NBA is really where amazing happens

first of all, as per my first post, the reason the NBA is so exciting is because of these ridiculous trades being made all the time which essentially changes the landscape, creates massive momentum changes, and can turn a loser into a winner (look at the original big 3 in boston, or shaq to miaimi, pau gasol to lakers) in the case of pau gasol he was swapped for kwame brown. it turned lakers into an automatic contender and took them to 3 straight trips to the finals. it was a ridiculous trade, but one that worked in spades for lakers. being a hardcore NBA fan allows you to speculate on these crazy trades, because more then any other league in the world, its all possible. look at the trade that almost happened with chris paul to the lakers...they gave up pau and odom for cp3. a scenario i wouldnt have imagined last year. (im a hardcore laker fan btw) as im talking its being announced that RIP hamilton is set to sign a 3 year deal with the bulls. this gives them a shooting guard starter, point production and a guy who fits in perfectly into the role the bulls need him to play, catch and shoot from shots created by derrick rose. something bogans and korver couldnt do last year, RIP is perfect in this system as he doesnt need to create his own shot, doesnt need the ball from rose, and he excels in pop and shoot. secondly, on boozer, my original post said the reason i named josh smith in a trade package is because smiths name was being tossed around early in the free agency period in other trade scenarios. often when your name pops up in free agency banter theres some alterior motives and moves being made. it wasnt a trade scenario on any reality . but in the nba its a possibiity. especially when that guy has the same salary as boozer. it becomes a wash. it was an idea of someone who could (not necessarily would or should) repalce boozer and become an integral part of the bulls lineup. thirdly, i did base it on a personal stand point / (personally i would trade him is what i said) the guy is owed $60 million dollars over the next 4 years and i just think i could find better players to fit into the bulls if i was the GM there. for example, you could get david lee who only 2 years ago was giving you 20 points, 11 rebounds per game @ .545%. that is insanely good for someone who would cost the same amount ($60 mill) over 5 years, not 4. in golden state his numbers dipped slightly in the open running game, but hes someone who could benefit from a half court style and his post game is very good! or luis scola, this guy was 18ponts, 8 rebs last year while being similar PER as boozer and only costing $40mill over the next 4 years. again i mention luis scola as he was a trade chip recently in the paul / gasol trade. hell while im at it, il throw in lamar odom as my starting power forward. dont tell me its not a possibility, because the lakers traded him for NOTHING to the mavs. i would take lamar odom, a proven championship player, strong rebounder, strong ball handler, can shoot the 3, defend, and by all acounts an excellent team mate. in the NBA these kinds of trades are completely possibly, and my point was the chicago bulls could EASILY construct a brilliant team by getting rid of boozer. not that they should or would, but they COULD..and with the NBA the way it is, it would be easy for the bulls GM to pull of crazy moves like the one that saw lamar odom land in dallas, like the one that saw pau gasol for kwame brown, or melo in NY for half the team, williams in nets..etc etc

Also a few points on that idea also: - why do the hawks do a trade that has them adding pay roll, adding age and getting the worse player? - Rip isn't a great substitute he’s going to turn 34 during the season he has played fewer games than boozer the past two seasons (a guy you think isn’t worth it because of his tendency to miss games) and he’s a mid range scoring wing – so effectively a worse version of Loul Deng – not a post player and smith isn’t a post scorer either

That’s great except for a sign and trade doesn’t work if you amnesty him like you are suggesting.

you dont necessarily have to be available to make a deal. a sign and trade would work just fine. josh smith is on comparable money to boozer, and i would 100% have smith over boozer. he would fit in perfectly with chicagos defense, and gives you rebounds, points etc in spades. and hes young. could you imagine a front court of noah, smith and deng? that would be impossibly hard to score against. thats an allstar player for the same income (actually like $2m less) i mention him because his name has been thrown around in all kind of scenarios. also if hamilton is picked up as expected by the bulls, you have instant scoring anyways, 14-15 points from the SG spot which hasnt happend in chicago since ben gordan left. boozer cannot play defense..its criminal for a guy his size. he is extremely overpaid for what he offers. lucky for boozer i am not the GM at the bulls :)

Remember they can use it next year or the year after when they get into tax terriorty.

But you’re just biting off your nose to spite your face? Was boozer less effective last year than his contract warrants – yep. But he wasn’t anywhere near as horrible as you’re making out. He’s the only big man who can score on the Bulls roster and even though he had a bit of a drop on his mid range shooting (which you’d think should bounce back a bit this season given his career numbers) was still one of the better scoring big men in the league. So that in mind if you amnesty boozer you get about what - 5 or 6 m under the cap? Here’s the big men that are still available out there Dalembert, Kris Humphries nee Kardashian, Landry, Yi, McRoberts or Craig Smith. The only one of those you could say offers you scoring is Carl Landry who isn’t in Boozers league as a bucket maker then factor in his defence is also poor but he also doesn’t rebound. Then add in that with 6m in cap space you can’t meet his current 7.5m a year asking price for him.

