[ABull]

From:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/basketball/cst-spt-classic28.html

"Rose studied updates from each game and said he wasn't discouraged. He's also keeping abreast of the Bulls' free-agent plans, though he has his eye on next year's crop, which includes Tim Duncan, Jason Kidd and Jermaine O'Neal.

"If you look at the list of free agents this year, it's not in the same class as 2003,'' Rose said. "We probably won't sign any long-term contracts or anything significant until 2003.

"But hopefully, we can find a veteran who can help us."

--------------------------

Well I checked and if we either didn't pick up the options on Bagaric/Fizer/Crawford or traded them for an ending contract we would have only $30.7 million on our cap (not including a probable lottery pick). We accomplish the same thing by trading ERob for an ending contract but good luck so I'm not considering it. At best the salary cap might go back to where is was at or around $43 mill. So the most we could clear would be a projected $12.7 million or enough for a full max salary. Our core would be:

Williams
Rose/Hassell (option picked up)
Robinson
Chandler
Curry

If we keep JC we would be $10.1mill under or MF $9mill under but obviously deeper with one of them. So it is still possible, but once the 1st rounder counts it gets even harder. Maybe we trade one away now then trade the other before the draft w/ the pick for next years version of Andre Miller etc. Young star thats needs to be moved. Regardless it is a ton of trouble to just get the chance to do something and seems rather unlikely considering our past problems. It also seems likely Rose was probably just responding to Webber's comments with a litle wishful thinking, but there is still a slight chance since it is possible.

Now OT of 2003 FA's could'nt we say the same thing to R.Lewis this summer? Say sign here for $4.5 mill 1 yr. then we will clear out cap room for you next year and start you at $8 etc. (we wouldn't need bird rights with the cap room). If he walks we lose nothing if we were trying to clear cap room anyway. If no one signs then it still backfires, but Lewis would still struggle to find a better deal next year than what we could offer. It is certainly a better argument than sign with us for 3yr $15 mill we might be a good team then.

 

[settinUpShop]

Originally posted by ABull

Well I checked and if we either didn't pick up the options on Bagaric/Fizer/Crawford or traded them for an ending contract we would have only $30.7 million on our cap (not including a probable lottery pick). We accomplish the same thing by trading ERob for an ending contract but good luck so I'm not considering it. At best the salary cap might go back to where is was at or around $43 mill. So the most we could clear would be a projected $12.7 million or enough for a full max salary. Our core would be:

Williams
Rose/Hassell (option picked up)
Robinson
Chandler
Curry

If we keep JC we would be $10.1mill under or MF $9mill under but obviously deeper with one of them. So it is still possible, but once the 1st rounder counts it gets even harder. Maybe we trade one away now then trade the other before the draft w/ the pick for next years version of Andre Miller etc. Young star thats needs to be moved. Regardless it is a ton of trouble to just get the chance to do something and seems rather unlikely considering our past problems. It also seems likely Rose was probably just responding to Webber's comments with a litle wishful thinking, but there is still a slight chance since it is possible.

Now OT of 2003 FA's could'nt we say the same thing to R.Lewis this summer? Say sign here for $4.5 mill 1 yr. then we will clear out cap room for you next year and start you at $8 etc. (we wouldn't need bird rights with the cap room). If he walks we lose nothing if we were trying to clear cap room anyway. If no one signs then it still backfires, but Lewis would still struggle to find a better deal next year than what we could offer. It is certainly a better argument than sign with us for 3yr $15 mill we might be a good team then.

A Damn fine arguement ABull! You have my vote on this move. We don't trade anything for Lewis, but Just throw money at him and then hope we can sign him next year, and if not we have cap space cleared. Wait a minute... You didn't say how we would clear cap space for him next season. What would that involve? But I like your line of thought here a lot. Is 4.5 mill the most we can offer Lewis this year? Could we use both exemptions on him?

 

[ABull]

I did at the beginning of my post. We have options on all 3 of our 2000 picks. (Bagaric, Crawford, Fizer) 2 of the three would have to be let go (Bags) or traded (either Crawford or Fizer) - trading Fizer clears an extra $1.1 million over JC so he is the better choice. With the lotto pick, Hassell's tiny option picked up and Fizer traded for an ending contract we would have approx (we don't know where the pick would be) $8.5 mill. Also Hoiberg comes off the cap. To preserve the cap room we could only sign players like Skinner to a 1yr deals like Rose implied.

Clearing money for Lewis in 2003 is not that hard.
Clearing money for a max FA in 2003 is very risky, but possible.

***and yes $4.54 is the most we could offer Lewis. You can have players split exceptions but not combine them.

 

[settinUpShop]

Thanks ABull. The only question then becomes, is Lewis the right player for this team? He's not a defensive SF, and as has been said before, the defensive liability of having Rose at the 2, and Lewis at the 3 could be too much. I don't want to see us become a young version of the Bucks. From all accounts that I have heard, Lewis is a soft defender, and doesn't bring as much energy and hustle as people would like. If he is unable to adapt to a more balanced role he may be a more expensive Erob with better shot, and an even fatter contract. And what about Erob? Where does he go? Do we cut him?