Here are some facts about Nikola Mirotic:

Fact: Nikola Mirotic has done wonders for the Chicago Bulls’ offense this season.

Fact: Nikola Mirotic has not shot well at all this season (41% from the field, 30.6% from three), despite his reputation as a shooter.

Conclusion: Shooting is not the only important quality in a successful stretch four, as Niko’s quickness and ballhandling ability make him a significant threat regardless.

Still with me? Good. Let’s try another.

Fact: Doug McDermott has struggled this season while playing strictly as a wing.

Fact: Doug McDermott has not shot well at all this season (40% from the field, 31.7% from three), despite his reputation as a shooter.

Fact: Doug McDermott checks many of the same boxes Mirotic does on the stretch four checklist: Size, quickness, intelligence, ballhandling and shooting.

Conclusion: Doug McDermott should be emulating Nikola Mirotic more than Mike Dunleavy.

This screenshot, taken from a game in February, just before Derrick Rose had surgery, shows exactly how powerful Mirotic’s floor-spacing is:

Tony Snell has just entered the ball into the post and made a cut down the middle of the floor. Nikola is spotted up on the opposite wing with Dunleavy in the opposite corner. In that precise moment, Jared Dudley, helping on Snell’s cut in the lane, realizes he left Mirotic open in much the same way you suddenly realize that you left the oven on. Both he and OJ Mayo (Dunleavy’s man) start scrambling toward Mirotic, leaving Snell wide open under the basket for a layup. Here’s an overhead view:

Here’s the thing: teams respect McDermott’s shooting, even as he’s hoisted up bricks all year, just as they respect Mirotic’s shooting, even as he hoists up bricks. But Doug isn’t really quick enough to beat wings off the dribble and his defense on wings isn’t great either. Put him against bigs, however, and the equation changes. He can absolutely beat big men off the dribble from the perimeter, especially if they’re already running at him to contest a shot. And we know that pulling a big man out to the perimeter is much more valuable than pulling a wing out there, even if nothing else about the situation changes. Witness the difference between Niko playing alongside two other bigs and Niko playing with just one.

So. We pretty much know that expecting Doug McDermott to contribute meaningfully this year is a lost cause. But the Bulls are pretty well committed to him down the road, and with Joakim Noah’s contract expring after next season, Pau Gasol getting older, and Taj Gibson’s long-term Bulls future uncertain for a variety of reasons, the Bulls would be well-served to train Doug as Mirotic Lite for the future.

Imagine it: 48 minutes with a stretch four always on the floor. What a world that would be.

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Tony Snell’s development hasn’t exactly mirrored Jimmy Butler’s so far. The D-League might help Snell, but let’s not pretend the Bulls would actually send him there.

It was fully 16 and a half months ago that I called for the Chicago Bulls to get themselves their own NBA D-League team. It was August 2013, still two months before Derrick Rose would return after tearing his ACL and about three and a half months before he would tear his meniscus in Portland. At the time, I bemoaned the lack of development of a Bulls’ first round pick who had seen sporadic minutes in his rookie season and seemed like he would benefit from a stint in the D-League in his second season.

16 and a half months later, here we are again.

Tony Snell has not been good this season. He was not good last season and he’s somehow been worse so far this season. He’s barely been able to get on the floor outside of garbage time and he can’t put the ball in the basket when he does. I do not deny this.

I do, however, believe that the current state of the Bulls is holding him back.

Tom Thibodeau wants to win every game. That’s not entirely a bad thing, since it has led him to win a lot more games than he’s lost since taking over the Bulls in 2010. But there are some drawbacks, namely playing his starters too many minutes (well documented) and not allowing younger players to play through their mistakes.

Tony Snell (like Marquis Teague before him, and James Johnson before him, and so on) is not going to help Thibs win games playing like he is. But he’s also not going to get any better if Thibs doesn’t let him on the court. (Same goes for Doug McDermott, though he’d probably be fine if he could just hit a few shots here and there.) This is the classic conundrum faced by any good team. Insofar as the Bulls are concerned, their options seem to be either play Snell (or whoever) more and live with whatever his shortcomings are or staple him to the bench. But that willfully ignores the option of sending him to the D-League.

