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The Bulls Passed on Trading Hinrich, Trading For Amareby Ricky O'Donnell on February 1 at 2:06PM
 When you factor in that the road trip made Rose an All-Star, brought Hinrich, Miller and Salmons back from the dead, and gave us the best play of the season, I don't think I was being hyperbolic when I told the Twitterz I give this road trip an A+++++++++. We also got some other big Bulls news this week that could be good or bad, depending on how you feel about the longview of the franchise and the people calling the shots. Last season, the Bulls could have traded for Amare Stoudemire, but declined. Earlier this season, they could have traded Hinrich to the Celtics for expiring contracts, but declined. Did you hear that the Bulls also entertained the idea of bringing back Andres Nocioni? It's true. The Bulls: still in love with their old "core". Stop me if you've heard this one before. It's kind of funny, sort of depressing. But if Chris Duhon is the backup point guard on this team next season, I quit. Let's tackle the Amare stuff first. From the Daily Herald: "Is Amare worthy of a max contract" is a great discussion. Stoudemire is a deadly efficient scorer, but he's always played with Steve Nash and in PHX's uptempo run-and-gun system. He's an above average rebounder but an unmistakeably miserable defender. He's had a myriad of injuries problems already, and he'll turn 28 next November. So yeah, Amare really isn't a slam dunk. Is he worth a max contract? I think so, but I won't bash the Bulls too much for passing on the trade. As Doug from Bulls Confidential notes, this roster would look much different had that trade gone down. So first, the Bulls passed on Amare for multiple 1sts, Tyrus and Thabo. We would have also had to have moved Gooden in that deal to match salary, so you couldn't do the Noc/Gooden for Brad/Salmons swap anymore which Sacramento only did to save money on Gooden vs Miller. We also wouldn't have Taj Gibson and James Johnson [Taj was acquired for Thabo, Johnson would have been the pick traded].The list of guys I would take over Amare this offseason is short: LeBron, Wade, Bosh, in order. Something else important to remember here: while we all love fiscal responsibility, the Bulls have to spend their money this offseason. Cap space in the NBA doesn't roll over. Once Noah signs a phat extension, all free agent plans will be foiled. Here's what I'm scared of: the Bulls get stuck paying Joe Johnson or Carlos Boozer $15 million annually when they could have had Amare for $18 million. I know everyone hates the idea of overpaying to get talent, but you've got to do it sometimes. If we're only talking a few million dollars between Amare and Boozer-Johnson, I think the Bulls have to go for Amare. Who cares if he's a true "max player"? You're trying to win titles, not negotiations. Now for Kirk-to-the-Celtics. From SI, via Blog-a-Bull:
Two funny things here: a) the Celtics trying to trade for a white guy (the fans will love him!), and b) Paxon/Reinsdorf/Forman holding on to their favorite son, cap space be damned. Again, you can argue both ways with this, but I'm not going to kill the Bulls for this one either. Hinrich is probably a $6 million player making $8.5 million the final two years of his contract. I feel the same way about Deng: overpaid, but who isn't? Don't hate the player for taking more money than they're worth from the old white people who are willing to dish out the dough. More importantly: the Bulls don't need to trade Hinrich to assure max cap space, all they need to do is dump John Salmons for expirings. Do that, and you can get LeBron-Wade-whoever. As I detailed last week, though, if the Bulls ship out both Salmons and Hinrich, they're close to being able to sign two max guys. So did the Bulls make a mistake? We'll see. Since the Bulls always make mistakes, it's hard to give them the benefit of the doubt. But if Amare signs here in July without the Bulls having to give up any assets, they'll look like geniuses. If they somehow get Wade or Bosh, even better. This stuff is so much more interesting than plain, old basketball, am I right? |
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nice post. i would love to deal both kirk and john and get all that cap room. couple whoever we get with rose, deng, noah and taj, and we will be nasty for years to come! let's just hope we don't end up with eddie robinson again! go bulls!
Bulls are smart to pass on Amare in my opinion. Yes he can score down low, but he provides no toughness, no defense and he doesn't care about winning (He said last week he'd be interested in playing with the Nets). If the Bulls can't sign 'Bron, Wade, Bosh or Joe Johnson, they'd be better off bringing in a couple of mid-level players than giving Amare the max.
D-Rose and Amar'e would be so much athletic beastness. It'd be kinda cool.
But my favorite part was when you made fun of old white people.
