Carmelo Has Bulls, Clippers, Lakers On Short List If He Leaves Knicks

NYK should say yes to that, but won't. Do you?

 

Melo has to decide what he wants. The New York franchises have been messes for generations and I don't think he pairs well with Kobe. That leaves LAC and the Bulls. He probably pairs better with Paul than Rose but the Clips would have to find a way to ship DeAndre Jordan's expiring deal. I also don't know how he plays alongside Griffin. Really the Bulls are the only team that makes sense form a winning perspective. My money's on him sticking in NY though.

 

I wouldn't do it if I were the NYK. They gutted their franchise for 'Melo and may not see another star like him for a long time. I'd give myself every last chance to retain him.

 

Well, it looks like the Bulls are going to let Deng walk or pay him quite a lot of money. I'd rather pay Melo. It seems the market and coach appeals to him, and he'd be paired with Rose so he would not have to be "the man" anymore. Bulls would need assurances he'd take a MAX extension.

Kirk is nothing. Midrange pick is not worth a ton. Not wanting to do the spreadsheet work to see how it would affect getting Mirotic, but heck, if you're "win now," Melo helps you more the next couple of years. Still have either our pick or the Bobcats pick.

Rose/Butler/Melo/Gibson/Noah

If they can still get Mirotic over here as well, all the better. Other 1st round pick, Dunleavy , DJ, Snell, Mirotic (maybe?)....

 

I wonder if Deng overplayed his hand, if his goal is to remain in Chicago. Perhaps he'd be willing to accept an offer today that he wasn't willing to accept yesterday.

 

Although the max salary according to the schedule is $19.2mil, an individual's max salary can never be less than 105% of the last year of his previous contract. Since Anthony is currently at $21.4mil, his max 1st year on a new contract starting next season would be $22.5mil.

 

I've tried to give my analysis of the technical issues related to getting him here. The all-in for max cap space strategy being one, and a trade of Deng and Taj being another. The latter gets another $7M off the books.

I'm on the fence about whether we should actually try to get Melo at this point in his career. My analysis of his value...

Pros:

* He can play the 3 or 4.
* He's a dominant offensive player, perhaps 2nd best in the NBA.
* He's not just a coach's choice to be an all-star, but a fan's choice. At both SF and PF he's been voted in.
* Can carry the team with or without Rose

Cons:

* He's 29. Long term contract risks him being like Boozer in the last couple years
* He'll be treated like Boozer. His offense is so strong, his defense not so much. If you let him play his game, he'll get you 30 while giving up 20, which is a huge net win. I expect he'll see his minutes cut in favor of some defensive player, though, and fans will want to amnesty him if it were possible.
* He's been injury prone. He missed 15 games last season, 11 the year before, and has played in 70+ games 3 times in his career.
* In his absence, Linsanity broke out in NY a couple seasons back. When he came back, Linsanity basically ended and Lin was eventually traded. Though I said he *could* coexist with Rose, I'm not sure he *would.*

If it is the best move the Bulls can make to try and contend, then absolutely do it. It would be certainly better than "I'll play these" which hasn't been the winning formula.

 

So the Bulls without Deng (renounced), Boozer (amnestied) or Gibson (misteriously removed) are at 39,324,513 add in ~4,330,485 for two first round picks and two minimum contracts and you're at 43,654,998. The cap is projected to be $62.1M so you're still only at 18,445,002. If you want to get him the full max you'd need to get rid of Dunleavy and Snell too.

Man, so what are you looking at then?

Noah/minimum
Mirotic/minimum
Anthony/minimum
Butler/minimum
Rose/minimum/Teague

This isn't going to happen. If Carmelo wants to come to the Bulls he's going to have to take a large salary cut. And the Knicks aren't going to trade him.

 

Trading or renouncing draft picks is another way to free up cap room if you're hellbent.

Realistically, you're not getting Anthony via the UFA route. If you say that the Knicks won't trade him, then we should all probably just move on to the next idea.

