It has been a busy 48 hours for the Chicago Bulls who have added 2 major talents to their roster in signing Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic along with several other minor moves. The new-look Bulls are hoping to compete in the Eastern Conference that has seen significant changes in power due to recent free agent signings, most notably LeBron James leaving the Miami Heat for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Gasol is signing a 3 year $22 million plus contract. The Gasol acquisition, along with 2013 NBA defensive player of the year Joakim Noah, now pairs two of the best passing 7 footers together on the same team. Noah’s defense dovetails perfectly with Gasol’s offensive prowess. Although injury prone the last 2 years, Gasol averages nearly 4 more points per game than Carlos Boozer, who is expected to be amnestied by Wednesday’s deadline.
The 6’10” Mirotic was drafted by the Bulls in 2011. The 2013 Spanish league MVP shot 46% from three-point range. Wojnarowski reported that the 23-year-old Mirotic will earn $17 million plus over 3 years. Mirotic’s offensive and shooting skills will be sorely needed for the poor shooting and scoring Bulls. Even with the loss of Boozer’s offense, the Bulls have added serious offensive fire power in Gasol, Mirotic, and the drafting of Doug McDermott from Creighton.
In a smaller move, the Bulls re-signed Kirk Hinrich to back up Derrick Rose over D.J. Augustin who signed with Detroit Pistons. While Augustin is a much better offensive player, the Bulls opted for the stronger defense and flexibility provided by Hinrich. The Bulls also traded away Anthony Randolph and Greg Smith to help open salary cap space for the Gasol and Mirotic contracts.
The Bulls starting five now appears to be Rose, Jimmy Butler, Mike Dunleavy, Noah and Gasol. The bench looks much stronger and may provide coach Tom Thibideau a possible 9-10 man rotation with Mirotic, Taj Gibson, McDermott, Tony Snell, Hinrich and/or Cameron Bairstow. There is both height, defensive and shooting strength on the bench.
The Bulls do not seem to have much flexibility left salary cap-wise. However, in looking at the roster, the biggest weakness on the Bulls to truly compete in the East is another slasher, scorer to complement Rose. Carmelo Anthony would have been perfect; however, he understandably could not pass up the significantly bigger salary offered by the New York Knicks.
Unless the Bulls have another move left, do they have enough talent now to get out of NBA hell and compete for the Eastern conference championship? It may take James a year to gel with his new Cavalier teammates and the Heat seem significantly weakened with the loss of LeBron, even with the signing of former Bull Luol Deng. Indiana Pacers and the Washington Wizards have weaknesses as well. Thus, this may be the best year for the Bulls to make a move to play in the NBA finals
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