$5M by itself isn't a big deal, it is with the collection of other contracts. Korver took them to $80M, without him they are at $75M. It was enough to push them into the luxury tax. With Brewer also getting cut it allows them to sign Hinrich. The Rockets haven't signed Asik yet, they are waiting to see if NY matches on Lin then Asik will be inked. The Rockets have put themselves in a rough spot, because they seem to have a deal in place for Howard, but getting Lin and Asik could kill that deal because they won't be able to take back all the salary needed.

The Rockets are stuck and have to have them sign the offer sheet since they agreed to it. However, they are now hopeful that they get matched. It doesn't look like the Lin offer will get matched and Asik will be interesting as it would put the Bulls right at the luxury tax, maybe over, this year and in two years it will be a killer for the Bulls at $15M. Asik will have a cap number for the Rockets of $8M/yr, because the new CBA allows teams signing a RFA to spread the contract evenly over the years where a team that matches has the actual salary as their cap number.

The lin deal is also at 15 million for the third year. I would expect draft picks like have been moving in even and odd years will be included with the howard deal. Houston is second to last now in contracts, after amnesty on scola they are down to 25 million. other than martin at almost 13, the rest of the team is has livingston at 5, three under 3.5 and 6 under a million. they should be the only team other than NOLA with enough room.

Wonder if we will use the TPE...

There has been links to O.J. Mayo. I would ecstatic if we signed Mayo. He is demanding some good money, but so far no one has been willing to fork it out. If his demands decrease, we would have a shot at him.

TPE's are valuable, so i'd definitely have that, rather than a 2nd round pick.

The Bulls are up against the luxury tax as it stands, $5M under after giving away Korver, with only 9 players under contract. That is assuming Asik is gone, if they match his offer sheet that would put them into the luxury tax after filling out the rest of the roster. If they let Asik go and fill the rest of the roster with league minimum players they are just under the tax threshold and they hope they don't have injury issues that make them sign more players to push them into the tax.

cubbiefan009 wrote:Wonder if we will use the TPE...

There has been links to O.J. Mayo. I would ecstatic if we signed Mayo. He is demanding some good money, but so far no one has been willing to fork it out. If his demands decrease, we would have a shot at him.

I'd do a mini happy dance if we signed OJ Mayo.

Scratch that, Mayo signed with the Mavs.

Old Style wrote:Scratch that, Mayo signed with the Mavs.

Yeah, figures. Reinsdorf is too worried about diving into the lux tax than keeping this franchise a winner. Can't fucking stand him.

Meanwhile, we will fill out the bench with vet min scrubs. What a joke.

I don't see the point in going into the tax this year for the Bulls with the Rose injury - good season to shed payroll, give new guys chances to play, and try to reload for the future

Old Style wrote:Scratch that, Mayo signed with the Mavs.

So much for losing a couple years. If Brand is rejuvinated (being waived should help him want to prove the playoff sixers wrong)

l2uff wrote:I don't see the point in going into the tax this year for the Bulls with the Rose injury - good season to shed payroll, give new guys chances to play, and try to reload for the future

But the thing is, if you want to make the playoffs and even have a chance for home court, you have to put a team on the floor that can at least play .500 ball to be in the hunt when rose returns. If they dump all these guys and end up being in the basement with players like kirk, boozer, deng, noah, rip, then you might as well sit d out all season and amnesty deng or boozer.

The bulls had a 68% winning percentage without Rose last season. That would have been good enough for the #2 seed, behind Miami. Even if you assume they will lose a few more games without Rose they should still be able to win 60% of their games, which is still the 3rd seed in the East last year. If Rose comes back healthy at some point they should still be a top 4 seed, if not top 2, in the East. The catch is Rose has to get healthy.

Are you really willing to risk going into the luxury tax when you don't know when or if Rose is going to make it back. I would agree that they should go for the other extreme, worst record, and try to put Rose with a better #2 option then Boozer/Deng along with Noah and Gibson. If they can find takers for Boozer and Deng I'd trade them off relatively cheap, late first round pick or young player with potential. The problem is getting people to take their salaries. That would give Rose more time to heal without any pressure of playing and if they ended up getting him an improved second player, they could be really good going forward. They would also have some cap room next off-season to fill other holes.

they played well without rose, but last season was just wrong for too many reasons. The clumping of games, multiple back to backs, even back to back to back, and it was never really gonna be more than a few games for D, when it was longer, they pretty much knew he would be back at some point. Its a little different than knowing he wont be there for the first half of the season at a minimum with the bench we had basically gone other than butler and taj. Right now they are at 58 million between rose, boozer, deng, noah and rip. I highly doubt that Taj is not going to get a bigger more stupid offer from someone than Asik did next year, so how do you keep him anyway.

Asik is in limbo with Houston because Houston does not care if they get Howard or Bynum, so they are gonna keep the trade in place and facilitate for the lakers since Bynum wont sign an extension in orlando. I dont know what the limit is to sign Asik to that sheet. They seem to want to wait til they have no more options to get a center.

I say the Lakers end up taking Howard anyway even if he does not sign long term because nash, kobe, artest, gasol and howard should win the west, might even win the championship which might make him stay. the headcase holdup now is howard does not want to follow shaq's path to titles, hell, they could not even get the superman deal settled. I am waiting for Howard to say he wants to play in kansas, someone start a team for me there. I kinda agree the lakers might be easier to beat than OKC, but noah cant guard howard and boozer cant guard gasol, if it gets to that so no title anyway.

If the team is at the point of saving tax, they are gonna get passed by more teams. Indiana should be on top of the central when rose is ready to come back. Philly will either show they are legit or it was a fluke last year, boston is not getting worse, as little as allen played last year, Terry will easily fill those shoes. Atlanta and Orlando should be worse, new jersey and new york should be better, which might keep the bulls in the 7-8 spot if all they add is kirk.

I guess the realGM website claims Howard will sign an extension with the lakers. LA and Cleveland are happy, Orlando still wants to find a way to get rid of more contracts at this same time. Here I thought Orlando would have backed off and just been happy to finally get rid of howard.

anotheridiot wrote:I guess the realGM website claims Howard will sign an extension with the lakers. LA and Cleveland are happy, Orlando still wants to find a way to get rid of more contracts at this same time. Here I thought Orlando would have backed off and just been happy to finally get rid of howard.

Nice for Cleveland to swoop in and grab Bynum if this goes through.

Bulls can focus on 2014 now, if this goes through the Finals are set.

In other news, Bulls signed Radmanovic.

LOS ANGELES—As first reported by Comcast SportsNet Chicago’s David Kaplan, the Bulls will sign veteran forward Vladimir Radmanovic to a one-year contract, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

http://www.csnchicago.com/basketball-ch ... feedID=661

LA's not offering to shed multiple contracts, HOU is plus they have better picks + young players they will trade than CLE - I still think HOU is in the trade one way or another.... Kinda nice to see a possible bidding war for Magic fans... we are talking about the 3rd best player in the NBA

he is the third best player when his head is right, and I am not sure if that is ever gonna happen. wait for the first tweet that shaq sends out to screw with his head. I dont know why Orlando is gonna push the issue, Cleveland can take on salary, but I doubt they want the players, and Houston wanted Howard or Bynum and they would get neither, just end up with orlandos shed salaries.

The Magic won't trade with the Lakers unless Bynum agrees to sign an extension with them. That doesn't look like it will happen. Houston is still the best trade option. Orlando is trying to get a little bit more, which is good for them. If they would have had a competent GM last season this wouldn't be an issue at this point, but they didn't and that is why everything kind of reset the week before the draft when Orlando brought in a new GM.