Realistic higher end FA targets

[League Circles]

One one hand you have the guys like Durant and Kawhi that aren't coming here even if we could clear the space for them which we probably can't. On the other you have people talking about splitting up our 18-20 mil or whatever between 2-3 solid vet bench players (barf). In between are quality NBA players that we could maybe sign with all of our space. Let's talk about their merits.

These are the guys I'm particularly interested in that we might be able to afford, in no particular order, are:

Niko Mirotic
Julius Randall
Khris Middleton
Tobias Harris
Malcolm Brogdan
Harrison Barnes

Is there anyone else that's reasonable and wise to consider with our full offer?

There are other guys I'm interested in though I'd have to get two of them to be interested, so think roughly half our cap space plus or minus a couple million maybe. These are guys like Bogdanovic, Rose, Rudy Gay, Collison, Aminu, etc.

[kodo]

Highest risk & reward is probably Cousins.

I wouldn't even include him but we've done crazier things, like sign Wade & Rondo to a rebuilding team. We also seem to have a soft spot for injury reclamation projects, like Lavine & Parker.

[wonderboy2]

Man I didn’t know Middleton was a free agent. I would definitely go after Middleton or Brogdon as my top priority if I’m the bulls. Is Middleton a Unresticted or restricted?

[panthermark]

Does Kemba count....or is that too unrealistic?

[jnrjr79]

One one hand you have the guys like Durant and Kawhi that aren't coming here even if we could clear the space for them which we probably can't. On the other you have people talking about splitting up our 18-20 mil or whatever between 2-3 solid vet bench players (barf). In between are quality NBA players that we could maybe sign with all of our space. Let's talk about their merits.

These are the guys I'm particularly interested in that we might be able to afford, in no particular order, are:

Niko Mirotic
Julius Randall
Khris Middleton
Tobias Harris
Malcolm Brogdan
Harrison Barnes

Is there anyone else that's reasonable and wise to consider with our full offer?

There are other guys I'm interested in though I'd have to get two of them to be interested, so think roughly half our cap space plus or minus a couple million maybe. These are guys like Bogdanovic, Rose, Rudy Gay, Collison, Aminu, etc.

I love Middleton in the abstract, but fit-wise he doesn't make a lot of sense with Porter now on the team. The scenario I"m hoping for is that the Bucks decide to pay Middleton over Brogdon and Brogdon becomes a potential target.

My guess is the Bulls also avoid Harris due to Otto, though Harris is damn good.

But the PG position has to be dealt with before I'd consider spending cap space on a wing.

[Red Larrivee]

One one hand you have the guys like Durant and Kawhi that aren't coming here even if we could clear the space for them which we probably can't. On the other you have people talking about splitting up our 18-20 mil or whatever between 2-3 solid vet bench players (barf). In between are quality NBA players that we could maybe sign with all of our space. Let's talk about their merits.

Why is this a bad strategy? Right now the Bulls bench (guaranteed contracts) is currently:

Denzel Valentine
Chandler Hutchison
Cris Felicio
Antonio Blakeney

None of those players can be relied on right now. It's a great idea to split the money up and build a respectable bench. Outside of Brogdon, none of those players really intrigue me when you consider potential price and other holes on the team.

[HomoSapien]

I have to bring this up again, but for the life of me I don't understand why we can't be a contender for KD but the Knicks can. They're a worse team, significantly more dysfunctional, have less pieces to support KD. If his intention is to get to the East and take a dormant team to the playoffs to restore his reputation, why are we taking ourselves out of the race?

[Red Larrivee]

I have to bring this up again, but for the life of me I don't understand why we can't be a contender for KD but the Knicks can. They're a worse team, significantly more dysfunctional, have less pieces to support KD. If his intention is to get to the East and take a dormant team to the playoffs to restore his reputation, why are we taking ourselves out of the race.

Madison Square Garden. New York City.

It's really the only selling points the Knicks have despite doing nothing of note the last 15 years or so and still being owned by James Dolan.

[HomoSapien]

I have to bring this up again, but for the life of me I don't understand why we can't be a contender for KD but the Knicks can. They're a worse team, significantly more dysfunctional, have less pieces to support KD. If his intention is to get to the East and take a dormant team to the playoffs to restore his reputation, why are we taking ourselves out of the race.

Madison Square Garden. New York City.

