Editor’s Note: The following was offered from LWOS reader Alan Smithee.
Okay, so. Wow. My Chicago Bulls, after whiffing on #1 target Carmelo Anthony in free agency, and for some reason not even trying to sign-and-trade for Kevin Love outside of an obnoxious low-ball offer, settled for… maybe the 15th best free agent in the market (C+ move at best, if we’re assigning letter grades), a 34-year-old, past-his-prime Pau Gasol. And then they signed a great international prospect to a fair deal (A+ move). And THEN.. wasted the teams bi-annual exception on a lower-tier back-up point guard (Kirk Hinrich) that absolutely no one else was bidding for, someone the team could have signed to the veteran’s minimum instead of blowing a cap exception on him (D-).
Notes From A Disgruntled Chicago Bulls Fan
This team’s biggest need, since 2010 really, has been a starting wing scorer to pair in tandem with point guard Derrick Rose — someone who can pass and score and shoot from deep. They’ve tried Keith Bogans (couldn’t create, couldn’t penetrate, not the fastest), Ronnie Brewer (overpaid — couldn’t shoot or get to the line), Rip Hamilton (too old), Jimmy Butler (great defender and can get to the line, erratic three-point shooting and can’t create), Kyle Korver (great catch-and-shoot player, great three-point shooter, can’t create or get to the line, maxes out as a competent team defender), and Marco Belinelli (was a pretty good fit, but the Bulls cheap-ed out and let him walk when he outplayed his contract). Jimmy Butler is a fantastic defender and I love what he brings to the Bulls — he is only 24, and will probably continue to improve over the next few seasons. Maybe he could be the answer one day. But right now, this year, they needed someone else. The Bulls needed Lance Stephenson or Carmelo Anthony.
Some thoughts on ‘Melo: here was a perfect fit for the Bulls — one of the best isolation players in the game, a guy who could create, a guy who score from all over the parquet, a guy who isn’t just a small forward but ALSO a fantastic post-up option as a small-ball power forward (he averaged 8.1 rebounds last year), a 7-time All-Star who is at the absolute peak of his powers RIGHT NOW. Sure, ‘Melo may not be at the level of people like LeBron or Durant, but he is certainly in that next tier, and one of the best offensive players in the game. The Bulls’ game plan was simple: refuse to move Taj Gibson’s contract and force ‘Melo to take a gigantic pay cut (apparently $10 million, to about $15 million from the $25 million annually he will make as Knick). Yes, in theory, this was a nice pipe dream: a starting five of Rose, Butler, Anthony, Gibson and Joakim Noah. This would be a championship-caliber team. But… if it comes down to keeping Taj Gibson and adding one of the five best offensive players on the game, I’m adding ‘Melo. Every. Single. Time.
Why did the Bulls refuse to move Gibson in the deal? He’s a great defensive player, sure, but he wasn’t even a starter on a mediocre Bulls squad last year. If Phil Jackson would have been amenable to receiving Taj Gibson back in a deal (and Gibson per 36 minutes sports averages of 16.4 points and 8.5 rebounds per game) for ’Melo, I think Chicago absolutely should have moved on him. Given the Bulls lack of defense on the wing, especially with the advent of the defensively-challenged Anthony, Butler would have been riskier to sacrifice. ‘Melo is one of the premiere offensive forces in the league, though, and his impact on the Bulls on that end of the floor (and his occasional aptitude on team defense when engaged) would have been a tremendous get. I really think Chicago didn’t do enough to try to wrest him away from Phil Jackson. I would happily have thrown in Taj, Dunleavy, a billion picks and ineffectual starting power forward Carlos Boozer’s expiring contract into a sign-and-trade for Anthony, if that’s what it would have taken. If Jackson would have preferred the rights to unproven stretch-four Nikola Mirotic (said to be Toni Kukoc-esque) in the deal instead of Gibson, I would have been absolutely fine with that.
Another part of this whole thing that bugs me: if adding Anthony was really all contingent on being able to keep Taj Gibson, why the heck didn’t the Bulls just try offering ‘Melo a two-year deal at the discounted rate so that his free agency happened again at age 32? After that, Anthony could either ditch the team or re-sign at a huge number coinciding with the NBA’s new media deal in 2016. The recent two-year deals of LeBron James in Cleveland and Luol Deng in Miami were no doubt created with this in mind. Wouldn’t that have made the most sense? Or is he too concerned his game would erode?
‘Melo is probably never going to be the #1 guy on a championship team. On the Bulls, he would have been the second-best player, and part of a deep, deep roster chock-full of shooters and defenders. The Bulls’ best player, Joakim Noah (yes, Joakim Noah is their best player now) would have been a more mobile, better-shooting, better-passing variation on Tyson Chandler with New York — there to clean up Anthony’s defensive lapses in the paint, and there to gobble up boards and re-set the offense on the other end of the floor.
Yes, fine, the front court is now loaded with the addition of a four-time All-Star and a First Ballot Hall of Famer in Pau Gasol. But Chicago needed a second creator in the back court. If it wasn’t going to be Carmelo Anthony, it should have been Lance Stephenson. The Indiana Pacers’ spark-plug shooting guard is an unrestricted free agent this summer, and could most likely be had for about $10-11 million. He has All-Star potential, he can pass (4.6 assists per game last year), he has great length (a 6’10.5″ wingspan greatly contributed to his 7.2 rebounds per game last season), he shot 54% from 2-point range. And best of all, at 23 years old, he’s just going to get better. If they couldn’t nab ‘Melo, Stephenson was the next-best guy. Yes, he can be a bit of a locker-room issue if not kept in the line, but Chicago is loaded with high-character guys everywhere else, and they could have controlled him. Instead of Lance, though, the team moved expediently to sign… a just-okay back-up big man. WHY?
I am very happy that Nikola Mirotic is finally coming to the Bulls (for a reported three-year, $17 million deal). However, there are a few scenarios in which the Anthony deal would NOT have precluded the addition of Mirotic to the team for the mid-level exception, so the Mirotic signing probably would have gone down anyway.
All in all, the Bulls have had a depressingly pedestrian off-season, when there were at least three potential home-run, franchise-galvanizing deals to be had (a sign-and-trade for Anthony, a trade for Kevin Love, or signing Lance Stephenson outright). Ultimately, there are probably seven teams in the West who would kill this Bulls team in the Finals (Spurs, Clippers, Thunder, Grizzlies, Trailblazers, Rockets, Mavericks). And that is the point. The Eastern Conference is looking worse than it has at any point since 2007, and the Bulls with a couple of moves could have actually been on a level with the best teams in the NBA — all of which are on the other side of the Playoff bracket. Is there a chance that, in a weakened, post-Heat-big-three Eastern Conference, the Bulls claw their way into the NBA Finals in 2015? You could say that, sure. Is there a chance that this particular Bulls team wins more than a single game in those NBA Finals? No way.
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