T.H.T. plans

[eierluke]

I know, it appears he came up big in just 2 meaningless games at the end of the season, so yes he ain't jesus.
But he has a special talent, he knows to put the ball in the baskes/ to make it to the freethrow line and we have a lack of pure scorers on our bench filled with guys like Ayo, who is just an allrounder or Carter who is an (undersized) 3 pt shooter or Terry who tries to find a niche as a defensive specialist ...
I'd like to resign him for small money, even if that probably means to cut the warranted contract of Philips.

[WesPeace]

I dont think Bulls would do that, cut Phillips who we need more, just to sign occasional bench spark plug.
THT can play guard or SF, but we are overcrowded there, Jones, Ayo, Ball missing. Giddey, Jones should be priority to re-sign and bring back.

THT should go to Europe..

[eierluke]

I dont think Bulls would do that, cut Phillips who we need more, just to sign occasional bench spark plug.
THT can play guard or SF, but we are overcrowded there, Jones, Ayo, Ball missing. Giddey, Jones should be priority to re-sign and bring back.

THT should go to Europe..

1) For what purpose do we need Phillips, will he ever be a reliable rotation player on a winning (=>.50) team? Does he have a niche, is he already good in anything?
2) Who else on our roster can create his own shot aside from White and to a minor degree Giddey?

[Dez]

God no, he's a black-hole on offense.

[Jcool0]

FYI April fools was yesterday.

[sco]

Good OP!

He is effective in his role as off-the-bench scorer. I'd prefer to keep him over other Terry, Carter or PWill, but those guys are under contract next season. I guess if we lose Jones, there may be a spot, but IMO, we have bigger needs.

[League Circles]

He's good at what he does, but what he does isn't important for an nba team.

[sco]

He's good at what he does, but what he does isn't important for an nba team.

IDK, he is a pretty decent bench scorer, who can get his own baskets in iso situations. You could put 4 good defenders out there with him and give your starters some rest and likely keep even.

[dougthonus]

He's a below slightly below league average efficiency, volume scorer with no other real benefits.

It's fine if you have room for him on the end of the bench, it doesn't hurt to have a guy like that if you have some injuries and need a guy whom can just generate offense situationally, but I don't see him as adding a lot of value.

[MGB8]

He's a below slightly below league average efficiency, volume scorer with no other real benefits.

It's fine if you have room for him on the end of the bench, it doesn't hurt to have a guy like that if you have some injuries and need a guy whom can just generate offense situationally, but I don't see him as adding a lot of value.

The Bulls could use an on-ball scorer in reserve, though. Huerter is more an off ball guy, no?

This goes to the larger issue of roster construction. Anyway, I’d keep him for cheap - but IMO Phillips for cheap may have more value as a reserve defensive forward to push Pat for minutes (and hedge against Pat injuries).

[League Circles]

Yeah if we had several roster spots clear I'd be OK with considering him to return, but we probably have one at most available that should probably either go to Jones, our 2nd round pick, or a modest FA pickup. I suppose I'd be OK cutting Phillips in general but not for the purpose of signing THT.

[dougthonus]

Without waiving anyone, we have all 15 roster spots full right now if we keep both our 1st and 2nd rounder draft picks and give them roster spots. For the 2nd rounder, you might consider a draft and stash or you might simply trade out of it.

Giddey
Coby
Matas
Vuc
Collins
Huerter
Smith
Ball
Ayo
Terry
Carter
Terry
Philips
#11
#44

This means you also can't use the MLE, Vet min, or anything else at present. I don't think I'd waive any of these guys for THT. Possibly Carter, but his salary slot may become useful for matching salaries and that has more value to me than THT. If we did free up a roster spot via moving a pick, draft and stash, or waiving a player, is THT on the vet min better than bringing in a MLE guy?

Hard to see where THT fits for us IMO.

[League Circles]

Without waiving anyone, we have all 15 roster spots full right now if we keep both our 1st and 2nd rounder draft picks and give them roster spots. For the 2nd rounder, you might consider a draft and stash or you might simply trade out of it.

Giddey
Coby
Matas
Vuc
Collins
Huerter
Smith
Ball
Ayo
Terry
Carter
Terry
Philips
#11
#44

This means you also can't use the MLE, Vet min, or anything else at present. I don't think I'd waive any of these guys for THT. Possibly Carter, but his salary slot may become useful for matching salaries and that has more value to me than THT. If we did free up a roster spot via moving a pick, draft and stash, or waiving a player, is THT on the vet min better than bringing in a MLE guy?

Hard to see where THT fits for us IMO.

Good breakdown. I'd consider intentionally drafting and stashing our 2nd rounder to give us options with Jones or in FA, but I think people are going to be very disappointed in terms of trade options for guys like Vuc, Huerter, etc. Cause due to the roster spot issue, we can almost only do one for one or consolidation deals which, due to the salaries these guys are making, could only mean bringing in a highly bad player, like a really bad guy making like 30 million or something. Hard to imagine a desirable opportunity there.

So we should try hard to make a wise trade of somebody before the draft, then obviously use our first rounder, then when the 2nd rounder comes up, only use it if there is an actual really appealing prospect available, which of course is doubtful. If there isn't, draft and stash a foreign prospect. Then use our whole one roster spot flexibility as needed for a possible Jones re-signing or possibly another FA. But the key thing is that anybody we add should project to be better long term than:

Smith or Collins at C
Matas or (1st round draft pick?) at the 4
Giddey or Patrick at the 3
Ayo or Huerter at the 2
Coby or Ball at the 1

......cause otherwise the guy won't see the court which would make in crazy to commit to him (like an MLE FA).

