One Thing We'll Learn this Offseason

[transplant]

"Winning is the most important thing" is a statement made by virtually every professional athlete when the microphones are on. One interesting sidebar to this offseason's all-skate is that top FAs are going to have a chance to put up or shut up on how important winning really is to them.

I have no doubt that winning is important to everyone. Hell, anyone who has played any game from Scrabble to pro hoops knows that winning's a lot more fun. That's not the issue here...it is about what is most important...winning, money, "loyalty" (Hi, DWade) or avoiding the ominous shadow of MJ.

While we've all gotten very excited about the specter of signing Lebron James and maybe even another star player, the smart money continues to believe that the Bulls will end up overpaying for the scraps (say hello to all the nice people, Joe Johnson).

While I enjoy my dreams as much as the next guy, I generally pay close attention to the smart money people. Since the Bulls clearly have the best young core among all the max-FA suitors (and the star FA's current teams), it occurs to me that the smart money folks are pretty much calling B.S. on this whole "winning over all" thing.

I hope that the smart money is wrong, because if it is, Lebron, Bosh and Wade ought to be fighting to be first in line to sign with the Bulls in July, and after the first signs, the other two ought to fight even harder to wear the red and black.

Lebron wants a legacy that rivals MJ's. While it's a coincidence, his best chance to build that legacy is in Chicago. Bosh claims to absolutely hate losing. Well, the 09-10 Bulls were better without Bosh than the Raps were with him. Chris, do the math. Wade can either hope that the Heat can somehow build a whole team around him or come to the Bulls where a "Help Wanted - Shooting Guard" sign is prominently displayed.

So what'll it be guys? Is winning truly your overriding priority or just the PC thing to say?

Like I said, we shall see.

[BrooklynBulls]

I think it's a little bit homerific to say that if they want to win, they should come here. We've proven NADA. Meanwhile, Dwyane freaking Wade is waiting for a superstar. Finals MVP, Dwyane Wade. Top 3 player in league, Dwyane Wade. Get two top 10 players on the same team, and the wins SHALL come. We've got great prospects for winning. But they are not indisputably greater than Miami's, which features Wade, and capspace for FAs beyond 1 max guy. And maybe Pat Riley on the bench, too.

We won 41 won games with Rose, Noah, and pap. Wade won 47. Pretty much alone.

[theanimal23]

I agree with you. On a note regarding LeBron and legacies -- MJ is whom everyone is compared to. But LeBron must wonder about his current rival in Kobe. He has now reached 7 NBA finals to LeBron's one. He may go on to win his fifth title, while being on a team that should legitimately contend for at least two more years. The Lakers will continue to tweak their roster (please get Kirk). Kobe is fortunate to be in so many finals. He's had a long properous career that fortunately put him into contention ASAP, had a few struggling years, and is back at it. In comparison, LeBron has had 7 years where the regular season has said he is a 'contender' -- but he knows his team wasn't truly built to contend like the Lakers teams that Kobe has been on. LeBron has had one trip to the finals, which was all due to him, but the lack of 'contendership' of that team was shown quite easily by the Spurs.

I think many of these Free Agents will act like prima-donnas, but the only one who will consider coming here with winning as an utmost priority will be LeBron. If he goes to play 3 more years and not make the finals or win a title -- that'll be 10 years without winning the big one. He'll be the next KG in that sense. Money isn't an issue -- the Max is the same at each destination. But these other guys are gonna soak up the lime-light.

D-Wade and Miami are the exception -- in recent history he and that organization are much proven. Free Agents could 'fight' to go there too -- for those reasons and others (lifestyle).

[transplant]

I think it's a little bit homerific to say that if they want to win, they should come here. We've proven NADA. Meanwhile, Dwyane freaking Wade is waiting for a superstar. Finals MVP, Dwyane Wade. Top 3 player in league, Dwyane Wade. Get two top 10 players on the same team, and the wins SHALL come. We've got great prospects for winning. But they are not indisputably greater than Miami's, which features Wade, and capspace for FAs beyond 1 max guy. And maybe Pat Riley on the bench, too.

We won 41 won games with Rose, Noah, and pap. Wade won 47. Pretty much alone.

Homerific? I like it.

Wade's great, but increasingly it appears that it takes a couple great AND a couple good players to carry it all the way through. Homer or not, I don't see a better ready-made situation than the Bulls and some non-homer-type experts have said the same.

Anyway, let's remove my homerism. What do you think the odds are that the top FAs will behave this offseason in a manner consistent with the "winning is everything" mantra?

[Hold That]

I think it's a little bit homerific to say that if they want to win, they should come here. We've proven NADA. Meanwhile, Dwyane freaking Wade is waiting for a superstar. Finals MVP, Dwyane Wade. Top 3 player in league, Dwyane Wade. Get two top 10 players on the same team, and the wins SHALL come. We've got great prospects for winning. But they are not indisputably greater than Miami's, which features Wade, and capspace for FAs beyond 1 max guy. And maybe Pat Riley on the bench, too.

We won 41 won games with Rose, Noah, and pap. Wade won 47. Pretty much alone.

