Whether or not Mason is waived today doesn't really mean all that much to me. That's a minimum contract. The cost isn't all that big of a deal if they have to eat the full value of it later. Sure, you'd want to realize the savings if you knew that's what you wanted to do, but it's not worth potentially losing him on a waiver claim when he has a decent role as 3rd/Emergency PG; not for a guy who very well can choose another team in two days. That's not a hard contract to move down the line (likely with a conditional 2nd) or, better yet, try (somehow) to trade Joel. No need to do something hasty.
I'm more concerned about a lot of what's said here...
Oh, hey, Andrew Bynum! The Bulls will waive him immediately, he'll clear waivers, and the bidding will begin among Miami, the Clippers, and any other playoff team seeking a rotation big man. I've seen speculation that Bynum is the missing piece Miami needs to ensure continued superiority over the Pacers.
I'm not sure what the Bynum optimists have seen this year. This is a broken player who can barely get up and down the court, can't finish at the rim, and can't move at all on defense. Bynum is shooting 42 percent, a catastrophe for a big man who hangs around the rim. He has hit just 46.8 percent of his chances in the restricted area, a bad mark for a player of any size, and he has compensated by drifting away from the hoop. About 30 percent of Bynum's shot attempts have come between 10 and 19 feet away from the basket this season; about 8 percent of his shots came from that range in his final season with the Lakers. Bynum is a serviceable midrange shooter, but this is a bit much.
He's still a very good offensive rebounder, and he draws double-teams in the post. But some of those double-teams stem from the opponent's belief that it can pressure Bynum into turnovers, since he has never been all that good passing out of double-teams. He's still blocking shots at a decent rate. A large human is a real deterrent at the basket.
But the guy just can't move. Cleveland allows 11 fast-break points per 48 minutes when Bynum sits, and nearly 19 when he plays, per NBA.com. That first number would rank Cleveland among the league's four best teams at preventing fast-break points. The larger number would rank them dead last, by a mile. Bynum single-handedly kills any team's transition defense, and he's helpless moving around the foul line to contain pick-and-rolls. A smart system could leverage what remaining skills he has, and he might help on the glass in the right matchup — and in very small doses. He's better than Byron Mullens, Antawn Jamison, and Ryan Hollins.
But Bynum has looked bad this season. There have been a lot of anonymous potshots about Bynum's enthusiasm for basketball, his work ethic, his passion. Some of that is fair. His demeanor on the court is blasé, and he rarely runs hard. But sources in both Philadelphia and Cleveland maintain Bynum was a monster in his rehab for both teams — that he did everything asked of him, and more, and showed a real desire to get back on the court. Whether he did that for money or love of the game is an open question, but there are people in both franchises who feel Bynum has gotten an unfair shake.
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-trian ... king-ahead
