Bulls shopping Nocioni/Hinrich, No mention of Gordon Options

[DutheDoduhon21]

Bulls motivated to make a trade
Posted: Friday August 01, 2008 06:49AM ET
According to a league source, the Bulls have interest in Brad Miller (and many others) and are shopping forward Andres Nocioni (four years, $29 million left with team option for the 2012-13 at $7.5 million) and point guard Kirk Hinrich (five seasons left for combined $44.5 million). They appear very motivated to do a deal of some kind now that the Luol Deng situation has been resolved.

i thin we all kind of figured they were shopping them, but will they make a move before they sign gordon?

[GreatScott82]

i thin we all kind of figured they were shopping them, but will they make a move before they sign gordon?

Im not so certain Gordon will sign. If he does it will likely be that one year mid-range deal that makes him an un-restricted free agent next year. There is no way the Bulls sign him to a Deng type deal. Lets face it, the team is comfortable with Sefelosha, you have Rose for 4+ years, so that leaves Hinrich and Hughes tradable. There is no doubt in my mind that Reinsdorf wants one of the 3 big fish going into the 2010 free agency so he WONT put too much money into a guy who is nothing more than a 6th man in this league. Heres what we will likely see next:
1) Bulls sign Gordon to a 1 year mid range deal.
2) Bulls will trade Hinrich and Noc or Gooden for a low post (Brad Miller, Shawn Marion etc...) If the Bulls do the Miami deal for Marion, you will have 18 mil coming off the shelf after the 2008-09 season, which will put the Bulls in a great possition to sign Ty Thomas to an extension AND go after a Big Fish (Wade, Lebron, Kobe) in 2010. Lets not forget Hughes contract is over after the 2009-10 season... the Bulls will be in great shape in a few years if Pax plays his cards right this offseason we will be not only be in great shape this season but in the next few years.

[Balta1701-B]

i thin we all kind of figured they were shopping them, but will they make a move before they sign gordon?

I think the answer to this question is "They have no choice".

According to K.C., the Bulls currently have about $8 million between them an the crappy JR "I won't pay that" Luxury tax line. Probably helped a little by getting rid of the cap hold on JamesOn Curry, which is, IMO, almost certainly why they did it. If Gordon wants more than $8 mil this year, and the Bulls won't pay the luxury tax, then the Bulls need to move some salary. If you're dealing with another team over the cap, the Bulls could still reduce their total salary load by what, 10-20% in a deal if they're smart about how they use things...but they're up against the JR wall there. If Gordon wants more than $8 mil a year, and that's hard to argue with, then the Bulls have to shed $2-$3 mil in salary. Which means they need to Trade Hinrich or Hinrich and Noc and get back less salary than they send out.