SB Nation User Blog: fundamentallysound

Boozer staying with Jazz

fundamentallysound — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:11:16 -0000

Boozer staying with Jazz

Another BG domino falls, as one of the Pistons rumored targets is now off the market. Whether they now target Millsap is an open question. I'd be interested in S&T-ing Gordon to the Jazz for Boozer's remaining year. The Bulls could then compete this year and hopefully replace Boozer in FA next summer. Of course, this would require the Bulls to go into the luxury tax, but it would at least give them another asset (a Boozer expiring deal) for a trade for Amare or Bosh. In the meantime, Boozer is one of the best PFs in the league, when healthy.

Official Ben Gordon Appreciation / Maybe Goodbye Thread With BG possibly on the way out tomorrow's...

fundamentallysound — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:52:04 -0000

Official Ben Gordon Appreciation / Maybe Goodbye Thread

With BG possibly on the way out tomorrow's beginning of FA, I thought I'd post this mix and allow people who appreciated BG's Bulls career to discuss it. Don't troll, please.

HUGE Trade: Vince Carter to Orlando John Hollinger Sorry, had to take the call there -- there's a...

fundamentallysound — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:58:34 -0000

HUGE Trade: Vince Carter to Orlando

John Hollinger

Sorry, had to take the call there -- there's a BIG trade brewing --
John Hollinger

Nets and Magic are apparently working on a Vince Carter trade, according to our Chad Ford. Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee and Tony Battie would go to New Jersey.

via Hollinger Chat

[This is lookin quite official -ed.]

Yahoo: Amare to GS for #7 and Biedrins being discussed

fundamentallysound — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:47:40 -0000

Yahoo: Amare to GS for #7 and Biedrins being discussed

"League executives say the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors have discussed a possible trade that is centered around sending Amare Stoudemire to the Warriors for a package that would include Andris Biedrins and the No. 7 pick in the draft."

Welp, if GS offers that, we can kiss Amar'e goodbye. We've got nothing that beats that offer.

REALGM RUMOR: Bucks offer #10 + Junk for Hinrich

fundamentallysound — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:40:18 -0000

REALGM RUMOR: Bucks offer #10 + Junk for Hinrich

Real GM poster claiming to have sources says Skiles wants Hinrich back for Ridnour, Elson, and the #10 pick.

For all the James Johnson proponents out there. Pulled this from Doug's Bull's Confidential site....

fundamentallysound — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:41:00 -0000

video platform video management video solutions free video player

For all the James Johnson proponents out there. Pulled this from Doug's Bull's Confidential site. Pretty good video.

Building a Team that J.R. Should be happy to pay the Luxury Tax for

fundamentallysound — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 18:16:16 -0000

A couple of trade ideas:

Sign and trade BG (deal starting at ~ 9 million) + Tim Thomas to the Nets for Vince Carter. This deal saves the Nets 2010 money (in Tim Thomas departing from the books) and replaces Vinsanity for the future with Gordon. A Devin Harris - Ben Gordon backcourt would be scary and Harris is the rare PG who, like Hinrich, can help masks BG's defensive deficiencies and that offense would be absolutely horrifying to play against. BG would have a field day hitting treys off of Harris's penetration. This is the type of backcourt that the Nets might use to entice a 2010 free agent (maybe LeBron if they still think they have a chance).

The first deal would put the Bulls into the luxury tax, but it would also make them immediately better next year. Vince Carter is a huge 2 guard, and is one of the best defensive 2 guards in the league - despite his reputation for not giving 100% all the time. His 5 year APM had him second amongst all 2's in the league in defensive APM behind only Manu Ginobili. Vince is old, but he's still productive and he's only got next year and the year after on his deal, with an additional year in 2011-12 that is unguaranteed (only 4 million of the 18+ million is guaranteed), so if Vince stinks in 2 years, you cut him and only have to pay him 4 million or you can package him to a team looking to cut a ton of salary and get useful parts back. There are far worse contracts in the league than Vince's and he's still one of the league's best and would be a huge upgrade over Gordon.

Okay, so now that the Bulls are in the luxury tax and have made a big splash, the next piece needs to be added to make the Bulls a legitimate title contender. The Bulls could then offer the Suns: Salmons (probably expiring + useful player), Jerome James (insurance-covered super expiring), Tyrus Thomas, plus our two first round picks for Amare Stoudemire and Jared Dudley. The Suns would probably prefer to have Deng, but Amare seemingly has no interest in re-signing with the Suns, the Suns don't seem to want him back, and he has the eye concerns that I would use to try and strong-arm the Suns. Getting expirings, Tyrus, and picks should be pretty appealing to the Suns.

