Summer Plan w/ Cap Space?

[League Circles]

Plans should always have two components.

Impact of said plan. And you multiply that by the probability of having said plan materialize.

Thats why I am not BIG on planning for Zion. If you "luck into him" then great, but thats not a plan.

Most realistic plan is picking at #4. Thats Ja Morant. And he also fills a need at PG. And he's probably BPA at #4. We know that the Bulls will typically draft for BPA and not FIT. This seems to be one of the rare occasions when both those things coincide. Ja Morant is going #2 right now in many draft sites. However, he is from a smaller program and that will cause him to drop back down to #4 or even #5. Thats perfect for us.

We will keep Arci and we will probably not keep Selden unless he's dirt cheap. I think the roster needs the following desperately:

1) Starting PG ( Morant isnt there yet, assuming we get him)
2) SG off the bench (Valentine could be that, but we will trade him easily if we need to)
3) An SF/PF combo player ( which is why I have been talking about Casspi for a while now. He's injured but we can get him cheap)
4) A backup PF/C (assuming Felicio gets traded..which he should but it will be tough so I dont think we will spend assets to do so)

You absolutely need the following combo's:

1) A PG-SG combo player
2) An SG-SF combo player ( which is the ONLY reason why you would want to give Valentine another season cause he's cheap)
3) A PF-C player who is second string (so, no Robin re-signing)
4) A third string SF-PF ( Otto can play PF, but its better he plays at SF for a majority of the minutes)

Of those, the largest needs are PG-SG combo and PF-C combo.

Trade for Etwaun Moore (#34 +Blakeney should be enough) - Combo guard problem solved.
Sign Taj Gibson for his last contract at 12 Million - Combo big man problem solved.

That leaves you with:

Morant / Etwaun / Arci
Lavine / Valentine / Etwaun
Otto / Hutch / Valentine
Lauri / Taj / Felicio
Wendell / Taj / Lauri

Thats 11 players on your roster. All of whom (minus Felicio) can start in a pinch in case of an injury. Add Casspi for the room MLE and you're sitting pretty with a deep roster of 3 point shooting, speedy players with several active defenders spread throughout.

Theres also a healthy dose of vet depth with Taj + Otto + Etwaun. 2 of whom are returning Bulls players. With the team keys being given to Lauri and Lavine. And Morant as the ace in the hole for 2021 in his sophomore year.

Thats how we make the playoffs next season and the second round the season after.

You want to blow nearly 20 mil of cap space on zero impact players? If Morant sucks which is a huge possibility that team may go nowhere.

[musiqsoulchild]

Plans should always have two components.

Impact of said plan. And you multiply that by the probability of having said plan materialize.

Thats why I am not BIG on planning for Zion. If you "luck into him" then great, but thats not a plan.

Most realistic plan is picking at #4. Thats Ja Morant. And he also fills a need at PG. And he's probably BPA at #4. We know that the Bulls will typically draft for BPA and not FIT. This seems to be one of the rare occasions when both those things coincide. Ja Morant is going #2 right now in many draft sites. However, he is from a smaller program and that will cause him to drop back down to #4 or even #5. Thats perfect for us.

We will keep Arci and we will probably not keep Selden unless he's dirt cheap. I think the roster needs the following desperately:

1) Starting PG ( Morant isnt there yet, assuming we get him)
2) SG off the bench (Valentine could be that, but we will trade him easily if we need to)
3) An SF/PF combo player ( which is why I have been talking about Casspi for a while now. He's injured but we can get him cheap)
4) A backup PF/C (assuming Felicio gets traded..which he should but it will be tough so I dont think we will spend assets to do so)

You absolutely need the following combo's:

1) A PG-SG combo player
2) An SG-SF combo player ( which is the ONLY reason why you would want to give Valentine another season cause he's cheap)
3) A PF-C player who is second string (so, no Robin re-signing)
4) A third string SF-PF ( Otto can play PF, but its better he plays at SF for a majority of the minutes)

Of those, the largest needs are PG-SG combo and PF-C combo.

Trade for Etwaun Moore (#34 +Blakeney should be enough) - Combo guard problem solved.
Sign Taj Gibson for his last contract at 12 Million - Combo big man problem solved.

That leaves you with:

Morant / Etwaun / Arci
Lavine / Valentine / Etwaun
Otto / Hutch / Valentine
Lauri / Taj / Felicio
Wendell / Taj / Lauri

Thats 11 players on your roster. All of whom (minus Felicio) can start in a pinch in case of an injury. Add Casspi for the room MLE and you're sitting pretty with a deep roster of 3 point shooting, speedy players with several active defenders spread throughout.

