Less than a week ago, Carlos Boozer was telling ESPN Radio 1000’s Tom Waddle and Marc Silverman that Chicago was his kind of town. In fact, I believe his exact words were something along the lines of “Great organization, top notch from top to bottom…I’d love to be part of the Chicago Bulls.”
Love sure is a fickle thing.
Now? Boozer’s feeling the heat. The Miami Heat, that is. And why not? He lives in Miami during the offseason and runs an annual summer basketball camp at Gulliver Prep Academy in nearby Kendall.
Said Carlos: “My wife [CeCe] and I first came here for tax reasons and fell in love with it. Love the palm trees, the laid-back attitude, the sun, quality of life. It’s like paradise here, and I would love to be part of the Heat. They’re a very good team, and I’m real close to some of the guys. Dwyane [Wade] and I started to get close at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and I’d love to play on his team.”
Translation: I will love whichever team gets me the heck out of Utah.
Rumors in Miami have had a three-way trade sending Boozer to the Heat, Udonis Haslem and Dorrell Wright to the Utah Jazz, and then shipping Wright the Memphis Grizzlies. Does that made any more sense than the potential three-team deal between Chicago, Utah and Portland? Who knows at this point. The rumors aren’t going to stop until the Jazz have rid themselves of Boozer.
I don’t know about you, but I wish something would happen. I’ve probably been running more Google News searches for “Carlos Boozer” and “Chicago Bulls” than his mom and agent combined. Maybe the President can get this situation straightened out. After all, he’s going to be hanging out with the Bulls later this week.
According to Christi Parsons of the Chicago Tribune: “President Barack Obama is planning a trip home Thursday for a dinner with political supporters and a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee, his first Chicago political event since his election last fall. After a stop in Ohio, the president will head to Chicago for a private dinner organized by fundraiser Penny Pritzker, then plans to join members of the Chicago Bulls for a hotel event to raise money for fellow Democrats.”
One person who won’t be chilling with the President is Anthony Roberson. The Bulls have waived him. I know. I never thought the Roberson Era would end this way either.
ESPN’s Marc Stein has reported that the Bulls are sending Larry Hughes to the Knicks for Jerome James, Tim Thomas and Anthony Roberson. This is a classic case of pass the trash, since it’s not a straight-up salary dump for either team (Hughes makes $12.8 million this year; James and Thomas make $12.2 million combined). But the Bulls don’t need Hughes (especially with John Salmons coming to Chicago in the deal with the Kings), and they don’t want him. At all. I mean, they wouldn’t even use his body to put out a fire.
Next season, James and Thomas are on the books for $6,600,000 and $6,466,000, respectively. (James has a player option which he’s sure to accept.) Roberson has a team option for $855,189 and the Bulls will most likely reject it as soon as contractually possible. By comparison, Hughes is going to make $13.65 million next year. So the Bulls will save a little cash. (Very little.) But this is a classic case of addition by subtraction, since Hughes was as welcome in Chicago as swollen, itchy rash that can’t be treated or even lasered off. And, of course, no matter what happens, all three of these new contracts will be off the books by [insert dramatic music here] The Summer of 2010. I’m already looking forward to our failed attempts at signing LeBron, D-Wade and Chris Bosh!
I doubt James or Roberson will ever actually appear in a game. For the Bulls, anyway. Thomas might, I suppose. According to Vinny Del Negro: “I played with Tim a couple years [in Milwaukee]. I enjoyed playing with him, I didn’t have any problem with him. I’ll sit down and talk to Tim and tell him what I expect of him; what his role is. I expect him to be professional and do his job. He has the ability and skill level to help us in certain areas. I’ll wait to have those conversations but I have a good mindset with Tim and that’s why I think it’s a positive move for us.” Translation: Timmy might get some random playing time here or there, but don’t expect much. (In fact, don’t expect much even if, by some miracle, he does get significant PT…)
Grade:I give this trade a “Meh, whatever.” Actually, I’ll upgrade that to “Eh, really?” since we managed to get rid of Larry Hughes. But that’s the best possible score any deal involving the acquisition of Jerome James could possibly get. Unless we got to dress Jerome up as a giant piece of fruit.