Wiretap: Bulls Hope To Re-Sign Zach LaVine At $14M-$16M

[WindyCityBorn]

Bulls will match Zach at 20 mil per

Horrible.

Excellent. You will all be praising Zach this time next season.

[WindyCityBorn]

Bulls will match Zach at 20 mil per

As they should. That's about my limit and I think it's worth the gamble there.

[BR0D1E86]

Bulls will match Zach at 20 mil per

Horrible.

Excellent. You will all be praising Zach this time next season.

I’d love to be wrong and have him finally not be a bad basketball player. I’m simply betting against it after four years of hurting his team.

[WindyCityBorn]

https://www.nba.com/bulls/news/thomas_feature_060907.html

You are melting down and Zach hasn't even signed a deal yet. Just digging up articles of past busts? What's your point?

[MisterRoy]

Bulls will match Zach at 20 mil per

Horrible.

Excellent. You will all be praising Zach this time next season.

I will be surprised if this isn't the case.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[SensiBull]

A. "Melting down" is your phrase. I'm not particularly interested in what that means, but, for those who do, you might explain it. Then others can decide for themselves if this is a "melt down."

B. You asked.

So, don't pretend like I'm welcoming myself or indulging the board to go to explain why I'm posting these articles and how they relate to Zach LaVine.

C. These aren't just past busts.

- These aren't just past Bulls busts.

- These aren't just past Bulls busts that the Bulls drafted for exactly the same kind of athletic ability that underpins Zach LaVine's 'inevitable' NBA success.

- These aren't just past Bulls busts that the Bulls drafted for exactly the same kind of athletic ability that underpins Zach LaVine's 'inevitable' NBA success despite comparable histories of injury coming along with that athleticism.

- These are John Paxson's Bulls busts that the Bulls drafted for exactly the same kind of athletic ability that underpins Zach LaVine's 'inevitable' NBA success despite comparable histories of injury coming along with that athleticism.

These will inform Paxon's decision on Zach.

Some of the names that I saw in that Tyrus Thomas story were a real blast from the past and only confirmed for me that the Bulls would be happier to just trade Zach to the West (and Sacramento is just the kind of franchise to have a couple of krugerands in their wastebasket as were the Clippers in decades past.)

Even some names that weren't in these articles too. Stromile Swift. Brandon Roy.

You look around the East, and teams with uber-athletes who already are what people hope Zach LaVine could become, like a John Wall or a DerMarr DeRozan, are producing inferior outcomes to teams led by un-sexy players like Al Horford and Victor Oladipo, who are fundamentally sound basketball players who played below the rim.

Even Ben Simmons is not uber-athletic, and the Celtics won the East in 2017 before signing for Hayward OR trading for Kyrie.

The whole decision is like the Draft Night 2018 Michael Porter, Jr. question.

[TheGOATRises007]

Don't match anything.

Let him walk.

Only thing I'd accept is another 1 year prove it deal.

You are in denial. This the exact scenario that was going to play out when we traded him for while injured. He was never going to proven for deal he wanted. And no I'm not willing to let him walk so we can strike out on Butler, Irving, Thompson and Kawahi and be left holding our balls.

Lavine isn't worth any significant contract.

By all metrics, he's not conducive to winning and is a poor basketball player by NBA standards.

[chrispatrick]

Horrible.

Excellent. You will all be praising Zach this time next season.

I’d love to be wrong and have him finally not be a bad basketball player. I’m simply betting against it after four years of hurting his team.

I have to imagine the track record of players with objectively awful team statistics for 4 years getting much better after having a boatload of money thrown at them is not fantastic.

Giving $20M to a currently bad player is not a good idea.

[Red8911]

If you guys sit and read some pages on this thread, everyone just keeps repeating the same arguments over and over lol. Hope this gets resolved sooner rather than later...

[WindyCityBorn]

Don't match anything.

Let him walk.

Only thing I'd accept is another 1 year prove it deal.

You are in denial. This the exact scenario that was going to play out when we traded him for while injured. He was never going to proven for deal he wanted. And no I'm not willing to let him walk so we can strike out on Butler, Irving, Thompson and Kawahi and be left holding our balls.

Lavine isn't worth any significant contract.

By all metrics, he's not conducive to winning and is a poor basketball player by NBA standards.

The people in charge clearly think he is.

[WindyCityBorn]

If you guys sit and read some pages on this thread, everyone just keeps repeating the same arguments over and over lol. Hope this gets resolved sooner rather than later...

It's the same stuff that has been said since the day of the trade. I'm ready to see it resolved too.