 

Yup. I mean, if Chicago was an actual option, Anthony wouldn't be saying things like, "I like NY. It's been tough here. Chicago's kind of nice when it's not too cold." It'd be more like, "Get me out of here. I demand to go to Chicago." The only way the NYK trade him is if he forces a trade. So unless he's willing to take a huge pay cut to live in a not-as-great city, this isn't a possibility. I'm writing this off.

 

Gibson wouldn't be mysteriously removed. He'd either be on the team or perhaps part of a trade to acquire Melo.

In that case, these calculations wouldn't be necessary. However, when determining if we're over/under the cap with/without amnesty, you'd consider Taj's salary gone if a trade happened.

transplant posted his math a while back. I didn't revisit it to see if situations have changed (e.g. was that before signing Dunleavy?).

Look at how Miami was built, too. Originally? LeBron, Wade, Bosh, minimum, minimum. Or guys on really low rookie scale contracts.

 

I think you're convincing me. My initial thought was that the Heat are winning because of LJ and not the trio of LJ/Wade/Bosh. But they wouldn't have beaten the Bulls three years ago without the trio of all three. And what difference does any of that make.

It's certainly not out of line to clean house for Anthony provided that you think he can sustain his level of play for at least a three year window. You can do something with a starting lineup of Noah/Mirotic/Anthony/Butler and Rose.

 

We saw what LeBron and a normal supporting cast did in Cleveland. He needs Wade and Bosh. Wade especially. Ray Allen doesn't hurt either. Shot makers.

Most NBA champions have 2 studs and you build around them. I would not mind at all going forward the next 3 years with Rose-Anthony-Noah and fill in the blanks with role players. Year 2 of that plan would be the sweet spot, as a couple of role players / ring chasers might want to join the party. Heck, maybe Melo isn't against recruiting. All the guys that would be dumped in Denny Crane's scenario are not true difference makers, they are solid roles players (assuming the Bulls are going to let Deng walk for nothing (aka not paying him what the market will bear)).

I say go for it. The signals from Rose's camp are already "we're not into rebuilding" nor should they be.

 

I looked over the phrasing of the rumor again:

Both Carmelo Anthony and Thibodeau are clients of Creative Artists Agency (World Wide Wes) so it's very possible that Anthony doesn't have any interest in the Bulls and this was just a shared agent doing Thibodeau a favor.

 

That's one possibility.

He may be doing the TMac thing, too. Tease. Create urgency in the other suitors or he could end up in Chi town.

Or...

Thibs gets the rest of the guys to play defense.

Or...

Thibs' record is terrific, but his team needs Melo to advance.

 

If not for the above funky new rule, I could see a Bulls-Knicks swap of S&Ts (Anthony and Deng) with the Bulls throwing in Gibson. The in and out salaries would be within a million of each other.

However, unless Ama're were to exercise his opt out, which he'd be an idiot to do, I don't see any way that the Knicks could get below the apron (somewhere around $77mil next season and the Knicks will be around $90mil). Note: the Knicks can't amnesty Stoudemire because they used their one amnesty move on Chauncey Billups.

I'm just not seeing how to make this happen.

 

Why the need for S&T? Both players' bird rights go to the other team.

 

There's risk in the above trade, I suppose.

On one hand, we're losing a guy who's going to be a UFA and can leave. On the other we're getting a guy who can opt out to be a UFA and can leave. It's not like the situation is worse from that respect.

But we are giving up Taj in the deal and if Melo walks as UFA, we'd lose him. The upside of losing Taj is the gain of $8M of cap space. The downside if losing Taj is we'd be losing a guy who's been a very good 6th man for us.

Given how Doc Rivers (coach) was traded to the Clippers, it seems like there's a precedent for getting a commitment to sign a new contract. You'd want to get Melo to make such an agreement, and the Knicks would likewise want one from Lu. Assuming they want to keep Lu.

 

Nice.

I'm assuming that both teams would like to be assured that they could keep the key player traded for beyond this season, but if you believe that this isn't important to either the Bulls or the Knicks, your way certainly works.

 

This is a good question: Could you do it as a sign and trade even if NY is above the apron because they have as much salary coming back as is going out? Otherwise you're screwed right, because these players aren't going to sign an extension until the end of the season.