It's really the only selling points the Knicks have despite doing nothing of note the last 15 years or so and still being owned by James Dolan.

I absolutely love NY. It's probably my favorite city in the country and that's coming from someone who currently lives in LA and has lived in Chicago and Atlanta as well. So I get it. But is playing in MSG such a draw that you'd ignore all the other negative aspects of their franchise and be unwilling to meet with us? Something about that just doesn't really make sense to me.

[League Circles]

One one hand you have the guys like Durant and Kawhi that aren't coming here even if we could clear the space for them which we probably can't. On the other you have people talking about splitting up our 18-20 mil or whatever between 2-3 solid vet bench players (barf). In between are quality NBA players that we could maybe sign with all of our space. Let's talk about their merits.

Why is this a bad strategy? Right now the Bulls bench (guaranteed contracts) is currently:

Denzel Valentine
Chandler Hutchison
Cris Felicio
Antonio Blakeney

None of those players can be relied on right now. It's a great idea to split the money up and build a respectable bench. Outside of Brogdon, none of those players really intrigue me when you consider potential price and other holes on the team.

Because our bench doesn't matter next year as much as getting an actual good player doss. The guys I mentioned can generally play more than one position so they should be helpful starting or off the bench.

I think we'll draft a 1 at #7 and also sign Derrick Rose with the room MLE, and still have Dunn. We'll experiment with those 3 guys and Lavine if needed IMO.

Our bench in my scenario is:
1. FA from among those I listed OR Carter or Porter (one of these three would be sixth man)
2. Derrick Rose or our draft pick
3. Dunn
4. Hutchison
5. Valentine
6. A vet mimimum player
7. Blakeney
8. Felicio
9. Arci
10. #38


Then next year we have another full MLE player and another mid first round pick. Bench restocked. Bulls are simply too young to prioritize depth IMO.

[BahamaBull]

Split the cap and sign Patrick Beverly, Taj Gibson and Marcus Morris.

[Red Larrivee]

I absolutely love NY. It's probably my favorite city in the country and that's coming from someone who currently lives in LA and has lived in Chicago and Atlanta as well. So I get it. But is playing in MSG such a draw that you'd ignore all the other negative aspects of their franchise and be unwilling to meet with us? Something about that just doesn't really make sense to me.

Possibly. After going to MSG, I kind of get it. It's just a different place. He also may be going for specific business opportunities too. Who knows.

[League Circles]

I have to bring this up again, but for the life of me I don't understand why we can't be a contender for KD but the Knicks can. They're a worse team, significantly more dysfunctional, have less pieces to support KD. If his intention is to get to the East and take a dormant team to the playoffs to restore his reputation, why are we taking ourselves out of the race?

Don't they have room for two max guys while we don't even have room for one?

[Red Larrivee]

Because our bench doesn't matter next year as much as getting an actual good player doss. The guys I mentioned can generally play more than one position so they should be helpful starting or off the bench.

I think we'll draft a 1 at #7 and also sign Derrick Rose with the room MLE, and still have Dunn. We'll experiment with those 3 guys and Lavine if needed IMO.

Our bench in my scenario is:
1. FA from among those I listed OR Carter or Porter (one of these three would be sixth man)
2. Derrick Rose or our draft pick
3. Dunn
4. Hutchison
5. Valentine
6. A vet mimimum player
7. Blakeney
8. Felicio
9. Arci
10. #38


Then next year we have another full MLE player and another mid first round pick. Bench restocked. Bulls are simply too young to prioritize depth IMO.

Well, it matters if there are injuries or that good player you signed needs a breather. I think the wrong approach is becoming top heavy right now. There's a chance here to create a deep bench as we did in 2010-11. Spending big money on someone like Harrison Barnes just seems really egregious.

[League Circles]

I have to bring this up again, but for the life of me I don't understand why we can't be a contender for KD but the Knicks can. They're a worse team, significantly more dysfunctional, have less pieces to support KD. If his intention is to get to the East and take a dormant team to the playoffs to restore his reputation, why are we taking ourselves out of the race?

Also, whatever pieces they lack now, consider that their pitch will include the #3 pick in the draft (or someone they trade it for) and another high caliber FA like Kyrie.

[HomoSapien]

I have to bring this up again, but for the life of me I don't understand why we can't be a contender for KD but the Knicks can. They're a worse team, significantly more dysfunctional, have less pieces to support KD. If his intention is to get to the East and take a dormant team to the playoffs to restore his reputation, why are we taking ourselves out of the race?

