Thonus: Kevin Love and Carmelo Anthony, the all-in, need lots of help plan

There's been a lot of discussion about whether the Bulls should get Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love, what if they could get both?
First note, this plan requires that Minnesota is willing to trade Love at all [they may not be] and that New York is willing to S&T Anthony to Chicago [they may not be]. On top of that, since both players are moving in trades the amount of assets left to divvy up between them is less.

However, depending on what each team will accept, it isn't completely out of the realm of possibility...

99% out of that realm sure, but not completely.

Trade #1 Kevin Love to the Bulls for Taj Gibson, Mike Dunleavy, Tony Snell

Trade #2 Carmelo Anthony to the Bulls for Carlos Boozer, Ronnie Brewer, Mike James

Both of these trades match under the 125% +100k rule (just barely). Snell has to be included over Amundson in order to get the salary high enough. The trick is now figuring out what sweetners need to be included with each team to make it work.

For the Wolves, if they're considering the #8 pick in the draft for Love, then Taj Gibson + Snell + Dunleavy + Nikola Mirotic becomes a reasonable offer. Gibson and Dunleavy are both veterans they could use right now to improve while Nikola Mirotic is the big value.

How high they are on the Mirotic is up for debate, but given that he's got to be viewed more highly than Saric that means the overall value of this trade should trump an offer of the #8 pick from Sacramento fairly easily unless they simply hate Mirotic or feel that they won't be able to get him to come over and play for them.

For the Knicks, the Bulls would then send as many first rounders as it takes to get the deal done. Probably #16 and #19 in this draft and perhaps pick from the Kings or our own pick in 2015 or 2016. The trade could be agreed to on draft day but take place after the draft in order to get around the consecutive first trade rules.

What are the Bulls left with?
PG: Derrick Rose
SG: Jimmy Butler
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Kevin Love
C: Joakim Noah

Bench: Greg Smith
Bench: Mini-MLE guy [say we can get D.J. Augustin back at that]
Six Bench slots at the vet min

This is a team awfully similar to the Miami Heat when they came together in terms of front line talent but no depth. Miami managed to find ways to attract other players with the mini mid level and had some additional cap room to work with because their star player were under the cap.

Read more http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-b...lo-anthony-the-all-in-need-lots-of-help-plan/

 

"Take our crap for your superstars, please!"

I see these kinds of homer trades all the time.

Taj and Mirage (Mirotic) for Love? Surely they can do better.

Maybe the Knicks would facilitate the trade for Melo. On the other hand, they let him walk and they save something like $50M when you factor in the luxury tax.

If I'm Minny, I'd want Mirotic, 3 first round picks, and something like this to make cap space work:

 

If I were the Bulls, I would seriously consider that trade, too.

Noah, Rose, and Love are something like OKC's big 3. The trick is to fill in the rest of the roster from waivers. Maybe it takes another year to be a true contender.

 

BTW, Thonus says we'd have mini MLE. I think we'd have full MLE and BAE in his scenario.

 

Ya we need both teams to say yes. And as Doug said probably wont happen because it takes two teams to trades. Not just one team saying we want so-and-so.

Why would Minny want picks? I see NY wanting them.

 

How does Minny replace Love? Hopefully a draft pick pans out.

You don't rebuild around a 28/29 year old player who's a career 15 PER guy (Taj).

 

Thonus is a weenie. I know Thonus and he is a weenie. He does have access to tapes and such because of his DX connections but he isnot an anylist any more than the average attentive fan. His name on an article bears no more weight than a Bleacher Report blogger.

 

Agree that Thonus is a fan, not an expert.

The article is silly. When you feel you need to publish something about every other day and you're a blogger writing in your spare time, you write some silly articles.

Anthony for Boozer, Brewer and Mike James is an inspired fantasy that brings to mind an image of PJax quizzically asking an off-camera director, "What's my motivation?"

The Love for Gibson, Dunleavy and Snell is more realistic, but Denny's replacement of Snell with Butler, along with the addition of a couple future first-round picks is more like it.

 

Dream scenario: How Bulls can land Kevin Love, Carmelo Anthony

Here’s how the Bulls can potentially land both Love and Anthony to create their own super-team to rival the Heat.

