Malcolm Thomas signed a two-year contract with the Chicago Bulls on Monday for the rest of this season and guarantee dates that can push the deal through next season, a league source told RealGM. Since signing the first of two 10-day contracts on March 19, Thomas has played just over one minute for the Bulls and has impressed the coaching staff in practice. At 6-foot-9, Thomas has given the Bulls another body up front in a critical juncture of the season, with both Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson dealing with injuries. Thomas scored four points in one minute on Sunday night, when the Bulls were blown out on the road against the Detroit Pistons. Throughout Tom Thibodeau’s run as Bulls coach, he’s always been reluctant to change his rotation to accommodate players acquired during the season and has remained that way – recently promoting Vladimir Radmanovic as a reserve off the bench instead of Thomas. Thomas also played five games with the Golden State Warriors this season, compiling three points and five rebounds in 21 minutes. His first NBA basket came on a dunk Sunday, and he is five of six from free throw line for the season. Source http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/227113/Malcolm-Thomas-Signs-Two-Year-Contract-With-Bulls
As far as this move is concerned, I'm sorry we didn't do it sooner. The Vlad signing was a head scratcher when it first happened, and its wisdom has yet to reveal itself to me. As for next year? It seems like the Bulls have always liked him, and giving him a guarantee allows the Bulls a decent option to fill out the bottom of the roster with a guy they're high on for the cheap.
There is only one possible explanation...the committee, or whatever group put together the roster, agreed that a veteran "stretch-big" was needed. When "minimum salary" was added to the veteran stretch-big criterion, the computer screen read "Vladimir Radmanovic" and perhaps only Vladimir Radmanovich.
When "minimum salary" was added to the criterion, the Bulls weren't doing "whatever it takes" to win.
Not fair IMO. The Bulls used their mid-level exception for a PG-SG (Hinrich) and their bi-annual exception on a scoring SG (Belinelli). Though these signings happened after Radmanovich signed, it's extremely likely that this prioritization was set early on. Once the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions were spoken for, all other unrestricted free agent signings had to be for the minimum. If you want to slam Bulls' management, and I know you do, I think you should stick to the Korver trade, failing to pick up the options on Watson and Brewer and, of course, failing to match Asik.
By bingo, I mean they let those $5m contracts go to waste, even if they didn't ultimately want those players.
Well, they got a traded player exception for Korver, so there's still hope there. As for Brewer and Watson, we're talking about two guys who as free agents this past summer could get no more than the minimum salary. Since their options were for $4.4mil and $3.2mil, respectively, I have a tough time seeing how the Bulls were going to get something good for them in trade, but that's probably just me.
Memphis traded Rudy Gay for Ed Davis and Jose Calderon. Korver, Watson, and Brewer, resigned for a year each, would have matched his contract and given Memphis cap relief after one season. I'd play Gay at SG. He's an inch taller than Rip. We'd actually be in a good position to amnesty Boozer in the offseason.