Now, there are a couple of caveats: First, the Bulls share the Fort Wayne Mad Ants with 12 other NBA teams, because 13 NBA teams are too dumb to take full advantage of the D-League as a resource. This makes it hard to get excited about sending your players down to develop, because a young guy who’s struggling to grasp what’s expected of him under Thibs probably won’t immediately adjust to a new coach and a new system and new teammates. Not to mention that you’d have to reintegrate him upon his return. That’s a problem.

Second, the Bulls have actually used the D-League in the past, so I’m being a little unfair by saying they’re ignoring it entirely. It’s just that they use it as an absolute last resort — Johnson and Teague both played briefly for the Iowa Energy, the Bulls’ former affiliate, and both were traded not long thereafter — and can’t be bothered to invest the resources to build their own affiliate. Is a D-League team a moneymaking venture? No. Is it as sexy as spending $130 million combined on David Robertson, Zach Duke, Adam LaRoche and Melky Cabrera? No. Will it pay off in the long run? I believe it will, yes.

The Bulls couldn’t be bothered to invest in Marquis Teague’s development, and therefore traded him for Toko Shengelia, who never got off the bench for the Bulls before he was waived so the Bulls could sign three other guys who never played before being waived. They couldn’t be bothered to invest in Erik Murphy, their 2013 second rounder, and waived him after not playing him ever. Would those two have developed into anything if the Bulls had a D-League team? Maybe, maybe not. But we’ll never know, and they sure as hell didn’t develop into anything under the status quo.

There are some players who can develop basically on their own. Witness Jimmy Butler. But expecting every player to figure it out like that is silly, and the Bulls should know better. By refusing to properly develop young talent, they’re just hurting their future teams.

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Coming to the end of a road trip that has seen injury troubles aplenty and some disappointing performances, the Chicago Bulls shrugged off the continued absence of Taj Gibson and first-half turnover problems to lay a second-half beatdown on the Brooklyn Nets, 102-84.

Derrick Rose struggled for much of the game, but found his stride in the third quarter as the Bulls started to pull away a bit. Jimmy Butler continued his excellent play, racking up 26 points on 12 shots to go with 4 rebounds, 5 assists and excellent defense on seven-time all-star Joe Johnson, who finished with just 3 points on 1/7 shooting. Pau Gasol scored 25 points (also on 12 shots) and grabbed 13 rebounds and Nikola Mirotic recorded a double-double off the bench with 12 points and 12 rebounds in just 27:24 of floor time.

Some of the hallmarks of a traditional Bulls win under Tom Thibodeau were there, to be sure. The Bulls outrebounded the Nets 50-34 and held Brooklyn to 37 percent shooting from the field and just 2/14 from distance. But make no mistake, this wasn’t a traditional Bulls win. Even with Rose mostly ineffective, the Bulls shot just under 50 percent (49.3) from the field and scored 102 points despite turning it over 19 times and managing just 7 offensive rebounds. This team features a lot of offensive talent, Kirk Hinrich’s continued existence and Doug McDermott/Tony Snell’s struggles notwithstanding.

It’s also important to note that the Bulls just went 4-3 on a road trip that has a tendency to submarine even good Bulls teams. Since the end of the Jordan Era, they’ve managed a winning record on the Circus Trip just twice: 2010-11 and 2014-15. And this year, they had to play the first three games without Rose and Gasol and the last four without Taj. This team hasn’t totally figured itself out yet, but there’s a lot to like here.

The Bulls are off tomorrow before making their return to the United Center on Tuesday at 7 p.m. CST against the Dallas Mavericks.

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The Chicago Bulls have four big men who seem capable of playing at a solidly above-average level on a consistent basis, if not quite a bit higher than that. Thus far, we have seen Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol starting games, Taj Gibson and Nikola Mirotic coming off the bench and Taj paired with both Noah and Gasol — usually at the end of the first/third quarters and in the middle of the second/fourth, respectively. But I’m guessing you pretty much knew all that.

There are some definite advantages to the current big man rotation. Noah and Gasol are excellent passers and they can make beautiful music together at times. Mirotic’s shooting opens up the lane for Taj, both in the post and as a finisher in the pick and roll. But it’s easy to look at the current situation and think it could be improved.

