Wiggins/Bennett/future 1st. That's two #1 picks, one of whom has the "next LeBron" pedigree. Mirotic/McDermott/future 1st doesn't beat that offer. I think the Bulls would have to come up with more salary to balance Love's ~$14M.
I don't believe the Bulls are interested in trading Mirotic, from what I was told by the guys in Madrid they promised him they wouldn't trade him as a condition of getting him to sign. I don't think they want to piss him off and endanger future dealings with European players. I saw a suggestion on Twitter that they might consider trading Noah, however. I could see them doing Noah and Gibson for Love, Martin and Dieng. PG- Rose, Kirk, Brooks SG- Martin, Snell SF- Butler, McDermott, Dunleavy PF- Love, Mirotic, Baristow C- Gasol, Dieng I'm not saying I would do it, but Love and Mirotic certainly fit in better age-wise with Rose, Butler and McDermott.
If the core shifts to Rose / Jimmy/ McDermott / Love / Mirotic at least its a full fledged "win later" instead of the hybrid we have now. I would love to see how Thibs handles his 4 and 5 being Love, 34 year old Gasol and rookie Mirotic next season. Honestly, is Love more valuable than Noah? Seem strange to say, but perhaps Love is a guy that can rack up glory stats on a bad team while Noah is the 1st team all-NBA center for a reason?
I'm not sure what to think of Love to tell you the truth. Like you said his team doesn't win, and his shooting percentages in the clutch are just plain horrible for a "superstar". He's certainly no LeBron or Durant, I don't think he's even a Melo or Rose or Westbrook that you can run the old Doug Collins "get the ball to MJ and get the fuck out of the way" in the last minute of a game. But the trade I wrote down - which wasn't anything I read, just the only thing that seems to make sense if the Bulls were going to do Noah for Love - is still a hybrid team. Rose / Jimmy / McDermott / Love / Mirotic are 26 - 25 - 23 - 26 - 24 this season, but you still have Gasol who's 34, Martin who's 32, plus two 34-year-olds coming off the bench in Kirk and MDJ. But I think the roster we have right now is the favorite to win the East, even if Cleveland gets Love. And I'd rather stick with a core going forward of Rose 26 - Snell 23 - Butler 25 - McDermott 23 - Mirotic 24. I think Noah is the perfect C for today's NBA, where you need a scoring PG, a SG - SF - PF that can all shoot 3's at a pretty high rate to keep the floor spread, and a C who can defend, rebound and pass. You need a All-Defense level SG/SF and PF/C, and the other two guys need to be able to play team defense well enough to not hurt the team. And as long as your PG can stay in front of his man on defense and force him to drive with his off hand into the help defense, you're going to have an elite defense with Thibs' system. I think your young guys should start and the vets should come off the bench for the most part, because that way if the young'un is struggling you can go to the bench earlier. But if the young guy is playing well that night, the veteran gets less minutes and stays fresher throughout the season. I don't see any way Thibs doesn't start Gasol, but I'd go with Rose - Butler - McDermott - Mirotic - Noah as starters. That way your rookies get to play with your two All-NBA guys and your All-Defense guy, to where all they have to do is play off Rose and Noah. Let the old guys Kirk - Gasol - Dunleavy use their experience to dominate other teams' benches with the league's best 6th man.
