When John Paxson first took over as Bulls general manager in 2003, he mentioned an early piece of advice he received from a more experienced colleague: “Never trade an established player for a nonestablished player.” Paxson has given way to Gar Forman, but surely that advice has been passed along in the Berto Center board room. So why would the Bulls even think about trying to trade Luol Deng for a high draft pick? That does appear to be one of the strategies under consideration right now, league sources confirmed. A draft camp meeting with North Carolina forward Harrison Barnes was mentioned on the team’s website, but there’s probably no single target. And yes, it does seem odd that Deng would go from leading the NBA in minutes per game to trade bait. That can be explained, however. The Bulls are disappointed Deng is planning to wait until after the London Olympics to repair a torn ligament in his left wrist. Really, though, missing the first month or two of next season is irrelevant in the long run. The Bulls have plenty of love for Deng. The issue here is being backed up against the luxury tax and trying to create flexibility for the future. Next season, Deng, Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah will make roughly $56 million combined. If those four could lead the Bulls to the NBA Finals, there would be no problems. Even forgetting about how injuries might spoil next season, the team’s greatest strengths the past two years were Rose and depth. Read more: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120617/sports/706179847/
Looks like there's a possibility they make a move, huh . . . If it nets the Bulls Bradley Beal I'm cautiously optimistic. If it nets the Bulls Harrison Barnes I'm cautiously pessimistic. If it nets the Bulls Jeremy Lamb or Dion Waiters, I'm well, none too happy.
If it's Sacramento it's probably going to be something like Deng for Salmons and an exchange of draft picks, right?
How odd that Salmons only decreases the team's wins expectations by 2. I don't see the Sacto deal happening. Shaving $3M of space off the books isn't anywhere near enough. And wouldn't it be odd if they bought out Salmons if they did make this deal? The obvious trade targets are those that have the cap space to eat all or most of a Deng sized contract, and maybe the pick swap happens.
It's tough. We know that the basic contours include Deng and pick. I can't see him fetching a pick and considerable cap savings -- that's a reach.
Yeah, there's certainly a lot of talk about trading Deng on draft day. I confess that it all makes me itchy, but we'll have to see how it plays out.
Salmons is owed $15.6M over the next two years, Deng is owed $27.6M. If the Bulls are going to pay the LT, that saves the Chairman $12M plus the tax amount. I'm sure to him it is better than a sharp stick in the eye, but it is many $millions off the bottom line for a year in which the Bulls can't reasonably be expected to compete. The Kings have $44M in committed salaries, plus a $7.5M cap hold for Jason Thompson and $4M for Donte Greene. I think that their cap space is why your lopsided salaries deal works. I wonder if you took Salmons out of the deal if the trade works, too.
I think if we do trade him, it depends on wat management is trying to get. Are they just trying to do a salary dump or are they tryna get value back? Its gonna be hard trying to get something decent when youre trying to prevent yourself from paying the LT.
I'm expecting more. It's funny Denny: I look at this trade as being bad for both teams. Sacto still needs an alpha-star, which they could get via the pick, and the Bulls need current production, which they get via Deng. Still, I could still see a deal getting done, almost as a mutual misdirection of the respective fan bases. The Bulls are interested in cutting salary and a move for Barnes and Evans would do that. I think Evans is bad mind you, but he provides cover for the Bulls in the deal. At the same token, Sacto needs to get rid of Evans in free agency, or else they're either going to get buried for letting him go (by the fan base) or actually buried by resigning him to a long term contract when he's never going to be a core piece on a good team. Hence, a deal is born that is not in the best basketball interests of either team. . . . pretty dark, huh.
And for what it's worth, I do believe in Tyshawn Taylor and all of the mocks have him either falling to the Bulls at 29 or falling into the second round. I think he could come in and run the team next season as a rookie. I would be mighty happy if the Bulls just picked at 29 this season.
I have a hard time evaluating these trades because I don't have any specific opinions about people in this draft. At all. So I find myself feeling "Well, I guess it could make sense if....." about most of the proposals I see out there. If you really like a guy who's there at 5 I have no problem trading Deng. I love me some Luol, but if you think you can get someone who's a game changer then it's a good risk to take. It solves the luxury tax issue for next year and possibly solves the 2nd star issue as well if all goes well. Luol's fantastic, but the beat must go on.....
Pickings at SG are slim. I'd like to take the chance on Evans, if that's what we get in this deal. http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=89y59pl And the pick swap. We get a year to evaluate Evans and another year optionally without having to extend him or give him a big raise. If he pans out, he and Rose would be our back court for years. Evans wouldn't be the first SG to put up big numbers and leave Sacto, making huge contributions to his next team. See Kevin Martin/Houston.
It's a good draft for shooting guards, and there are more than a couple of good shooting guards who may be available at the 29th pick. I like Bradley Beal a lot at the top. Down toward the Bulls' pick, Orlando Johnson and John Jenkins both look like they could be elite 2s. So I'm not buying a slim-picking shooting guard argument. There's a decent chance that the Bulls could find a starter if they just use their pick.
I'm fine with the Bulls taking an SG in the draft. However, Evan Turner was picked #2 in the 1st round 2 years ago and they talked about him like he was going to be another Iggy type player. Now he may end up being that good, but he's been solid yet not spectacular as a player so far. My expectation for a 29th pick might be a guy as good as Taj at the position, if we get really lucky. Evans is a known quantity, the draft picks aren't. Tyson Chandler was a can't miss prospect with range to the 3pt line, remember? Certainly not worthy of giving up the guy who was a known quantity (Brand).
As I've said, I haven't watched Evans much. Since his name's been mentioned a lot lately, I thought I'd better do some reading. The more I read, the more it seems that his reputation as being an excellent shot creator, lousy shooter and inconsistent defender appears to be the reality. Here are some excerpts from Draft Express's review of Evans' rookie season: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Tyreke-Evans-1110/ I don't know how much his game has developed since his rookie season, but statistically at least, this first NBA season has been his best. It concerns me that his accuracy (eFG%) on jump shots hasn't improved over his 3 NBA seasons: 2009-10 - 34.1% 2010-11 - 35.1% 2011-12 - 31.3% If you have any links to other good analyses of his game, I'd appreciate it.
From the scouting report, you'd think it would be best to design plays for him that aren't catch and shoot. From what I see in the stats, he makes a respectable FG% and is about as efficient as Deng (pts / FGA).
Absolutely. If you've got Evans on your team, he needs to get the ball in situations that take advantage of his ability to take it to the rack.