Excellent breakdown Ricky. Depressed me though. Kirk is untradeble and that means the are gonna blow it. I hated to see Oak Tree leave the Bulls, but it was a stroke of genious on Krause's part. Paxson was a fan favorite, but Ron Harper was better. As a diehard fan I only care about the big picture. But I know the owners only care about the bottom line. And the average knucklehead Bulls/Cubs fan only cares about seeing Kirk and looking up at the jumbo tron. They have season tickets, sit in the front rows, have on new gear, get everything at the concessions and leave at half-time.
Why you hatin' so much on Boozer? I know you are enamored with freakish talent, but I feel that even if they couldn't get Bosh or Wade, Boozer made more sense than Amare, for mainly the reasons listed in Eli's comment. If they stick with Vinny next year, which is looking incredibly more likely, could you picture a lazy self-absorbent, greedy guy like AS playing for him? That would ruin chemistry of a team that for whatever reason, plays with respect to its coaching staff.
Boozer's 2009-10 line: 19.2ppg/10.7reb/3.3ast/1.1stl/.5blk
Amare's line: 20.9ppg/8.3reb/1ast/.5stl/1blk
They're the same player except that Amare has a pass-first point guard while Deron Williams probably Utah's top scoring option.
Phil, Eli:
Like I said, Amare isn't a no-brainer, but man, I'd much rather have him than JJ/Boozer. It's much harder to find guys who do what Amare does than it is to find guys who do what Johnson does. If they end up giving JJ 15+ million (remember, he turned down 15 mil a year from Atlanta this offseason), then they shoulda just re-signed Gordon. Johnson is better than Gordon for sure, but when you factor in a) Gordon would command three or four million less a year, b) the Bulls would have had Gordon for this season, and c) Johnson is two years older......
If Joe Johnson is the big "2010 free agent prize", I'll be kind of bummed.
To Boozer: he's good, no doubt, but he's got his faults, too. Part of your aversion to Amare seems be center around the fact that he's a bad dude (hmmm), but Booz is no saint, either. He stabbed a blind man in the back to get to Utah! And he's a shitty defender, too. The difference in D between Boozer and Amare is negligible. And no one would argue that Amare is more skilled/more efficient offensively. And I know Amare has had injury problems, but Boozer's have been as bad/probably worse.
To Amare: Eli sez "he doesn't care about winning (He said last week he'd be interested in playing with the Nets)". Phil sez "lazy self-absorbent, greedy" "(W)ould ruin chemistry"
Um, I think you guys are overdoing it. A ton. Maybe Amare wants to go to the Nets because he thinks he could make them good when teamed with Bro-Pez/D-Harris? Maybe he sees Nash's age and some of the other bone-headed moves Steve Kerr has made, and just wants to flee PHX.
All of those adjectives you guys threw at him are really heavy, and I don't think many people who agree that they're especially accurate.
I agree they are similar in multiple aspects of their game, that is why I am not sure why you're doggin' him so much. Amare is more athletic yes, but it doesn't appear to have made a difference in the numbers. JJ is a different story and as bad as this sounds, signing JJ would be a failure.
Haha. I don't think I'm doggin' him that much. I said he's good...but if the difference between Big Poppa Booz and Amare is three mil, gimme Amare.
Bosh is by far the best option this side of LeBron coming out of this class. He is by far the beat lowpost scorer with outside game in the league. He is like a Tim Duncan light, but not too far behind, put him on those Spurs teams and I don't think they miss too much, though his D isn't up to the level of Mr No Emotion, his inside outside post game is right up there in best in show. Throw the books at him and watch a beautiful pick and roll offense with D Rose flourish for many years to come. Ide also like to ship off Deng for Tysean Prince, love his D and length, it makes him the only viable guy in the league to slow down Bron (who won't leave Cleveland), add a solid shooting guard above 6'5" who can knock down shots and play some D and you have the best team in the east matched up with Cleveland. Starting line up of Rose, Rip Hamilton/ Michael Finley esc guard, Prince, Bosh and noah with hinrich as 6th man taj Gibson James Johnson John Salmons and a midlevel fronting the bench, I see a title and others to come as this free agency period begins to break teams cohesion as many changes seam to be coming
I love professional athletes. They crack me up.
For instance, guess who just got religion?
Come on ... three guesses.
Give up?
Gilbert Arenas!
Seems that he's turning over a new leaf, and he now really, REALLY thinks that guns and violence are bad. (bad guns ... BAD!)
Yeah, well I kinda felt that way about pussy and sex after my second wife caught me cheating on her, so I can relate.
I'd have more respect for the guy if he had told Stern to fuck off, and said his only regret was that he didn't shoot his cheating welch of a team mate.
That would be better than trying to sell everyone the load of crap that he's currently peddling.
Ricky Hates Carlos Boozer.