The way I understand it, he will be signing his contract withing the next couple of days. It was well known when the Bulls drafted him that he wouldn't be here until this summer at the absolute earliest, and possibly not until next summer. So I don't know why he should be called "Mirage" as long as he plays this season?
People have him penciled in at PF or SF or whatever. If he doesn't sign this year, then he's a ghost or something. Not really here.
True, but there has been absolutely no indications that he won't sign here this summer. In fact quite the opposite, "According to a league source, a deal with the 23-year-old Spanish forward is “almost done”" http://www.csnchicago.com/bulls/bulls-nba-ready-free-agent-dominoes-start-falling There is really zero reason to think Mirotic won't be wearing a Bulls jersey on opening night.
I hope it's true. But the Bulls are a lock to get Melo kinds of stories the past few weeks have not turned out to be true. Even the ones posted at csnchicago.com. I'll believe it when the ink is dry on the contract, ya know?
OK I'll give you that, but this IS different. Since we have his rights, if he wants to play basketball on Earth, it will be with us.
Well, If Anthony ends up signing outright and not via a sign and trade the Bulls would only have the 2 year 4M room option to offer, right? I'm not sure the Bulls would sign a two year deal with another Euro rookie and risk setting up another Asik situation. So yeah, if Anthony signs outright . . . I guess there's just about zero chance of that.
Mirotic can't sign the Room MLE, his contract has to be for a minimum of 3 years. But Melo won't be signing here with cap space, we'd have to cut the roster down to just Rose, Noah, McDermott, Butler and one other cheap player for that to happen... so that ain't happening. We can work out a sign and trade that Phil can live with, though, as a matter of fact I'm about to write an article on that very subject.
If you insist... Melo sign and trade to the Bulls? It's still possible, Jazz might help http://bit.ly/1rdzv7k
Our policy here is that our regulars can post links to their own blogs, articles, even message boards. Happy to read this, too
My initial reaction is that I don't see PJax facilitating a S&T unless you get him LeBron or some other talent close to Melo's. What are the benefits over letting Melo walk if he chooses? If Melo walks, he saves something like $50M in payroll and luxury tax for his team. They're going to suck in 2014, but after the season they're going to have cap space (Amare and Bargnani gone. Heck, it looks like they are only committed to Calderon, Smith, and Prigioni. Plus, if Melo chooses to walk, there's no incentive for the Knicks to facilitate him going to the team of his choice (vs. a team that can afford him outright). Especially in the same conference.
The way I proposed it in the article, they only take back Boozer this year, but they get rid of Smith, Prigioni and Dalembert so their cap figure only goes up by like $7 million. And they can still use the MLE and BAE and stay under the tax. And they lose $7 million off their cap next season, because Smith and Prigioni are gone. Plus he gets 4 first round picks out of it. And three trade exceptions. That's their incentive to facilitate a sign and trade, 4 1st-round picks and $7 million in cap space next summer. Pretty good incentive, if you ask me.
I got your logic. The Knicks decimated their roster to facilitate Melo's acquisition, and now he chooses to bolt? JR Smith is a 6th man of the year candidate in recent seasons. I am not sure they see his contract as too big or that they want to dump him. I agree with your last sentence in the article. That said, the Knicks seem to think they can move Bargnani's contract. If they can move Bargnani, there's no reason the Bulls can't move Boozer. It's just a question of the price they'd pay.
Yeah, I don't know about JR either, I'm just going on things I've heard that Phil would rather move him. In the scenario I laid out, it's better for the Bulls to keep Taj and not take JR, and the trades still work financially. And the Bulls have no reason to move Boozer unless it's in a sign and trade for Melo. They can just amnesty him and clear the exact same amount of cap space as if they trade him, which like you said will cost some asset(s).
Trading Boozer gets them a player and MLE and BAE. Amnesty costs them $16M to the bottom line (minus $1M or $2M or whatever he signs with the Spurs or Heat for), and they lose the MLE and BAE. They get the Room Exception tho.
Oh, I thought you meant trading Boozer and getting nothing in return but cap space, all that does is save them having to pay him. Amnesty costs money, but they won't lose the exceptions unless they WANT to go under the cap- they have the non-guaranteed contracts and cap holds to keep them technically over the cap until they use the Full MLE.
If they amnesty and have $10M in cap space, adding MLE and BAE doesn't get them over the cap. So they'd lose those exceptions. That's my understanding.
They would lose the exceptions IF they go under the cap- but just using the amnesty on Boozer doesn't put them under the cap, in fact they would still be slightly over the cap if all they did was amnesty Boozer. To get under the cap, they have to cut all the non-guaranteed guys and renounce their Early Bird rights to Hinrich and Mohammed. Right now, their cap figure for actual signed contracts is $70,346,177. If they amnesty Boozer they would be at $53,546,177 in actual salaries on the cap. But they cap holds for Hinrich, McDermott, Mirotic, Augustin, Fredette and Mohammed add up to $10,996,029. So their cap figure would be $64,542,206 until they cut the 3 non-guarantees and renounce the free agents. So they can amnesty Boozer and still use the MLE and BAE. If they amnesty Boozer and renounce all the free agents, they still have cap holds on Mirotic and McDermott, which is why they can only get to just short of $10 million in cap space if they amnesty Boozer.
