Trib says: Damn. That'd be awesome. James tore up his ankle and will probably never play again, meaning he'll retire, have his contract paid mostly by insurance, and not count against the cap. So we'd be basically wiping Hughes completely off the books and eliminating our luxury tax issues next year. That means we could resign BG if you like BG, or have a reasonable chance of signing another FA, if you don't like BG but think someone else might help. As it stands we've got the chance for neither. So it'd be huge. If this is at all still an option, the Bulls should strongly consider adding Thabo. With Salmons, Deng and Rose near certainties for next year, and likely Kirk and/or Ben, Thabo's basically useless for us. He might actually help the Knicks, so if they're on the fence, perhaps he'd sweeten the pot.
I have a feeling that Larry will just stay at home for the rest of the season and they'll wait to trade him and Hinrich this summer.
What does the salary cap look like for next year? The Bulls are committed for ~$67 mil, right? Throw in a mid round draft pick at around ~1mil and that leaves ~2-4 mil to fill 4-5 roster spots next year?
Yeah, so improvement is going to be based on the development of Rose, Tyrus and Noah because I think we all pretty much know who Hinrich, Deng and BG are at this point. Salmons makes it a glut at 1-3 again at least for the rest of the year. I don't have a lot of confidence in VDN creating a smooth insertion of Salmons into the rotation. But Thabo hasn't exactly lit it up in his six minutes a game. And nobody else has been really consistent this year either.