WrigleyField 22

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.

Make the Lakers worried that they are about to lose their heir to the throne, forcing them to commit to giving up on PJ by offering Shaw the HC gig. Jackson is unemployed and spurned by LA. Signs with Chicago. Win.

While teams can't technically talk with Free Agents until July 1st, they will. They will just make sure not to put anything on paper or through email or basically anything that could be traced. They probably won't talk directly with the player either. They will talk with the agents though. Lebron will likely know far in advance of July 1st whats happening. The only reason there would be a hold up is if a S&T occurs or he wants to wait to see what a team like NY can sign around him.

IDK what teams offseason games plans are. I wish I had a job that allows me to including in finding out, but alas it's not to be. But believe it or not, Hinrich only has 2 years left remaining on his contract ($17 mill left on his deal), and considering that teams like the Lakers (Hinrich would be much better then Fisher/Farmar) have shown interests in the veteran guard, I would say there is better then 50/50 chance of Hinrich being traded. I don't know who though, but I do believe there will be a decent market for Hinrich. Now if the Bulls do the unthinkable and sign Lebron, I could see Allen jumping from Boston to Chicago. Otherwise, I see Allen staying in Boston. Who are you gonna get from the Lakers for Hinrich though? I don't think it's gonna be anyone who is an upgrade. As you alluded to, his deal is only two more years, so you'd have a hard time justifying him for a downgrade. You need to get a deal that is fair from a talent standpoint, and I'm not sure you can, not from the Lakers at least.