Yea we won 41 with only a second year player in Rose, and suffered more injuries to our core than any other team in the NBA.. Come to a team with a year 3 Rose who will surely be improved along with Noah, I see Miami and Chicago being pretty much even at this point.

[kozelkid]

I think it's a little bit homerific to say that if they want to win, they should come here. We've proven NADA. Meanwhile, Dwyane freaking Wade is waiting for a superstar. Finals MVP, Dwyane Wade. Top 3 player in league, Dwyane Wade. Get two top 10 players on the same team, and the wins SHALL come. We've got great prospects for winning. But they are not indisputably greater than Miami's, which features Wade, and capspace for FAs beyond 1 max guy. And maybe Pat Riley on the bench, too.

We won 41 won games with Rose, Noah, and pap. Wade won 47. Pretty much alone.

Yea we won 41 with only a second year player in Rose, and suffered more injuries to our core than any other team in the NBA.. Come to a team with a year 3 Rose who will surely be improved along with Noah, I see Miami and Chicago being pretty much even at this point.

Portland, GS and maybe Boston disagree.
But I get what you are saying...

[DJhitek]

I've been saying that while Chicago provides an excellent situation it's not the best compared to the teams that have enough room to sign two superstars outright. Our past doesn't mean jack if these guys want to play together in a duo or even the unlikely trio. I don't think we get anyone of the big guns personally.

That said, if Carlos Boozer signs here and we get as shooter or two I'd be thrilled. That's upgrading the team significantly IMO.

[greenwing]

I think it's a little bit homerific to say that if they want to win, they should come here. We've proven NADA. Meanwhile, Dwyane freaking Wade is waiting for a superstar. Finals MVP, Dwyane Wade. Top 3 player in league, Dwyane Wade. Get two top 10 players on the same team, and the wins SHALL come. We've got great prospects for winning. But they are not indisputably greater than Miami's, which features Wade, and capspace for FAs beyond 1 max guy. And maybe Pat Riley on the bench, too.

We won 41 won games with Rose, Noah, and pap. Wade won 47. Pretty much alone.

What? Absolutely not. People need to stop saying that Wade won 47 games by himself. He absolutely did NOT. He had help. I don't think anyone outside of Heat fans will really argue that Miami's supporting cast is better than ours, but Wade had the advantage of a good frontcourt defense. The Heat were second in the league in opponents' field goal percentage just barely ahead of us. And while on paper, they're not nearly as good, essentially what Riley did was he surrounded Wade with a bunch of shooters. Between Beasley, Jermaine O'Neal and Haslem, there was enough big men scoring options to go around.

Beasley was inconsistent, sure, but he still shot a decent percentage overall. Haslem was essentially a double-double waiting to happen. And Jermaine O'Neal was healthy for most of the season and shot nearly 53% from the field. His scoring average and Beasley's scoring average weren't in the 20+ ppg range because Wade nearly took almost twice the amount of shots per game as those two guys combined. The Heat has 6 guys on the roster who shot over 30% from downtown. Yes, Wade was the focal point of the offense and the cast overall was not good and had many flaws, but Riley constructed a team around Wade that played to his strengths.

This is the same Wade who led a team to 15 wins not too long ago. His supporting cast this year was way beyond that team simply because the Heat had a good frontcourt defense. So no, Wade did not win games entirely alone.

However, now that it's looking like Haslem and Jermaine O'Neal are probably gone, where will the frontcourt defense come from? That's the danger for them of re-signing Wade and adding someone like Bosh. That won't get things done without a good frontcourt defense because, quite frankly, Bosh's defense is terrible and Wade really isn't the defender that people make him out to be.

Wade + Bosh doesn't guarantee you 50 wins at all. They'd have to fill out the roster in a very smart way to make that team anywhere close to contention.

[dougthonus]

Winning is clearly not the most important thing.

If it was, LeBron could go to LA for the MLE, and the Lakers would be completely unstoppable.

Money is clearly more important than winning or superstars would be signing for MLEs on good teams all over the place. I'm not saying this is a bad thing either. I sure as hell wouldn't sign for the MLE vs MAX money to get some extra wins.

On top of that, legacy is important for some of these guys too. They need to win, but I think sometimes they want to win as the best player on their team. I'm sure LeBron wants to make sure he's finals MVP when he wins a title. This was also part of the reason why it was so hard to keep Shaq and Kobe together.

Now if you just figure winning for the max money, then the Bulls offer an interesting situation. However, it's really only better than other spots if they an figure out a way to get two guys while S&Ting for one of them.

If they can't do that then two superstars in NY or Miami is just as good as one superstar with Rose, Noah, Deng, Gibson, and Hinrich. If they can force the trade, then Noah + Rose + one of Hinrich/Deng + 2 superstars is a team set up to be a dynasty as long as it picks the right ring chasing role players. Much more so than NY/Miami.

[nappygoat]

Not getting the James, Wade's and Bosh's of this offseason won't make it a failure just a disapointment, imho, but paying Johnson or Boozer the kind of money that James, Wade or Bosh get will.