Theres also a healthy dose of vet depth with Taj + Otto + Etwaun. 2 of whom are returning Bulls players. With the team keys being given to Lauri and Lavine. And Morant as the ace in the hole for 2021 in his sophomore year.

Thats how we make the playoffs next season and the second round the season after.

You want to blow nearly 20 mil of cap space on zero impact players? If Morant sucks which is a huge possibility that team may go nowhere.

Morant, Etwaun and even Arci are better fits at PG than is Dunn.

While Dunn maybe the better basketball player at this time, we dont need that. We need a PG who creates offense for himself and for others.

Spending 17 Million dollars of cap space ( because we keep Valentine in this iteration) on Taj + Etwaun isnt half bad when you consider that youre adding a 4th pick.

This is the Otto Porter route. Not the Kevin Durant route. Like I said, take outcomes and multiple them by probability of said outcomes being in OUR control.

You end up with a staid, first round playoff team. Not sexy. But substantial. Like Lisa Ling or Christiane Amanpour.

[TheJordanRule]

Plans should always have two components.

Impact of said plan. And you multiply that by the probability of having said plan materialize.

Thats why I am not BIG on planning for Zion. If you "luck into him" then great, but thats not a plan.

Most realistic plan is picking at #4. Thats Ja Morant. And he also fills a need at PG. And he's probably BPA at #4. We know that the Bulls will typically draft for BPA and not FIT. This seems to be one of the rare occasions when both those things coincide. Ja Morant is going #2 right now in many draft sites. However, he is from a smaller program and that will cause him to drop back down to #4 or even #5. Thats perfect for us.

We will keep Arci and we will probably not keep Selden unless he's dirt cheap. I think the roster needs the following desperately:

1) Starting PG ( Morant isnt there yet, assuming we get him)
2) SG off the bench (Valentine could be that, but we will trade him easily if we need to)
3) An SF/PF combo player ( which is why I have been talking about Casspi for a while now. He's injured but we can get him cheap)
4) A backup PF/C (assuming Felicio gets traded..which he should but it will be tough so I dont think we will spend assets to do so)

You absolutely need the following combo's:

1) A PG-SG combo player
2) An SG-SF combo player ( which is the ONLY reason why you would want to give Valentine another season cause he's cheap)
3) A PF-C player who is second string (so, no Robin re-signing)
4) A third string SF-PF ( Otto can play PF, but its better he plays at SF for a majority of the minutes)

Of those, the largest needs are PG-SG combo and PF-C combo.

Trade for Etwaun Moore (#34 +Blakeney should be enough) - Combo guard problem solved.
Sign Taj Gibson for his last contract at 12 Million - Combo big man problem solved.

That leaves you with:

Morant / Etwaun / Arci
Lavine / Valentine / Etwaun
Otto / Hutch / Valentine
Lauri / Taj / Felicio
Wendell / Taj / Lauri

Thats 11 players on your roster. All of whom (minus Felicio) can start in a pinch in case of an injury. Add Casspi for the room MLE and you're sitting pretty with a deep roster of 3 point shooting, speedy players with several active defenders spread throughout.

Theres also a healthy dose of vet depth with Taj + Otto + Etwaun. 2 of whom are returning Bulls players. With the team keys being given to Lauri and Lavine. And Morant as the ace in the hole for 2021 in his sophomore year.

Thats how we make the playoffs next season and the second round the season after.

You want to blow nearly 20 mil of cap space on zero impact players? If Morant sucks which is a huge possibility that team may go nowhere.

Morant, Etwaun and even Arci are better fits at PG than is Dunn.

While Dunn maybe the better basketball player at this time, we dont need that. We need a PG who creates offense for himself and for others.

Spending 17 Million dollars of cap space ( because we keep Valentine in this iteration) on Taj + Etwaun isnt half bad when you consider that youre adding a 4th pick.

This is the Otto Porter route. Not the Kevin Durant route. Like I said, take outcomes and multiple them by probability of said outcomes being in OUR control.

You end up with a staid, first round playoff team. Not sexy. But substantial. Like Lisa Ling or Christiane Amanpour.

