The Bulls should go all in for Zion

[WindyCityBorn]

I think NO may be interested with a bunch of expirings. We should do Huerter, Collins, Carter + FRP 2025 + POR pick for Zion Williamson.

Expiring contracts will not get it done. NO are in a full rebuild mode and Zion a rare NBA contract that can voided if he continues miss certain milestones. They don’t need to salary dump him. They can wait a season or two to see what happens.

Some organization will probably be desperate enough to gamble on him being healthy long term and give them much more than that. I pray it isn’t us. And if they did take that deal like that it would set off immediate red flags as to how bad his situation really is. They aren’t run by clowns like our team.

[TheGOATRises007]

I would definitely go in for Zion, because we have nothing to lose, but I doubt we can conjure up an appealing package and it's a pretty big risk.

Zion has missed more games than he's played. I'm not buying the angle of him not caring because of NOLA.

I just think he doesn't have 'it' to be a grinder to maximize his talents. If he had LeBron's work ethic, he's probably competing for MVP awards year in and year out.

[Donkedave]

Will be interesting to see what his salary is next year! Based on these numbers it should be(played 30 games) $7,889,218 and that’s if he passed the weigh in! lol

2025-26: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/25
2026-27: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/26
2027-28: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/27

Guarantee triggers exist if certain criteria has been met:
20% of 2025-26 salary becomes guaranteed if passes all six of his weigh-in checkpoints during the 2024-25 season

40% of 2025-26 salary becomes guaranteed if plays >= 41 games during 2024-25 season, additional 20% if plays >= 51 games, remaining 20% if plays >= 61 games.

Salaries for 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons can be re-guaranteed if above metrics are hit the season prior

Further protections via:
Weight must be less than 295 lbs; body fat monitored
Injury sustained to right foot

[WesPeace]

If New Orleans accepts 2025 1st and 2nd rounder, POR pick and PWill, do a trade! Otherwise Nope!

[Evil_Headband]

Will be interesting to see what his salary is next year! Based on these numbers it should be(played 30 games) $7,889,218 and that’s if he passed the weigh in! lol

2025-26: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/25
2026-27: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/26
2027-28: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/27

Guarantee triggers exist if certain criteria has been met:
20% of 2025-26 salary becomes guaranteed if passes all six of his weigh-in checkpoints during the 2024-25 season

40% of 2025-26 salary becomes guaranteed if plays >= 41 games during 2024-25 season, additional 20% if plays >= 51 games, remaining 20% if plays >= 61 games.

Salaries for 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons can be re-guaranteed if above metrics are hit the season prior

Further protections via:
Weight must be less than 295 lbs; body fat monitored
Injury sustained to right foot

Where are you seeing the $7.8 million figure? Doesn’t he get all/most of his money unless he is waived?

[Ice Man]

I'm not sure that I understand the logic that we should build around Zion, when the team that has him now has decided that it's a mistake to build around Zion.

[jnrjr79]

We need Zion to demand out and be an outright cancer this offseason. Lower the price.

Reportedly (according to a local Pellies writer) Dumars was hired with an edict to trade Zion this offseason, so you probably don’t need Zion to act up.

[MrSparkle]

I think NOP will get a respectable return. Not all GMs are Nico or AK. Especially they need to make up for the Dejounte disaster.

The destination should be a current contender, with expendable assets (OKC, Houston, SAS). Or a foolish organization (Chicago, Sacramento, Phoenix, Dallas).

So yeah, unfortunately I’d say we run the risk of AK putting together a package to assemble the All-Injured Team.

[TheSuzerain]

We need Zion to demand out and be an outright cancer this offseason. Lower the price.

Reportedly (according to a local Pellies writer) Dumars was hired with an edict to trade Zion this offseason, so you probably don’t need Zion to act up.

Him acting up is good to crater his value and force Dumars to trade him for cheap.

[WindyCityBorn]

I would definitely go in for Zion, because we have nothing to lose, but I doubt we can conjure up an appealing package and it's a pretty big risk.

Zion has missed more games than he's played. I'm not buying the angle of him not caring because of NOLA.

I just think he doesn't have 'it' to be a grinder to maximize his talents. If he had LeBron's work ethic, he's probably competing for MVP awards year in and year out.

We have a lot to lose.

[WindyCityBorn]

We need Zion to demand out and be an outright cancer this offseason. Lower the price.

Reportedly (according to a local Pellies writer) Dumars was hired with an edict to trade Zion this offseason, so you probably don’t need Zion to act up.

Him acting up is good to crater his value and force Dumars to trade him for cheap.

I think him acting up is intentional to crater his value. That’s just who he is.

[The Box Office]

Someone remind us regarding Giannis.

[Dan Z]

His contract is effectively fully non guaranteed, so the money doesn't matter if you ever just stop believing in him. I agree the injuries will lower what they can get, but the contract is so team friendly that I think it puts a floor on how low it will go. If he like tears an achilles this year or something and you know he is toast, you can just get out of the rest of the deal.

I would tend to think it would cost more than Coby, our pick and matching salary, but who knows. I'd guess the Pels are ready to move on, but the price will be set at the most desperate team and I'd guess someone is more desperate than Coby and a late lotto pick.

It's only non guaranteed if he doesn't play at lest 51 games next season and 41 the years after.

That seems like adequate protection against injury to me. If he’s playing more games than that, you’d want to keep him anyway. The only big downside is you’d be stuck with him for an additional year if he had a healthy-ish season but sustained a serious injury at the end of it after surpassing the games-played threshold.

Also, any team trading for him will give it time to see how it goes (two years?). At that point he'll only have one year remaining on his contract.

[Ballerkingn23]

No thanks.