If we miss on the Max guys I hope we just take our lumps and look for cheaper alternatives in FA and possibily trades. The last thing we need is a Piston's offseason where we overpay guys who are not elite and destroy are future flexability just to field a non-championship caliber team.

[illiance]

We won 41 won games with Rose, Noah, and pap. Wade won 47. Pretty much alone.

To be quite fair, Rose and Noah won basically all those games pretty much alone besides a nice game from Luol every once and a while. Plus the team would have won at least 45 without the injuries. And I'm not sure how replacing Beasley, Haslem, and ONeal with Bosh and for instance Kurt Thomas gives you anymore than 47 wins.

[coldfish]

The reason why Chicago is so interesting is that it provides a potential mix of money and winning. Derrick Rose sold more jerseys than Wade last year. Superstation is shown in 70% of the households in the US. This is the big advantage the Bulls have over Miami and several other teams. NY is a better monetary situation and staying put may also be better if these guys can't get a sign and trade.

That being said, with max capspace, a good young core in the 3rd largest market in the US, the Bulls provide a unique combination of opportunity for success on the court and financially.

[JackFinn]

Winning is clearly not the most important thing.

+doug. I don't think anyone is going to learn what they already know, that winning isn't THE most important thing for either players or owners.

[Neusch23]

I believe, if a player like Lebron were to sign for the MLE with a team like the lakers, and have it be only guar. for one year, they no longer could sign the same max deal the next year, correct? I believe their next contract is based off what what they just signed, correct?

[coldfish]

I believe, if a player like Lebron were to sign for the MLE with a team like the lakers, and have it be only guar. for one year, they no longer could sign the same max deal the next year, correct? I believe their next contract is based off what what they just signed, correct?

You are correct. He would have to wait 3 years before they had his bird rights, then they could give him a max contract.

[ChicaGOrilla06]

We won 41 won games with Rose, Noah, and pap. Wade won 47. Pretty much alone.

To be quite fair, Rose and Noah won basically all those games pretty much alone besides a nice game from Luol every once and a while. Plus the team would have won at least 45 without the injuries. And I'm not sure how replacing Beasley, Haslem, and ONeal with Bosh and for instance Kurt Thomas gives you anymore than 47 wins.

Contrary to popular opinion, this year's Bulls could have been a 50+ win team. In addition to losses connected to injuries (particularly the 10 game losing streak when Noah was hurt in March), you could point to about 13 losses that SHOULD have been wins. These were losses to inferior teams (i.e. 2 losses to the Nets), historic collapses (i.e. 35-pt collapse to the Kings) and close calls (i.e. Brad Miller buzzer beater vs. Den that was overturned). It was quite a unique season. If the Bulls were one thing this year it was inconsistent. It often played up or down to the level of its competition. That's something I hope we don't see in the future regardless of who we attract / acquire / hire this off-season.

[Tim_Hardawayy]

And I'm not sure how replacing Beasley, Haslem, and ONeal with Bosh and for instance Kurt Thomas gives you anymore than 47 wins.

If Miami only signs Bosh and not a 2nd max player, they'd have enough to keep Beasley and Haslem (and maybe even JO if he signed back for the min, but I don't want him).

The reason why Chicago is so interesting is that it provides a potential mix of money and winning. Derrick Rose sold more jerseys than Wade last year. Superstation is shown in 70% of the households in the US. This is the big advantage the Bulls have over Miami and several other teams.

Players don't get extra money from more jersey sales, and when you're on LeBron and Wade's level, you don't need to play in a big market to get exposure. Come on Coldfish, you're better than that, that sounds like something a Knicks fan would say

That said, I absolutely agree that Chicago is at worst the 2nd best destination this summer for these free agents if they want to win. And in LeBron's case, probably the best, because he can do it as the undisputed man. If guys really want to win, at least one of the big names will sign here.

[Neusch23]

I thought that the players get a % of their own jersey sales? I know in the NFL the retired players just sued for % of sales on their throw backs of their jerseys a couple of years ago.

[Gray Poster]

One other that that is BS is playing in MJ's shadow as a bad thing. It didn't bother Shaw to play in Kareem's shadow!! Didn't bother Kobe to play in Magic's shadow.

Money is king and winning is along for the ride. The Bulls combo is a great situation.

[BrooklynBulls]

Wade's great, but increasingly it appears that it takes a couple great AND a couple good players to carry it all the way through. Homer or not, I don't see a better ready-made situation than the Bulls and some non-homer-type experts have said the same.

And some haven't. Because it's debateable. Which you simply didn't allow for in your OP. "Chicago Rulez" is just not a palatable argument to me. I think it's a wonderful situation too. But I can't pretend I don't have a bias.

Anyway, let's remove my homerism. What do you think the odds are that the top FAs will behave this offseason in a manner consistent with the "winning is everything" mantra?

0 Top FAs.
0 Decent FAs
About 4-5 Veteran Players.

That's how many. No, I don't expect every top FA to sign on the same team for the minimum, creating an unstoppable superteam that shall destroy partiy in the NBA. Because that's silly.