First of all, I like Morant a lot too Musiq. So I'm co-signing on Morant over anyone not named Zion. But I can't co-sign with your current game plan just yet. IMHO we have to consolidate the cap space for a core player first. That's what's substantial: finding an actual a starter to move forward with. Finding quality role players can be done for much less or even through vet minimums. The difference between an Etwaun Moore and a Jerryd Bayless in terms of impact is negligible. But you can't find quality starters for the vet minimum. And basketball, more than perhaps any other sport, depends most heavily on your starting 5.

[drosestruts]

While I enjoy day dreaming about our roster next season as much as the next person I was recently thinking of what a more scaled back, simple summer may look like. I like everyone else would love trades/free agent signings/and draft picks that all fit our team perfectly but there's a lot of competing factors out there making this difficult.

So while the below isn't a dream scenario, I think it's something to could happen.

Trade:

Kris Dunn and Denzel Valentine for Nemanja Bjelica

With Bagley Bjelica will in time be a bench player on a Sacramento team that already has decent depth in it's front court, a place where they could use cost controlled depth however is there back court - hence this trade. Sacramento gets a backup 1 and 2 while Chicago gets a backup 4 that can play with both Lauri and Wendell.


Draft:

This largely depends where we land in the lottery but my "the Bulls go full Paxson pick is" De'Andre Hunter. A 6'7" wing with a 7'2" wingspan that can guard multiple positions and has a developing offensive game. Hunter is a winning player with good offensive (albeit limited) efficiency.

In the second round we stick with the Virgina theme and draft Ty Jerome - a 6'5" point guard with great shooting and a great assist to turnover ratio.


Free Agency:

with the above trades and draft picks the Bulls have 10 players under contract and about $18 million in cap space. I think the Bulls go value shopping here trying to add solid vets for depth and re-signing some of their current free agents.

Ryan Archidiacano - he plays well with our starters. Bulls give him 2 years $8M total.

Trey Burke - spark plug type guard 2 years $6M total

Wayne Selden Jr - I've enjoyed his play with us so far would re-sign him to 1 year vet min. would compete with Hutch and Hunter for wing minutes - may the best man play

Robin Lopez - I previously wasn't sold on keeping Rolo around but I think his play and leadership make him a worthwhile target to stay. 1-year $8.5M

Dragan Bender - 1+1 (team option) year vet min. - this guy has basically played himself out of the league but let's not act like Phoenix isn't a mess. Pretty much he's my potential change of scenery signing.


Team:

Archidiacano/Burke/Jerome
LaVine/Hunter/Blakeney
Porter/Hutchison/Selden
Markkanen/Bjelica/Bender
Carter/Lopez/Felicio

It's not going to light up the phone lines at the season ticket office, but just trying to ground my own expectations some and take a look at what may be considered an underwhelming but realistic offseason for the Bulls.

[Chi town]

I think Pax will draft a PG and sign/trade for a PG.

Vet PG...
Conley (Felicio, Dunn, Future 1st or 2nds)
Bev, Rubio, Brogdon etc.

Draft...
Morant or Garland
Coby White (Dunn and 36 or trade back from 9ur 1st)
Cassius Winston or Ponds or Howard

If we get Conley or Brogdon we will be 5-6 Seed next season.
If we get Conley/Brogdon and grab Morant, Garland, or White... we could be really dangerous.

[GimmeDat]

Stephen Noh made a great suggestion of Tomas Satoransky. Super efficient, high IQ, can play the 1 or 2, can play on or off ball, etc. He's like a lower scoring volume version of the Brogdon archetype, honestly. In fact, just jumping over to the Wizards board now, they've got a thread arguing that the stats suggest that the Sato/Beal combo in 18/19 has been more effective than the peak of the Wall/Beal combo (16/17). How much you agree with that idea or not, I think it's evidence enough that Sato is a damn good player and is a great fit next to high volume SG, of which Lavine and Beal are of a similar archetype.

Maybe they try and get a bigger name at PG, or maybe they try and keep Sato, idk, but if we can make them not match, I think he'd be an excellent selection at PG. If it's 7-10m range, I think he's almost my 1st choice. It's a price point where he can come in and effectively be the starting PG, but also slide back in to a versatile 3rd guard playing the 1 and 2 off the bench without being some overpriced 2nd unit player.

Here's an example of a deep, balanced roster we could put out next season. Signing Sato gives you leftover cap to sign someone like Taj, assuming we're at 4 (I know, I want to be top 3 like everyone else but being a realist here) take Culver, and I've taken Bazley at 37 because we could do with another PF, then we'd be balanced.

