As recently as a few days ago, I was just as perplexed as most Bulls fans at how hard Chicago pursued Pau Gasol. What changed my mind, oddly enough, was a conversation-slash-debate with a random guy on Twitter who argued Luol Deng couldn’t keep the Big 3 together in Miami, while Gasol would, as signing him would address a more pressing hole than Deng. My response was that no player on the market would single-handedly convince them to stay, and that, knowing Pau would sign elsewhere, Deng would be a much better addition than simply pursuing a big or a point guard just to fill a need. Amass as much talent as possible, worry about fit later.

Then it occurred to me that I was disregarding that very philosophy in regards to Pau and the Bulls. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that acquiring Pau made sense on multiple levels. First, as mentioned, adding talent is important. That sounds obvious, but Chicago’s playoff runs haven’t ended out of lack of will or being inexperienced. Simply put, they haven’t had enough good players, which has been the case independent of Derrick Rose’s injuries.

Also, it makes sense on a game theory level. One of the most rudimentary strategies, regardless of whether it’s a game, a business, or in the case of the NBA, both, is if all of your competitors are doing one thing, there’s likely market inefficiencies to  be exploited in doing the opposite. That, not sabermetrics, was the core idea behind Moneyball, and smart people in the NBA like Mark Cuban, who has overseen a retool of the Mavs around sub-star contracts in the $7-10 million range in lieu of a full-blown rebuild, are trying to capitalize in the same way.

We live in a world where Jodie Meeks just inked a deal with an average annual value that surpasses his entire career earnings and Avery Bradley fetched $32 million over four years despite constant injuries and lack of playmaking. That’s not to disparage them as players, but for all the talk of the Bulls needing to upgrade their firepower on the wing, so does nearly everyone else, and even the Chandler Parsons and Gordon Haywards who nabbed max offer sheets aren’t putting anybody over the hump. Circling back to Deng, he and Trevor Ariza are causing bidding wars among a handful of second-tier contenders, yet we saw the limitations of a Bulls team that depended on Lu to put up 15-20 points every night. So why not try something different?

With Pau in the fold, he joins a big man rotation alongside Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Nikola Mirotic, as well as Greg Smith in the fold depending on his health. That makes them the deepest team in the league up front, which gives them all sorts of options. Of those top four, the only combination unlikely to see the court together is Gasol/Mirotic, given Pau’s decline on the defensive end. Other than that, the versatility of Noah and Gibson allows them to trot out any other duo.

Acquiring Gasol also means lighter workloads for the bigs, if Thibs can bring himself to let the pedal come off the floor a bit. He can now get through the regular season without wringing every minute out of Noah to win the average Tuesday night low-scoring nailbiter against the also-rans of the league. Even if Mirotic didn’t play a single minute, there’s 96 frontcourt minutes to divvy up, or just 32 minutes a night for each for the Jo/Pau/Taj trio. It also allows the Bulls to be more conservative with injuries in the first year of the post #FredClearedHim era, seeing as trainer Fred Tedeschi left for Oregon State. As much as the “2010 Plan” of adding depth after striking out on the stars seems less than palatable, it would present the Bulls with a chance at getting the top seed and home court advantage without having them be gassed by the time April comes around.

Speaking of the playoffs, being in the East requires being prepared to play LeBron James, regardless of where he plays, and while the supporting cast is now different, with youth and athleticism replacing maturity and playoff know-how, the strengths and weaknesses of his team will be similar. Of the lessons learned from watching the Triad Heat, none are more important than this: You will not beat a LeBron James team by out-smallballing them. The Heat didn’t reach their apex until after their bitter loss in the 2011 Finals to Dallas, when they added Shane Battier, and phased out small bigs (Udonis Haslem, Joel Anthony) for big wings (Battier, Mike Miller). They wagered that the gains in speed and spacing were worth the losses in rim protection and defensive toughness, which paid off with multiple titles.