To wit: Nikola Mirotic should be starting in Pau Gasol’s place. You heard me.

For the record, this has much less to do with Pau and much more to do with Mirotic and how he fits with the rest of the starters. Watching last night’s game against the Detroit Pistons, the Bulls bench went on a tear offensively in the second quarter, and their spacing was impeccable. Mirotic did essentially nothing in five minutes (one steal, one block, one foul and nothing else) but his mere presence — along with Doug McDermott’s and Kirk Hinrich’s — opened things up for Aaron Brooks and Taj Gibson.

We’ve all seen what Aaron Brooks has done leading the bench. We’ve seen what Derrick Rose can do with the starters as they are. Now imagine that we gave Rose the same spacing to work with as Brooks as had. Wouldn’t that be great? Spacing is especially important when Noah’s on the floor, because teams don’t really guard him when he doesn’t have the ball outside of 8 feet or so.

Pairing Mirotic with Noah also helps Noah because it means he can go back to guarding centers and staying closer to the rim instead of chasing power forwards around, which might also help the Bulls’ defensive rebounding woes — though said woes admittedly weren’t really on display last night. Pau and Noah isn’t too awkward offensively, but it is defensively, and Mirotic would help there.

Meanwhile, Pau and Taj started together while Noah was out for a couple of games over the past two weeks and did well with each other. Both can post up, and Pau’s ability to play in the high post meshes well with Taj’s skillset. Both can step out and hit from midrange. Most importantly, playing with Pau keeps Taj from having to bang with bigger centers inside, while playing with Taj keeps Pau from having to chase quicker power forwards.

Obviously, you’d probably still finish games with Noah and Pau or Noah and Taj, though I’m personally of the opinion that Thibs should go offense/defense with the Spanish combo (Pau/Mirotic) and the New York combo (Noah/Taj). But if Mirotic opens things up for Rose and the starters as much as I think he would — and if Pau/Taj wreak as much havoc against opposing bench units as I think they would — maybe crunch time wouldn’t even really be a thing.

The post The problem with big men: Nikola Mirotic should be starting appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

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Derrick Rose is back.

Yeah, sure, it’s only practices so far, plus one meaningless — and ill-fated — scrimmage, but every single thing that’s come out of Team USA’s practices, first in Las Vegas and now in Chicago, has been positive. His coaches and teammates universally love what they’ve seen from him.

Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson said Rose has been amazing. “He looks back to form,” he said. “I tried guarding him on a fast break and he went right by me.”

Rose’s performance in the scrimmage at the end of Thursday’s practice wasn’t necessarily mind-blowing — he buried a corner three but also missed a wide open breakaway dunk — but seeing him moving with his old burst and not holding anything back was gratifying.

His teammates have noticed his confidence too. Warriors guard Steph Curry said Rose doesn’t seem like he’ll need much time to get back up to game speed, based on what he’s done in the scrimmages. And Rose’s former teammate and current Atlanta Hawks guard Kyle Korver loves the “beast mode” — his words, not mine — mentality he’s seen from Rose.

“He looks more comfortable, he looks stronger to me,” Korver said. “And I think any time you feel strong, you play strong, you know what I mean? It’s just a mental thing, it’s like ‘I feel big and strong in this lane and no one’s going to get this shot.’ And you take your time a little bit more, you shoot it with a little more confidence and I sense that in Derrick.”

In fact, Rose’s mentality is the most important thing, as far as Korver’s concerned.

“Derrick’s improved, his jump shot is better and his float game is better and he’s moving really well,” Korver said. “But I don’t see the things that you worry about, where it’s like a lack of confidence, or is he not going to attack the paint. I think that’s more important than what he’s improved on. I don’t want to over-analyze — and no one should, really — like, ‘how has Derrick gotten better?’ I think first you start off with ‘is Derrick holding something back?’ And I don’t see that.”

Tom Thibodeau said that playing for Team USA tends to be good for the individual players. Rose, for instance, came back from the 2010 FIBA World Championships in Turkey and promptly won the MVP. Korver made a similar point and said being a part of Team USA means you get to play with other players who are amazing in their own right.

