Afflalo sees Bulls as good fit

[panthermark]

OK...made you look.

We know we really can't get him...but SI did bring Chicago up by name.

A co-worker shot me this link from SI. We can dream....

http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2011/11 ... ency-more/



SI.com: The Bulls could use some two-way punch at shooting guard. Have you thought about how you’d fit there?

Afflalo: Oh yeah, my agent [Sam Goldfeder] brought that up to me before the lockout. He definitely mentioned the Bulls as a dream that would be great for me based on fit.



And a bit later....

SI.com: There’s a fine line, though, right? You don’t necessarily want to take too big a role in your team’s offense, especially if you’re playing with someone like Derrick Rose.

Afflalo: The key is to be efficient. I’m just trying to figure out how much of my game I can put forth before it’s detrimental to my team. I’m still heading toward the direction of using more of myself, but I will never let it get to the point where I’m trying to be a star but my team is not winning

Title edited - was too sensational - Re

[SoulEater7]

Afflalo would be the perfect fit but you gotta change that title man!

[Rerisen]

Afflalo: The key is to be efficient. I’m just trying to figure out how much of my game I can put forth before it’s detrimental to my team. I’m still heading toward the direction of using more of myself, but I will never let it get to the point where I’m trying to be a star but my team is not winning

That's some great insight from a player right there. Many guys aren't thinking about what is detrimental to their team, but rather if they can get up more shots, it means more points (Hughes, Pargo, Hamilton syndrome...), and thus more money.

AA seems to understand that chucking more shots leads to inefficiency and thus harm for the team.

It pains me to read this stuff when he is so nearly perfect for us and so seemingly unattainable.

Note: We are discussing this in the trades thread, but I'll leave it here too if it generates more specific discussion.

[biggestbullsfan]

Lol, its like the 4th time its been posted today. But He isnt coming here. No way we can afford him without giving up pieces. And if we give up pieces our team wont be as good than if we just signed a SG FA like Smith or Richardson.

[kyrv]

I saw the quotes in another thread, I saw the SI and agent comments, can someone quote where AA says he wants to be a Bull?

[panthermark]

Oops....
Sorry, I have not been in the trade thread for a bit of time...

Afflao would indeed be a perfect fit...

[alucryts]

JR who? If there is any reasonable way to make this man a Bull, I'll go to Denver and pack his bags for him. He is utterly perfect for us. Is there a chance that Afflalo says to Denver "I'm going to Chicago, get what you can and let me go please" even though he is a RFA?

[BuffaloBull]

JR who? If there is any reasonable way to make this man a Bull, I'll go to Denver and pack his bags for him. He is utterly perfect for us. Is there a chance that Afflalo says to Denver "I'm going to Chicago, get what you can and let me go please" even though he is a RFA?

Depending on how the new CBA works out, I'm pretty sure in the old one you could work out sign and trades. That's technically how we got CJ Watson and Boozer last year.

Now there might be some issues about how it would work out contractually, but it would seem feasible. What we couldn't do is sign Afflalo to an offer sheet and then try to work something out with Denver.

Just thinking it out, Denver would have a lot of leverage in this situation, so we'd probably have to give up more than we'd like (Karl loves Afflalo like a second son). So it'd probably take something like Taj (a player I think they could use, like a younger K-mart), Brewer or Bogans+Pargo (to match salaries), and a first. Whether that first is just a garden variety Bulls pick or is the Charlotte pick is where things really get tough. Probably including it is the only way Denver considers the deal...

[Jo Jo English]

The feeling is mutual, Arron.

From these comments it seems he has a good head on his shoulders. Impressive.

[GetBuLLish]

Call me crazy, but money being equal, I'd still rather have JR Smith. Of course, I'd be happy with either. And will be unsurprised when we get neither.

[biggestbullsfan]

I think al of us love the idea of Affalo, but I dont see a deal where we trade for him and become a better team than if we did no trade and signed Richardson/Smith to a MLE contract.

Outside of that, I love the affalo idea.

[JordansBulls]

He would help control our 2nd unit.

[panthermark]

Call me crazy, but money being equal, I'd still rather have JR Smith. Of course, I'd be happy with either. And will be unsurprised when we get neither.

I'd take Afflalo first...
While I think Smith could potentially bring a bit more of what we need....the monster efficiency and defense of AA makes up for it. Plus....you don't really worry about waking up and finding out that Afflalo got arrested.

But....it is a pipe dream. No way Denver gives us Afflalo without bending us over.....

[biggestbullsfan]

One thing I find funny is the trade proposals for Affalo. Everyone see's that not only are we desperate for a reliable SG, but we are SG away from a Dynasty. No one is gonn hand one over to us. Taj and Brewer probably wont get it done. Try that plus Char and Our pick and cash maybe for AA and Harrington. They might do us as bad as Hou tried to.

[bennjuiced34]

We see you as a good fit too, Aaron. In fact, Afflalo is my pipe dream answer at SG. He's just a good all around player that can do a bit of everything and to top it off he's efficient.