Consider the teams that competed with Miami once they found that smallball gear. Boston’s ability to hang with them usually hinged on Kevin Garnett’s ability on a given night to battle down low with Chris Bosh. The Pacers did quite well against the Heat when David West and Roy Hibbert shared the court, but as soon as Miami could attack one-way bigs like Luis Scola or Tyler Hansbrough, Indiana got blown away. The Spurs lost the 2013 Finals after Miami forced Tiago Splitter off the floor and to go small. That scenario reversed last year for a number of reasons. Miller had been amnestied, Battier’s body paid the price for banging down low in previous years, and Boris Diaw’s unique skill set flipped the script.

The moral of the story: The fate of those opponents swayed on how well their bigs played and if they could make Miami pay for going small. LeBron’s Cavs are going to be small, even if they do trade for Kevin Love. They’re depending on Anderson Varejao to stay healthy, a dicey proposition considering he missed a quarter of the season last year, which is a huge improvement after not playing more than 31 games in any of the prior three years.

Gibson, in a weird way, is kind of like Diaw, as they both have perimeter elements to their game. Diaw passes and shoots like a guard on offense, but the Spurs also survived by having him guard Dwyane Wade at times. As for Taj, he’s mobile enough to hang on the perimeter on defense, which would give the Bulls a huge edge down low on offense. Varejao and a Mike Miller type would get eaten alive defensively by Pau and Taj.

Some are worried that Pau is just the next Carlos Boozer. He’s not, as first of all he’s half a foot taller, but he’s also an offensive hub the way Boozer never was in Chicago. Boozer would get his half dozen shots up in the first quarter, and it wouldn’t impact the offense at all. It didn’t change how the defense moved, it didn’t open up looks on the perimeter. Pau’s age is a concern, but it’s not like the Bulls were bidding against the Nets and Kings here. The Spurs are the smartest team in the league, Oklahoma City isn’t far behind, and they were both campaigning to add the Spaniard. It’s safe to say the league doesn’t think Pau is done.

His numbers admittedly don’t look great, though it’s hard to take anything from not only his stats last year, when he was L.A.’s only legit threat, but the year before as well. After adding Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, the Lakers never meshed, going through a litany of injuries. They changed coaches too, and Mike D’Antoni clashed with Gasol, playing the mind games that Phil Jackson would, without the cache to pull them off. Pau is an emotional guy, and seems to need to feel wanted and connected to his team to perform his best. On a team with Noah leading a mature and professional locker room, that won’t be a problem in Chicago.

Adding Pau doesn’t address Chicago’s lack of perimeter creators, but even if you can compartmentalize sports and want Lance Stephenson, signing him for big money is rather risky, as his market should heat up now that the stars have found homes. It’s definitely a letdown if the Bulls fail to add a star like Love or Carmelo Anthony, but as long as the deal is for reasonable money and short in length, Gasol could be a quality acquisition who is sufficient enough for the Bulls to make a real push at the Finals.

The post Why Pau Gasol Is Better For The Bulls Than You Think appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

It’s nearly 11 PM here on the West Coast and the weekend has just started in the rest of the country, but NBA Hot Stove news has no bedtime apparently. According to Spanish sports outlet Marca, and now Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Bulls are about to get Pau Gasol from the Los Angeles Lakers in a sign-and-trade.

From Marca’s Jesus Sanchez:

Acuerdo prácticamente cerrado a falta de un 'sign and trade’ con @Lakers. @paugasol jugará en los @chicagobulls. Info en @marca.

— Jesús Sánchez (@Sanchez__Jesus) July 12, 2014

Wojnarowski, who does not confirm the sign-and-trade portion of the transaction:

Pau Gasol, Chicago working to complete an agreement, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 12, 2014

As of now, the details are unclear. The Lakers could receive a package including Mike Dunleavy and the WaivaBulls (Mike James, Ronnie Brewer and Louis Amundson), or maybe the Bulls threw in a future first to save the amnesty money on Carlos Boozer. The Lakers used their cap space to absorb Jeremy Lin’s expiring deal from Houston, so it’s no longer easy for them to take on Boozer’s expiring, but again, without the specifics, NBA transactions have taught us not to rule anything out completely.

A couple things to remember:

-Google translator is an approximation, so it’s tough to gauge the specifics of the Marca article.

-Without knowing what the Bulls are giving up in the deal, it’s too early to judge what this means for their pursuit of Carmelo Anthony. It does, however, take Phil Jackson’s top target off the market. Jackson was hoping to get his former player at a discount, a move that may have clinched Anthony re-signing in New York.