Now if Jones is back, IMO it's the above outlook with Ball moving to the 2, Huerter to the 3, and Patrick to the 4.

Hell, barring trade we're already either going to let our FRP rot on the bench or diminish any trade value of one of the guys above. And I haven't even penciled in Vuc of course. That's why I'd push to trade Ayo, Phillips, Ball, Terry, or Huerter or somebody to try to move up in the draft with our first, cause we're already destined to squander some asset next year. This is what happens when you overcommit to quantity.

[kodo]

I'd take THT at vet min over Patrick or Carter but we can't just remove Patrick or Carter's salary off the books. We'd have to pay some kind of asset to get rid of either, and Bulls shouldn't be giving away picks (anymore).

Bulls also need another F like Buzelis, 6' 9" or 6' 10" with high tier athleticism and motor and can just impact the game on instincts because Vuc is essentially on a 4 on 5 defensively and he plays 32 mpg and he's just going to get slower & older. And I'd really like a young center prospect to gamble on.

I would ideally cut 2 guards off this roster for a young big F and a young C, not add another guard/wing.

[jnrjr79]

Without waiving anyone, we have all 15 roster spots full right now if we keep both our 1st and 2nd rounder draft picks and give them roster spots. For the 2nd rounder, you might consider a draft and stash or you might simply trade out of it.

Giddey
Coby
Matas
Vuc
Collins
Huerter
Smith
Ball
Ayo
Terry
Carter
Terry
Philips
#11
#44

This means you also can't use the MLE, Vet min, or anything else at present. I don't think I'd waive any of these guys for THT. Possibly Carter, but his salary slot may become useful for matching salaries and that has more value to me than THT. If we did free up a roster spot via moving a pick, draft and stash, or waiving a player, is THT on the vet min better than bringing in a MLE guy?

Hard to see where THT fits for us IMO.

And I won't be totally shocked if the Bulls just use their picks and basically run it back with the guys under contract next year. They'll sell it to the fans based on the late-season push, but really it seems like they probably can't make a ton of meaningful moves if they sign Giddey to relatively big bucks this offseason and then want to preserve 2026 cap space to sign Coby.

The Coby contract, if you intend to keep him, means you really do have to keep a decent chunk of expiring salary around on the roster next season. I'd love to see the actual numbers on how much post-2026 salary they could take back this year while still having enough room for Coby next offseason.

[MGB8]

I'd take THT at vet min over Patrick or Carter but we can't just remove Patrick or Carter's salary off the books. We'd have to pay some kind of asset to get rid of either, and Bulls shouldn't be giving away picks (anymore).

Bulls also need another F like Buzelis, 6' 9" or 6' 10" with high tier athleticism and motor and can just impact the game on instincts because Vuc is essentially on a 4 on 5 defensively and he plays 32 mpg and he's just going to get slower & older. And I'd really like a young center prospect to gamble on.

I would ideally cut 2 guards off this roster for a young big F and a young C, not add another guard/wing.

Why couldn’t we just waive and stretch Carter? He has a 6.8 M player option, so if he is waived in time (before the league year), that could be stretched over 3 years right? A bit under 2.3 M per year? That can provide some breathing room.

I wouldn’t worry about retaining contract pieces to trade, honestly. The likelihood of a viable trade that improves the team, given current relatively limited assets and who might reasonably be expected to be out there…. meh.

[dawhizz]

Shoot him into the sun. I am very tired of his “old guy at the Y” game and don’t like seeing him on the floor even when he seems like hea having a good game because as others have mentioned he is a black hole on offense which gets even worse when he hits a couple shots.

[Tetlak]

Get this guy outta here

[dougthonus]

I'd take THT at vet min over Patrick or Carter but we can't just remove Patrick or Carter's salary off the books. We'd have to pay some kind of asset to get rid of either, and Bulls shouldn't be giving away picks (anymore).

Bulls also need another F like Buzelis, 6' 9" or 6' 10" with high tier athleticism and motor and can just impact the game on instincts because Vuc is essentially on a 4 on 5 defensively and he plays 32 mpg and he's just going to get slower & older. And I'd really like a young center prospect to gamble on.

I would ideally cut 2 guards off this roster for a young big F and a young C, not add another guard/wing.

Well you can just waive Carter. You don't need to remove his salary from the books.

[jnrjr79]

I'd take THT at vet min over Patrick or Carter but we can't just remove Patrick or Carter's salary off the books. We'd have to pay some kind of asset to get rid of either, and Bulls shouldn't be giving away picks (anymore).

Bulls also need another F like Buzelis, 6' 9" or 6' 10" with high tier athleticism and motor and can just impact the game on instincts because Vuc is essentially on a 4 on 5 defensively and he plays 32 mpg and he's just going to get slower & older. And I'd really like a young center prospect to gamble on.

I would ideally cut 2 guards off this roster for a young big F and a young C, not add another guard/wing.

Why couldn’t we just waive and stretch Carter? He has a 6.8 M player option, so if he is waived in time (before the league year), that could be stretched over 3 years right? A bit under 2.3 M per year? That can provide some breathing room.

I wouldn’t worry about retaining contract pieces to trade, honestly. The likelihood of a viable trade that improves the team, given current relatively limited assets and who might reasonably be expected to be out there…. meh.

When the Bulls are setting themselves up for 2026 cap space, it seem better just to let him pick up the option and have it expire. I also wouldn't disregard keeping the contract for trade purposes. It's a good size for that. You can't just say "oh, I doubt there will be any trade opportunities this year anyway." You never know who may become available in a given season.