Satoransky / Dunn / Arci
Lavine / Culver / Valentine
Porter / Hutchison / Culver
Markkanen / Gibson / Bazley
Carter Jr. / Gibson / Felicio

[Axolotl]

I like Satoransky, he seems underappreciated to me.

[sco]

Stephen Noh made a great suggestion of Tomas Satoransky. Super efficient, high IQ, can play the 1 or 2, can play on or off ball, etc. He's like a lower scoring volume version of the Brogdon archetype, honestly. In fact, just jumping over to the Wizards board now, they've got a thread arguing that the stats suggest that the Sato/Beal combo in 18/19 has been more effective than the peak of the Wall/Beal combo (16/17). How much you agree with that idea or not, I think it's evidence enough that Sato is a damn good player and is a great fit next to high volume SG, of which Lavine and Beal are of a similar archetype.

Maybe they try and get a bigger name at PG, or maybe they try and keep Sato, idk, but if we can make them not match, I think he'd be an excellent selection at PG. If it's 7-10m range, I think he's almost my 1st choice. It's a price point where he can come in and effectively be the starting PG, but also slide back in to a versatile 3rd guard playing the 1 and 2 off the bench without being some overpriced 2nd unit player.

Here's an example of a deep, balanced roster we could put out next season. Signing Sato gives you leftover cap to sign someone like Taj, assuming we're at 4 (I know, I want to be top 3 like everyone else but being a realist here) take Culver, and I've taken Bazley at 37 because we could do with another PF, then we'd be balanced.

Satoransky / Dunn / Arci
Lavine / Culver / Valentine
Porter / Hutchison / Culver
Markkanen / Gibson / Bazley
Carter Jr. / Gibson / Felicio

I like Sato over Rubio, Collison, Rose or Rondo - especially if we can get him for $10M. I'd still take Brogdon over him, but given the likely price, it would be close.

[drosestruts]

I also like Satoransky but as a restricted free agent I'm not sure how we get him. At the 7-10 million mentioned above I think Washington easily matches.

[NDave79]

Maybe this should go in the draft thread (and mods please feel free to move it if it is more appropriate there) since it is specifically related to what I want us to do if we are lucky enough to draft Zion, but I thought it made more sense here.

I posted before about moving Lauri right away if we got Zion, but I'm now leaning towards patience and seeing what we have and how different players mesh before making any big moves.

Maybe Zion ends up being some crazy hybrid of Barkley and Ben Wallace and redefines the center position (I've heard Wes Unseld was actually around 6'5" barefoot) and can handle it on a regular basis.

I would hate to give up Lauri if this developed. Plus, we would want to surround Zion with shooters. Despite both of them probably being 4's, Lauri is one of the better shooting young bigs in the league (despite his current slump) and their skill sets are completely different.

WCJ might also be an amazing fit with Zion if he can start knocking down 3's at a good clip (at least the corner 3).

I think we basically know what we have in Porter, but considering his trade value and skill set, I think he is a keeper to fit next to Zion.

Maybe Zion isn't as good as I predict and our best move is to keep our current front court and use Zion in a trade to find our PG. If Lauri can permanently become "February Lauri", Zion is going to have to become a total stud to be the obvious choice over him.

I think we have enough front court minutes next year to see what we have and see how the players develop and mesh with each other. I would try and create a rotation that basically gives all of the 144 front court minutes to Porter, Lauri, WCJ, Zion and Hutch assuming they are all injury free. Maybe even experiment with Porter playing some 2.

I think my strategy for PG would make a hard push for Conley and then use either WCJ or Lauri as the centerpiece of a trade to find our future PG once we have determined the front court we want to roll with going forward.

Conley can shoot, play defense and run a team. He seems like a great locker room guy and an excellent vet leader. If we got Zion, I like his fit for the next couple of years more than Holiday due to his superior shooting, plus I would imagine he would demand less in a trade due to being a few years older. I know Memphis seemed to be asking for a lot for him around the trade deadline, but I think they know they need to trade him soon to get any value and I can't see any team offering a crazy amount for a really solid pg in his early 30's who makes so much money.

[StunnerKO]

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[kodo]

I'd be shocked if Brooklyn doesn't match $18M-$20M.

This is the team that has consistently overpaid FA's in hopes of getting young guards to their team.
Tyler Johnson, $19M per year for 4 years.
Allen Crabbe, $19M per year for 4 years.
Gordon Hayward, Max.
Otto Porter, Max. They are the sole reason why Porter gets as much as he does.

And then all of a sudden they get cheap on a guy already on their team? Just doesn't make any sense to me.