-If Gasol is acquired in a sign-and-trade, the deal will be for at least three years. Though a scary proposition, seeing as Gasol just turned 34, it’s mitigated by the possibility of unguaranteed or partially guaranteed seasons.

We’ll update the situation once more details break.

The post Report: Bulls To Acquire Pau Gasol In Sign-And-Trade appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

In trading to acquire Creighton star Doug McDermott, the Bulls fell victim to something much more common in the NFL: They got attached to a particular player in the draft.

Every year, smart teams like San Francisco and New England fleece the teams that prioritize the short-term (think Tennessee or Carolina) by taking advantage of the fact that such a team “covets” a specific player. Despite the draft being somewhat of a crapshoot, and the plethora of talent available, teams convince themselves that they just have to have that precious prospect who will fill a glaring need. However, the price for that desperation ends up costing a premium in draft capital. The basic framework of such a trade might see a team acquire a third rounder immediately, but at the high price of next year’s second and a sixth in the current draft.

It doesn’t happen much in basketball both because the NBA Draft is so much shorter and teams don’t deal first rounders to acquire second rounders, leaving just one round for franchises to borrow against their future. Under the current CBA, the only transaction that closely resembles what the Bulls did is Utah packaging #14 and #21 to Minnesota to move up to #9 for Trey Burke last year. The Jazz got much better value in that deal though, as they desperately needed a point guard, and Burke was the last consensus top-level player remaining in that woeful draft.

While they moved up the exact same amount of spots the Bulls did, typically the better the pick, the steeper the cost. And yet the Jazz surrendered far less than GarPax did last night. Gorgui Dieng, the player the Wolves nabbed at #21, looks like a legit asset, but that’s judging the deal with information unavailable at the time. In addition to the extra first rounder, #19, the Bulls surrendered a second rounder (they were two in the black thanks to the Luol Deng deal, but still) and took on the final year of failed project Anthony Randolph’s contract.

This happened because the normally uber-secretive Bulls were terribly obvious about the object of their affection. Multiple reports mentioned how often Chicago had scouted McDermott at Creighton and practically every major media outlet reported at some point that the Bulls were shopping their picks with reckless abandon, making it painfully apparent that, barring the selection of a draft-and-stash guy, there was no chance they’d use both, with the ultimate goal to package them and move up for a shooter.

So, in the same manner that the Bulls forced the desperate Cavs to cough extra assets in the Deng deal, the Nuggets were able to leverage not just the 19th selection, but swiped another pick and dumped a contract on the Bulls, who’ve worked so diligently to avoid taking on any sort of money. Randolph may end up being used as salary fodder in a grander move, but CBA rules make re-dealing a player rather complicated, and according to K.C. Johnson, Gar Forman admitted that Randolph’s inclusion was Denver’s impetus, not Chicago’s.

What really puts this over the top is that the Bulls may not have needed to trade up at all, and that, even independent of Randolph, it cost them potential cap room to do so. Unless another team would have swapped with Denver for McDermott, they likely just take Jusuf Nurkic at 11, instead of with Chicago’s pick. Orlando was widely assumed to select Dario Saric, enabling their acquisition of tenth pick Elfrid Payton from Philly (speaking of Orlando, they too got swindled out of a first rounder to ensure the delivery of Payton.) The only team that kept their target less of a secret than the Bulls was Minnesota, who took Zach LaVine at 13. Maybe Phoenix was a threat at 14, but Atlanta was surely choosing Adreian Payne at 15 over McDermott.

It looks like McDermott may very well have still been on the board at 16 for Chicago, and staying there would have saved the Bulls a few hundred thousand roughly in cap space due to the difference in salaries attached to the picks involved. In the event he had been gone by their pick, Chicago’s worst case scenario was getting “stuck” with Gary Harris at 16. Lack of size may have hurt Harris, but consider that he notched 15 blocks as a sophomore, trumping the paltry 14 McDermott had over his entire four year college career.