Not now they used their exemption on Battier so they can only offer the minimum which is well below his asking price

i like battier, but your right, getting samuel dalembert would have been preferabble. perfect fit for miami, doesnt need to score unless its of tip ins or easy dunks, and defends and rebounds very well while adding a young big body to the paint. i like it! can they get him though?!

correction, its $15million dollars to free boozer.if you cut him in amnesty, someone could acution for him.....they essentially buy him for whatever price, and the difference is made up by the bulls. there would be someone out there throwing 8-9 million at him, bulls make up the difference, and have $9million to pay someone else. hes not the best player on his team, not even 2nd best, and paid the highest. not only that, he is always injured. hes such a liability long term. he only plays an average of 63 games a year. thats like almost bynum type levels who averages 55 a season (but bynum is better). id hate the thought of paying boozer $15+ million a season for the next 2 years when i could improve my roster for less dont forget derrick rose comes of contract next year (his rookie contract) and he will most likely be getting crazy kobe bryant / dirk nowitziki type money. $20mill + a season. Thats $11 mil a season they will need to make up. not that they would, but its fun to speculate. i would move him, make a move on richard hamilton for the guard position, and get a backup power foward and promote taj gibson to starting.

yeah its another crazy decision by david khan. that guy has got to be up there for worst executives in the league if not the worst. for example, he has one of the premier PF's in the game in kevin love, and he resigns his backup whos often injured darko milicic to a 4 year contract? plus hes got beasley whos also a PF, whats most confusing is love is the best out of the 3, but paid less then beasley and is slightly above milicic in annual wage. add ricky rubio, jj barea, luke ridnour to the mix, and you have another position thats uncessaricly packed and overpaid. they would have been better off upgrading the centre position and seeking depth there rather then backing up point & pf for no reason at all. baffling move. barea is not worth those dollars.

He had a bad series against a very well coached team with one of the best offensive players in the league and several role players that caught fire. All the stars did (except Dirk) Durant couldn’t get open against tight off ball defence, Howard struggled mightily against Collins, Rose was erased in the heat series etc etc He did come through in the clutch against Boston when it all looked over and dismantled Chicago’s offense by giving rose the prison newcomer treatment. I think LeBron should take hope by looking across at the mavericks, dirk was apparently a choker that couldn’t play in the playoffs (despite all the evidence suggesting otherwise) and a 4th quarter disappearing act until of course last year – now he’s Mr. super clutch playoff specialist extraordinaire in the greatest piece of revision by the world of sports journalism. Dwayne Wade must be happy, he cops zero flak now which I think answers the question who’s team it is. I do wonder about Battier though, I’d have thought a Dalembert type would have been more valuable.

No way you amensty Boozer! You want to pay 4 years of his contract for him not to play on your team?!

Wolves have a half dozen PGs including new draft pick Ricky Rubio. Can't blame a young 5ft 8 kid for chasing the money - cant imagine he was getting offered $5m per anywhere else.

mushi, Ok, my bad on LeBron defense given the stats you gave. So I'm figuring this --> hardcore defense and offense ain't conducive to getting the most out of LeBron over an entire season or a final series. Perhaps a touch, a tad, a smidget of defensive help from Battier will free up LeBron's energy and focus towards other areas of his game, which in turn, will improve the team. A great move for Miami, I guess.

Chandler and Berea gone.....had no idea. Ouch. Berea had some incredible spark and Miami had no answer for him. Chandler gone too - now I see the reasoning behind the Odom trade. I really liked that Dallas team. I just googled the Berea trade - dude went to Timberwolves. $19 mil over 4 years....He went for the money or maybe to run his own team...is he even going to be the number 1 PG option? Don't know enough about the Wolves. True with OKC...Durant is possessed.....his summer league stint was incredible from the breif highlights online. It's going to be on for young and old

I think he’s saying that they never had to bring in defensive help for Jordan as in they’ve had to do that for LeBron. I don’t particularly agree with where he’s going though given James is one of the league’s best defenders and completely and utterly shut down the supposed league MVP in the playoffs. Apparently Synergy sports had him as the second most effective defender, based on play by play analysis of the entire season, behind Dwight. Oh and the bulls did bring a fair few defensive players in during their runs, Rodman springs to mind. Doesn’t mean that they felt Jordan needed help, more that they play basketball with 5 guys from each team on the court.

he was briliant at defense. 9x first all defense team 1x defensive player of the year certainly wasnt lacking in Defense. one of the preimer defensive shooting guards of all time

Hopefully I've misread what you've written, and apologies if I did. Jordan was actually one of the premier defensive players of his generation. It did get overshadowed by his scoring prowess, but he was anything but "lacking" in the defensive aspects of the game.