“I think we all want to be excellent at what we do, right?” Korver said. “Like, when you’re in the NBA you try to be at the highest level, you want to be excellent at your craft. And there’s no better way to be excellent than to surround yourself with excellence. They’ve talked about in the past, guys who have been a part of these teams who have come back and had really strong years because you start off the year with just surrounding yourself with excellence and it does nothing but help you out.”

There have been more than a few people that have suggested Rose should drop out of contention for a spot on Team USA, especially in the wake of the traumatic injury to Paul George in Las Vegas. It’s a pretty easy argument to make, really, and not an entirely unreasonable one. But Thibodeau doesn’t think it’s too risky for him to be here.

“You know, injuries, unfortunately, are part of the game and, you know, you hate to see anyone get injured,” he said. “It could happen in the regular season, could happen in the offseason, could happen in practice, could happen in a game. Basically, the only way you can guarantee a guy not getting hurt is don’t play at all. So, you never play in a game, never practice, never play in the offseason, you won’t get hurt. But that’s not the way you play this game, you know?”

Thibodeau has said previously that playing for Team USA is good for Rose’s comeback because it allows him to get game reps in a situation where he doesn’t have to carry the team by himself, and he said that hasn’t changed with Kevin Durant withdrawing and George getting hurt.

“There’s a lot of depth to this team,” he said. “So no one player has to carry the burden of being the only scorer. You have a guy like James Harden, you’ve got Curry, you have Klay Thompson. You’ve got a ton of scoring.”

Thibodeau likes the way the schedule has worked out for Rose this summer.

“Another big plus for his comeback is just the way this is structured,” he said. “In terms of, you know, you’ve got summer league, then you have a break after that, then we had the week in Vegas, then we had another break. His conditioning is significantly better. So it’s good, it’s real good for him.”

Almost as long as Rose has been in the league, people have wondered if his style of play — the way he attacks the basket with abandon — is bad for his long-term health. Those rumblings have only increased since Rose injured his first knee in April 2012, and they increased even more after his second injury in November 2013. But Korver thinks trying to change the way Rose plays — and more importantly, the way he thinks — would be doing more harm than good.

“I understand that line of thinking, but that’s not who Derrick is,” he said. “Like, that’s not his head, let alone his game. That’s not how he thinks. Derrick is a full-speed, attack, like he’s got that dog in him. He’s got, like, that dog where he’s like ‘I’m gonna go at you and I’m gonna force something to happen at the rim.’ I think he has spent an incredible amount of time training his body to be able to go back to the way that he used to play.”

For now, that seems to be working out for Rose. Let’s pray that doesn’t change.

“The NBA needs Derrick Rose because he’s so fun to watch,” Thompson said. “It’s great to have him out here and be a teammate with him for these three weeks.”

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Nikola’s here!

The Chicago Bulls have finally got their man. He’s not Melo or Love, but Nikola Mirotic will be in the NBA this year and that is quite exciting in and of itself. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that Mirotic will sign a three-year deal worth approximately $17 million.

With a sign-and-trade for Pau Gasol apparently not in the cards, the Bulls will have to amnesty Carlos Boozer to sign Gasol and Mirotic, or at least trade him for no returning salary. Signing Gasol would leave the Bulls with somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.6 million in cap space after Greg Smith was dumped on the Mavericks, but Mirotic could only be getting $17 million in three years if his first-year salary was more like $5.6 million. So presumably there’s another move coming, probably with Anthony Randolph being shipped out.

Regardless, the Bulls seem fairly confident to have agreed to terms with Mirotic already, so I would imagine they’ve got things under control. In the meantime, it’s enough to know that Mirotic will provide shooting from the power forward position and presumably play a lot with his countryman Gasol. Until then, if you want to see him in action, go check out his scouting report from Draft Express. Or go hunting on YouTube. Either or.

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Unfortunately, as has become all too common for the Chicago Bulls, they seem poised to whiff on another marquee free agent. Carmelo Anthony appears to be headed back to the New York Knicks, which means the Bulls need to shift their focus to Kevin Love immediately.

Here’s the way it works: The Minnesota Timberwolves are reportedly asking any team trading for Love to take back Kevin Martin as part of the deal. The Bulls, if they amnesty Boozer, which they are apparently ready to do, have more than enough flexibility to manage that.

