ESPN: Bulls "determined" to NOT trade Deng

[TheSuzerain]

Mirotic makes up for it on the offensive end.

Boozer bleeds you on both ends of the court.

Mirotic doesn't make up anything right now. He hasn't played a single NBA minute.

Then how can you call him poor defensively?

Can't have it both ways.

[OldSchoolNoBull]

This is the ONLY way that I am behind tanking for a high pick. I have made this my position from the beginning.

Keep Deng.

Everything else is afterwards. My priority list would be as follows:

1) Re-sign Deng. And then rest him a lot using the injury excuse.
2) Play Boozer a LOT and increase his trade value as best as possible. At the very least, we would be increasing his amnesty value. Rest Noah and have Boozer and Taj take up all the PF/C minutes with Nazr.
3) Play Snell and Butler a LOT and have them dramatically increase their 3PA per game.
4) Tanking is virtually guaranteed with the above 3 happening.
4) Bring in Mirotic.
5) Draft with the Charlotte pick and our own pick.

You have to re-sign Deng. He is way too essential to be replaced easily. Screw the payroll. Win championships.

Look, if the tank is actually successful, and we also re-sign Deng, our rotation looks like this:

Noah/Charlotte pick
Mirotic/Taj
Deng/Parker or Wiggins/Dunleavy
Jimmy/Snell
Rose/Teague

You're telling me if we actually get lucky enough to get one of the big guys in the draft, you want to limit his minutes and hinder his development so Deng can keep playing 40mpg?

I say trade Deng for Waiters if that's still possible. Now the rotation is

Noah/Charlotte pick
Mirotic/Taj
2014 #1/Jimmy
Waiters/Snell
Rose/Teague
(or use Charlotte pick on a PG and sign a vet min C if you want)

and not only that, but because there are six rookie contracts and an MLE contract comprising seven of those ten players, we'd have cap space to either use on another player or to absorb salary in a trade or to just enjoy having a low payroll. It just seems like a more efficient use of money than paying a guy 10M+ to take a lot of minutes away from what could potentially be a franchise-changing talent.

I like Deng, and he's given a lot to the Bulls and put up with a lot(no Bulls player has been in more trade rumors over the last decade), but I think it's just time to move on now.

[dougthonus]

Mirotic makes up for it on the offensive end.

Boozer bleeds you on both ends of the court.

You need volume scorers, and Boozer provides that. His offensive efficiency numbers are typically pretty good, and he creates his own offense.

I would love to have Carlos Boozer on my team for one year five million next season if I were another team. I think he's considerably better than a replacement caliber player, and there aren't a lot of quality big men you could get for a short term deal. Boozer at 1 million or some scrub PF for 4/20? Boozer at one million is a really safe move which likely gives you both a better player and a lesser commitment.

[MalcolmXing]

the level of incompetency makes you question if a decade of watching damn near every game from 12 til now is worth continuing.

Seriously, if they're this incompetent is it worth wasting time waiting for another few years for them to get good again.

[TheSuzerain]

Mirotic makes up for it on the offensive end.

Boozer bleeds you on both ends of the court.

You need volume scorers, and Boozer provides that. His offensive efficiency numbers are typically pretty good, and he creates his own offense.

I would love to have Carlos Boozer on my team for one year five million next season if I were another team. I think he's considerably better than a replacement caliber player, and there aren't a lot of quality big men you could get for a short term deal. Boozer at 1 million or some scrub PF for 4/20? Boozer at one million is a really safe move which likely gives you both a better player and a lesser commitment.

That bid gets rejected.

How can you say the bolded about someone who has been as inefficient as Boozer has been the last 2 years? Clearly he can't create his own offense.

[DRoseCantStop]

This FO doesn't know what they're doing.

[nitetrain8603]

Mirotic makes up for it on the offensive end.

Boozer bleeds you on both ends of the court.

You need volume scorers, and Boozer provides that. His offensive efficiency numbers are typically pretty good, and he creates his own offense.

I would love to have Carlos Boozer on my team for one year five million next season if I were another team. I think he's considerably better than a replacement caliber player, and there aren't a lot of quality big men you could get for a short term deal. Boozer at 1 million or some scrub PF for 4/20? Boozer at one million is a really safe move which likely gives you both a better player and a lesser commitment.

That bid gets rejected.

How can you say the bolded about someone who has been as inefficient as Boozer has been the last 2 years? Clearly he can't create his own offense.

