls. Can we split this to leave it to Bulls stuff?

I'm interested to see what else they have up their sleeve. They will want to use all of their available cap space before they start handing out the minimum contracts because the contracts will take up more space than the holds for them and they'd essentially be wasting cap space. I'm sure they'd like to get Fisher or anyone else to commit soon.

If the Miller contract for 5/$30 is evenly spread, that leaves 8 million for 7 players. Based on my calculations and assumptions, they have a little over 6M for 7 players, and with the minimum roster holds, the most they could spend on any one player is about 3.3M The one large assumption is that they retain Joel Anthony for his QO. If they were to renounce him, they could spend almost 4 on another player still. The other assumption being that Miller's contract is backloaded as much as they can (and assuming it isn't a S&T which could allow them to backload it more)

If they match Reddick, they might want to dump some extra salary. Mickael Pietrus to Chicago? We throw in something like a future 2nd rounder or the rights to someone like Mario Austin, and Orlando gets a TPE out of it, obviously. Pietrus plays good D and hits the 3 ball at a respectable enough %. He's on a fair deal too. Just need a guy who can play some backup minutes at PG, perhaps a combo guard like Mason Jr, and we have more than enough to do that and still retain Miller. Rose/Mason Pietrus/Mason/Korver Deng/Korver/Johnson Boozer/Gibson/Johnson Noah/Asik/Miller

Well the big three all took about 2M less in their first year salary, so that covers Mike. I would think for Brad the assumption is he would sign for the minimum. Keep in mind that the minimum for a 10+ year vet isn't bad. It's a little bit less than the value of the LLE.

A bit much, but at three years, I don't mind. If Orlando doesn't match, and assuming that the deals to Korver, Boozer, and Reddick are all backloaded, the Bulls still have plenty of money for Asik, a defensive wing like Brewer and maybe another big man. We'll be deep, and hopefully not too committed in long term deals.

Also allows Miami to get back Haslem and Wright using Bird rights. They're waiting for Mike Miller and they contacted Jason Williams to play for minimum. It does? That blows. Haslem is a real piece. I hope someone outbids them for Mike Miller. If they get Shaq or Brad to take the minimum they're going to be set. They won't use the bird rights on Haslem or Wright. In order to have the money to sign the big 3 they have to renounce those rights. They may try to sign them to the minimum or with whatever they have left, but those bird rights are gone.

Well thats just silly, at least for this year. Miami will make money this year if they don't even make the playoffs.

Which just leaves Chicago and New Jersey. Odds that rumors about both of these make the rounds tomorrow?

Yup....I just have no idea why the Clippers would want to eat up all their cap space with Luol Deng. 4 years/ 51.3M for Deng with the max 30% being deferred or 5/75 for Rudy Gay They need a SF, and they aren't getting Lebron. Heck they may not even get Gay.

Broussard running story that Bulls could trade Deng and #17 to Clippers for the #8. http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/17035/why-deng-to-clips-in-swap-of-picks-would-be-good-fit We still wouldn't have enough to get Lebron and Bosh. You'd have to clear two out of the three of Johnson, Gibson, #8, assuming Hinrich can't be moved.

Just fwiw, if the Bulls wanted to have cap space for 2011, they would likely need to move at the very least Kirk Hinrich, or most likely Loul Deng for an expiring contract. It is kind of use it or lose it situation. Do it now while Noah is cheap.

yeah, but didn't they have a ton of expiring contracts that year? that was the whole reason they could sign two max FAs. it definitely wasn't talent level. they were an average team that had to jettison most of their average talent. Looking at basketball-reference, it seems most of their expiring contracts were old junk, but they did lose Mercer and Maggette who you'd think would be seen as young talent back then. I'm trying to figure out how that team ever went 500. They were 9th in Defensive rating. Top 10 defense is at least good enough to go .500. If their offense wasn't so bad (22nd in ORating) they would have done a lot better.

Perhaps it is a pipe dream, but there is only one guy I'd really want to sell high on if he can keep hitting until the Trade deadline.. Soriano.