These deals would give the Bulls a roster of:

PG: Derrick Rose (.58), Kirk Hinrich (1.10)

SG: Vince Carter (4.10), Kirk Hinrich (1.10)

SF: Luol Deng (1.73), Jared Dudley (2.44)

PF: Amar'e Stoudemire (.43), Joakim Noah (6.38)

C: Joakim Noah (6.38), Brad Miller (5.79)

That's a pretty stacked 8 man rotation for next year. I dare say that I'd expect that roster to win the ECF rather easily. There's not a single negative APM contributor in the bunch - the numbers for each are in the parantheses next to them.

Making the logical assumption that the Bulls would actually have to part with Deng in a swap for Amare, I'd have the Bulls do the fabled Blake + Outlaw swap for Kirk. The Bulls would probably have to send out Deng, Tyrus, and Jerome James's deal plus picks for Amare and either Barbosa or some combination of filler players. The Bulls would then end up with this roster lineup for next year:

PG: Derrick Rose (.58), Steve Blake (1.88)

SG: Vince Carter (4.10), Barbosa (-3.04), Salmons (-7.05)

SF: Outlaw (-2.3), Salmons (-7.05)

PF: Amar'e Stoudemire (.43), Joakim Noah (6.38)

C: Joakim Noah (6.38), Brad Miller (5.79)

That team is less awesome than the first team, but I still think it's significantly better than the Bulls team as currently constructed, and would definitely compete for the ECF crown next year. It'd be a team worth paying the tax for, basically.

Now, I don't know if J.R. is actually willing to pay the tax to field a winner, but here's a plan for him to build a contender if he wants it. It's contingent on the Nets actually wanting to part with Vince Carter and BG and Tim Thomas's expiring actually being enough to satisfy them (which upon second glance seems less likely than I originally figured) and on the Bulls actually having the pieces to swing a deal for Amar'e.

Joakim Noah, P-I-M-P?

fundamentallysound — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:48:35 -0000

Joakim Noah, P-I-M-P?

A Night Out with Jo No.

A Comprehensive Plan to Re-Sign Ben Gordon, Stay Under the Luxury Tax, and Stay Competitive

fundamentallysound — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:14:47 -0000

The Bulls would be a better team next year if they didn't lose Ben Gordon. They can afford to lose John Salmons and his ball-stopping offense and overrated defense -- he's a horrible team defender, which is what matters at the NBA level. The first part of this plan would be to trade John Salmons for non-guaranteed contracts. The Spurs reportedly had interest in Salmons around the trade deadline last year. Here's a no brainer deal for the Spurs.

Salmons for the non-guaranteed contracts of Fabricio Oberto and Bruce Bowen. The Spurs desperately need wing scoring, especially given Manu's recent proclivity for injury. The Bulls would then waive Bowen and Oberto as their deals are non-guaranteed -- so sayeth Sham's numbers. The Bulls instantly clear all $ 6,429,151 of Salmons' salary for next year off the books. The Spurs get wing scoring help and a solid one on one defender who they can -- maybe -- mold into a good team defender through Popovich's wizardry, at the very least they could hide him on defense. On top of that, after the Bulls waived Bowen and Oberto's salaries, the Spurs are perfectly welcome to re-sign them to cheaper deals. So the Spurs get Salmons essentially for free.

Now, initially -- given Deng's own proclivity for injury -- you might scream that this is nuts. That's where the second deal comes in to play. I'd offer Hinrich for Outlaw and Blake straight up. This saves the Bulls an additional $1.9 million and allows them to replace Salmons with Outlaw --a younger, better player-- and replace Hinrich with Blake -- a cheaper and therefore, better, option at backup PG.

After making these deals and before signing Gordon or the draft picks -- assuming they signed Demarcus Nelson and Roberson, but let Linton Johnson's non-guaranteed contract go, and brought Aaron Gray back on the QO, the Bulls would be at $57,246,997 in salary for the season. According to this article by Marc Stein, the luxury tax line is estimated to decline this year from $71.15 million this year down to $69.4 million. Assuming the Bulls signed their draft picks at the customary 120% of the rookie salary scale, the 16th pick ($1,594,080) and 26th pick ($1,039,800) would total $2,633,880 in salary. Adding this to the salary already on the books, the Bulls would be at $59,880,877. To offer Gordon a 5 year, $50 million dollar contract, the Bulls would have to offer him $8,264,463 in year one. This would put the Bulls at $68,145,340 or $1,254,660 under the luxury tax -- which would give the Bulls a bit of room to offer Gordon more if 5 years $50 million isn't quite enough. I'd go as high as 5 years $55 million, but I wouldn't go any higher, and I don't think the Bulls could really afford to -- at 5 years, $55 million the Bulls would be right up against the luxury tax with only $428,214 of wiggle room -- not nearly enough if the injury bug strikes and they need to pick someone up. Okay, so now that the finances are dealt with, here's how I'd draft.

I'd target Tyler Hansbrough, Dejuan Blair, or James Johnson at #16, whomever is there and if more than one is, the BPA.