I think like most Bulls fans, you significantly undervalue Boozer. If you're going to argue what you're arguing against Boozer, I suspect you're opposed to Joakim Noah who has been worse every year offensively, but somehow gets praised because he's a good passer, sounds like a dinosaur and has long funky hair. Boozer is as good of a passer, his sprayed on hair was funkier and he speaks normally.

BTW, I hate to say I told you so, but I did. Bulls intend on keeping Deng at least until they can negotiate more at the AS break.

[drosestruts]

This is the ONLY way that I am behind tanking for a high pick. I have made this my position from the beginning.

Keep Deng.

Everything else is afterwards. My priority list would be as follows:

1) Re-sign Deng. And then rest him a lot using the injury excuse.
2) Play Boozer a LOT and increase his trade value as best as possible. At the very least, we would be increasing his amnesty value. Rest Noah and have Boozer and Taj take up all the PF/C minutes with Nazr.
3) Play Snell and Butler a LOT and have them dramatically increase their 3PA per game.
4) Tanking is virtually guaranteed with the above 3 happening.
4) Bring in Mirotic.
5) Draft with the Charlotte pick and our own pick.

You have to re-sign Deng. He is way too essential to be replaced easily. Screw the payroll. Win championships.

Look, if the tank is actually successful, and we also re-sign Deng, our rotation looks like this:

Noah/Charlotte pick
Mirotic/Taj
Deng/Parker or Wiggins/Dunleavy
Jimmy/Snell
Rose/Teague

You're telling me if we actually get lucky enough to get one of the big guys in the draft, you want to limit his minutes and hinder his development so Deng can keep playing 40mpg?

I say trade Deng for Waiters if that's still possible. Now the rotation is

Noah/Charlotte pick
Mirotic/Taj
2014 #1/Jimmy
Waiters/Snell
Rose/Teague
(or use Charlotte pick on a PG and sign a vet min C if you want)

and not only that, but because there are six rookie contracts and an MLE contract comprising seven of those ten players, we'd have cap space to either use on another player or to absorb salary in a trade or to just enjoy having a low payroll. It just seems like a more efficient use of money than paying a guy 10M+ to take a lot of minutes away from what could potentially be a franchise-changing talent.

I like Deng, and he's given a lot to the Bulls and put up with a lot(no Bulls player has been in more trade rumors over the last decade), but I think it's just time to move on now.

Isn't Wiggins a shooting guard? There's also Exum.

Noah/Cha pick
Mirotic/Gibson
Deng/Dunleavey
Wiggins or Exxum/Butler/Snell
Rose/Exum

[TheSuzerain]

I think Noah is awful offensively too (a common theme with this roster), but there can be no denying that Noah is vastly superior defensively and a better rebounder.

Boozer's problem is that he is here for his offense, he doesn't make up for those shortcomings on defense.

[DJhitek]

Then how can you call him poor defensively?

Can't have it both ways.

Neither can you, by almost every statistical measure Boozer is an average to above average player at his position. If Mirotic came here and right away threw up the same numbers offensively abeit in a different manner that it would be a minor miracle IMO.

[qianlong]

I hope is just posturing for leverage. Otherwise it's stupid.

[IcemanGervin]

Because why make changes when you have the third worst offense in the NBA?

Bulls "determined" to remain mediocre.

[Jeffster81]

I Like Deng, but don't like the idea of wasting resources on a redundant player. IMO, I think the Bulls will be fine with a healthy Butler replacing Deng in the lineup. Deng with his age and his injuries are giving me pause about the Bulls committing to him long term, especially under a coach like Thibs who'll run him into the ground--minutes wise. So this has to be the Bulls trying to get themselves some leverage.

I believe re-signing Deng does more harm than letting him walk for nothing.

[MalcolmXing]

I hope is just posturing for leverage. Otherwise it's stupid.

Me too man, I pray to god that's true.

[TheSuzerain]

Then how can you call him poor defensively?

Can't have it both ways.

Neither can you, by almost every statistical measure Boozer is an average to above average player at his position. If Mirotic came here and right away threw up the same numbers offensively abeit in a different manner that it would be a minor miracle IMO.

He may be (above) average offensively. But you couple that with being literally the worst Power Forward defensively.

[bad knees]

Bulls "determined" to maintain a championship core around their returning MVP.

