The bulls are not a powerhouse. They're a mediocre team in the weak East. You left out "assholes in management" as a negative that will "never" change. The superstars don't want to work for assholes.
Sorry if I misused the iconic cobweb phone. Still the Bulls are being as active as I can remember seeking the top courting contingencies looking into s&t or trades as I can recall. End of the day though if they don't want to ( they shouldn't) or can't ( thankfully it would be a tough task) gut the team to get Anthony or Love its going to require some give and take to get a guy who wants to max his chance for a ring and give him a talented and deep chance to do that.
The Bulls had Melo over for cocktails. That's all we really know for sure. I don't think all that management does is wrong or evil. I understand their motives and their moves almost always fit my understanding. Historically, they've refused to pull the trigger on deals to bring us massive upgrades in talent because it threatened the LT or would cost a draft pick or player that management values way too much. We made an offer for Love. It clearly wasn't compelling, and that says it all. If Love ends up elsewhere and we could have had him except we wouldn't part with Taj, it is a mistake of the highest order on our part.
I don't agree with the assholes take at all. That's your vendetta. Enjoy it FWIW. As to powerhouse I meant, as per the comments following, they are one of the greatest powerhouses as a brand name which a money grubbing player should appeciate every bit as much as money grubbing executives. But talent wise the Bulls are far from mediocre. They have an MVP a DPOY all sort of other accolades top or near top regular season records playoff runs -- those regular season runs and playoffs while the franchise player was out with injuries ( am I worried about that? Yeah but I thought Lu was going to be an injury bust and while he never was a superstar he got healthy and was reasonably solid when he did).
I don't really know about that. They wined and dined TMAC. They actually landed Ben Wallace (for more $$$ than he was worth and missed out on the prime of Tyson Chandler due to this), they by all accounts made a strong run and Lebron/Wade/Bosh, just struck out. They landed Boozer (for more $$$ than he was worth). To my knowledge, they have had Melo to the UC for a visit (same as Houston and Dallas) and are visiting LA. In the end, the results are all that matters. I'll be happy is there are solid results. If there are no results, there are no results.
I don't think the Bulls always made the right call. I think they F'd up multiple times. Bad drafts. Should have taken Pau rather than put their faith in Deng. I think the LT thing is over emphasised. Why pay a gazillion dollars if the result isn't immediate or near immediate high probability championship? I sure wouldn't. And I am sure JR would prefer to never pay it. But where I disagree is I do believe JR knows he and the shareholders have the resources and that another championship maximizes brand value. Therefore feduciary responsibility woukd actually require JR to pay LT if circumstances warranted and if the shareholders thought he was not maximizing value they would bring a shareholder action.
Here we go again. The Spurs pay the LT frequently. They're a smaller market team than we are. They have championships, we don't. There is absolutely a correlation.
The owners fight hard to have the "tax" added to the CBA. Uncle Jerry seems like a guy that is loathe to pay it. It seems like it is on philosophical grounds, since other teams pay it and are less valuable franchises than the Bulls (as per Forbes). The Bulls can likely afford to be a high payroll team if they wanted to (that's what paying the "tax" is). Uncle Jerry can run his business however he wants, but he's choosing to have a lower payroll than the other major players in the NBA. More power to him I guess if he can get away with it without the fanbase turning on him. If they don't replace Deng with an in-his-prime all-star level player (which is what Deng was) it will be a pretty clear sign on how the Bulls are when it comes to championship basketball team vs. tax avoidance. Disappointing.
Yeah, the Bulls are very active. They badly want to make their team better, and even if most of the potential moves are longshots, they're taking their swings...some are big swings (Anthony, Love, Gasol) and some are smaller (Ariza, Parsons, Morrow). They know that, even with a healthy Rose, they need more offensively-dangerous players. But as you say, it does take 2 to tango.
Plenty of teams pay tax. Few have turned tax into championships. Granted when opportunity arises some tax teams have met their championship goal. I don't think Reinsdorf is fighting the LT on some Quixotic anti tax philosophy and given that championships maximize the brand's worth I don't think the shareholders would tolerate such a fight. And yeah profits have rolled in without more rings for a number of years but long term positioning is part of the fiduciary responsibility and that profit rocket came from championships. Hey what can I say I don't know what goes on behind closed doors any more than any other fans. We all draw our own conclusions.
The Score is confirming that Noah is in LA with Garpax. They're probably trying to lock down Melo. Madness!
And fewer still low payroll teams win championships. The Bulls choose to be a low payroll team while being one of the most valuable franchises in the NBA and are in a major market. Once again, more power to them if they can pull it off. From a business perspective at least.
Melo. He's meeting with the Lakers and then the Knicks, who traveled to LA -- well PJ was already there right? --, were apparently going to push him for a commitment. Guess the the Bulls wanted to make sure they were at the table.
http://www.chicagonow.com/bullsville/2014/07/gasol-bulls-latest-free-agent-target/ A Pau Gasol Bulls meeting is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles on Thursday. According to the Tribune's K.C. Johnson, this meeting unexpectedly popped up after the Bulls met with Melo on Tuesday: The Bulls will fly to Los Angeles on Thursday to meet with Pau Gasol, sources confirmed. ESPN.com first reported the development. The Bulls' interest in Gasol had been previously reported by several outlets, including the Tribune. But the face-to-face meeting unexpectedly developed after the Bulls met with Carmelo Anthony on Tuesday. The Bulls have been linked to Gasol for years, dating to when they passed on a chance to trade Luol Deng for him while with the Grizzlies. It's unlikely the Bulls could add both Anthony and Gasol, who made $19 million last season but will face a paycut in this market.
