The Bulls absolutely could afford to pay Deng and Gordon $10M/year (or a bit more) and get to the next level. You wrap up those guys for about that price, Hinrich's at about $9M/year going forward, Noah is cheap, and you've got a lot of cap room once you've shed Wallace (and hopefully Nocioni). While we might quibble over a guy like Iguodala being better than Gordon (I'd say he is), I don't see an obvious way to get him. I would say that even then, if we could get him for $10-12M, we'd still be able to have some cap room in 2010 if we didn't make other stupid decisions. That's really the key. It's not paying younger, fairly productive players that kills you, it's paying older guys who fall off the map (or weren't on it in the first place) but still take $8 or $15M. The high priced veteran superstars (at least for a team that refuses on principle to pay a penny of tax despite it's big market finances) are largely fools gold. The smart strategy is to make safe bets and staff the rest of your roster with low priced guys and prospects. So say you get Kirk, Ben, Lou, Noah and another lottery pick for around $35-40M. In a couple years the salary cap will be $62M or thereabouts, so if you line up your minor players to be expiring then, you've got a ready-made supporting cast on the off chance a star wants to switch teams. (And by safe bets, I mean put your money in guys who will be productive throughout their contracts, not undersized 32 year olds who rely on athleticism to get it done. Contrary to the thinking in Chicago, that wasn't a safe bet).