The transaction, due to the way the CBA limits the amount of money teams can take back in trades, would actually be broken into two separate trades. If you’re curious, you can read about it in Larry Coon’s excellent FAQ.

Trade 1: The Bulls receive Kevin Love in return for Taj Gibson, Mike Dunleavy Jr., the rights to Nikola Mirotic, the Sacramento Kings pick the Bulls received in the Luol Deng trade, and first rounders from the Bulls in 2015 and 2017.

This trade works because the Bulls are sending out $11.3 million in salary and receiving $15.8 million, which is within the CBA’s limits. The Bulls would have about $72.5 million in salary committed next year after this, below the projected luxury tax line.

Trade 2: The Bulls receive Kevin Martin in exchange for Tony Snell and the non-guaranteed contracts of Mike James, Lou Amundson and Ronnie Brewer.

This trade also works, as the Bulls send out just under $5.5 million and receive about $6.7 million, also within the CBA’s limits. They would also remain under the tax line.

For Minnesota, the draw comes from shedding Martin’s salary, three future first round picks, an elite prospect in Nikola Mirotic and Taj Gibson, who could be flipped for further assets, or kept as a very good starter on a very reasonable contract. As currently constructed, the Wolves would be slightly over the cap. After this trade (and after waiving James, Brewer and Amundson), they would have somewhere in the neighborhood of $5 million in cap room, or they could elect to stay over the cap and use their exceptions without worrying at all about the tax line.

The Bulls, meanwhile, could amnesty Boozer and then keep the full mid-level exception ($5 million) and the Bi-Annual Exception, which comes in at around $2 million. That way, they’d have a decent offer to make to Pau Gasol, who they’re reportedly interested in, or somebody else who would also help. Ed Davis or Jordan Hill, maybe. They would also have enough cash to get a backup point guard and/or another wing.

Just imagine it: Derrick Rose, Kevin Martin, Jimmy Butler, Kevin Love and Joakim Noah as the starters, then backup point guard x, shooting wing y, Doug McDermott, big man z and Greg Smith off the bench, with the final three roster spots filled by minimum guys. That is unquestionably a championship-calibre team.

You’re welcome, GarPax. Now go get it done.

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The Chicago Bulls are poised to shake things up in a big way this summer. They have a number of available assets, potential significant flexibility under the cap and have been linked to at least three relatively high-profile players in Arron Afflalo, Kevin Love and Carmelo Anthony. And then there’s LeBron James, who just kind of hovers over everything.

The fact is that there are about 300 different scenarios for the Bulls this summer. I’ve come up with about 20 in the last three days without even trying. But right now I’m going to break them down in the simplest terms, lumping them together into kind of general ideas. Let’s start with Thursday’s draft.

Draft Scenario 1: The Bulls keep both picks 16 and 19 and use them on players that will be on the team next season.

This one is pretty straightforward. Rather than trade up or down or use one or both picks to acquire a veteran or taking an overseas player they could stash, the Bulls just stand pat and pick two guys they like.

The corollary to this scenario is that if the Bulls do this, they could well be picking for another team. More on that later.

Draft Scenario 2: The Bulls trade up.

The Bulls have been rumored to be interested in trading up. First it was packaging 16 and 19 for 11, targeting Nik Stauskas or Gary Harris. Then it was moving up to 8th, where they would take Doug McDermott. It’s possible that moving up to 8 would require Taj Gibson to be involved, but that gets tricky because then Sacramento would have to match salaries and they just don’t have anything the Bulls would want.

But a trade-up scenario makes sense for two reasons. One, Tom Thibodeau doesn’t really like playing rookies and swapping two picks for one pick allows the team to sign a veteran instead of another rookie. And two, it would save the Bulls some money under the cap. The 11th pick in this year’s draft would make just under $1.9 million. The 8th pick would make just under $2.3 million. The 16th and 19th picks combined would make about $3.75 million. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but every bit helps in this kind of situation.

Draft Scenario 3: The Bulls draft at least one international prospect that they stash overseas.

