It all depends on the money. I"m sure as hell not paying Asik 5 million bucks, but if it's in the range of 2 or 3 I'll probably do it. Pax said on the radio they intend to get to him as soon as they are allowed to sign him to try to pre-empt any other offer sheets. Apparently they think Asik's agent is an idiot.

Here is an article from Sam Amico at FoxSports talking about the possibility of the Bulls trading up: http://www.foxsportsohio.com/06/15/12/NBA-...amp;feedID=3725

Also mentions a couple of potential free agent targets.

It'll be near impossible for the Bulls to do all 3 of these:

Keep Asik
Avoid the Luxury Tax
Sign anyone for any fraction of the MLE

Unless they can move one of their big contracts or they let someone like CJ or Korver with an option walk.

I think he is probably overvalued, but not that easy to replace either.

From other boards, the Bulls apparently really want to move up to nab Beal or Barnes.

The problem is, if they get Beal, there's a big whole at SF.

It'd be Ronnie Brewer/Kyle Korver for a year and then hope Butler can step up for the future.

If they decide to amnesty Boozer next year and CJ/KK/RB are all gone they can sign a SF...Could you imagine Josh Smith, Taj Gibson, and Joakim Noah in the same starting lineup???

Especially if Rose is going to be out for most of the year, there's no reason why you can't give the time to Butler starting the year off if you move Deng.

Oftentimes, the single most important thing you can give a developing kid is playing time. They have to make mistakes to learn from them, and that just doesn't happen in practice.

The talent evaluators at be will have to decide whether Jimmy's talent is worth those growing pains. I honestly haven't seen nearly enough of him to know, but I'd imagine the coaching staff has a pretty good idea. One thing I would say that encouraged me is that Jimmy showed poise on the court, never seemed to let it show that he was overwhelmed (or perhaps he just wasn't).

Even if they don't have a lot of confidence in him...what's the real risk? This is, as far as I'm concerned, a busted season. Even if they stand pat, the team gets more expensive, older, and may darn well miss the playoffs with Deng missing 1/3+ of the season and Rose maybe the whole thing.

This is a great year to play the kids, and even if you don't like where one is now, maybe there's a lightbulb that goes on with playing time.

What I mean is that if they think little of Butler's talent, it would make more sense to go ahead and acquire someone that would better flourish with that playing time. They may want to bring someone else in even if they do like Jimmy, just for depth/hedging their bets if Jimmy doesn't work out. If they could turn Jimmy into a nice player, that'd be a nice late 1st round draft pick and the second one of its kind (Taj Gibson comes to mind) in recent years. That's quite a leap though.

Another rumor being floated out there is Deng for Richard Jefferson or Biedrins and the #7.

Looking at Biedrins, what happened to him after the 08-09 season?? He went from being an 11/11 guy, getting to the free throw line over 200 times, to a guy whos been a non factor who never got the line more than 31 times in a season.

Richard Jefferson has been fantastic from beyond the arc the last few years, shooting above 40% the last 3 years. With Deng being traded he'd be a good replacement for a few years.

Picking at 7 takes you out of the running for Barnes and Beal but guys like J. Lamb, Ross, Rivers, and Waiters will all more than likely be there.

-We add our Shane Battier, which worked for the champs.

Everyone does realize Jefferon is pretty damn terrible, right?

From the internet rumor mill the Bulls want cap space, a serviceable player, and a pick for Deng +.

Richard Jefferson would be a Keith Boogans type starter only a better shooter. He'll give you good D and hit a few big 3s. His 3 point percentage has been over 40% the last 3 years...He sounds like the kind of player everyone here wants, obviously not the ideal one, but he's a guy they can kick it out to when teams collapse on Derrick.

The Battier comparison was kinda out of left field, I was a lil tipsy last night. Basically I guess my thinking was hes a veteran SF role player who can hit a big 3, but looking at Shanes stats he hasn't exactly been a great 3 point shooter.

