Well that's good, and somewhat interesting to hear. There was a poster on RealGM yesterday, who could actually string a couple of sentences together -- which somehow makes him believable -- that the Bulls were interested in grabbing Beal. I would be ecstatic. I wonder how hard it would be to move up to 2. It looks like it may be possible if Charlotte wants Robinson and not Beal.
Don't want Biedrins or Jefferson. Deng's worth more than the 7th pick because he's the rare 7th pick who became really, really good at NBA basketball. And please don't do the RealGM thing and tell me how trading Deng for a draft pick + crap will help the Bulls' LT situation. The Bulls have a great team and now that Rose is about to be paid a max salary (and about half of his true value), bargain time is over...it's time to pay the piper.
The logic for taking Biedrens is that he's got one year guaranteed on his contract (at $9M). Saves the Bulls ~$4M plus LT penalty. It wouldn't matter if he played or not. With the LT a concern, such a deal would get the Bulls to $48M in salary (after next season) in a year when Rose returns (hopefully) fully healthy with 6 (to get roster to 12) to 9 players to add. $48M is $10M under this year's cap, and near $21M under this year's LT. Enough to rebuild after a "lost" year. If we keep Deng, the numbers look like $62M.
BTW, I really do like Deng. However, it long ago occurred to me that we could have done pretty well with Trevor Ariza in his place. http://www.basketball-reference.com...um=0&p1=denglu01&y1=2012&p2=arizatr01&y2=2012
But Deng's a very good player and you don't have to somehow magically acquire him...you've got him. Since you have a superstar, the goal is to have as good a team as possible around him. Deng is well-suited to that role. I realize that you're playing the devil's advocate here, but I'd prefer to deal with what you actually think is the right thing to do.
I think the right thing to do was to re-sign Ben Gordon and pay the LT back then. Use the MAX cap space (we'd have 1x MAX instead of 2x) on Boozer or whoever. We'd have had $5M or so under the cap to sign one or more of Brewer/Korver/Watson, assuming Gordon would have signed for ~$10M. I can see management's POV on Deng. An Ariza type player makes $6.5M or so and puts up really similar numbers. Deng did not step up in the playoffs and become the kind of #1 option we needed in Rose's absence, so finding that kind of #2 who can become the #1 when needed is probably a good idea. I'd rather have Deng as #3 with that alpha kind of #2 guy, but I don't see how it can be done without trading Noah. So I guess the real question is who do YOU value more: Deng or Noah (I'd choose Noah).
OK, I think Gordon is not worth what he's being paid and the Bulls dodged a bullet, not by shrewd dealing but by pure luck. I in no way miss Gordon. But we do agree that Noah's more of a keeper than Deng...but for me it's pretty close.
Well, Gordon was coming off a playoff series where he put up 41, 32, 26, 22, 20, 15, and 12 point games against the defending champs. With his leg wrapped in in an ace bandage. It was one of the gutsiest performances by the Bulls in memory, and by a player. That he went to Detroit and was misused there doesn't make letting him go a good idea, lucky or otherwise. There's every indication that alongside Rose, with whom he formed a top 3 G tandem in the NBA, that he'd have continued being the Air Gordon we all knew. He missed 12 games in 5 seasons for us. His last season with us, he scored 21 PPG on 16 shots, made 41% of his 5 3pt shots per game, dished 3.4 assists from the SG spot (quite good). He was a key minutes contributor on several teams ranked near the top of the league in defense, too, some of those teams with Eddy Curry as the starting C to boot. He was our leading scorer for 4 straight seasons before we let him walk. He was replaced by Kirk Hinrich (11.1 PER) on a team that went 41-41 and lost in the playoffs first round to the Cavs. Bogans was terrible, one of the worst players in the NBA, period. Rip (13.2 PER), Brewer (12.3 PER), and Korver (13.6 PER) still weren't as good as Gordon was last season (13.5 PER, 43% 3pt, 12.5 PPG). And we're still looking for an SG. I think having that quality SG locked up would have given us a serious chance to beat the Heat 2 seasons ago. But we'd have paid the LT, and weren't going to do that. That's my case.
