Red Larrivee wrote:League Circles wrote:Someone less lazy than me should lay out the best projections for cap situations in summer 20 and summer 21.
I can understand wanting to wait on using cap space. I can't for the life of me understand deliberately wanting to split it among 2-3 guys. Remember, we still have the room MLE this summer then the full MLE every year following to add such caliber of player.
IMO, like it or not, FA and #7 this year are likely the last chances that this roster build will have to add a high level talent without giving up assets. We have, at most, 4 high level talents now. EVERY team can use as many as 8 IMO before lesser players should become the priority. The key is to sign versatile players so you can use your starters and bench in various ways and be well positioned for a trade if the opportunity comes up.
Niko and Randall play 4/5
Harris plays 3/4
Barnes can basically play 2/3/4 at least defensively.
Brogdan can play 1/2.
Middleton can play 2/3/4.
Butler can play 1/2/3.
Get BPA!!!!!!!!!!
That's not true. The Bulls could continue punting their flexibility every couple of years as long as they want. Only give significant deals to core players and shuffle talent around them.
The problem with signing Butler is that you're buying high on a player's best years that
you aren't going to get. Have we not learned this lesson already with Wallace and Boozer? Yes, those players were on good Bulls teams, but those deals turned ugly early into the contracts. Butler is better than both, but a decline is going to happen and he won't be worth 30%+ of the cap.
IMO it's inaccurate to say that we can keep punting flexibility down the road, especially to imply we can do so indefinitely. When you give deals to core players, you get capped out very quickly. IMO, Lauri +Porter+Zach (especially on his next deal) +Carter is essentially a capped out team just for those 4 guys going forward. If we don't add somebody else of note, we won't be able to, and will only be able to upgrade through mid to late first round picks and MLE players that we will still have if we pay a 5th guy now.
The MO has always and should always be to get a few quality young players on rookie deals and add at least one or two pretty high level vets that aren't super old (like Wade was) while the young guys are still cheap, then go up and over the cap to keep them, and keep filling out the bench with firsts that pan out a bit and MLE guys and always keep looking for an upgrade trade.
When we added Wallace and Boozer we greatly improved. Had we not added them then, we wouldn't have been able to. Each team had like 3 key players on rookie deals soon to be extended.
Sure you can sometimes punt a bit. We punted last year. Maybe, just maybe we should punt again but I don't think so cause the class next year sucks and Lauri and Porter will have huge cap holds the following year, that when combined with Lavine, Carter, #7, our 2020 pick will eat up most of our cap. And that would mean two whole seasons of being notably less than we could be, because it means signing zero players beyond those two years. And when you only sign guys for two years there are a lot of restrictions on keeping them over the cap if they fit well and you want to extend them. It's not full bird rights.
I think there is a terrible, terrible risk in not signing BPA in free agency this summer.