K.C JohnsonKCJHoop 11 hrs
Hearing Rockets prepared to offer Omer Asik in the $8 million range annually. trib.in/LNlL23

The most talked about offer so far is Houston offering a deal that is 2 years at $5M/per, then the next 2 years at $11M/per

Sayonara, if you ask me. Hopefully we can do a sign and trade but we'll have to beware of the bluff

You really hate to lose Asik for nothing.

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA

Rockets have reached agreement with Omer Asik on a three-year, $25.1 million contract, league source tells Y! Sports.

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA

As a restricted free agent, the Bulls will have three days to match Asik offer sheet after it's signed on July 11th.

K.C Johnson ‏@KCJHoop

Rockets will sign Omer Asik to 3-year, $25 million deal on July 11. Bulls will have 3 days to match. 3rd year approaches $15 million.

Sign and trade please

Can't sign and trade him to Houston.

Match, explore giving him to Portland.

Before 2005 it was sometimes possible to sign restricted free agents to offer sheets their original teams couldn't match. This happened when a player was an Early Bird or Non-Bird free agent (see question number 25) and the team didn't have enough cap room to match a sufficiently large offer. For example, Gilbert Arenas was Golden State's second round draft pick in 2001, and became an Early Bird free agent in 2003. Golden State could only match an offer sheet (or sign Arenas directly) for up to the amount of the Early Bird exception, which was about $4.9 million at the time. Washington signed Arenas to an offer sheet with a starting salary of about $8.5 million, which Golden State was powerless to match.

This loophole was addressed starting with the 2005 CBA (although not closed completely -- see below). Teams are now limited in the salary they can offer in an offer sheet to a restricted free agent with one or two years in the league. The first-year salary in the offer sheet cannot be greater than the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception (see question number 25). Limiting the first-year salary in this way enables the player's original team to match the offer sheet by using the Early Bird exception (if applicable -- see question number 25), or Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception (provided they have it and haven't used it already)1.

The second-year salary in such an offer sheet is limited to the standard 4.5% raise. The third-year salary can jump considerably -- it is allowed to be as high as it would have been had the first-year salary not been limited by this rule to the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception2. The salary in the fourth season may increase (or decrease) by up to 4.1% of the salary in the third season. The offer sheet can only contain the large jump in the third season if it provides the highest salary allowed in the first two seasons, it is fully guaranteed, and it contains no bonuses of any kind.

If the raise in the third season exceeds the standard raise (4.5% of the salary in the first season of the contract), then an additional restriction exists. In order to determine how large the offer can be, the team doesn't just have to fit the first-year salary under the cap. Instead, they must fit the average salary in the entire contract under the cap. So a team $8 million under the cap is limited to offering a total of $24 million over three years, or $32 million over four years. If the offer sheet does not contain a third-season raise larger than 4.5% of the first-season salary, then they only have to fit the first season salary under the cap.

Putting this all together, if a team that is $9 million under the cap in 2011-12 wants to submit a four-year offer sheet, and wants to provide a large raise in the third season, they can offer a total of $36 million over four years. The first-year salary is limited to the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception, or $5 million. The second-year salary will be $5.225 million (4.5% raise). This leaves $25.775 million to be distributed over the final two seasons of the contract, with a 4.1% raise from year three to year four.

In case anyone's curious about the random cap rule that forced the Rockets to structure the deal like this, here you go:

If Bulls match, which Gar Forman has consistently said the Bulls plan to do, guarantees Boozer would be amnestied for 2014-15 season. - KCJohnson

I'd take Boozer over Asik in a heartbeat. Seriously.

Also, I have to think that whether the Bulls plan to match or not, they must give off the impression that they will...it's the only way they may work out a deal.

With the other guys we have on the front line, Boozer is way more valuable as a scorer.

Exactly -- most Bulls fans seem to be under the impression that post players like Boozer are a dime a dozen...I'm not buying it. He's a very good scorer at his position. I know he shoots a lot of midrange and stuff, but he can do a little creating with the back to the basket too. Also an excellent passer and a decent rebounder. That doesn't mean that his pay is fair necessarily, but he's become quite the goat and not for reasons I entirely support.

He deserves a lot of it. He's a bad defender due to his below average athleticism and he frequently is a non-factor offensively against more athletic teams (see last two playoffs). Granted you can say that about pretty much the entire roster, but most of them aren't making $15 million and supposed to be their #2 scorer.

The problem is, the Bulls don't have a dynamic wing to go with Rose. If they had that, Taj would be perfect.

I believe we all agree.

I still believe Taj is a better fit to Noah/Rose than Boozer is.

It isn't that Boozer isn't a quality scorer at times, but the ball just kind of dies with him. We all know how putrid he is defensively.

That's because we don't run a pick & roll or pick & pop to utilize him.

Boozer doesn't get nearly the touches that he ought to based in part on the fact that our point guard passes significantly less than some others and the backups pass even less.

Again, good luck in your "finding a PF that will average 15-18 ppg" goals in 2012

Carlos Boozer was barely a 15 PPG PF this year, and he's not likely to get better at this point.

I do think this is his last year as a Bull, barring either an amazing resurgence and/or a Bulls championship

So I think this is his last year

It really would be silly to hold onto Boozer this year, in a year that's practically a wasted year, and then get cheap and not pay him the next year when we might have a competitive team/healthy Rose again.

I kinda like that idea....correct me if im wrong, its gonna cost the bulls 8 mill to get him over here right?? 3 mill for a buy out then the 5 mill it takes to sign him right??

Baltas last comment makes sense as well.

Something like that...which makes bringing him over very difficult when the Bulls are this close to the tax and only have the $5 million MLE to work with.

but what's the poop with Oden?

Rockets still haven't finalized their offer sheet to Asik, because they're dealing with Dwight Howard matters and Amnesties.

Thus, updated the "deadline" in this thread, assuming that they get it done today or tomorrow.

Do you think they'd want to pay Asik $8M/year if they got Dwight or Bynum?

If they were to match, this would be a critical point for the Front Office.

Doing so would mean that one of a few things must happen for this not to be a simply terrible move:
1. Omer Asik becomes a much, much better player
2. We win a championship in the next two years
3. We are able to deal Asik away at some point and not have it be for another terrible contract

If the Knicks decline to match Lin, I wonder what that does to Omer's offer sheet?