Dario Saric stands out as a guy who would fit with the Bulls plans, after word broke Monday that he would be staying in Europe for at least the next two or three years. Scouts love his talent, and he might have gone in the top 10 if he’d been willing to come over immediately. It’s reminiscent of Nikola Mirotic in 2011, really: a guy with obvious talent who drops to a team who’s willing to wait for him.

Drafting Saric or another international prospect allows the Bulls to eliminate that pick from their cap this summer. So it wouldn’t shock me if the Bulls traded up to secure Saric, as that would eliminate both picks from their cap number and guarantee them a juicy asset down the road.

Draft Scenario 4: One or both picks is traded for a veteran.

Arron Afflalo seems like the obvious candidate, though the Bulls’ reported offer to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love is Taj Gibson, Tony Snell and both picks. There’s also been some chatter that the Bulls just want a veteran wing scorer, like Afflalo or whoever. Either way, there’s a decent chance the Bulls don’t even have one or both of their picks by draft day.

So that’s the draft. Now there’s everything else.

Offseason Scenario 1: Carmelo Anthony Sign and Trade

This is what the Bulls would like to do. Boozer and picks and maybe a lesser asset like Snell or Mike Dunleavy would go to New York and Melo would come to Chicago. Centering the trade on Boozer allows the Bulls to stay over the cap, leaving them free to use the full mid-level exception to bring the aforementioned Nikola Mirotic over from Europe. But the Knicks are resisting taking back Boozer, so I guess we’ll see how everything shakes out.

By the way, there’s been come confusion about including this year’s draft picks in a Melo sign and trade, so let me clear that up. A sign and trade couldn’t happen until after the moratorium ends on July 10, which seems to rule out trading the picks. But the Bulls could simply draft a prospect the Knicks like and trade their rights to New York after the moratorium ends. Technically, the Bulls and Knicks can’t exactly have conversations about this now, since that would be illegal under the CBA, but Phil Jackson has been pretty vocal about his love for PJ Hairston, which could be a cue to the Bulls that he would like them to take Hairston and trade him to them. But the point is that you can trade picks after the draft.

Offseason Scenario 2: The Bulls trade for Kevin Love.

As I mentioned earlier, the Bulls have made an offer to Love. It is something of a lowball, yes, but I’m torn between trashing the Bulls for lowballing when they have a chance to get a superstar and applauding them for negotiating like pros. Golden State’s offer for Love was a joke, and Boston’s young guys are mildly terrible. The Phoenix Suns could pretty much trump everyone in terms of picks and young guys, but it’s unclear whether Love would re-sign there once he becomes a free agent. So the Bulls, by offering such a minimalist package, put themselves in position to call Minnesota on draft night and add Mirotic to the deal as a sweetener, which suddenly seems like a big get.

I still consider this unlikely to happen, but god knows I’ve been wrong before.

Offseason Scenario 3: The Bulls sign Melo outright.

This one gets tricky because it basically requires the Bulls to either dump Taj or convince Melo to take less. The Bulls can open up about $20 million by discharging their obligations to pay for their draft picks and finding a taker for Mike Dunleavy. That might be enough to bring Melo over or it might not. Their hope, I’m sure, would be to convince Melo to take $20 million, line up the deals to clear the space, and then approach the Knicks about a sign-and-trade. That way, the Bulls have all the leverage because the Knicks would otherwise be left with nothing when Melo leaves. But if Phil turns up his nose, the Bulls can go ahead with their deals and sign him outright.

I covered the financial aspect of this scenario over the weekend, though I theorized Melo might be willing to take just $15 million.

Offseason Scenario 4: The “fuller roster” approach with Arron Afflalo

In this scenario, the Bulls would eschew both Love and Melo and focus on building depth. The Bulls could conceivably send Tony Snell, one or both draft picks and maybe someone like Mike Dunleavy to the Orlando Magic and absorb Afflalo into their cap space once they amnesty Carlos Boozer. The deal could be agreed to on draft night, allowing the Bulls to pick for the Magic explicitly, though it wouldn’t go into effect until after the moratorium.