[League Circles]

You are in denial. This the exact scenario that was going to play out when we traded him for while injured. He was never going to proven for deal he wanted. And no I'm not willing to let him walk so we can strike out on Butler, Irving, Thompson and Kawahi and be left holding our balls.

Lavine isn't worth any significant contract.

By all metrics, he's not conducive to winning and is a poor basketball player by NBA standards.

The people in charge clearly think he is.

Is that why there hasn't even been a report of them offering him a contract at all yet?

[WindyCityBorn]

Lavine isn't worth any significant contract.

By all metrics, he's not conducive to winning and is a poor basketball player by NBA standards.

The people in charge clearly think he is.

Is that why there hasn't even been a report of them offering him a contract at all yet?

That's a very poor argument. The title of this thread is a significant contract. Are you implying that a contract won't be offered? Hell Ralph just said they will match $20 million.

[RedBulls23]

At this point who's going to offer Lavine 20 million a year?

Kings can't offer him that much, and the Hawks would be a terrible fit and it's looking like they aren't trying to add long term salary and are trying to build through the draft still.

[WindyCityBorn]

At this point who's going to offer Lavine 20 million a year?

Kings can't offer him that much, and the Hawks would be a terrible fit and it's looking like they aren't trying to add long term salary and are trying to build through the draft still.

Kings have $17 million in cap space and Woj is saying they are serious about an offer. They can offer $80 million over 4 years or very close to it. And then we match...

[League Circles]

The people in charge clearly think he is.

Is that why there hasn't even been a report of them offering him a contract at all yet?

That's a very poor argument. Are you implying that a contract won't be offered? Hell Ralph just said they will match $20 million.

I believe Ralph heard that. I also believe it's been relayed to his sources as likely BS so that one of several things is slightly more likely to happen:

1. Teams don't want to waste their time amd nobody gives him an offer sheet, allowing us to sign him to a 1+1 deal just like we did Niko last year under the same circumstances.

2. A team that really wants him approaches us with at least a decent sign and trade offer instead of trying to sign him outright, which would get us at least a minor asset.

3. A team offers him a huge deal in the hopes we won't match (like over 20mil per year), and we decline to match and let him go without much bad press cause his play to date doesn't in any way justify 20+ mil.

That's what I think their mindset is.

[SensiBull]

I think this has become a vastly different thread than what it was when it started, and, there are LOTS of lurkers out there. I wouldn't be surprised if minds were changed based on things that you or I wouldn't have even noticed.

We don't 'just repeat' the same arguments.

I've tried to offer different evidence for the reasons for my view; and, while some of it is my own opinion, the majority of it is evidence that 'the tea leaves' suggest that GarPax already see it that way too.

It's kind of like the "Maybe he's not that into you" conversations that a lot of women felt they needed to have about men in their lives who weren't 'stepping up.'

To onlookers, all the signs were there.

It wasn't the person conducting the intervention saying that girl was ugly, or that he himself wasn't into her. It was that he could see all the signs that the guy in her life was giving off that HE wasn't impressed, and the talk was to prep her for what seemed like inevitable disappointment.

http://guestofaguest.com/new-york/things-we-love/4-signs-hes-just-not-that-into-you?slide=4

Now, you look at the talent left in the free agent market, and the only player who looks like he might command the kind of money that people are talking about paying Zach is Clint Capela, because he is an important of a piece that came within one game of winning the West.

Even THEY aren't proactively throwing money at Capela.They're standing pat until someone makes an offer too; but, somehow the Bulls will be screwed if they don't 'pop the question' to Zach LaVine?

I don't see it.

[BR0D1E86]

You are in denial. This the exact scenario that was going to play out when we traded him for while injured. He was never going to proven for deal he wanted. And no I'm not willing to let him walk so we can strike out on Butler, Irving, Thompson and Kawahi and be left holding our balls.

Lavine isn't worth any significant contract.

By all metrics, he's not conducive to winning and is a poor basketball player by NBA standards.

The people in charge clearly think he is.

They gave Felicio 32 million dollars last year. I generally support them, but they’re not infallible either.

[Hangtime84]

Zach will quickly go from fan favorite to fan hated at 20 million.

Bulls should walk away we simply tank again for a better wing

[SensiBull]

Everybody else left on the free agent market seems in line for something like Dante Exum or Avery Bradley money, but, somehow, $20MM keeps floating around this board.

You would think that Houston would have already offered at LEAST that to Capela, considering how important he was to their success, and they haven't; but, somehow, the Bulls 'have to' pay Zach $20 MM?