The last couple years, the Bulls have been engulfed by two enormous question marks. The first is obviously if Derrick Rose can get, and stay, healthy. The second is how they can pave a path and execute a plan to add another star. We’ve learned that role players are nice, and crucial on the margins as this year’s Finals showed, but when push came to shove, GarPax dipped into their precious flexibility and collection of assets just to add one rookie role player over another. We’re not talking about trading up to grab a boom-or-bust type like LaVine, who could change a franchise if he happens to pan out, as McDermott is pretty defined in his potential, a 22-year-old whose lack of variance provides security but considerably less upside.

The Bulls can say they wanted to add shooting, but that’s not what this is, at least not yet, because the chatter seems to suggest this frees them up to lop Mike Dunleavy’s salary off the books. That’s not adding a shooter, that’s replacing a shooter, and in doing so, relying on a rookie to suitably fill the role of a guy who’s been in the league for a dozen years and qualifies as the only above average deep shooter on the roster.

As for the idea that consolidating two first rounders into one created more cap room for the Bulls, well, that’s misguided. If they wanted to do that, they could have stayed at 16, as mentioned, and easily traded 19 for a future first round pick from somebody. There, that was easy, and now you have a shooter without wasting cap room to trade up, plus a future first (or a stashed prospect) that could grease the wheel in trade talks for Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Love or somebody else entirely.

Overall, McDermott’s actually a good fit. The Bulls probably weren’t retaining Dunleavy after this year anyway, so they secured a long-term shooting threat, and just as importantly, someone who opponents absolutely know is a threat and will bend their defense as such. Within two minutes of watching NBATV, they’d already praised him with the phrases we’ll hear about him his entire career: “coach’s son” and ” high basketball IQ,” so basically he’s the perfect heir to Kirk Hinrich’s throne. In all seriousness though, McDermott does seem to be the high-quality teammate he’s lauded as, so for both his sake and Chicago’s, hopefully he fills the role they have slotted for him, but the Bulls sure tapped into the resources they’ve spent years accumulating for what amounts to an ancillary piece of the puzzle.

The post Doug McDermott And The Trouble With Love appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

From Flickr via Keith Allison

As the Chicago Bulls vainly struggled  to score against the Sacramento Kings (ranked 28th in defensive rating)  it was hard not to think, “They really need Carmelo Anthony.”

Certainly, his multifaceted scoring abilities would be a great boon to an offense that often looks like a clogged heart working overtime to futilely pump thickened blood through plaque-covered veins. The Bulls always appear to work so hard to accomplish so little. Anthony would be the equivalent of a quadruple bypass.

Yes, in principle, the notion of acquiring Anthony makes perfect sense. Adding the reigning scoring champion to the league’s second-worst offense has to help. It’s why some say the Bulls should land Anthony at all costs.

And that’s where flags need to be raised. How much is it going to cost to bring him in, in terms of current players, future players, and money? If the benefits of bringing over Anthony are outweighed by the cost, it’s not worth it.

If you bring up cost there’s a fallacious argument that gets lofted out there on the subject that says, “Well I guess you just want to win regular season games and don’t care about championships,” as though the choice is over winning a ring or not winning  one.

No, the choice is between what the Bulls would have to pay to get Anthony, and what they get in return for it. If the net cost makes them better, and thus closer to winning a championship, they should do it. If they get worse, it’s not. In other words, you have to do a cost-benefit analysis.

First, let’s consider the cost, and let’s start with teams that have recently made similar trades.

Over the last few years there have been three teams that have made a big move to land a second star to put them in a position to win a championship:

1. The New York Knicks traded for Carmelo Anthony to play alongside Amare’ Stoudemire.
2. The Los Angeles Lakers landed Dwight Howard to compliment Kobe Bryant.
3. The Brooklyn Nets have made three big trades to acquire Deron Williams from the Utah Jazz first, Joe Johnson from the Atlanta Hawks second and Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett from the Boston Celtics third—all with rising star Brook Lopez in the fold.

At present the Knicks are 19-29, the Nets are 21-25 and the Lakers are 16-31. (You can argue that those teams have injuries etcetera, and you’d be right. But, I’d also say that’s precisely why the Bulls need to consider things thoroughly, and I’ll discuss that more a little later.)

