'12 Bulls

#SOURCESSAY...


By K.C. Johnson, Chicago Tribune reporter
8:46 p.m. CST, November 30, 2011
For the second time in 30 months, Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said he would give strong consideration to paying the NBA's luxury tax if he could acquire a player who gave the team a reasonable chance to win a championship.

Reinsdorf offered his thinking through a team spokesman Wednesday, the first day executives and coaches could comment on team affairs since the NBA lockout began on July 1.

The day also signaled the unofficial start to free agency, with teams allowed to contact player agents. The Bulls began their day with a formality — contacting Derrick Rose's representatives to discuss parameters of his five-year, maximum contract extension. All that remains is structuring the roughly $100 million deal in the most beneficial manner to facilitate future moves — once the league sets the salary cap.

The Bulls continued Wednesday to cast a wide net, contacting representatives for Caron Butler, Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Kurt Thomas, Jamal Crawford, Josh Howard, T.J. Ford, Keith Bogans and several others.

Because no deals can be signed until Dec. 9, Wednesday marked a day for all teams to start gauging the market and seeing what options and interest exists. The Bulls appear to be attempting to upgrade at shooting guard while expressing interest in bringing Bogans back with his $1.73 million option, likely in a reserve role.

The league has not yet set a deadline for the Bulls to make a decision on Bogans' team option. In a normal free agency period, they would have had 10 days for that decision.

That the Bulls expressed interest in players like Butler suggests they are open to using the full $5 million midlevel exception. Butler, according to a league source, has heavy interest from at least six teams.

Previously, speculation existed the Bulls might be averse to using the full midlevel exception because of luxury-tax concerns once Rose's extension begins in 2013-14. And there's still no guarantee they will.

However, Reinsdorf, who expressed similar sentiments in a 2009 interview, lent that possibility new credence. The question applies anew because a more punitive luxury tax is poised to take effect in 2013-14 of the pending 10-year collective bargaining agreement. Revenue sharing also will be increased, and the Bulls are one of the league's most profitable franchises.

Furthermore, Rose's extension will mean four players — Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah are the others — will be earning salaries north of $11.3 million in 2013-14.

Management's goals are to add shooting and another player who can create off the dribble to ease Rose's offensive burden. One solid fit and potential target, restricted free agent Arron Afflalo, continues to sound as if he's headed for a return to Denver. Nuggets executive Masai Ujiri told the Denver Post he contacted Afflalo's representatives and "we feel comfortable we'll get something done."

Thursday marks the opening of practice facilities to players, though their workouts can't be supervised or assisted by coaches. Rose, Deng and Ronnie Brewer are among those expected at the Berto Center.

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[h2]Reality getting in way of optimism[/h2][h3]It's easier figuring out what the Bulls need than it is finding a way to afford it[/h3]

By Michael Wilbon
ESPNChicago.com
Archive

One is a successful club president, the other the coach of a perennial playoff team. At season's end, each had seen enough basketball to say that the Chicago Bulls had come closer than any other team in the NBA to maxing out, to wringing every last drop out of the human resources available. It's a tremendous compliment. But at the same time it suggests that it's not effort or ingenuity that will span the bridge between conference finalist and league champion, but the acquisition of at least one more player of consequence, perhaps two.

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Fernando Medina/NBAE/Getty ImagesThe Bulls need someone to share the offensive burden with Derrick Rose, and Jason Richardson would be a good fit if the Bulls could afford him.

Wanted: At least one veteran who can create his own shot, preferably someone with 3-point range who is comfortable playing without the ball, who isn't allergic to defense, isn't an egomaniac and is at the stage of his career where winning a championship is an obsession.

Oh, and he'll have to work cheap.

Yes, that's the "but" as the Bulls' powers-that-be enter the 2011-12 season.

Sorry to be a party pooper and have to inject a little reality into the most eagerly anticipated preseason since Michael Jordan's last one, 1998, but the Bulls have precious little money to sign a free agent of any renown, say, Jason Richardson, who seems to be exactly what they need. When you take Joakim Noah from $3 million to $12 million, when Luol Deng has three years and $40 million remaining, when Carlos Boozer has four years and $60 million remaining and when Derrick Rose gets a well deserved but unexpected 30 percent raise from the recent labor negotiations, it means you're pretty much out of money. It means a player of consequence like, say, Jason Richardson would have to voluntarily take a 50 percent pay cut from approximately $10 million to no more than $5 million. Does Bulls management want Richardson? Yes. Can the Bulls afford him under the new collective bargaining agreement? Not impossible, but unlikely. This isn't what the excited masses want to hear to start the season.

What's likely is that management is going to have to be extremely creative and get a little lucky if the Bulls are going to come up with an offensive player who can help them overtake Miami in the Eastern Conference. They're going to have to take advantage of somebody else's mistakes in personnel evaluation, other teams' miscalculations or arrogance. They'll have to have another team's castoff become their late-bloomer or second-chance marvel.

