Melo 15: The End Is Nigh

[DRoseCantStop]

Bullsla told us to expect a trade and that looks like what's gonna happen.

[TyrusRose2425]

money makin' mitch...

you might want to stay here. there may or may not be a shank waiting for you back at the knicks cell block.

Mitch belongs on a message board with champions anyways

keep him... champion.

that'd be at least one knick you can steal.

And one Knick that would look nice next to 6 championships. Remind me how many the Knicks happen to have?

[coldfish]

Gotcha Coldfish. My mistake. I understand now.



Still... Gibson is the best player out of the group i mentioned. IF we Signed and traded Melo to you, you keep Gibson.

But again, in my offers you wouldnt be gutting your team. You still would have the majority of last years team still in tact.

If you wanted to keep Brewer, trade us Mirotic instead along with MCD.

Keep brewer and Taj and you guys are still a top defensive team. I honestly dont want Mirotic. I think he is another Euro stiff who can shoot. But he has some value.

As I noted before, we are in the theoretical phase of this thread. All signs right now are pointing to him not wanting to give up the 5/130.

That said, I think your trade is just a little too much. I agree about several of the things you are saying and I have argued for them myself on this board. Sign and trade is better than dumping Gibson by a lot. However, I think you are asking for more than the value of Taj Gibson.

[Indomitable]

I got suspended 3 days was it deserved ehh i have my own thoughts on that but I wasn't trolling when it came to my thoughts on rose but from seeing that he was there for the recruiting process my apologies for going off the handled about it there is just some things i dont agree with what he does but I should of ended it instead of kept on going so my mistake

Anyways its good to be back and its kind of sad that it looks like melo is choosing money over winning rings and it seems like he just used us to be honest but with that said if this squad can stay healthy I fully believe in this team in Noah Rose Gibson Butler Thibs and so on,its just the matter of staying healthy also cant fault Gar/Pax on this they literally went all out and did the most they could...... now it will be even more of a pleasure to whoop the knicks and melo **** ass when we play them this upcoming season...hope he enjoys not winning a ring ever and 10 years from now he will be doing interviews saying my biggest
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Good to be back though and go bulls!

Welcome back though and you are not the first guy to get a time out. I speak from personal experience

[MisterRoy]

Bullsla told us to expect a trade and that looks like what's gonna happen.

What trade do you speak of?

[coldfish]

Mirotic coming over and I'm thinking the Bulls are entirely prepared to get rid of Taj today.


I believe by the end of today or tomorrow, Taj Gibson will NOT be a Bull.

The problem with the "dump Gibson" route is that you don't have any money to give to Mirotic either, unless you think you can get him for the room exception. He would be playing almost for free at that point when you include his buyout.

[DRoseCantStop]

Bullsla told us to expect a trade and that looks like what's gonna happen.

What trade do you speak of?

A three team trade between CHI, NYK, and LAL.

[MisterRoy]

Bullsla told us to expect a trade and that looks like what's gonna happen.

What trade do you speak of?

A three team trade between CHI, NYK, and LAL.

Not trying to doubt at all, but who is reporting this?

[TyrusRose2425]

Mirotic coming over and I'm thinking the Bulls are entirely prepared to get rid of Taj today.


I believe by the end of today or tomorrow, Taj Gibson will NOT be a Bull.

The problem with the "dump Gibson" route is that you don't have any money to give to Mirotic either, unless you think you can get him for the room exception. He would be playing almost for free at that point when you include his buyout.

Can't they spread the buyout over the years? The thing is the sooner Mirotic completes this first contract, the sooner he can get that big paycheck.

[TheWhitePanther]

Bullsla told us to expect a trade and that looks like what's gonna happen.

What trade do you speak of?

A three team trade between CHI, NYK, and LAL.

I don't recall any specifics about these three teams. Did I miss something or should this be in green font?

[DASMACKDOWN]

I keep wondering why the hell was taj at the meeting. Hopefully they gave melo a scenario with taj and without taj at the meeting before taj arrived.

If we keep taj and have to sign melo without a SnT We can only offer him about 16 mil, thats very doubtful to do it. Hopefully bulls told melo they can sign him for a max and potentially keep taj if NY agrees to SnT but will be taj if needed to free up 23.5 in cap space.

Taj was there - as KC reported - because Melo wants him on the team if he's here. Not to mention the two have a relationship dating back to their AAU days.

This crap is turning into the Kobe : Deng situation.

No its not.

Kobe was never coming to the Bulls. Never. This has been the most overblown Bulls story since it was rumored. Kobe was never seriously coming to the Bulls as much as Amare was never coming to Chicago for Tyrus Thomas. But we ended up believing both stories anyway.

[bulls6pack]

If PJ never joined the Knicks.....

I feel the same way! When Phil took over, I thought to myself, well there goes any chance at luring Melo away!