Don't they have room for two max guys while we don't even have room for one?

But that was self-inflicted. We took ourselves out of the race by trading for Porter and even said at the time we did the trade because we didn't believe we could sign a quality FA. I've always questioned that attitude. A good front office would find a way to make the Chicago Bulls into a premier landing spot. The fact that KD's interest in the Knicks is such a poorly kept secret should have motivated the Bulls to court him harder since he apparently isn't opposed to playing for a bad team and since we share a lot of the same benefits as playing in NY.

[League Circles]

Because our bench doesn't matter next year as much as getting an actual good player doss. The guys I mentioned can generally play more than one position so they should be helpful starting or off the bench.

I think we'll draft a 1 at #7 and also sign Derrick Rose with the room MLE, and still have Dunn. We'll experiment with those 3 guys and Lavine if needed IMO.

Our bench in my scenario is:
1. FA from among those I listed OR Carter or Porter (one of these three would be sixth man)
2. Derrick Rose or our draft pick
3. Dunn
4. Hutchison
5. Valentine
6. A vet mimimum player
7. Blakeney
8. Felicio
9. Arci
10. #38


Then next year we have another full MLE player and another mid first round pick. Bench restocked. Bulls are simply too young to prioritize depth IMO.

Well, it matters if there are injuries or that good player you signed needs a breather. I think the wrong approach is becoming top heavy right now. There's a chance here to create a deep bench as we did in 2010-11.

I don't understand how that's a top heavy team. Right now we'd consider ourselves 4 deep. Add our pick, one cap space FA and the room MLE (likely for Rose IMO) and you're 7 deep. One more year and you add at minimum our first rounder and a full MLE player and you're 9 deep which is plenty and ignores Dunn, Valentine, Hutch etc.

You basically want to go 8 deep instead of my 7 this coming year. The impact of that is that you probably have a substantially worse 5th best player in 13 months and the benefit is you probably have a better 10th man.

We have to be a deep playoff team before I'm prioritizing my 10th man.

[dougthonus]

I have to bring this up again, but for the life of me I don't understand why we can't be a contender for KD but the Knicks can. They're a worse team, significantly more dysfunctional, have less pieces to support KD. If his intention is to get to the East and take a dormant team to the playoffs to restore his reputation, why are we taking ourselves out of the race?

New York can bring in another superstar with KD and we can't. Beyond that, they could possibly also trade for another great player (possibly AD?) with the #3 pick. He isn't going to NY thinking of the existing talent but what the talent might be.

The Bulls would have to make a bunch of moves to have room for just KD, and they don't seem likely to add lots of other pieces, so KD would be joining the roster presently here (more or less).

Not hard to see why NY could have appeal if they can put everything together to add more talent.

[League Circles]

I have to bring this up again, but for the life of me I don't understand why we can't be a contender for KD but the Knicks can. They're a worse team, significantly more dysfunctional, have less pieces to support KD. If his intention is to get to the East and take a dormant team to the playoffs to restore his reputation, why are we taking ourselves out of the race?

Don't they have room for two max guys while we don't even have room for one?

But that was self-inflicted. We took ourselves out of the race by trading for Porter and even said at the time we did the trade because we didn't believe we could sign a quality FA. I've always questioned that attitude. A good front office would find a way to make the Chicago Bulls into a premier landing spot. The fact that KD's interest in the Knicks is such a poorly kept secret should have motivated the Bulls to court him harder since he apparently isn't opposed to playing for a bad team and since we share a lot of the same benefits as playing in NY.

We still wouldn't have room for that second max guy and it's very plausible/probable that he doesn't sign in NY anyways.

[dougthonus]

But that was self-inflicted. We took ourselves out of the race by trading for Porter and even said at the time we did the trade because we didn't believe we could sign a quality FA. I've always questioned that attitude. A good front office would find a way to make the Chicago Bulls into a premier landing spot. The fact that KD's interest in the Knicks is such a poorly kept secret should have motivated the Bulls to court him harder since he apparently isn't opposed to playing for a bad team and since we share a lot of the same benefits as playing in NY.

I agree, I wasn't excited about bringing in Porter for that reason either, though we would have had to make a lot of moves to generate enough room for two max guys prior to Porter coming on board too, I would have rather tried that and swung for the fences even if it was unlikely.