The three teams have combined to win one playoff series since making their respective trades, and only one of the three, Brooklyn, would even make the playoffs if the season ended today. These trades did not put them in championship contention.

The Lakers weren’t even able to keep the star they traded to acquire, Anthony is thinking about leaving, and the Nets “window” is looking like it is shut before it ever opened up, and they’re possibly looking to trade away Williams.

Point being, trading for a second star not only doesn’t assure you of success, it carries a massive risk. Not only are all three of those teams that traded for stars have problems in the present, it looks difficult for them to suddenly turn things around in the future as well.

Brooklyn is in the saddest state, they don’t get a first-round pick this year, or in 2016. Next summer Atlanta has the right to swap picks with them. They don’t have any real cap relieve until the 2016-2017 season. They’re bad now and will continue to be bad for the foreseeable future.

The Knicks will see cap relief in the 2015-16 season, a tad sooner, but they are sending two of their next three first-round picks to the Nuggets, and that’s with only two players, Iman Shumpert and Tim Hardaway Jr., on their roster.

The Lakers owe their first-round pick in 2015 to Phoenix, and their pick in 2017 to the Orlando Magic. They get a measure of cap-relief this summer but not as much as advertised. According to Larry Coon, technically, they could sign Carmelo Anthony to an almost-max deal, but that’s only if they let ever other free agent walk.

In contrast, the Bulls have cap space coming up this summer. They have the chance to acquire Nikola Mirotic from Real Madrid (which may or may not happen). They still own all their first-round picks. They also have the Charlotte Bobcats pick (probably) coming this year, and a likely Sacramento Kings pick in the next year or two. (Yes, I’m aware that this could eventually turn into a second-round pick, but that would require a nine-year of destitution that no team has had since the merger).

It’s not so much a question of whether a second star generally helps to win a championship—it obviously does. It’s more a question of whether is assures a championship. And, on that count, it obviously doesn’t.

And Anthony isn’t exactly the kind of player who has proven he can galvanize a franchise. He’s only played in the second round of the playoffs twice and never past that. He’s only finished in the top five in MVP voting once, and never higher than third. He’s finished top 10 only twice. He has only finished top 10 in PER once (fourth in 2012-13), and he’s never finished top-10 in Win Shares.

Don’t misunderstand my intent here. I’m not saying he’s not a beneficial player. He is. I’m just pointing out that historically he hasn’t been as beneficial a player as he’s getting touted by some to be. He’s not LeBron James. He’s not the type of player who can carry a group of scrubs to the Finals the way James did in Cleveland.

You really have to honestly ask, what is left on Chicago if the Bulls acquire him?

If they trade for him, they’re going to have to give up current assets. Tommy Beer of Basketball Insider suggests this trade:

New York sends: Carmelo Anthony, Raymond Felton, Iman Shumpert and $2 million in cash

Chicago sends: Jimmy Butler, Tony Snell, Carlos Boozer, Kirk Hinrich, Chicago’s 2014 first-round draft pick and their 2015 second-round pick.

Boozer and Hinrich would be to make the money work. The picks, Snell and Butler would be to make the trade work. Also, the Bulls would be taking on Felton’s bloated contract which would restrict them in free agency for years to come.

A starting five of Rose, Shumpert, Anthony, Gibson and Noah would be intriguing. Shumpert’s defensive instincts would mesh well with Thibodeau’s style. Anthony respects Thibs, and could adapt. The starting five would be nice.

The problem would be who comes off the bench? They’d still have Dunleavy, but they couldn’t bring over Mirotic. They probably couldn’t keep D.J. Augustin. They’d have Erik Murphy and change. So what happens when injuries occur? You know they will. It’s the Bulls.

That’s what’s happened with the other teams that have failed. They put too much stock in their starting five, assemble a ragtag bench, and the teams get so top-heavy they can’t sustain an injury. Then, when the injuries happen, they collapse.

Depth matters, and gutting your bench for a superstar has been counter-productive of late. That’s why I said earlier, the injuries aren’t really a good reason to excuse the teams who made trade struggling now. They put themselves in this position by the trades they made.

Depending on what the Bulls have do, though, they may not have to trade for Anthony. Per Coon, Anthony would cost $22,458,401 if the Bulls gave him his max-possible deal. So, why not do that?

