the Mid Three are all still here

Bulls update a few days into free agency

No comments on this post, we’re just funneling everything into the chaos-pile that is the Chat room:

It’s tough to get information on a second-division club like the Chicago Bulls, who are secretive on their end¹ and mostly frozen out local media, yet also not really interesting enough to have the actual league-wide news-breakers leak their plans.

Also…consider this may be the case because they don’t actually have a plan?

While there’s been a lot of inference that the Bulls have a plan to be terrible this season rebuild surrounding younger players, nobody credible has actually reported this. There was another exchange in the playing rotation where the Bulls got a lot younger, as last year’s backup center Andre Drummond walked to the Sixers² and the Bulls signed 24 year old free agent Jalen Smith.

Here’s a brief visual scouting report on Smith from old pal Stephen Noh of The Sporting News:

One minute scout of Jalen Smith

So while it is undeniable that the Bulls have gotten younger, like their prior moves this summer I don’t think those moves - let alone mere words saying “uh ::mumble:: change” in a different tenor - is actually indicative of true change in direction.

That still remains as it was when free agency started, with DeMar DeRozan an unrestricted free agent.

Unlike Paul George and Klay Thompson already this summer, it should be found notable that there hasn’t been some amplified breakup message with DeRozan and his incumbent team. DeRozan and his representation are also historically pretty secretive on their end.

Giving some credence to months-ago reporting on this situation, there has been a big difference as we are now well into the free agency period. It at least looks like the Bulls are not going to bid against themselves and give DeRozan a massive raise over the $28.6M he made last season.

So to all my frustration towards the AKME regime, and how they don’t have an actual plan: in this specific instance, where they’re playing the waiting game and reacting to the market…it’s actually working out well for them so far.

The Bulls may not have a plan, but they do have some fundamental tenets of their organization. Again, this is open to interpretation because they can’t communicate well nor can we assume base logic:

1. stay under the luxury tax

2. make Nikola Vucevic happy (I think they want it to be all ‘star players’, but in practice it’s just Vuc)

And there are the hard, real rules (even realer after imposing new restrictions championed by ownership, screwing themselves) limiting spending by other teams to acquire DeRozan.

So even if the Bulls had a plan, they are limited on multiple fronts to accomplish it. The Bulls, after the Smith signing, are roughly $15M under the tax line, which is effectively ‘dorf-capping them³. This not only means that they wouldn’t re-sign DeRozan at above that amount, they can’t take back significant salary in a sign-and-trade of DeRozan to another team.

That is unless they find other ways to gain more room under the tax.

1. a Zach LaVine trade where they take back a percentage less in 2024-25 salary

2. waiving/stretching Lonzo Ball

3. a couple lesser salary-dumpings like Jevon Carter, Dalen Terry, and Torrey Craig. Gee, would be nice to have additional picks -even second-rounders - to do these!

4. trading Vuc…ah hell there’s no way this could happen without significant assets going out. Just look at the center market and how badly the Bulls managed that 12 months ago. Also, he’s Vuc! That’s one of their two main bullet points in the AKME mission statement I had above.

These priorities have always been in that order. Letting DeRozan walk for nothing was not the preference. And if that’s what they’re “forced” to do, we need to all recognize and scream into the void that it’s another example of mismanagement versus an actual plan with goals like keeping next year’s pick or a youth movement.

Luckily for us and our collective sanity, I think there’s still a way the Bulls can have a good result.

Similar to, bizarrely, the Bulls and Josh Giddey, the Lakers (a subsidiary of Klutch⁴) have an irrational affinity for LaVine that supersedes any “logical market forces”. And if the choice is LaVine versus DeRozan, while LaVine is a lot more expensive it is a lot less constricting of the Lakers future moves to do a more straight-up deal for LaVine than a sign&trade for DeMar. Plus there’s the hypothetical idea that LaVine would actually be a better fit on the court surrounding LeBron and AD.

There have been some actually-credible rumormongers that suggest the Lakers are more interested in DeRozan, but they seem to entirely from their perspective, not DeRozan’s. It’s less a question of what LeBron is willing to do in terms of a pay cut but what DeRozan is willing to do. I don’t think he’d go all the way down to around $13M, and to get more the Bulls have to participate.

Unfortunately, the Bulls are mere passive observers to the whole process it seems? I do think in this case it’s somewhat intentional: their preference is to make other money-saving moves and bring back DeRozan at a discount. Now given that this was what I actually want for this offseason⁵ , maybe I should be pointing the finger at myself for wishcasting like I have at the tank-brained among us in Bulls internet fandom.

1. inflated sense of self-importance, or self-awareness that they’re awful communicators?

2. the same Sixers that reportedly had a trade worked out last deadline where they’d give three second-round picks to the Bulls. Whoops! Though you CAN put a price on that home play-in game revenue.

3. that is to say this is not an absolute limitation, but a subjective one imposed by ownership. They obviously could go into the tax heading into this season, and even (gasp) pay it at the end of the season.

4. Klutch also represents new signee Jalen Smith. Maybe there were some assurances that a LaVine deal will happen some way or another, and the Bulls could be comfortable giving Smith a hefty payday and not be put into the tax

5. caveat here, and always remember: the move that should be highest priority and offers best chance of success is firing AKME.