Step 1: Trade Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson, the rights to Nikola Mirotic and both 2014 first-round picks for Love. The Golden State Warriors could trump the Bulls' offer by including Klay Thompson in a trade package, but it’s unlikely that Golden State breaks up the Splash Brothers, according to reports from the Bay Area. Any potential Love deal then comes down to what Minnesota wants in return. If they want picks, then both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics could have better offers than the Bulls. But if Saunders wants a combination of starters and picks, the Bulls are the best trade partner.

Step 2: Amnesty Carlos Boozer. This will likely happen regardless of what Anthony or the Timberwolves do. The “Get It Jo!” Era is about to end in Chicago.

Step 3: Trade Mike Dunleavy Jr. to a contender for a second-round pick. This should be a pretty easy move to pull off. If the Bulls make all three moves, that would leave their roster with four players in Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Tony Snell and Love. Together they will make $48.3 million next season, and the NBA expects the salary cap to be around $63.2 million (the exact number won’t be announced until July). This leaves the Bulls with approximately $15 million in cap space to fill out the rest of the roster. It’s important to note, this does not mean the Bulls can sign Anthony for $15 million. The NBA has rules in place that require teams to have 12 players on their roster and charges teams a minimum salary for each unfilled roster spot. With seven spots to fill — not including Anthony — it means the Bulls would be charged about $3.5 million against the cap. That leaves $11.5 million for Anthony.

Step 4: Convince Anthony to give the Bulls a massive discount and sign for a salary of $11.5 million in his first year. This obviously would be the hardest — and most improbable — part of the plan. Anthony would have to believe that the Bulls give him the best chance to win a championship and that he’d be able to make up part of the difference in salary with endorsements that come from playing for the Bulls and winning a title. Choosing Chicago over Miami also allows Anthony to remain the primary scorer and guarantees him the 20 shots a game that he’s averaged in his career.

The Bulls also boast a younger team and give Anthony a window to win multiple championships. It’s easy to forget that Rose and Love are both 25-years-old and haven’t hit their prime yet. Noah is coming off the best season of his career and is a dominant force on defense and a unique playmaker on offense. Dwyane Wade is 32 with bad knees. Chris Bosh is 30 and has plateaued. However, LeBron James is still the best player in the game, and any team he plays on in the next five years will be a championship contender. The Heat could potentially offer Anthony slightly more money depending on what the Big Three do with their contracts.

It is very unlikely that the Bulls would be able to acquire both Love and Melo. Aggressive, bold moves like this would signal a change in philosophy for the front office, but June is the month in which NBA fans can dream. Reality can wait until July.

See more http://www.csnchicago.com/bulls/dream-scenario-how-bulls-can-land-kevin-love-carmelo-anthony

 

The team with $55M in profits asking players to take massive pay cuts. The irony.

 

You're right. The Bulls should just tell Anthony's agent that, due to their cap situation, they can't afford his client and be done with it.

 

Or if the Bulls were $20M over the LT, they'd have more options to acquire him.

 

Maybe it's just me, but having more overpaid guys like Boozer who nobody wants may not be the way to go.

 

By your measure, who isn't overpaid?

Clearly they're all overpaid by The Chairman's.

 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

I suspect that the Chairman is pleased with Noah's and Gibson's contracts. He also knows that Butler's been a steal, but that one-sided deal will soon end. Reinsdorf clearly didn't have any issue with Rose's deal when it was signed since it got done in about 24 hours. Has Rose been overpaid on his new contract? Of course, but I doubt Reinsdorf loses any sleep over it. This stuff happens. My guess is that Reinsdorf still believes he'll get reasonable value out of the Rose deal.

 

It's hard to say Boozer is overpaid. Look at our record with him as starting PF, and look at his PER (top 3 on the team) for his seasons with us. He wasn't a MAX contract guy.

Compared to Lu's $14M sized contract (slightly smaller) for PER of 15.5, 14.1, 15.1, 15.2 before getting traded.

I'm all in favor of the players getting paid. Taj probably is overpaid in the Bulls' salary structure.

 

With respect, it's not at all hard to say that Carlos Boozer at $16.8mil, his 2014-15 salary, is overpaid. This said, I don't think Boozer was overpaid in the first 2 years of his Bulls contract. In the end, the Bulls paid to play with Boozer. It wasn't a horrible deal.

 

The CBA wouldn't allow him to be paid as he should have been - front loaded much bigger money and last year much smaller money. Basically, his contract is quite fair.

 

I don't think this is true...he could have had a higher year 1 salary and decreasing salary #s after. This said, I don't think Boozer was grossly overpaid.

 

They couldn't pay him $25M, $25M, $10M, $10M.