In order to acquire that much money, even if they didn’t trade, it would effectively mean a trade to get him because the Bulls would have to jettison so much salary to land him, they’d still be gutting the team.

They’d have to amnesty Boozer (which hey, that’s win-win). They’ve already traded Luol Deng. They’d also have to trade Taj Gibson in a salary dump. And, in signing him, they’d be required to forego bringing over Mirotic, at least for this year, and possibly permanently if that delay results in a new deal between Mirotic and Real Madrid.

So in effect, even just signing Anthony in free agency could leave the Bulls with Noah being the only serviceable big left on the team. (If Mohammed stays for another year, he’s far from serviceable). The Bulls could bring in vets on the minimum or use draft picks on the position, but it’s going to hurt. You’re just not going to replace Gibson with a vet minimum player. Boozer might be frustrating at times, but he’s much better than what’s going to be there in place of him.

The reality is that vet minimum players are available for the minimum for a reason.

Rookies take time to learn and develop, and there’s always a risk involved. The Bulls could use both picks on power forwards, but they’re not going to instantly be quality producers. And, they get those two picks either way.

Think of it this way: If you were Gar Forman before the Deng trade, and you got a call from the Knicks offering Anthony for Deng, Gibson, Boozer and Mirotic, would you take it? Because in effect, that’s what you’re giving up to sign Anthony.

That’s a lot to pay, even if the Bulls can keep all the picks they’re owed. Can they persuade Anthony to take less money like James did in 2010? If they can lower the cost it makes more sense. If not they need to consider if they would they be better off keeping Gibson and Mirotic, and chasing a secondary star like Lance Stephenson in free agency.

There’s a real danger of buyer’s remorse when it comes to Anthony, whether it’s from trading for him directly or selling out everything to land him in free agency. Either way, it’s not a no-brainer, and to say otherwise is just an excuse to not use your brain.

The post Raging Bull: Counting the Cost of a Carmelo Anthony Trade appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Under the proposed deal the Bulls would further enter the luxury tax this coming season as Okafor’s contract is larger than Deng’s and the third round draft pick would at least secure a $3 million per year deal having been drafted so highly. Ultimately this would not affect the rumored 2014 plan as Okafur’s $14.5 million contract would come off the books at the close of the season.

Since the departure of Omer Asik last year the Bulls have been looking for a new big man to play behind Joakim Noah. Most mock drafts have the Bulls filling this role by drafting a big man with their currently owned 20th pick. With this trade the Bulls would be able to fill the need for another center while also being able to draft a rookie replacement for Deng. Who they would draft at this spot is anyone’s guess, but it’s safe to say that a small forward or shooting guard who can create his own shot and/or shoot the three point shot respectably would be drafted.

Ultimately the likelihood of this trade going through is pretty slim. The trade wouldn’t give the Wizards any more cap relief than they’re already set to have nor would their be any guarantee that Deng would stick around after the 2013-2014 NBA season. According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune via Twitter, “Cant see Wizards giving up No. 3 and Okafor for Deng… unless Deng says he’ll resign. Which I also don’t see.”

Stranger trades have happened in the past so while unlikely, this trade is not completely out of the realm of possibility. As the story continues to develop, we at BBTH will keep you updated.

UPDATE: According to Michael Lee of the Washington Post, the Wizards have stated they have no interest in trading the third pick in this year’s draft for Luol Deng.

The post Trade Rumor: Luol Deng to the Washington Wizards for the Number 3 Pick and Emeka Okafor appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

The Bulls completed the trade of Kyle Korver to the Hawks reported last Friday, however the Timberwolves dropped out of the thoroughly discussed three-team deal.

Korver’s $5 million contract becomes guaranteed for the 2012-13 season and slides into the Hawks’ trade exception created when they dealt Joe Johnson to the Nets. The Bulls received a $5 million trade exception and cash.

That cash was originally headed to the Timberwolves, who were going to send a second-round pick to the Bulls, a source said. A trade exception allows the Bulls to acquire a player whose contract is up to $5 million without sending out any salary. They expire after a year if unused.