You may believe in all your heart that DRose will never be the same, but there's a lot of medical science that says that this meniscus injury should not have one iota of an impact on his ability to play basketball. Yes, there will be rust. But there also is Rose's will, which should not be underestimated. Most importantly, it makes sense for the Bulls to be optimistic about Rose's recovery because, if Rose cannot recover to his all-NBA status, then all this talk about what to do with Deng and the others is all just talk about what piece of luggage to bring on the Titanic. Because if Derrick is not the same, then the Bulls, saddled with paying $20 million per year to a non-superstar, will have no chance of winning a championship, or doing anything else signficant, until Rose's contract ends. So the most sensible thing for the Bulls to do is to hope that Derrick can make it all the way back. There's plenty of time to blow things up if that does not happen. It won't be pretty, and there's no reason to do it unless you are sure that the old plan of building a championship team around Derrick won't work.

[the ultimates]

People keep saying somebody is going to come in and pay Deng 14-15 million a year which I highly doubt despite how well he is playing this year. If the Bulls are hesitant to pay him that I don't think another team will jump in and do it either. If this news is true they may not have liked the offers for Deng and they may not be far apart in negotiations like people want to believe. A lot of the teams that have cap room Deng may not have interest in just for money. I don't see him going to a middling team just for more money.

[Chi town]

Let's timeline this fellas....

Summer - KC says Bulls are far apart with Deng extension and likelihood of him returning is very low

Summer - Deng's camp responds by saying Bulls low balling Deng and Deng is upset with FO

Start of Season - Rose goes down and Waiters rumors start right away with a Deng for Waiters proposal

Recently - Its leaked that Bulls and Deng are 5M apart

Recently - Rose's camp says they are afraid no one will stay and Rose is upset

Recently - Deng says he is ready to be traded and prepared for it

Recently - Bulls respond with they are not listening to offers and want to resign Deng

Obviously lots of posturing going down and Deng's injury only complicates things. Bulls FO is usually really bad and not smokescreening their signals. We all knew Deng was going to be picked over Gordon even though Gar said differntly. We all know Deng held us to the fire and didn't back down on his salary demands last time. I see no reason he changes that this time especially when we are 5-6M apart. Thibs said we needed shooting last summer and we signed Dunleavy over the summer.

I think CLE and PHO have made offers, CLE with Waiters, and PHO with picks. Deng has been on a tear and the Bulls are probably waiting for his value to top out and for the teams to up their offers. They know they are going to tank even with Deng and hope to resign him cheap. I think they really are that stupid. They probably won't trade him unless they get an crazy offer which may just happen if Deng stays healthy and keeps putting up number.

If he walks at the end of the season I will organize a FIRE GARPAX Campaign.

[kdapiton]

This is the ONLY way that I am behind tanking for a high pick. I have made this my position from the beginning.

Keep Deng.

Everything else is afterwards. My priority list would be as follows:

1) Re-sign Deng. And then rest him a lot using the injury excuse.
2) Play Boozer a LOT and increase his trade value as best as possible. At the very least, we would be increasing his amnesty value. Rest Noah and have Boozer and Taj take up all the PF/C minutes with Nazr.
3) Play Snell and Butler a LOT and have them dramatically increase their 3PA per game.
4) Tanking is virtually guaranteed with the above 3 happening.
4) Bring in Mirotic.
5) Draft with the Charlotte pick and our own pick.

You have to re-sign Deng. He is way too essential to be replaced easily. Screw the payroll. Win championships.

this is my ideal scenario when it comes to not hurting our "win now" chances.

[TheSuzerain]

This is the ONLY way that I am behind tanking for a high pick. I have made this my position from the beginning.

Keep Deng.

Everything else is afterwards. My priority list would be as follows:

1) Re-sign Deng. And then rest him a lot using the injury excuse.
2) Play Boozer a LOT and increase his trade value as best as possible. At the very least, we would be increasing his amnesty value. Rest Noah and have Boozer and Taj take up all the PF/C minutes with Nazr.
3) Play Snell and Butler a LOT and have them dramatically increase their 3PA per game.
4) Tanking is virtually guaranteed with the above 3 happening.
4) Bring in Mirotic.
5) Draft with the Charlotte pick and our own pick.

You have to re-sign Deng. He is way too essential to be replaced easily. Screw the payroll. Win championships.

this is my ideal scenario when it comes to not hurting our "win now" chances.

There are no "win now" chances.