QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 15 2008, 11:30 AM)
Interesting Tidbit: After the 2009-10 season. D. Wade, K. Bryant and L. James can opt out of there contracts and become unrestricted free agents. Imagine ALL 3 being free agents in 1 offseason!!!!! WOW. It will be interesting to see what players go where. Im guessing LeBron will sign with New York. Kobe will sign on with Da Bulls! And D Wade will sign on with Dallas...
I could definitely see Lebron going to NY but I don't think Kobe would come to the Bulls. Maybe he'd go to the Clippers, Miami, Denver or Philly or something like that. I think Wade is the most likely of all the major players to come to Chicago. He's from the area and has often expressed how much he likes Chicago.
Here is a list of what I'd like to do this summer
1) Draft Derrick Rose in the 1st round and Jason Thompson (Rider PF) or Bill Walker (SF/SG)
One of the packages below:
a ) Sign and trade Ben Gordon, Kirk, Gooden & Nocioni to the Bobcats for Jason Richardson a re-signed Omeka Okafor, Jared Dudley, & Othella Harrington (I'd request Sean May but I don't think they'd bite on that).
b ) Sign and trade Hinrich/Nocioni/Gooden for a re-signed Elton Brand & Shaun Livingston. (Both are in the last year of their contracts with Brand having the ability to opt out. Hopefully Brand starts requesting trades after his contract talks don't go well)
c ) Sign and trade Kirk, Hughes, & Gooden for Jermaine O'neal, Ike Diogu, & Travis Diener
d ) Everyones least favorite I'm sure. Trade Deng, Gordon, & Hughes and maybe a future pick for Kevin Martin, Ron Artest, & Francisco Garcia. Ron Artest can opt out and has already talked about doing it so they essentially are getting value for him before that happens. Sure he's a head case (much like Rodman was) but he's a great talent. Martin gives you the big SG who can hit the 3 and score in bunches, Artest/Thabo would be the best defensive duo, and Garcia is an emerging stud.
Okay so here is my master plan. Do trades b ) and d ) above. You reunite two Bulls that should never have been traded (Brand and Artest). You bring toughness back to the Bulls and you now have 3/4 stars on the team. (Martin, Brand, Rose, Artest) with a sick young supporting cast. You then sign Diop to a 1-3 year deal. We become instantly sick at every position with a quality bench player ready to step in at each spot. We also become better defensively on the wings and in the post with Artest & Diop being added.
Salary cap wise it would be a tight squeeze but how could a team like this not be favored to win it all? Salary (Noah $2.3, Brand $15, Artest $11 re-signed, Martin $9.3, Rose $4.8 ?, Livingston $5.8, Garcia $2, Tyrus $3.75, Thabo $2, Diop $3.5) but is only $59.45 using the numbers below. That means we'd still have cap room to spare to sign another player from the FA list below. Livingston would come off the books in a year unless we wanted to offer him an extension which we could easily do with the salaries I listed out. I'd like to add Eddie House to the team as a 2nd, 3rd PG in case Livingston gets injured again or doesn't come back next season. I think the players on this team would be satisfied with their minutes and everyone would fit into a specific role. It would make Del Negro's job easy b/c there wouldn't be such a big glut of guards. Martin would for sure be the starter as would Rose unless he struggles in his rookie season. Livingston, Thabo, Tyrus, Garcia, & Diop would make an exceptionally long and defensively elite 2nd unit. I think Garcia would be the main scorer on the 2nd unit but with the right rotations a good scoring starter could always be on the floor.
Noah/Diop
Brand/Tyrus/(Thompson develops)
Artest/Garcia
Martin/Thabo
Rose/Livingston
Then make a push to get one or 2 of the free agents listed below to sign 1 year deals hoping that they see that the Bulls are on the verge of a championship:
Corey Maggette
Eddie House
Desagna Diop
Kurt Thomas
Mutombo
Theo Ratliff
Also try and sign Patrick O'Bryant to a 2 year contract at a very low offer. He has good size and I think he'd fit our system as a 2nd/3rd backup center assuming we don't get Diop.