And that, as they say, is that. This was a straight-up salary dump. The Bulls have so much cash committed to Carlos Boozer, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng that management is pinching every possible penny to avoid the luxury tax…which they’ll end up paying anyway if they match Houston’s $25.1 million offer sheet on Omer Asik.

The Bulls are going to be hard pressed to replace Korver’s three-point shooting. Last season’s two best percentage three-point snipers — Korver and C.J. Watson — are gone (Watson signed with the New Jersey Nets).

It’s hard to see the Bulls spreading the floor, especially early on when Rose and Deng are both out, which is going to have a really negative impact on the offense. Today’s NBA offenses are predicated largely on three-point shooting. Not sure how the Bulls are going to adjust now that they essentially don’t have any (save for Kirk Hinrich, who isn’t a high percentage three-point shooter).

The post The Kyle Korver trade is official appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

Pending a passed physical, the Chicago Bulls have traded Kyle Korver to the Atlanta Hawks via the Minnesota Timberwolves in a move that saves them $500,000 and nets what is expected to be either a second-round pick and traded player exception or a player with a small contract from the Timberwolves.

The Bulls had until Sunday to either guarantee Korver’s $5 million option for 2012-13 or waive him and pay Korver $500,000. The Bulls had talked to the Hawks about trading Korver into Atlanta’s traded player exception acquired in the Joe Johnson trade to the Nets.

They ultimately used Minnesota to facilitate the deal.

Not sure what the actual end result of this trade will be. This could be a sign-and-trade for Kirk Hinrich so the Bulls can save their mini mid-level exception, which is worth around $3 million, or maybe team will come away with a draft pick or another player.

Regardless, it’s a bittersweet goodbye to Korver, who was Chicago’s only premier three-point shooter. In fact, the Bulls’ top three long-distance snipers were Korver (43.5 percent), C.J. Watson (39.3) and John Lucas III (39.3).

All three of those guys are gone now.

It makes me wonder how the Bulls are going to spread the floor next season. Hinrich can hit the three, but he hit only 34.6 percent of his treys last season and his career three-point shooting percentage (37.8) isn’t exactly sizzling.

Anybody with working eyeballs could tell Chicago’s offense ran more smoothly last season when Korver was on the floor, and in fact he led the team (with Joakim Noah) in Offensive Rating at 120 points per 100 possessions. According to NBA.com, Kyle was second on the team (to Luol Deng) in simple plus-minus (+325). BasketballValue also highlights the value of having Korver on the floor.

The Bulls saved some money on this deal. Sure. But — unless management has another move  up its sleeve — they became a worse offensive team.

The post Kyle Korver has been traded appeared first on Bulls By The Horns.

But…the Grizzlies were willing (if unable) to trade Mayo to the Pacers for Josh McRoberts and a first rounder? Really? And why?

Johnson continues: “There’s a longstanding theory Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley, who has a home in the St. Charles area, doesn’t like doing business with the Bulls for competitive reasons. Whether that factored into the Grizzlies turning down what appears to be a more substantial offer than that of the Pacers is unknown.”

Alrighty then.

So, despite the all the hand-wringing and teeth-nashing by Bulls fans (myself included), it would appear management did their due diligence in pursuing an upgrade at the SG position. I mean, Brewer (whose contract expires in 2012) and three draft picks (including two first rounders) would have been a pretty solid return for Mayo.

Oh well. It’s not all doom and gloom.

Johnson added: “What is known is the Bulls move forward with their core of young assets intact and roughly $2.9 million of salary-cap space. They will monitor players whose contracts are bought out and must be added by March 1 to be playoff-eligible. They also could sign some Development League players. At this June’s draft, the Bulls will be in position with four first-round picks, cap space and contracts that expire in 2012 for Brewer, C.J. Watson and Kyle Korver (who has a partial guarantee for his third contractual year). They also will be able financially to make a move once a new collective bargaining agreement is set.”

I know it’s not easy to accept. It’s natural to have wanted an upgrade over Keith Bogans. But, really, this is smart management, folks. Forward thinking. Instant gratification isn’t always a good thing, even if it does provide, uhm, instant gratification.