Hurt way too much for my taste, and only getting older, which means he will get hurt way more often.

[Donkedave]

Will be interesting to see what his salary is next year! Based on these numbers it should be(played 30 games) $7,889,218 and that’s if he passed the weigh in! lol

2025-26: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/25
2026-27: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/26
2027-28: non-guaranteed, fully guaranteed 7/15/27

Guarantee triggers exist if certain criteria has been met:
20% of 2025-26 salary becomes guaranteed if passes all six of his weigh-in checkpoints during the 2024-25 season

40% of 2025-26 salary becomes guaranteed if plays >= 41 games during 2024-25 season, additional 20% if plays >= 51 games, remaining 20% if plays >= 61 games.

Salaries for 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons can be re-guaranteed if above metrics are hit the season prior

Further protections via:
Weight must be less than 295 lbs; body fat monitored
Injury sustained to right foot

Where are you seeing the $7.8 million figure? Doesn’t he get all/most of his money unless he is waived?

Was just being silly, 20% is guaranteed if he passes the weigh ins. Then the other games clauses which he didn’t get to any of them. So just got that figure from 20% salary

[chicago paxsons]

With our team's injury history, why do so many want to trade for a guy who's played 214 games in 6 years? That's 35 games per year! Let's not forget he's getting older and that makes it even less likely that he will ever be consistently healthy.

I understand wanting good draft position, but since i doubt zion will come cheap, contract or trade-wise, how many years do you want to handcuff this team from actually improving?

Killing cap maneuverability for a guy who will most likely be less healthy going forward seems like a desperation move that will inevitably fail.

[jnrjr79]

With our team's injury history, why do so many want to trade for a guy who's played 214 games in 6 years? That's 35 games per year! Let's not forget he's getting older and that makes it even less likely that he will ever be consistently healthy.

I understand wanting good draft position, but since i doubt zion will come cheap, contract or trade-wise, how many years do you want to handcuff this team from actually improving?

Killing cap maneuverability for a guy who will most likely be less healthy going forward seems like a desperation move that will inevitably fail.

FWIW, it does not kill cap maneuverability because his contract is voidable every year if he doesn’t hit a minimum games-played threshold.

I really have no sense of how much he would cost in trade. He might be expensive, he might not be.

[Salo23]

I wonder if Zion could dictate where he goes, as in have a short list of teams he would prefer going to. I know he’s technically under contract but his agent could let it be known his client wouldn’t be happy going to just any team (aka the highest bidder).

If Chicago were to be one of his preferred destinations it could possibly drive the asking price down, limiting New Orleans to negotiating with a small handful of teams instead of the entire league.

[Infinity2152]

Risk is relative. I'm still waiting for the "No Zion" crowd to suggest a method of getting any current number 1 option in the league other than Zion. If people agree we need a number 1, top 10 level player we have to do something. The chances of getting a top 10 player in the league thru the draft have to be less than 1% at any pick besides 1. And Zion's not the only number 1 pick constantly injured (Anthony Davis, Ben Simmons, Joel Embid). Or you get KAT, Andrew Wiggins, DeAndre Ayton, Markell Fultz, Anthony Bennett. Most of the actual number 1's in the league are drafted all over the place. That's not a plan.

Suggest an alternative to getting a top 10 player with low injury concerns. That's not 35 years old or older. They rarely become available and you usually have to trade the other team the world when they do. If the idea is to target another top player, cool. Who? Or do we keep overvaluing our players and picks and stay a mid team with no number 1? What's the risk of adding a player when you can void his contract, other than the value of what you sent out for him? Should depend on the cost to acquire Zion, imo.

We're talking about Coby (expiring and half the lobby wants him traded), Vucevic (expiring and 80% of the room wants him gone) and a couple of first round picks who could end up being the next Patrick Williams and Julian Phillips. Not giving them the 2025 first, but they can have 2026 and 2028. Don't think his value gets lower than it is now, we can still probably trade him later if we want for equivalent assets.

[MrSparkle]

Risk is relative. I'm still waiting for the "No Zion" crowd to suggest a method of getting any current number 1 option in the league other than Zion. If people agree we need a number 1, top 10 level player we have to do something. The chances of getting a top 10 player in the league thru the draft have to be less than 1% at any pick besides 1. And Zion's not the only number 1 pick constantly injured (Anthony Davis, Ben Simmons, Joel Embid). Or you get KAT, Andrew Wiggins, DeAndre Ayton, Markell Fultz, Anthony Bennett. Most of the actual number 1's in the league are drafted all over the place. That's not a plan.

Suggest an alternative to getting a top 10 player with low injury concerns. That's not 35 years old or older. They rarely become available and you usually have to trade the other team the world when they do. If the idea is to target another top player, cool. Who? Or do we keep overvaluing our players and picks and stay a mid team with no number 1? What's the risk of adding a player when you can void his contract, other than the value of what you sent out for him? Should depend on the cost to acquire Zion, imo.

This team needs to keep cap flexibility until 2027 free agency, or until AK is fired. Any more costly cap trades by AK will set us back another 5 years.

In the meantime, guy can use his capologist experts, good player relationships to resign Giddey and Tre cheap. He should also draft another Matas caliber prospect. And dump Patrick without shedding too costly of an asset.

Getting a superstar via play-ins is a pipe-dream, and getting Zion to have a healthy remaining career is also a pipe-dream. Either might happen, but what I’m saying is that NOP isn’t going to give Zion to AK without a costly 2 FRP trade. Personally I’m ok on avoiding a Vuc/Lonzo lovechild pt. 2.

He should focus on drafting a good player at #12. Dumping Vuc and Pat. This addition-subtraction thing seems to work.