Then with the 26th pick, I'd select a SG that can shoot, someone like Chase Budinger, Wayne Ellington, or Danny Green.

If the Bulls went this route, they'd have a lineup that looked like this next year:

PG: Derrick Rose, Steve Blake, Demarcus Nelson

SG: Ben Gordon, #26 pick , Anthony Roberson

SF: Luol Deng, Outlaw, Tim Thomas

PF: Tyrus Thomas, #16 pick PF , Tim Thomas

C: Noah, Brad Miller, Aaron Gray (re-signed to the QO)

They'd also have Jerome James's expiring deal.

That's 15 players right there, and it's a pretty good rotation. I think that team is better than the one we finished this year with, because Outlaw is better than John Salmons and all the other real contributors, save for Hinrich, are still here.

As an alternative, prior to draft day the Bulls could give the Raptors the following offer for Chris Bosh:

Luol Deng ($9,385,000)

Tyrus Thomas ($3,749,880)

#16th pick

Jerome James's expiring deal ($6,200,000)

Salary sent out: $19,334,880

for

Chris Bosh ($14,410,581)

Marcus Banks' terrible deal ($4,260,000).

Salary coming back: $18,670,581

The Bulls would then have to select a wing with the 26th pick to back up Outlaw --who would move into the starting SF spot with Deng's departure-- possibly Chase Budinger or Sam Young or DaJuan Summers.

That would leave the Bulls looking at this roster:

PG: Derrick Rose, Steve Blake, Marcus Banks, Demarcus Nelson

SG: Ben Gordon, Chase Budinger, Anthony Roberson

SF: Travis Outlaw, Chase Budinger, Tim Thomas

PF: Chris Bosh, Brad Miller, Tim Thomas

C: Joakim Noah, Brad Miller, Aaron Gray (on the QO)

That's a very good starting 5, but the bench -- outside of Brad Miller -- isn't that strong, unless Budinger turns out to be better than expected, and Tim Thomas should be capable off the bench as he has been in the past.

They could also wait and trade for Bosh at the trade deadline depending on the finances -- having the salaries of the draft picks to work with and potentially throw into a trade might be more or less desirable from the Raptors end, I'm not really sure.

What I've come with seems very, very doable and would put the Bulls in the best scenario to recreate their success from last year and stay under the luxury tax. Assuming the Bulls didn't make a Bosh deal, they'd have Brad Miller, Travis Outlaw, Steve Blake, Jerome James, Tim Thomas all coming off the books in the 2010 summer. They'd have money committed to Luol Deng ($11,345,000), Ben Gordon ($9,132,231), Derrick Rose (team option: $ 5,546,160), Joakim Noah (team option: $3,128,536), and Tyrus Thomas (qualifying offer: $6,256,806) for a total of $ 35,408,733 plus the two draft picks from this draft -- #16 ($1,713,600) and #26 ($1,117,680) -- for a grand total of $38,240,013 in committed salary for the 2010-11 season and loads of cap space to go after a max contract level superstar and pieces under contract to make a sign and trade, if necessary, possible. Under the proposed doomsday scenario from the Stein piece, the salary cap in 2010-11 would be at $56,500,000. A max level free agent would be able to sign for about $17 million in the first year under such a situation. The Bulls, under this salary arrangement, would be able to sign a max level free agent and still come in under the cap! Then they would have the space underneath the luxury tax to pursue players with the LLE, MLE, and veteran's minimum and league minimum contracts. Keeping the starting 5 of this current team together while acquiring two (hopefully) productive pieces in this draft along with a max contract level superstar would be huge. It's the dream scenario, and the very plausible steps I've outlined make it possible. It's important to note that in this scenario getting Gordon to sign for 5 years, $50 million is imperative, because if he signs for much more than that it ruins the Bulls chances of getting under the cap enough to offer a max contract -- unless they were to renounce the rights to Tyrus and not sign him to the qualifying offer, which is another option if you're bringing someone like Bosh in, but it's a dicey one, because you'd have to let Tyrus go before you knew for sure that you could sign Bosh or Amare.

Anyway, that's my big plan for the Bulls to keep the core of this team together while getting parts that better fit around Derrick Rose and then to potentially make a run at Chris Bosh and still field a competitive team with what's left over. Sports2 and others that are good at the financial side of things, let me know if I've made any egregious errors in calculation or anything.

Tim Thomas Expresses Interest in Playing for the Celtics

fundamentallysound — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:14:46 -0000

Tim Thomas Expresses Interest in Playing for the Celtics

"The source also said veteran free agent Tim Thomas, 32, is quietly expressing interest in the Celtics. The 6-foot-10-inch, 240-pounder averaged 8.5 points and 3.1 rebounds and shot 41.3 percent from 3-point range with the Clippers, Knicks, and Bulls in 64 games last season. Thomas played with Allen in Milwaukee."

Interesting. Is Thomas expecting a buyout with the Bulls? How would he end up on the Celtics?