[Chi town]

Trade Dunn Felicio and our pick swap 4 to MEM 7 for Conley.

Draft Garland to be mentored by Conley.

Conley/Garland/Arch
Lavine/Val/Shaq
Otto/Hutch/2nd Round Pick
Lauri/Otto
WCJ/Vet Min

That’s a 48-50 win team

[Chi town]

I'd be shocked if Brooklyn doesn't match $18M-$20M.

This is the team that has consistently overpaid FA's in hopes of getting young guards to their team.
Tyler Johnson, $19M per year for 4 years.
Allen Crabbe, $19M per year for 4 years.
Gordon Hayward, Max.
Otto Porter, Max. They are the sole reason why Porter gets as much as he does.

And then all of a sudden they get cheap on a guy already on their team? Just doesn't make any sense to me.

Of course they will. Dlo is there to stay. I take Lavine over him all day too.

[sco]

I'd be shocked if Brooklyn doesn't match $18M-$20M.

This is the team that has consistently overpaid FA's in hopes of getting young guards to their team.
Tyler Johnson, $19M per year for 4 years.
Allen Crabbe, $19M per year for 4 years.
Gordon Hayward, Max.
Otto Porter, Max. They are the sole reason why Porter gets as much as he does.

And then all of a sudden they get cheap on a guy already on their team? Just doesn't make any sense to me.

Yeah, I have a hard time thinking Russell shouldn't be getting his full max from someone, but would still expect Nets to match.

[ThreeMileAllan]

I cant be the only one who thinks that hopes the Bulls find a way to keep Lemon next year.

I personally would rather have Lemon than Dunn or Blakeney for next years roster right now. Trade Dunn for a backup big, for real. I wish Dunn the best, he has the smoothest skin in the nba and its not even close to whoever #2 is. But his place is not with the Bulls. Maybe Orlando or San Antonio can make something of the kid

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Bulldog23]

I'd be shocked if Brooklyn doesn't match $18M-$20M.

This is the team that has consistently overpaid FA's in hopes of getting young guards to their team.
Tyler Johnson, $19M per year for 4 years.
Allen Crabbe, $19M per year for 4 years.
Gordon Hayward, Max.
Otto Porter, Max. They are the sole reason why Porter gets as much as he does.

And then all of a sudden they get cheap on a guy already on their team? Just doesn't make any sense to me.

Yeah, I have a hard time thinking Russell shouldn't be getting his full max from someone, but would still expect Nets to match.

Only way the Nets don't match Russel if there are two max free agents coming to town.

[Bulldog23]

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I like Russel on the Bulls team. I think he would be a great fit next to Lavine because he can shoot and pass. The pick and roll at the top with Laurie and Porter will be amazing with Russel. Russel like you guys mentioned before...will probably get matched by the Nets just based on history. I would think the only way they don't match him is if they got two max free agents. I wonder if it is possible for Nets to consider trading Russel for the Bulls 1st round pick? A lot of things would probably have to go there way for that to happen?

[Bulldog23]

So my suggested plan would be...to do the following:

Convince Charlotte to send Cody Zeller for a salary dump or a 2nd round pick. Cody would be a great big man to rotate with WCJ and Laurie. I think he comes at a bargain and is pretty good defender. I figure Charlotte wants to use the extra money to sign Kemba. Or you make an attempt to go after Willie Cauley-Stein, who may cost you upward $17 million over 5 years, but Cody is cheaper at $13 million over 3 years. I want Carter to come of the bench for a few years. He is still young and the Bulls could make a playoff push. I think either one of the two mentioned would be an upgrade to Lopez.

Point guard has to be upgraded; so there are a lot of options (1) if you keep Dunn maybe trade the pick for Conley out right.
(2) Go after Russel with near max see if he bits (3) maybe a veteran option in either this Tomas guy mentioned above, or Darren via free agency.

This free agency will be interesting to see if the Bulls are going to make moves to go into the playoffs next year...

[Dan Z]

I think Pax will draft a PG and sign/trade for a PG.

Vet PG...
Conley (Felicio, Dunn, Future 1st or 2nds)
Bev, Rubio, Brogdon etc.

Draft...
Morant or Garland
Coby White (Dunn and 36 or trade back from 9ur 1st)
Cassius Winston or Ponds or Howard

If we get Conley or Brogdon we will be 5-6 Seed next season.
If we get Conley/Brogdon and grab Morant, Garland, or White... we could be really dangerous.

What are Winston's prospects with the NBA? I don't see him on any draft lists.