Could Jerome James be traded for useful depth?
Obviously we're very close to the luxury tax and we're finding our "depth" of Gray, Pargo and Hunter is (to everyone's complete shock) not very good. One way to acquire another player or two without going over the luxury tax threshold would be to find a team over the luxury tax that would like to save money by unloading an unneeded player onto us for James.
Here's a couple examples of how it'd work.
Bulls trade Jerome James ($6.6M, but insurance is covering his contract, so the true bill to the team is only $1.3M).
Bucks trade Luke Ridnour ($6.5M)
OR
Bucks trade Joe Alexander, Fran Elson, Roko Ukic ($5.6M)
In either trade, the salary cap ramifications are basically neutral, but the Bulls go from collecting insurance on James to actually paying that much salary. So the downside for the Bulls is they have to spend more money. But, they actually get players who may be useful.
The Bucks, on the other hand, have little use for any of those players, as none of them but Ridnour play much. Ridnour is actually a useful player, but the Bucks have Jennings, Bell, Redd, and Delfino, as well as Jodie Meeks, to suck up most of the minutes.
By trading Ridnour for James, the Bucks save about $5M. We'd have to spend about $5M
A similar deal could be had with the Lakers. We trade James, and the Lakers trade Adam Morrison and Jordan Farmar. That'd save the Lakers something on the order of $6.5M when it comes to luxury tax bill. Of course, maybe the Lakers are more interested in winning and wouldn't give up Farmar for nothing. But it'd be worth exploring.
Of course, from a Bulls perspective, any of these deals would increase our payroll, even though they wouldn't put us into the luxury tax.
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is insurance paying the salary?
I thought that was only the case if he retired. Or maybe that was what was needed in order to get him off the luxury tax calculation.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Nov 30, 2009 12:44 PM CST reply actions
the latter
insurance is paying 80%. if he retired due to injury while playing for the bulls, they could apply to not even have his salary “count” in addition to the insurance.
From what I remember.
People should remember that while they have the right to their opinion, they are not entitled to be taken seriously. --Bruce Bartlett
I also have belief in this scenario
The mania is still runnin' wild and the madness still flows through the veins.
by The Mega Powers on Nov 30, 2009 3:39 PM CST up reply actions
I don't think the Bulls are collecting insurance on Jerome James
and even if they were, there is no way they sacrifice $5 million for Luke Ridnour or Joe Alexander. Reinsdorf has great-great-great grandchildren to feed
by Basketball Smurf on Nov 30, 2009 12:44 PM CST reply actions
I wonder if his real children feel slighted
when everyone from Pax to Doug Collins is a ‘son’ to Reinsdorf.
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Nov 30, 2009 12:45 PM CST up reply actions
I like the idea, though shooting for Ridnour is a bit high
I wouldn’t say the Bucks have that much guard depth, since Redd’s usually hurt and Charlie Bell stinks.
I’m going to start scouring rosters for garbage players still better than our garbage players on expiring deals…
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by your friendly BullsBlogger on Nov 30, 2009 12:47 PM CST reply actions
Oh man, this is depressing
"This is not Vietnam, Smokey, there are rules here." - Walter Sobchak
by Rose Colored Goggles on Nov 30, 2009 1:11 PM CST up reply actions
I'm not proposing to jeopardize the 2010 plan.
Just to trade James’ insured contract for expiring contract players from other teams who can actually play.
Those players would still come off the cap at the end of the year, and we could still trade them by the deadline again if we needed to.
Is there any type of player you would look for spesifically?
I would argue that a three point shooter would be worth doing this for. I’m sure some will talk about adding a big, which would be helpful, but I think not as urgent a need as a 2 or 3 who could spread the floor.
You have an intriguing idea here…. I don’t thing anything will happen until the deadline though.
howzabout a big who can shoot a three and be overall efficient on offense?
People should remember that while they have the right to their opinion, they are not entitled to be taken seriously. --Bruce Bartlett
I'm not sure another point guard is the top priority anyways
Hinrich is only out a week or two. I think they need another big man much more, especially since Brad Miller looks like an 84-year old man out there.
isn't tyrus scheduled to come back in a couple weeks also?
it’s already been more than 3 weeks.
"They should. They better. I'm Vinny Del Negro!"
They'll still need another big man even after he comes back
Miller looks done, and Taj Gibson is Taj Gibson. Of course, we’re assuming the Bulls actually care about winning this season. Since they don’t, nothing will actually happen.
i agree that getting a big man
is still more critical than getting another guard, but just pointing out that tyrus’ return isn’t THAT far away (hopefully).
and since they actually like taj for some reason… i don’t see anyone supplanting him heh.
"They should. They better. I'm Vinny Del Negro!"
The Bucks really need Ridnour, I don't think they'd do that deal.
We could maybe pry some crappy talent out of the Nets. Like, Sean Williams, CDR, and Najera.
I support the Tornado Release ... and Young Bucks.
[Can you tell I've wanted to get CDR for two years?]
Anyways, we’re going to do nothing, and then Salmons will opt in. HOORAY.
I support the Tornado Release ... and Young Bucks.
No, Jerome James will not bring back any useful depth. Other teams are not as stupid as the Bulls.
1. Cut a hole in a box
2. Put your Kirk in that box
3. Make some team open that box
by fundamentallysound on Nov 30, 2009 4:12 PM CST reply actions
Trade Jerome James (and let him take Neil Funk with him)
hopefully Stacey King will follow them both.
And then John Paxson, Gar, and then Vinny, all assistant coaches, Aaron Gray, Lindsey Hunter.
Maybe Pargo will leave before his contract is up
Then we can start to rebuild the right way!
"I tried being reasonable, I didn't like it."
"Go ahead, make my day"
"We boil at different degrees"
"A good man always knows his limitations"
"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?"
Zero Sum Game
But if we trade James for depth, think of how much we’ll lose on width!
You people aren’t thinking 3-dimensionally.
by lilzaky on Dec 3, 2009 12:37 PM CST reply actions 2 recs
Does anybody remember why we waived Tim Thomas?
We’re still paying his salary, and if he were still here, he’d be far and away our highest percentage 3 pt shooter.
We waived him because he sucks.
"When a hyper-intense guy looks for ways to fire himself up, yeah, it pretty much comes out as wild eyed psycho lunacy." - Jeff Clark from C's blog on KG
by Khalid El-Amin on Dec 3, 2009 12:56 PM CST up reply actions
no, we waived him to save money
he sucks, but he could have helped the Bulls
by Basketball Smurf on Dec 3, 2009 1:17 PM CST up reply actions
Yup big men who shoot higher than 40% from beyond the arc are definitely useless.
And even if he did suck, that criterion does not prevent you from being on the Bulls roster (see Hunter, Lindsay or Pargo, Jannero or Gray, Aaron or James, Jerome).
And BTW, I concede that you were right about the Reinsdorf pulling the offer thing. But that still doesn’t really change my overall opinion of what happened.

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