From there, they could bring Mirotic over using what’s left of their cap space (about $10 million if the Afflalo deal includes both picks, Dunleavy and Snell) and use the rest, as well as the $2.7 million “room” exception to fill out the rest of the roster. This doesn’t have the star power of some of the other options, but it is reminiscent of 2010, when the Bulls picked up a lesser star (Boozer then, Afflalo now) and filled the roster out around them and won 62 games.

Offseason Scenario 5: Love and Melo

This can go two ways. Pretty much any hypothetical Love trade is essentially cap-neutral. If a Love trade centered on Taj — for instance, the one they’ve reportedly offered — goes through, the Bulls could still amnesty Boozer and trade Dunleavy and have a decent chunk of cap space. So they could theoretically sign Melo outright. But if it’s centered on Boozer, or if they have to take back Kevin Martin as part of the agreement, it would have to be a sign and trade. The good news is that acquiring Love in a trade centered on Boozer would free the Bulls up to offer Taj to the Knicks for Melo, an offer that seems like it would be more palatable to New York than Boozer and picks.

The most plausible scenario — and it’s not terribly plausible, sadly — would be the Bulls getting Love and Martin in exchange for Boozer, Dunleavy, Snell, Mirotic and some combination of picks. Then they could offer Taj, $4 million in non-guaranteed contracts and whatever’s left of their pick stash to New York and sign Melo to a contract starting at $17 million. If they somehow managed to pull that off — not likely — they would have 8 players (Rose, Love, Melo, Martin, Joakim Noah, Greg Smith, Jimmy Butler and their 2nd round pick this year) under contract for $73 million. If they filled out their roster with only minimum salaries, they might not even pay the tax.

Alas, this won’t happen. Moving on.

Offseason Scenario 6: Melo and Afflalo

This one is less complicated, though still extremely unlikely. Trading Afflalo for the aforementioned Dunleavy/Snell/picks package is also more or less salary-neutral, then Boozer and picks would go to New York. Or the Bulls could amnesty Boozer and sign Melo outright. Either way.

Offseason Scenario 7: Standing pat.

Basically, the Bulls could just stick with what they have. Hold on to their picks. Bring Mirotic over, probably with cap space created by a Boozer amnesty. Fill in the roster around the guys they already have. It’s the most boring scenario, but frankly the most likely. The Bulls are notoriously risk-averse and like holding on to “their” guys. Maybe they make a couple of minor moves, but nothing too crazy.

Offseason Scenario 8: LeBron.

Yeah… no. Let’s just not even talk about this. We’re done here.

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The Chicago Bulls want Carmelo Anthony. Melo seems increasingly likely to leave the New York Knicks. But there’s still a big question to be addressed: is Melo in Chicago going to work under the salary cap?

The answer, based on the salary numbers available from ShamSports.com, appears to be yes. In fact, things wouldn’t be terribly different than they are right now, financially.

Let’s start with Melo himself. He can make well over $20 million next season if he signs for as much as he’s allowed to under the CBA. The Bulls, without sacrificing anyone beyond Carlos Boozer, can offer him about $13 million for next season. Trading Mike Dunleavy to a team with cap space brings that offer to about $16 million, and dumping one or both of their draft picks would free up another $2-4 million. But let’s say Melo wants to win badly enough that he signs for about $15 million in his first year. That allows the Bulls to keep both picks, though Dunleavy would still have to go.

The Bulls would, then, have $63 million committed to nine players (Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Greg Smith, Jimmy Butler, Tony Snell and two rookies, plus Melo). They probably couldn’t bring Nikola Mirotic over unless Mirotic was willing to sign for the “room” exception for about $2.7 million, which seems unlikely. But they could use the room exception on someone else or — and this is more likely — just fill the last four spots with minimum guys. That would leave the Bulls with around $67 million in salary, well below the projected tax line. Like, WELL below. Like, $10 million below.

Then in 2015-16, things get a little more interesting. Jimmy Butler will either have an extension in hand or need to be re-signed after the season. Everyone else gets slightly more expensive. And you’d definitely want to bring Mirotic over.

