Bulls go all in to have MAX cap space to sign 2 FAs. Utah has no interest in re-signing Boozer. Wade, LeBron, and Bosh never really did have an interest in doing business with GarPaxDorf. Where's Boozer going to go? New York just signed Amare. Who else needs a PF and has MAX cap space willing to spend it? The money's good, so he signs with us. After all, GarPaxDorf would have egg all over their face if they had MAX cap space and sign nobody worthy of near MAX. Meanwhile, with more than enough to sign a MAX FA on top of Boozer, we are showing interest in, or have signed, guys who aren't starters for Utah, Orlando, etc. No reason not to spend this year's remaining cap space on whatever dregs are left over after the teams actually interested in good relationships with the guys they sign are done. This smells like the Ben Wallace situation all over again. With our cap space then, we signed 32 year old Wallace and 33 year old Adrian Griffin. I actually liked the Wallace signing, but his window was short with us and the smart basketball move was to find a way to get another talented player as well. Griffin? We traded down to get Viktor and his $1.5M salary, too. Then we dumped Chandler and his salary so PJ Brown could put us over the top and win us a championship. History repeats itself? Fool me once, shame on thee. Fool me 13 times, shame on me.
Reddick and Korver together are not Adrian Griffin. They do however, make up for one mistake. Letting Gordon go for nothing. They make, together a little over what Ben would have made for us. Together they are a threat. Probably more of a threat than Gordon was if both are on the floor at the same time. Boozer might be Wallace. Last year was a contract year. He was incredible despite the fact he knew he was odd man out all season long because of the Milsap signing. The jury is out on whether Boozer turns out to be another Wallace. I want the Bulls to make a trade before all is said and done. I dont look for them to sign anyone major with the remaining money. Fill roster with vet minimum players, see what trade they can make at deadline with the saved cap money.
I don't think he's going to be a disappointment like Wallace turned out to be. My point was that he's not enough, and it's not enough to sign guys who've played < 20MPG on other teams and who've never really been starters or 6th men.
The final point should be that, verbal assurances aside, Reinsdorf has shown that he is not willing to pay the luxury tax to put together a contending team. History has shown he's willing to pay the tax to keep a championship team together, but that's a whole lot different than paying the tax to build a winner. Lebron James made the right decision . . . he deserves better.
Lebron James is a fucking self-absorbed asshole for how he treated Cleveland. He's still a great basketball player, but he doesn't deserve shit. Why you guys have such a hard on for hating management I'll never understand. BG isn't that good or worth that much love. And as to your initial thesis, NJ had max cap space and a decent roster to build around and Boozer chose the bulls and a less than max deal. That ought to tell you something when he didn't even ask NJ to match. So the similarities pretty much end there. And Redick and Korver have played meaningful minutes deep into the playoffs and are the best options left to use the cap space on right now. And the last time the bulls sniffed a winner Reinsdorf green lighted big deals. He stopped spending when those guys proved to have peaked. If this team shows a spark, I am confident Reinsdorf OK's the LT spending.
I bet Boozer took one look at Lopez and Favors and figured he wasn't going to get so much PT. Isn't it odd that winning a championship is proof to you that that old Bulls team had peaked.
What? You need to fill in the blanks there Denny because you aren't making any sense. Favors is a project. He's two years from being a rotation player at least.
No, they took him with the intent of creating a more attractive sign and trade option for one of the marquee FA. Since Utah had no interest in taking salary back, Favors had no impact.
Read your previous post. What does a S&T have to do with anything? The Nets took a guy who measures out along the lines of Dwight Howard. They're not going to have him ride the pine.
The Nets, like everybody else, thought that Toronto was going to try and leverage the ability to give Bosh a sixth year into pushing Bosh somewhere where Toronto could get the most assets back. This was before everybody discovered that Bosh had already decided for months to go to Miami and was going regardless of getting the sixth year. So the Nets dumped Yi and took the highest regarded big man prospect. Then they found out like everybody else that the Wade/Bosh/Lebron free agency was a charade and were stuck with a project PF. NJ was pissed that Boozer didn't give them a chance to match or up the offer. And the fact that Boozer didn't want a little more money shows how much better the opportunity in Chicago is. NJ would have been better off keeping Yi and drafting Wesley Johnson, instead of having a project PF and signing Outlaw to a 5/$35 mil deal. Now they have less flexibility to go after Melo next year or CP in 2012. An expiring contract in Yi and a SF forward prospect in Johnson is a much more enticing offer for a S and T to Denver than the next Brendan Wright and a journeyman stiff owed ~$28 million over the next 4 years.
New Jersey made a half-assed play for David Lee, but he didn't like the looks of having to split time with Favors and Lopez, either. Looks more like they moved Yi to make room for Favors, period.
In a draft they rated as one of the weakest in recent memory. Where was he rated #2? Chad Ford had him 3.
