Let the offseason speculation continue! Now that the woeful Clippers have won the right to destroy yet another promising NBA career, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune is advocating a straight-up trade with The Other L.A. Team: Kirk Hinrich for Marcus Camby. The upside of the trade is that it gets Captain Kirk’s Contract of Doom off the books while Camby’s $7.65 million deal expires next summer.
However, shipping Kirk to the West Coast almost guarantees that the Bulls will have to resign Ben Gordon for big bucks, which is sort of like trading one high-priced, multi-year contract for another. And I’ve already explained why Hinrich has more utility to the team than Gordon. Who would back up Derrick Rose? How would the Bulls hide Gordon on defense? Who would rock the everlasting five o’clock shadow?
As for Camby, he’s just a 34-year-old Tyrus Thomas with somewhat better shot selection. He’s not an inside scorer. He missed 20 games last season with various minor injuries. And it’s also possible he’s permenantly tainted with the Clippers Curse. (For further reading, see “Brand, Elton.”) Oh, and the dude wears sweater vests. In the summer. In Los Angeles. (See above.) That’s just creepy, right?
Bottom line: The trade would make the team worse in the short term but give us more cash in the long run. Personally, I’d rather keep an eye out for trades that will make us better first and use salary dumps as a last resort.
Matt,
Where’s the love for the sweater vest? It’s the only article of clothing that alone says, “Yeah I’m classy, but I like to party too.” Summer, spring, winter, earth, space — the sweater vest is always a winner.
Loop
So who would you like to bring in over the summer, Matt? You know who you have to trade, you can guess who’d be interested, propose a hypothetical trade that you like.
Here’s what I think the bulls should do:
Kirk Hinrich
Luol Deng
for
Mike Miller
Brian Cardinal
6th pick
28th pick
Bulls draft:
6-DeMar Derozan
16-DeJuan Blair(If he falls this far)/BJ Mullens is alternate.
26-Chase Budinger
28-Toney Douglas
Yo, Rocky have you been reading my posts.
I’ve got the Bulls trading Gordon and the #26(if necessary) to the Wizards for the #5 pick and Etan Thomas’s expiring contract. Then taking DeRozen or DeJuan Blair with the pick.
Also the Bulls trade Hinrich to Sacto along with the 16th pick(if necessary)for the #4 pick and Kenny Thomas’s expiring contract. Then taking DeRozen with the pick.
Alternately, the Bulls trade Hinrich to Minny along with the 16th pick(if necessary)for the 6th pick and Mike Miller’s expiring contract. Then taking DeRozen or Blair.
Like your trade too, although I doubt Minny would take Deng’s contract, but their top 2 needs are at the point and small forward. I also like Budinger and Mullens or Mullens and Budinger at 16 and 26 if we can’t move up. However, for some reason, the Bulls are still in love with Deng.
I totally agree that other than Blake Griffin, the top 2 draft targets for the Bulls should be DeRozen and Blair. Derozen has Kobe like potential, and sure would look great next to Rose for the next decade. Blair is probably a risk, because of his size but one worth taking to add some physicality to this Bulls team.
Clippers aren’t likely to trade Camby, more likely Kaman, and he can be had for expiring contracts, but don’t want him(especially his contract) anyway especially for Hinrich.
I really like the Gordon to the wiz trade, makes sense for the wiz and for the Bulls, and we get to keep Hinrich which I prefer.
If we make all these moves we could theoretically end up with Derozen, Blair, Mullens and maybe even Budinger. I would love that, and I would trade the old “core” Gordon, Deng, and Hinrich for them in a hearbeat.
We are at least 2 years from truly competing to get to the finals, so we can still afford to add more young guys to the Rose, Noah, Thomas and Salmons core. The only reason to keep Deng is as trade bait for a 2010 superstar free agent. Otherwise lets blow it up.