So here’s what you’d have: $42 million combined for Rose/Noah/Gibson, $16 million for Melo, probably $7 million for Butler, $5 million for Mirotic, $1.5 mil for Snell and a combined $4.5 mil for the two 2014 draft picks. That’s $76 million total. Throw in another $1-2 million for their 2015 pick, which probably will come via the Cleveland Cavaliers, since the Bulls got swap rights for the Cavs in 2015 as part of the Luol Deng trade. That leaves them $4-5 million short of the projected tax line, which is $81 million as of this moment. But they only need three players in this scenario, so if those guys sign for the minimum, they don’t even have to pay the tax. They could even throw someone the Bi-Annual Exception if they were feeling frisky.

Think about that. The Bulls would have Rose, Butler, Melo, Taj, Noah, Mirotic, Snell and three other guys on rookie contracts, plus whoever they get for the minimum/BAE, and they wouldn’t even cross over the tax line. That’s insane.

It’s also worth noting that ditching one or both of this year’s draft picks — or taking someone they can stash overseas — so Melo doesn’t have to take as much of a pay cut doesn’t change this projection much. Any increase in Melo’s salary would come with a corresponding decrease in the salary committed to young guys, who could be replaced with minimum-salaried players. And I didn’t even bother to account for the Bulls’ 2014 2nd rounder or the two 2nd rounders (their own and Portland’s, via the Deng trade) they’ll have in 2015, which would allow the Bulls to fill out their roster with players making even less than the veteran’s minimum, if they chose.

There is also the possibility that the Sacramento Kings would send the Bulls their 2015 pick, but it’s top-10 projected and I just don’t see that happening.

So, as it turns out, the Bulls’ financial future is pretty bright. I’m sure Jerry Reinsdorf is already scheduling the #FinancialChamps parade.

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Let’s get the obvious out of the way immediately: Jimmy Butler did not have a great season. And that is most likely an understatement.

Having said that, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that the 2013-14 Chicago Bulls would not have won 48 games without Jimmy. He stepped into the void created when Luol Deng was shipped off to Cleveland and did a phenomenal job, so long as you’re not into stellar shooting percentages. There’s no disputing that Jimmy is one of the very best perimeter defenders in the NBA, and the Bulls defense would not have been as good without him.

The Numbers (per-36): 12.2 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.8 steals, 0.5 blocks, 1.4 turnovers, 39.7% FG, 28.3% 3PT, 76.9% FT, 13.5 PER, 7.1 WS, 0.131 WS/48

The Good: Defense, mostly, though there were a few nice things we saw offensively. Pressed into a role as a secondary ball-handler, Jimmy did seem to improve his playmaking somewhat, evidenced by his increased assist total and assist rate. He continued to get to the free throw line at a very high rate, posting a .488 free throw rate, which is even higher than last year’s. But yeah, not a great year overall on that end.

The Bad: I mean, his jumper just straight up abandoned him. I’ve been blaming the turf toe injury he suffered in November, based on the fact that he was shooting 44 percent from deep in the first 9 games of the season and then shot in the mid-20s the rest of the way, but I have no idea. You could tell me someone hypnotized him and I’d probably believe you.

Though, oddly, Jimmy actually did pretty well from mid-range this year, hitting about 40 percent from 10-16 feet and about 36 from 16-23 feet, according to basketball-reference. That’s not great, but it’s not bad, and it’s a far cry from his abysmal 28 percent mark from three. Jimmy shot 45.7 percent on twos overall, which is pretty not bad. Don’t worry, I’m just as confused as you are.

Jimmy’s offensive rebounding, a big part of why he was so good in 2012-13, mostly disappeared. His defensive rebounding rate is essentially identical over the last two years, but his offensive rebounding rate dropped from 7.2% to 3.9%. The first number is elite for a wing, the second is … not. I feel pretty confident that’s because Jimmy spent so much more time on the perimeter this year compared to last. He attempted 240 threes this year in 67 games, compared to 105 all of last year in 82 games. Granted, he did play about 400 more minutes this year than last, but still, that’s a bit of an increase.

The Grade: B

The Future: I would very much like to think that a summer off will let Jimmy rediscover his jumper, which would make him a hell of a player again. It’s entirely possible that it won’t, and he’ll have to compensate by crashing the offensive glass and drawing fouls and such, and that would be fine too. But on a team so starved for shooting, I really hope he comes back with his jumper in hand once more. That would be delightful.

But even if he doesn’t, I’ll still love him forever.

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