Once again the Bulls look as if they will fall by the wayside as teams get better and the Chicago front office hope for Mirotic to save the day…someday. After trying to persuade the Bulls through my blogs, posts etc…the Atlanta Hawks successfully took advantage of the Nets NEED to upgrade to retain Deron William and help Atlanta put themselves in a better position financially and perhaps even personnel wise …which is EXACTLY what I recommended the Bulls do a month ago to change the financial constraints placed on them without sacrificing the teams talent level. Since that did not pan out, and Atlanta and the Nets are now much the better for it after using my strategy…I thought I would try again. HOPEFULLY someone will take note…but I won’t hold my breath. If the Bulls act quickly…I would do the following trades that send…

Carlos Boozer ($15,000,000)

Kyle Korver ($5,000, 000)

Ronnie Brewer ($4,300,000)

CJ Watson ($3,200,000)

For a total of $27,500,000 in salary to the Phoenix Suns and then request that they sign and trade - to the Bulls - the following target players…

Kris Humphries ($10,000,000)

Courtney Lee ($5,000,000)

Ian Mahinmi ($3,500,000)

Shannon Brown ($3,500,000)

For a total of ($22,000,000) with Phoenix absorbing some of that salary which would save the Bulls about $5 million

NEXT ….a separate four way trade again with Phoenix and now the Lakers and Portland

Luol Deng ($12,300,000) and Marcin Gortat ($6,800,000) to the Lakers

Lakers send Pau Gasol ($18,000,000) to Phoenix

Rip Hamilton ($5,000,000) and Jared Dudley ($4,300,000) go to Portland

Nicolas Batum ($12,500,000 - estimate of what he will make) and Hakim Warrick ($4,000,000) go to Chicago

This saves Chicago and additional ($800,000)

The resulting Bulls team would be

PG - Derrick Rose /Shannon Brown /Marquis Teague

SG – Courtney Lee/Jimmy Butler

SF – Nicolas Batum/Hakim Warrick

PF – Kris Humphries /Taj Gibson

C – Joakim Noah/ Ian Mahinmi

With the numerous exceptions and league minimum contracts to fill out the rest of the Bulls roster the Bulls should be safely under the luxury tax and put them in a better position to keep Gibson next year. This strategy ASSUMES that …

1. Batum will be a future star player paired with Rose;
2. That Batum wants to play with the Bulls…(fellow Frenchman Joakim Noah could work on that); and
3. Asik’s offer has not been matched

It keeps the team on the younger side and all of the players are essentially two way players with both scorers and solid defenders.

WHY PHOENIX WANTS THIS TO HAPPEN!

The Suns would be getting a plethora of players that helped the Bulls get to the Eastern Conference Finals. In fact Boozer, Korver and Brewer were part of the winning Utah team. The resulting core of...

C - Pau Gasol

PF - Carlos Boozer

SF - Kyle Korver

SG - Ronnie Brewer

Backup PG - CJ Watson

…would be a formidable team in the West. They may not be the best team, but they would almost certainly make the playoffs. If they add - up and coming - point guard Goran Dragic which is their intent, they could easily and instantly be among the five elite western conference teams.

WHY THE LAKERS WANT THIS TO HAPPEN!

Eager to get rid of Pau Gasol, the addition of Deng upgrades their small forward position dramatically and Gortat offers the defensive presence that Gasol lacked without losing barely any offense or size for MUCH cheaper. LA could just concentrate on dumping Metta World Peace who they would not need…maybe for picks which they do need.

WHY PORTLAND WANTS THIS TO HAPPEN!

Portland is on the verge of losing their future star player Nicolas Batum who has manned the small forward position and seems intent on leaving. With a VERY comparable replacement in Jared Dudley, the Trailblazers would make the loss negligible. Adding Rip Hamilton to play behind solid and young Wesley Mathews would give the team a very nice mentor and another solid shooting guard to add to the fold …FOR MUCH CHEAPER…than what they would have to pay Batum given the contract discussions thus far. For this strategy to work the Trailblazers must match any offer to Batum and trade him after.

Maybe…just maybe this might happen and the Bulls can remain the elite team they have been the past two years.