Chances are Gar Forman and John Paxson are going to have to be damn good pitchmen during the abbreviated free-agency period that begins Dec. 9. Here's the pitch: "We've got the MVP of the league who is 23 years old in Derrick Rose. We've got the best frontcourt defenders in the league in Noah, Taj Gibson and Omer Asik. We've got the best bench in the league, willing role players in Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, C.J. Watson, Asik and Gibson. We've got the coach of the year in Tom Thibodeau. We've got great chemistry, the experience of getting to the conference finals. We've got everything to seriously compete for a spot in the Finals except you. Will you come for less?"

Jamal Crawford wants to come; a little birdie told me so. But again, setting aside the issue of whether he'll play enough defense for Coach Thibs and whether he'd be the best fit with Rose, will he take a 50 percent pay cut to come back to Chicago?

I've got two players who while not as complete as Richardson would be significant upgrades: Arron Afflalo and Nick Young. Both are 26 and both are restricted free agents, though only Afflalo has been on a team good enough to have suffered the requisite heartache you want a starter to have had. Afflalo is the more complete player of the two. He shot 50 percent last season, 42 percent from 3-point range, 85 percent from the foul line and can play the kind of defense that would make him an ideal fit. Pressed, I might even take Afflalo over Richardson. The question is whether a player is a big enough upgrade to help the Bulls overtake Miami. And the answer in Afflalo's case is "perhaps."

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Young isn't nearly as complete a player and has been a defensive liability in Washington ... but he's a potentially prolific scorer (17.4 a game last season) and could be unstoppable in a lineup with Rose and Deng. Nothing about Young screams out "Bulls' kind of player" but beggars can't be particularly choosy, can they? And Young would be far more valuable to a good team like the Bulls than to a lottery dweller like Washington, where his points don't mean jack. Thing is, you'd have to assume the Wizards, who need a scorer to go with John Wall, will do everything within reason to keep Young, and that Denver, with half its 2011 roster playing in China, will do everything, even the unreasonable, to keep Afflalo. This is where another team's blunder comes in. With so little time (three days to match another team's offer) to make free agency decisions, somebody is going to miscalculate ... or simply decide they're not going to spend the money.

Indications are that the Bulls are prepared to look at every single player on the market. What I wonder is whether they're ready to pursue a trade. Club executives are fond of saying that players want to win "but" ... but they want more money, or more shots, or more playing time, or fewer demands. Fair enough. But club executives also want to win "but" ... but they don't want to touch their carefully built rosters or sacrifice players they've invested in, particularly through the draft. It also means executives almost always overrate their own talent.

Asik and Gibson are assets, to be sure. Big-time assets. Some scouts think having both is a luxury the Bulls cannot afford because they're in such desperate need of another scorer. The Heat were certain of this very thing last spring going into the conference finals, that they could smother Rose and count on winning because the Bulls didn't have another player who could reliably and consistently get his own shot. Miami was right. Every team in the NBA knows it now, even though most don't have the kind of defensive manpower and discipline to do anything about it. Then again, the Bulls aren't gunning for those teams; they're trying to topple Miami. I don't buy the conventional wisdom that they were overachievers last season, but I do think they were achievers, and that they indeed came closer than anybody to maxing out.

[+] Enlarge
Jerry Lai/US PresswireThere is only one goal for the Bulls' front office as the team ponders moves: Getting past the Heat.

But to reach the same level they're going to have to get better, in part by having a player who can take some of the offensive pressure off Rose and Deng. If that means making a trade that cuts into the Bulls' depth, which is a clear advantage, then perhaps that's the way Foreman and Paxson will have to go. I wouldn't want to trade Asik or Gibson either, but the conference finals proved Rose has to have a better wingman. Is O.J. Mayo still available? Courtney Lee? And if so, is either the upgrade that helps the Bulls slip past Miami? (Probably not.) Would you give up a "big" who can score and defend to get a 15-points-per-game scorer?

And so, this is the game Bulls watchers are going to play for the next month and beyond, particularly if the team isn't as good as it was in the last regular season, or if Miami gets out of the gate quickly.

Would the Bulls be willing (able?) to get Brandon Roy after amnesty, and if so how much does Roy have left? Where is the trade sleeper, the kid from Golden State or Sacramento who will blossom playing with Rose and Deng, whose value to a contender is much greater than to a last-place or rebuilding team?

The only take-away nearly a month before the NBA season finally begins is that teams are going to have to be even more creative than usual in trying to improve their rosters, and they're going to have to nail the assessments with precious little time and margin for error.

Michael Wilbon is a featured columnist for ESPN.com and ESPNChicago.com. He is the longtime co-host of "Pardon the Interruption" on ESPN. Wilbon joined ESPN.com after three decades with The Washington Post, where he earned a reputation as one of the nation's most respected sports journalists.
 
getting Grant Hill for the cheap would be interesting comming off the bench not that he's going to make a huge impact but he's deffinatly still capible of comming in and scoring points and playing hard and he's a great team guy in the locker room plus thirsty for a ring.

Hope we can get Caron for that 2 gaurd spot he seems like he'd fit in well with this group.
 
Honestly... I might just be willing to take Nick Young.

He's a black hole though and doesn't know the word defense to save his life... I need to read NikeTalk's rules.!