RJ would be serviceable for a year or 2 if he keeps up the high percentage from beyond the arc, and if the 7 pick turns out to be good then it was a good trade.

The more I think about it, the more I think we'll do a deal with Sacramento.

From their end though, I have to wonder how eager a struggling team like that is to give up a high draft pick. I suppose they may not think highly of the draft and just want to bring in an All-Star SF since Luol is as known an entity as they come.

Sacto would make sense but the guy they might be willing to part with...Evans...I'm not sure if the Bulls would be confident enough to want him.

Sacto would make sense but the guy they might be willing to part with...Evans...I'm not sure if the Bulls would be confident enough to want him.

He'd certainly make me happy lol.

He can play the point while Derricks out then move to SG or even SF once Rose comes back.

If he doesn't work out let him go next year, amnesty booze and pick up one of the good FA SGs.

I don't want to trade the Charlotte pick to get him.

Understandable, but what are the odds that pick is gonna be better than Tyreke Evans who should be in his prime by the time we get that pick.

I'd be happy with either deal. The Evans deal makes us better this coming up year, the Garcia deal makes better the following year as I'm sure one of Harden, Ellis, or Martin will become FA.

If Evans is the guy can we resign him without the amnesty of Boozer?? Meaning is a Rose-Evans-Barnes-Boozer-Noah possible while still holding onto Taj, Omer, Butler, #29, and a vet on the bench??

We still don't know what kind of starter Taj will be and I think Boozer will still be a better offensive option.

Wait till Mirotic comes over to give Boozer the boot.

The Bulls want to give Omer Asik and Taj Gibson new deals, so they’re exploring ways to trade Luol Deng and/or Joakim Noah to teams that can send them a trade exception and a No. 1 pick.

You can always resign your own guys...the question is whether you want to pay the luxury tax to do it.

I don't know what Reinsdorf is working with financially but I would do it if he has the money to.

JR absolutely havs the money to go over the luxury tax line, but if you go over that line, it costs you like $10 million+ per season, so it's a major profitability hit.

Oh wow, didn't know it was going to be that big of a hit...

"I believe there is always to some extent truth behind rumors," Deng said. "But as an athlete, if you get caught up in them, you are really wasting your time because it's not something you can control.

"If it's not true, a GM could always come out and say it's not true. But if a GM doesn't come out and say it, there are probably talks. And there should be. If I was a GM I would be shopping players around, too. I've got to show that I'm doing something.

"A lot of GMs don't just sit there, they're trying their options. Me, I always say there are two things when trades happen -- if I was to be let go by a team and nobody picks me up, that's probably the worst thing. But whenever you hear your name in a trade, that means there is somebody at the other end who wants you.

"As much as I want to stay on the team -- I love Chicago, I love the Bulls -- at the same time, I know the business part of it. Sooner or later, all the rumors are going to come up."

The apparent unease between the team and Deng stems from the end of the Bulls' season when, following their first-round playoff exit to the Philadelphia 76ers, Deng insisted he would not alter his long-held plans to represent Britain, the country that granted his family political asylum from the Sudan, in the Olympics.

Deng, who was raised from the age of 10 in London, had been carrying a wrist ligament injury for much of the season, yet still led the league in minutes with 39.4 per game.

However, Bulls management told Deng it would have preferred him to miss the Olympics -- the first in which Britain will enter a basketball team since 1948 -- in order to undergo surgery that would ensure his health for the start of the 2012-13 NBA season.

In a tense exit interview before Deng left Chicago, he told Bulls management that he would not entertain the prospect of missing out on the Games and presented an argument that he might not, in any case, require surgery before the start of the season.

Deng, though, does not believe the Bulls have acted in response to his stance.

"I don't think so," he said. "Me and (coach Tom Thibodeau) have a very close relationship. I spoke to (GM) Gar (Forman), I spoke to (VP of basketball operations John) Paxson, and it's one of those things you don't want to bring up.