[Ben]

One thing I find funny is the trade proposals for Affalo. Everyone see's that not only are we desperate for a reliable SG, but we are SG away from a Dynasty. No one is gonn hand one over to us. Taj and Brewer probably wont get it done. Try that plus Char and Our pick and cash maybe for AA and Harrington. They might do us as bad as Hou tried to.

That's my view as well.

[League Circles]

Unless something changes, I just think it's so ridiculous to talk about Afflalo. I think Denver would most certainly match an MLE offer to him, it's a no-brainer for them. I personally don't want to trade anything for him. I mean, maybe, just maybe you trade Taj for him, but I'd rather take my chances with the guys we have plus one UFA MLE signing than risk depleting our depth like that, especially with our only better PF options being injury prone in Boozer and Noah.

Give me the MLE split between TMac and a 5th big, or use bird rights to resign Kurt to a one year deal and just keep part of the MLE, cause TMac's the best value out there IMO. I think if healthy he's likely to be the best player among he and JRich, etc, and he'll be the cheapest, the best on court fit IMO, and the shortest commitment.

All that said, we should be looking to trade for a SG - just one better than Afflalo. It almost certainly won't happen without including Asik or the Charlotte pick, which I'd only do for a star, but it should be where our efforts lie. If we get to FA without a trade ironed out, just sign TMac, resign Kurt, sign Butler, cut the scrubs and be done with it:

PG: Rose, Watson, TMac
SG: TMac, Brewer, Bogans
SF: Deng, Korver, Butler
PF: Boozer, Taj, Noah
C: Noah, Asik, Kurt

That's 13 guys.

[Rerisen]

One thing I find funny is the trade proposals for Affalo. Everyone see's that not only are we desperate for a reliable SG, but we are SG away from a Dynasty. No one is gonn hand one over to us. Taj and Brewer probably wont get it done. Try that plus Char and Our pick and cash maybe for AA and Harrington. They might do us as bad as Hou tried to.

They may love Afflalo but I don't think he fits on (or is as valuable) to a muskateer team nearly so much as he is being a role player on a great team behind a legit superstar - who can really help him shine. If we offered so many assets, they might have to go for it.

One thing I wouldn't get overly stuck on is Taj. While I am very sympathetic to his value, especially because of Boozer's tendency to get injured, I think it's almost a moot point when it comes down to the brass tacks of winning a title. Which is to say, I don't think we can win a title with a injured Carlos Boozer anyway. Last year was kind of a good test run for that, when Carlos was pretty ineffective and we tried to ride out the end of playoff games with Taj... didn't really work.

When you sign Boozer to 75 million dollars, then you are going to need Boozer to win. It's rather foolish to try and spend on a contingency plan of winning without him, which is where we might end up down the line if we are paying Asik/Taj over 10 million to sit on the bench most of the game. More than likely we just lose one of them for nothing because of the cap situation.

So I'd be willing to offer pretty big for Afflalo, though maybe just one of those two picks. If the new S&T rules are much more flexible, like 200% of salary difference rather than 125% it could help us get creative.

[ManualRam]

Call me crazy, but money being equal, I'd still rather have JR Smith. Of course, I'd be happy with either. And will be unsurprised when we get neither.

that's not crazy. i'd rather have JR too. there's a difference b/t a SG who can score and a SG who can hit open shots. i want a SG who can score. afflalo puts no pressure on the defense.

[Rerisen]

Does Kyle Korver put pressure on a defense? Maybe not in theory, just like AA doesn't in theory, but yet our offense pretty much killed when he was able to stay on the floor. And whether he put pressure on a defense or not, you still had to guard him close, which opened up things for Derrick Rose.

I think there is a great misunderstanding about a building a great offense. It's not about piling up the biggest amount of volume scorers on the same team (LeBron/Wade kind of hinted at that - also some of the lust here for Monta Ellis), but rather squeezing out the best efficiency out of your shots and balancing the load correctly among the team.

While JR Smith is unquestionably a better scorer in a general sense than Afflalo, and could far more easily handle a second option role of say averaging 20 points a game for a team.... if you only need 13 points a game and not 20, Aaron Afflalo is going to create those first 13 points in less shots than JR Smith. Nor do I think JR's ancillary benefits to other players makes up the difference in that efficiency. Because as often as not when guarding JR, it'd be a good idea to give him a little space and let him launch a three outside the offense. Because he will take it too often, at the expense of the offense.

Now if Carlos Boozer misses 30 games, then JR Smith could come in real handy as his volume scoring ability would be able to be utilized for the good of the team. But Afflalo hit on a key point in this very interview. There is a point above which taking more shots begins to hurt your team, and it's beyond question JR is the type of player that violates this line quite a lot.

Now if we could get JR straight away, MLE say, then him and keeping Taj looks like the better choice. At least short term, it still doesn't speak to if Jerry would keep both Taj and Asik down the line though. And we don't know when JR would be free of his contract in China.