As I said, we're at a crossroads. some win now guys and some win later guys. Up to this point, we've largely talked about building the team around Derrick Rose, since he's clearly going to be our best player and his best years are clearly ahead of him. I'm going to suggest we do the opposite. Our current older players are not bad. They're good compliments if we had those stars to put them around. The problem is we don't, and our star is only 20 years old. As I mentioned before, I think we don't have enough cap space next year without making trades that undercut our ability to actually land a FA. And if we do nothing, we've got an incoherent mix of young and old without the obvious ability to get better. The best case scenario I see presented is something like we dump Hinrich, Salmons opts out, and we get Dwyane Wade next year". That leaves us with a team of Rose Wade Deng, JJ ? Noah That's nice, but the reality is that Wade is in his late 20s, in his prime, and is quite a bit more "ready to win" than the rest of the team. It's not the sort of fit anyone will be looking for. The problem is, to get Wade, we'd have to jettison most of our veteran complementary players. It doesn't look like a very well-conceived plan to me, which is why I'd have preferred to keep Gordon and then make a push for Bosh, who could have been the third leg of a team that would all hit its prime together. But that's not gonna happen now. But since that's water under the bridge, the question is how, if we got Wade, we'd build a good enough team around him to win. We'd need exactly the sort of complementary guys - Miller, Salmons, Hinrich - that we wouldn't be able to keep. I think the solution is to look at what we could get for Rose, and consider if we couldn't get Wade now, thus enabling us to keep the veteran sort of players around him we'd need to win with. Besides the general theory that you need to build a team of appropriately complementary, mostly similarly aged players to win with, we also might be presented with another requirement. Opportunity. I think under normal circumstances, any call to the Heat about Wade would be met my laughter and a quick hang up. However the recent going on in Miami, I think, create at least some potential for getting him. Wade has been offered an extension, within a context of some disagreement about whether he'd sign one. The Heat and Wade seem to be playing a game of chicken. Wade says he won't sign till the Heat get better, and the Heat say they can't make a decision about getting help until they've got Wade locked up. Sounds like a breakdown in trust to me. I have to think that if Wade follows through and doesn't sign the extension, the Heat have to at least consider moving him Oh, did I mention that Wade wants to play with Carlos Boozer? Boozer, for his part, is a guy the Jazz are deperately trying to unload with little salary coming back, given their financial situation and desire to keep Paul Millsap. Understandable... I'd rather have Millsap too, but I'd take Boozer. So why not try for two great tastes that taste great together (and want to be together), and land both Wade and Boozer. And oh, by the way, have a solid, mostly veteran team to put around them. Here's the deal: Bulls trade Derrick Rose, Tyrus Thomas, and Tim Thomas to Miami and Jerome James's 80% insured contract (true cost $1.3M) to Utah. Bulls receive Dwyane Wade and Carlos Boozer 1- Hinrich 2- Wade 3- Deng, Salmons 4- Boozer, Johnson 5- Noah, Miller I don't know if that's a title team or not, but it's certainly a contender, and it's a young one that can conceivably be kept together for several years.
Not even for Dwyane Freaking Wade? I mean, he's pretty clearly one of the top 5 players in the league and figures to be for a long time.
I have severe doubts that this team can win a championship. Are you willing to trade Rose for something that will ultimately fail, in my opinion? Now, replace Wade with Lebron, and I would probably be on board.
Well, the flip side of that question is whether you're certain to succeed with Rose. Of course you're not. Now would I do it for Lebron? Of course. But Wade is the guy on the otherwise shitty team, and dropping hints as to his unhappiness. And Wade is as good as we could possibly expect to manage. What are our odds of winning a title with that team? I dunno, but I think they are as good as I can imagine them being in any other scenario. * Can that team compete with and beat the Cavs? Yeah, I think so. Wade's not as good as Lebron, but he's about as close as you can get. And otherwise I'd take the rest of that Bulls team over the rest of the Cavs team. By a mile. * Likewise with the Magic. I think Wade's a better overall player than Howard, and I think the Bulls team would be younger and better than the Magic otherwise. * The Celts will be rapidly aging. For that matter, the Cavs and Magic both have significantly older key pieces. The Bulls will have a couple more years to get it done. Once in the Finals, I dunno how we match up against the Lakers, Blazers, Mavs or Spurs. But I can picture us beating any of those teams with Dwyane Wade.
Don't think we're gonna be able to manage that. If the cap goes down, as it's expected to, we might not be able to pick up either of them. We definitely won't be able to sign both. And beyond that, we'll have to have Tyrus, Miller and possibly Salmons walk too. In short we lose the vast majority of the team. Is Wade or Bosh really going to want to come into that sort of rebuilding situation?
The key to getting two guys next year is the sign and trade, like Orlando did with Turkoglu this year. It's not of the question.
The question I have with a Rose/Wade backcourt is who has the ball? Can you name a great team or a championship team with a stacked backcourt of two guys who needed the ball like Rose and Wade do? There needs to be a big to balance those guys out, and I'm still not sure that it would work.
Because unless Riley knows for a certainty that Wade is leaving, he's not evening entertaining the idea of moving Wade.
First, I dont see either the heat, jazz, or bulls doing that. And secondly, if we trade rose, noone will want to resign or come here in free agency because having wade and boozer doesnt guarantee a championship.
So Mike, would you pull the trigger on this if Wade and Boozer DIDN'T sign extensions and how much would you be willing to offer each?
That trade is lopsided to start. Second wade and boozer don't equal a championship, and third why the hell would you get rid of ROSE!? had a phenomenal playoff series as a rookie. He is one of the best pg's in the league today, think about in 3-4 years? You didn't get lucky as hell to win the lottery and get rose to just trade him, he's a keeper no matter what.
I could buy into this. To anyone who says just wait 'till free agency, the Bulls haven't been able to attract marque free agents since Jordan retired.
The downside to trading Rose is that out of all the lotto picks we've had, he's the guy with the real chance of being a very special player. One of the best in the league. You can't easily get those kinds of guys through other means. A guy at that level is a prerequisite to contending, though you need some high quality pieces around him. The Bulls don't have those. On the other hand, if he doesn't have the drive that Jordan had, the Bulls will probably break his spirit and he'll end up leaving the way Gordon did (sign the QO, go UFA). Or maybe he pulls a Brand and encourages a trade beforehand. So we can use a pick to draft the next Eddie Curry or Tyson Chandler!
Ben Wallace, for all his warts, got no offers from anyone else. He was 32 years old and his stats declined already for 3 straight seasons. Great pickup.
And yet, strangely in the four years prior to signing with the bulls Wallace's PER actually increased slightly each year, but still a dead giveaway of his impending demise for the trained observer or noted revisionist historian. Even more fascinating, Wallace had an ORtg of 112 the year before he signed with the bulls. I wonder what other former bulls have never had an ORtg over 112 in the regular season?