"He's doing his job. As much as I'm playing basketball, working out, I'm doing my job. You just let it be. If it's going on, it's going on. At the end of the day there are no hard feelings and I'm not a 21-year-old kid who will get upset by it. I understand the game.

"I wouldn't want me to play (in the Olympics) either. Pax is an athlete and, as an athlete who used to play, Pax understands me wanting to play. But as a GM that's his job to try and get the team healthy and get the team ready for next year. I understand both sides to it.

"But it comes down to an injury that happened at the wrong time. I just try to let people know I'm going to be OK."

If you go over the Luxury tax line, the first season you pay something like $1.5 for every dollar over the line, then it gets harsher with time, becomes $2 the next year, somemthing like that.

So if you go over the luxury tax line by $2 million you take a $1-2 million hit. If you go over by $5 million, pretty quickly it's a $5 million hit. The Heat are over the tax line by like $7 million right now.

The other part though...if you're over the tax line, you also lose revenue from the other teams over the tax. If you're over the tax line, you pay money out, you do not receive money, and so the penalty for going $1 over the luxury tax line is close to $4 million.

That's not exactly how it works. Here's a link to the full table of the rates:

Luxury Tax FAQ

Two things to note:

1) The increased rates don't take effect until 2013/2014.

2) The real killer is if you're a repeat offender. However, that can't hurt you until 2014/2015 at the earliest, and that's only if you were a tax-payer the first 3 years of the CBA (unless hoopshype is lieing to me, the Bulls were just under it this year).

Your last part doesn't really make any sense since teams like the Bulls, Knicks and Lakers wouldn't be terribly likely to get luxury tax money anyways.

Up to 50% of the tax money may be given to non-taxpaying teams. Note that there is no requirement that any of the tax money be distributed to teams in this manner.
Any tax money not distributed to teams will be used for "league purposes." In other words, at least 50% of the tax revenue will be used for league purposes each season.

"League purposes" essentially means for any purpose the league decides, including distributing the money back to teams. The league decided that in 2011-12, 100% of the tax revenue will be used as a funding source for the league's revenue sharing program (see question number 24). Starting in 2012-13, 50% of the tax revenue will be used as a funding source for the revenue sharing program, and the remaining 50% will be distributed to non-taxpaying teams in equal shares.

To understand the consequence of crossing the tax line, consider a team just below the tax line that suffers injuries and needs to sign a replacement player. This team would pay the player's salary, pay tax on the amount by which they are now above the tax line, and forfeit any tax distribution they otherwise may have received.

Here's the clause on redistribution from that link:
The Bulls haven't been over the Tax line since Jordan, so the Bulls have been a "non-taxpaying team" since then. The Bulls get about $3-$4 million/year in payout from the luxury tax paying teams. If the Bulls cross that line, they lose that money.

•Teams in markets with more than 2.5 million TV households cannot receive a revenue sharing payment. Teams in markets with 2 million to 2.5 million TV households receive a percentage of a full payment (for example, a team with 2.25 million TV households receives a 50% payment). A team with fewer than 2 million TV households receives a full payment.

•If a team is profitable without revenue sharing, it receives a smaller or zero payment. Any payments from revenue sharing that would lead a team to have a profit over $10 million are eliminated.

Let me revise my ridiculous trade early, to slightly less ridiculous.

With Deron eyeing Dallas, they might want to clear cap space.

Korver + Brewer (non-guaranteed contracts) + 2nd Rounder for Marion + 17
Deng for Garcia + 5

Draft Barnes and Ross

PG: Watson - FA - Rose
SG: Hamilton - Ross - Garcia
SF: Marion - Barnes - Butler
PF: Boozer - Taj
C : Noah - Asik

Then you can explore moving Rip and Marion if the Bulls aren't contending, if not, keep them for Roses return. Ross and Barnes watch and learn from Rip and Marion while Butler provides D. Garcia is there for occasional shooting/expiring.