I can only see what teams that win do pay the tax multiple times to get their roster up to shape to win it all. Even the Spurs several times. They're a much smaller market than Chicago and way less revenue. They pay for winners.
Don't see this as a very bold move. After Nash has spend 16 season and 1152 games with Suns and Mavericks... http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/...ash-headed-los-angeles-lakers-sign-trade-deal Mozgov was a very good trade. http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/releases/mozgov-trade-150107 Love trade wasn't mid season.
Sorry, I made myself a promise that I'm not going to talk about the LT when the LT is irrelevant. Maybe someone else will play.
Kevin Love wasn't mid season. I didn't mean to suggest it was. Mozgov was mid-season. They also traded for Shumpert and JR Smith mid-season. The Thunder added Kanter, Augstin, Singler and Novak at the deadline.
Not just LT. Making deadline (or earlier) trades with the eye toward putting us over the top. Maybe the guy you trade for puts you over the LT next season, though. That ain't going to happen with THIS franchise.
I just know I'm going to regret this, but when exactly were the Bulls in a position to be "put over the top" and what available trade did they not make? I really think that the Ben Wallace free agency signing was the kind of move to which you refer. It didn't have the LT implications (no FA move can) and it didn't work, but it was clearly a move designed to take a middlin sort of playoff team and make them a genuine contender. I know that you like to bring up the Pau Gasol for Deng thing, but that's at least as much legend as fact and wasn't likely to put the Bulls over the top of anything. I don't remember any unmade trades in the Rose era that are worth bitching and moaning about.
Ben Wallace was fine. They need to sign or sign and trade for another bigtime player. Instead, they salary dumped Tyson Chandler for a stiff who pretty much sucked ass at PF dragging the team down. There were a number of players who moved teams that we should have tried to get. From Tyreke Evans to OJ Mayo to Monta Ellis. This season? We need another PG and a better starting SF. An SG like Lance Stephenson could have been had for Taj (I'm pretty sure). http://bullsbythehorns.com/jerry-reinsdorf-answers-questions/ The Bulls did not want Pau Gasol:“Gasol, we didn’t move slowly, we said, ‘No.’ We were prepared to give [Memphis] players. What they wanted to do was to basically dump stuff on us and we’d be immobilized; we wouldn’t have been able to improve our team. Gasol made sense for the Lakers because he is their third-best player, probably. He would have been, at that time, our best player. It would have been a wrong role for him. John and Gar decided they didn’t want Gasol under those circumstances, where he would have been the last piece and we would have been immobilized because of the [salary] cap.” (I take it you are OK with The Chairman saying it, but don't like it when I do.)
Maybe the first mistake was thinking that the Luxury Tax BS would go away once the Bulls, you know, actually paid the LT? (And were going to pay it last season until Rose blew out his knee again). The most comical thing about this latest LT BS is the mention of the Spurs. They accidently paid the LT twice at least, back in the day when the LT wasn't known until AFTER the season, and teams just had to guess. They were over the LT by $187,000 and by $196,082 and won championships. Now I'm quite sure that extra $200k in salary was obviously the key to winning, but I digress. Their 3rd championship in the LT era was last season, when they didn't pay the LT. The other time they made the Finals but lost was 2013, when they didn't pay the LT. They paid $880k in 2006 and lost in the 2nd round. They paid $8.8 million in LT in 2010, and lost in the 2nd round. They paid $2.5 million in LT in 2012, and lost in the Conference Finals. But just like the LT BS didn't go away, I'm quite curious to see what the new "Bash the Front Office" game will be after the Bulls win another championship? Now there's an interesting conversation. And quite a fun game to play. "Well, they lost 2 games in the Finals" "Well, they only won 58 regular season games, the Championship is meaningless because they only finished 2nd in the East" "Well, they got lucky and only won because (insert team name) gifted GarPax (insert player name) in a trade because (insert other team's GM) is an idiot"
Nobody said any of his imaginary bullshit quotes. It's typical logic fallacy by a clown. See "straw man." You don't have to pay the LT the same season you win, duh. Paying it helps you keep your best players and add more to the roster.