Said Bulls GM Gar Forman: “Every year there seems to be two or three guys who are excellent players and teams are looking for expiring contracts, multiple draft picks and young assets. We didn’t want to make a deal just to make a deal. We want to make the right deal. We don’t know what we’re facing going forward (with a new CBA). Our feeling was we didn’t want to give up a young asset when you don’t know what’s on the horizon. We want to see what the playing field is going to look like. When you look at our roster and our books, we’re going to have opportunities.”

I still can’t say I’m totally happy with how things turned out. But I’m feeling better about them.

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It’s not exactly shocking that management would ship Johnson for essentially nothing. After all, J.J. has appeared in only 13 games this season and compiled more turnovers (18) than field goals (17). Let’s face it, his stint in the NBA Developmental League notwithstanding, Johnson was a bust-a-rama. He sure isn’t going to make it on to Basketball-Reference’s list of the best players ever traded at midseason.

And yet…his general bawfulness isn’t why the Bulls dealt him.

Sure, the Bulls have been scouring the D-League for potential shooting guards, but the guy’s they’re looking at would have serious trouble cracking coach Tom Thibodeau’s rotation. So, clearly, management has other gambits in play.

K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes: “After shedding Johnson’s $1.7 million salary, the Bulls now possess roughly $2.9 million of salary cap space and have stockpiled draft picks. … One source said talks with the Grizzlies regarding O.J. Mayo continue, although his $4.45 million salary would need to be matched and not fully absorbed into cap space. The Bulls could add players like the Cavaliers’ Anthony Parker, the Clippers’ Rasual Butler or the Rockets’ Courtney Lee merely for draft picks with their cap space. The Bulls also could wait until after the trade deadline to see if any prominent players get bought out, and then try to sign them with cap space.”

Okay, quick thoughts.

Rasual Butler: A 36 percent career three-point shooter who can’t crack Vinny Del Negro’s rotation on the Los Angeles Clippers. I wouldn’t want this guy on the Bulls even if he didn’t have the Clippers stank all over him.

Anthony Parker: On the one hand, he’s a savvy vet who’s hitting nearly 40 percent of his treys this season (and 41.3 percent for his career). On the other hand, he’s 35 years and 249 days old. He’s a minor upgrade over Keith Bogans. His contract expires after the season. Basically a rental…which makes me feel iffy. If he’s not part of the team’s future, is there really a point to bringing him in?

Courtney Lee: I’d feel better about Lee than Parker. He’s young (25 years and 143 days) and proved he could stick the three for both the Magic in 2008-09 (40.4 percent) and this year’s Houston squad (42.5 percent). Of course, despite playing for the always-scrappy Rockets, Lee has is giving up more points per 100 possessions (D-Rating of 112) than he’s scoring (O-Rating 107), and that bugs me. He’s also on the books for two more seasons after this one, so while he’s better than Parker, he also represents more of a commitment. The big question: Does he potentially push the Bulls over a championship hump? I doesn’t feel that way to me.

O.J. Mayo: Yes, he’s having a disappointing season. And yes, that disappointing season has been made worse by his 10-game drug suspension and that fight he had on the team plane with teammate Tony Allen. But he’s a young kid with loads of potential. He’s proven he can score (18.5 PPG as a rookie) and shoot (about 38 percent from downtown over his three-season career). Mayo is also a pretty good ball handler and an above-average competitor who, in my opinion, would benefit greatly from playing for Thibs and alongside Derrick Rose. Essentially, he has the biggest upside of any of the guys the Bulls appear to be considering.

Update! According to Yahoo! Sports: “The Chicago Bulls are still pursuing shooting guard Courtney Lee, offering a first-round draft pick to the Houston Rockets, sources said. Chicago could make the offer more intriguing with the addition of the Miami Heat’s 2011 first-round pick that the Bulls acquired from Toronto for forward James Johnson on Tuesday. For now, the Rockets are determined to bring back size and want Bulls center Omer Asik in any package for Lee.”

Quick take: Joakim Noah has missed 48 games over the past two seasons. Kurt Thomas crawled out of the sea more than a million years ago. Asik is raw…but the Bulls need that insurance at the center position. I’m okay with giving up the first rounders, but the team should try to hold onto Asik unless he’s part of a bigger deal for a more significant upgrade.

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