But I believe in Thibs
 
^No question, Nick Young can flat out score.  I agree with you Cake if he becomes a Bull, I have confidence that Thibs can get him to play some D.
 
Originally Posted by CAto312

[h3]Why Thomas prefers Bulls over Knicks[/h3]
8:53AM ET

The New York Knicks may be interested in signing free agent power forward Kurt Thomas, however he is reportedly leaning towards returning to the Chicago Bulls.

Thomas' agent tells the New York Post that the veteran big man only wants to play for a team the can contend for a championship this season and that's obviously not the Knicks.

"Kurt thinks Chicago has the pieces to win a championship," Jerry Hicks said. "And that's the only reason Kurt is still playing -- to win a championship. The Bulls have those pieces. Are the Knicks there? Do they have all the pieces? I don't know."

The New York Daily News mentions Dallas and Miami as possible destinations for Thomas.

"That's the great thing about free agency," Thomas said. "A lot of things can happen. Teams have to make a decision on players but I also have a say in where I might end up."

Thomas made $1.8 million last season and he'll probably get a one-year contract around that figure this season.

-- Nick Borges
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I have no faith in this FO though... I'm serious about that.

I'm fully prepared to go into the season with Bogans as our starting 2
 
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I'm with you on that to an extent, It wasn't to long ago that we were all clamoring for Pax's head, but with Gar up to the plate I think we need to give him at least 2 years.

The only thing I don't want our FO to do is get desperate and make a move just for the sake to make a move. We had a nice squad last year where we could've possibly been one 2 guard away from it all.
I think this year is do-or-die for  Booz, if he can't step up and become a solid consistent 2nd option then we need to use the amnesty clause on him.....he just making too much money.

The Bulls continued Wednesday to cast a wide net, contacting representatives for Caron Butler, Grant Hill, Shane Battier, Kurt Thomas, Jamal Crawford, Josh Howard, T.J. Ford, Keith Bogans and several others.

These are all interesting choices (old but interesting). I just don't want to see Bogans anymore.
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Originally Posted by Seymore CAKE

I have no faith in this FO though... I'm serious about that.

I'm fully prepared to go into the season with Bogans as our starting 2
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I dont have any faith in our front office either, if we go into the year without someone who can create their own shot it will be a repeat of last year We need to get someone, i cant deal with another year of Bogans missing shots
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has anyone heard anything about the league pass?
 
I would be flat out shocked if we dont bring in someone to replace Bogans. Although, I wouldnt mind bringing him back to the team. His defense is so solid.
 
Originally Posted by arstyle27

I would be flat out shocked if we dont bring in someone to replace Bogans. Although, I wouldnt mind bringing him back to the team. His defense is so solid.
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This is pretty much how I feel too.

Bogans as the 3rd guard, as originally intended, will be good for the team.
 
[h1]NBA free-agent buzz: Butler eyes Clips, Bulls[/h1]
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 43 minutes ago


Caron Butler, one of the most pursued small forwards in this year’s free-agent class, privately considers the Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago Bulls as his two most preferred destinations, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Butler is most attracted to the Bulls because of the chance to play with Derrick Rose and compete for a title, but he would have to take significantly less money to play in Chicago. The Bulls have a stronger need for a shooting guard, and could ultimately spend their money there. Ultimately, that leaves Clippers with an edge over the New Jersey Nets among the suitors with the most significant cap space and a need for a starting small forward.“He sees the Clippers with a more stable foundation of players,
 
hey fellas i need 2 more people for my fantasy basketball & we draft today @ 345 any takers? shoot me a pm with your email address asap if so.....
 
Caron Butler would be *%!*%*% amazing, I guess it's just the issue of how much money the bulls can offer him.
 
Not to play the role of Debbie Downer but...

Y'all do realize that he hasn't played since tearing his knee up right?

So nobody knows what they'll be getting if they sign him.
 
I seen Caron at the gig last week and he says he's been in the Chi since July and can't see himself leaving.....
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take it for what it's worth tho it was street talk at it's finest
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what up! CALI bulls fan checking in.
going to be in town for a week during valentine's day next year hoping to check out a bulls game live (hurry up with the schedule!)
is there a team store anywhere around town i can cop some gear?
what should i expect at a bulls game?
anything i should do while in town?
 
Originally Posted by Seymore CAKE

Not to play the role of Debbie Downer but...

Y'all do realize that he hasn't played since tearing his knee up right?

So nobody knows what they'll be getting if they sign him.
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So true.  But weren't you the one preaching low risk, low reward? 
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Originally Posted by amel223

Originally Posted by Seymore CAKE

Not to play the role of Debbie Downer but...

Y'all do realize that he hasn't played since tearing his knee up right?

So nobody knows what they'll be getting if they sign him.
Click to expand...

So true.  But weren't you the one preaching low risk, low reward? 
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Well Played.
 
"It wasn’t my teammates’ fault we lost last year," Rose said. "It was me not making the plays and not playing smart enough throughout the whole game. Last year will help me grow this year as a player more mentally. I’ll know what to do. Hopefully, by me looking at film and really studying, when I get in those situations again, it will be totally different."
D.Rose on losing to Miami , and the coming season.
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