[bigjad66]

The part that we all need to understand is this: Melo made his decision about what team he wants to play for MONTHS ago. Be it that he was staying in NYC or going to another team. The idea of him going on this grand tour and then coming up with what team he wants to be on is simply a formality. Its all a show that the players and NBA have created to make it seem like collusion/tampering/recruiting during the season doesn't occur. Reality is, everyone has talked for months. Melo knew and has known that NYC was going to offer him the max. Contrary to reports, he knows exactly what Chicago is offering as well. We are stupid to think that CAA and Leon Rose and Melo and Thibs all don't know how this is going to turn out. GarPax were otherworldly confident as soon as the off season started by saying that there was going to be dramatic change. There was smoke about Melo coming to Chicago for months. I dont think that that smoke was for nothing. But even if Melo did decide to go back to NYC, he has known that he was going to do that all along.

[Bulls_Fan]

I'm not as pessimistic as I was yesterday.
If it was a straight money grab, I feel he would've given NY a verbal yesterday.

Also the FO can't be dumb enough to sit and wait while being burned and lose out elsewhere. They have to he a feeling.

That's what I'm saying. The longer this thing plays out, though more agonizing, I can only think it's better for us.

I'm almost 100% positive that the Bulls already have lined up the next phase of players they'll likely target if they miss out on Melo, heck, I bet they've already spoken to them and maybe even have had some verbal agreements.

Some may not remember but Boozer, though people may forget was one of the sought out free agents himself during the LeBron, Wade and Bosh sweepstakes, and we had him as a back up plan, and he knew that he was the back up plan and yet the Bulls convinced to hold out for the other big 3's decision.

I have no doubt that the Bulls have an execute button ready in case things fall through with Melo, no doubt.

It looks like their next move is Pau no matter what. You have to figure to land Gasol that will run you 2yr/16m. What will their other targets be.

I still contend that their next move is going all-in on Love. We shoudl be reigniting talks just in case. Kevin Love is not some crappy second place prize that we should be shunning. We would be beyond lucky to land him via trade. Longshot it might be, you have to wow the Wolves with an offer.

[MisterRoy]

So, Steve Kyler is saying

Steve Kyler ‏@stevekylerNBA 4m
Dwight left 30 Mill last year ---> No he didn't... Left a fifth year that he'll get from Houston after third year

Does this mean we can give Melo that 5th year after his 3rd?

[randybrown]

The Knicks have no leverage of any kind. We don't have to deal with them one way or another. This decision is Melo's. If he wants to come to Chicago, he will be here next week. If NY wants a S&T where they take Boozer's expiring contract, they can garner a few assets out of the deal. If they ask for too much, screw them. We'll amnesty Boozer and send Dunleavy, Snell, Magic and Jimmy, if need be, to another team in a salary dump and NY gets zero.

Still, it just depends on Melo--not on Phil Jackson.

Knicks have some leverage over Chicago, its just exaggerated.
Media loves reporting that 5 yr bird max total.
In a reality, Melo uses an ETO before those 5 years are up.

[Leto]

One other thing to consider is that through all the bluster over the Knicks acquiring Calderon, they no longer have a starting center and have no real way of getting one. And no, I do not buy that Melo called Gasol on the day he met with the Lakers to see if Gasol would come to the Knicks on a 3.2 million dollar deal. That is flat out hilarious. My point is that no center in NY makes a lot less appealing to go back to NY.

As an aside, I think if we miss on Melo and are able to sign Gasol or Stevenson. We will be at the top of the Eastern Conference, regardless.

[Procision]

The whole 5th year crap is overstated. Sign Melo to a 4 year deal with year 4 being a ETO. He opts out then we give him a multi year deal after.

[coldfish]

Mirotic coming over and I'm thinking the Bulls are entirely prepared to get rid of Taj today.


I believe by the end of today or tomorrow, Taj Gibson will NOT be a Bull.

The problem with the "dump Gibson" route is that you don't have any money to give to Mirotic either, unless you think you can get him for the room exception. He would be playing almost for free at that point when you include his buyout.

Can't they spread the buyout over the years? The thing is the sooner Mirotic completes this first contract, the sooner he can get that big paycheck.

The point is that the Bulls can only offer Mirotic $2.5M per year through the capspace route. I think his buyout is $3M. If he signs a 3 year deal, its 3/7.5 where 3 of it is going to Real Madrid. I just can't see that happening.

Just as bad, the Bulls then couldn't use their room exception on a back up point guard.

People glibly regurgitate the Taj thing without thinking about the team afterwards. Its not that Taj is a stud, its that the Bulls options get really limited in trying to put together a functional team when they go the capspace route. Its not going to be attractive to Melo or Mirotic or Thibodeau or just about anyone else.

[I beg to differ]

IMO, the longer this drags on, the worse our chances are.

I don't think the Lakers max offer gives Melo leverage. It is not believable that Melo would sign with the Lakers, who have another mammoth contract with Kobe.

And so, Melo would have to move quickly in using Houston to get a sign-and-trade to Chicago. Houston is probably already antsy to move on. New York has to believe that Melo would sign outright with Houston unless they sign-and-trade him to Chicago for peanuts. If Melo takes too much time and Houston moves onto someone else, the only way for Melo to sign with us is if we gut our team or he gives up on a ton of cash.

So it would behoove Melo to act fast if he wants Chicago + a max contract. If his decision drags on, I don't think he wants to come here.