Go here for the Bulls summer camp roster.
The only 'veteran' listed is Jared Reiner, and only Bulls' draft pick is 2003 second-rounder Mario Austin. The rest is your usual assortment of minor league hopefuls goin' for the dream.
Have a nice long weekend...
Well needless to say the Bulls won't be the only one thinking about Finley, and will have to fend off actual contenders like Phoenix.
goGPonus doesn't like the prospect of Finley coming to the Bulls. Neither do I. But he'll still be another free agent in the pool, and if he gets signed by another team a player of similar skillset could fall to Chicago.
And as far as that other hole on the team, as commenter PDaddy relayed through the Trib, the Bulls were looking to buy a 2nd round pick for scoring PF (Maxiell or Bass), essentially a younger version of Othella Harrington. Not saying Othella is automatically gone, but low-post scoring is another hole on the team.
Even if Eddy isn't traded.
I'll bite on that Herald article since I'm sure its on peoples' minds. To me all it's saying is that the Bulls would trade Curry if the deal was right. Well....yeah. Nobody is untouchable, if a deal works go for it. sheesh.
My half-handed untouchability index (1 being completely untouchable, 10 being 'he gone'):
1 - Tim Duncan
3 - Luol Deng, Tyson Chandler
4 - Ben Gordon (only because I think he'd be overvalued around the league), Curry, Kirk Hinrich
8 - Othella
12 - Chris Duhon
Tuesday night is Draft night, and I would put up a mock draft but I think it'd be an exercise in futility. This looks to be a first round with plenty of trades and surprises, and for that alone it should be a fun year.
And while the Bulls don't have a first round pick, I won't be losing sleep knowing that John Paxson got Luol Deng as a result of it. Imagine how high Luol Deng would've gone in this year's class.
But it is looking like what this class lacks in superstar potential it makes up for in depth. This is where having at least a 2nd round pick could've made the night interesting for the Bulls, as an undervalued talent may have slipped to the 51st overall selection. But hey, such is the price when you receive 48 games of Bryce Drew.
Despite the disappointment of not having any pick to anticipate, I'll still be watching the draft and trying to stop my eyes from oozing blood after every Dick Vitale anecdote. I hope ESPN got my email (and read their colleague John Hollinger's book) that pointed out what an embarrassment he was to their draft coverage. If he wants to impart half-witted wisdom on Andrew Bogut or Marvin Williams, that's fine. But I hope to avoid hearing another self-serving rant professing the evils of high school and foreign draftees.
I'll probably be stopping by Forum Blue and Gold, where Kurt is hosting a virtual draft party. And I'll try and provide some running commentary myself.
It's one of the NBA's holidays, so enjoy!
As part of the new CBA to go in effect this summer, NBA teams have been granted one get-out-of-jail-free card. Specifically, they can waive any player on the roster and save luxury tax payments on that player. While this doesn't mean the money owed to the player is absolved, or that the team would even get cap relief, for a team like the Knicks who are well into the luxury tax threshold waiving Allan Houston could save nearly $40m.
You can expect that nobody around the league who is waived has a contract agreeable enough where a team under the cap would claim them. That player would then become a free agent, and attractive to any team looking for a veteran at a now-reasonable price.
An idea that was floated last week by commenter Realistic Guy, was that of Michael Finley coming to the Bulls, and satisfying every Bulls fan's lust for the M2GwcDaS. I responded that it was an unlikely that Finley would be waived, but I should've bit my tongue:
Barring the unexpected, Michael Finley's career with the Mavericks is effectively over. The financial implications of waiving the longest-tenured member of the team far outweigh keeping Finley, making his release "academic," according to a team source.
And leave it to My Man Sam(tm) to find a way to suggest Finley could wind up with the Bulls:
Finley could join a contending team like the Pistons, who already are said to have indicated interest in using Finley in a three-guard rotation to improve their long-distance shooting. Miami could be interested, as well, if the Heat elects to get out of the rest of [Eddie] Jones' $30 million contract. The Suns, who drafted Finley, are believed to be interested.
Or maybe Finley would just like to come home, where he should have gone when the Bulls passed on him in the 1995 draft and selected Jason Caffey.
Still far-fetched, but nice to think about. As long as both the Bulls don't expect a star, and Finley doesn't expect to be treated like one (i.e. the Jalen Rose experiment), Finley could fill a big need for a couple years. Unless Mark Cuban sees before the rest of us that Finley's skills aren't even mediocre anymore (i.e. the Scottie Pippen v2.0 experiment).
I give Dan Shanoff a lot of...'guff' for his 'Daily Quickie' column, but he stepped up to the plate earlier today regarding the new NBA age minimum:
Many readers emailed in response to yesterday's Quickie with a common rant: 18-year-olds are better off with a year of college P.T. than NBA pine time!
What bunk. Show me the college coach who puts an individual player's NBA career above the coach's own career, "system" or whole roster.
Remember: College basketball is NOT an NBA professional development league. Any development for the NBA is purely incidental.
That's why college players seem to get a lot better as soon as they stop bothering with school and get ready for the draft full-time.At least riding the pine in the NBA, the 18-year-old can concentrate full-time on his skills, with the best coaches in the sport focused completely on him fulfilling his potential. His NBA potential.
Back in March of last year I was in full rant mode over that very point, and still feel that an age limit is fundamentally wrong.
But My Man Sam(tm) wrote in a column a few months ago something that lessened my furor. While an age limit takes away from a free market and fully competitive workplace, it is not unprecedented. What about trades? and maximum salaries? and a host of other things that were collectively bargained by owners and players of the league. Hopefully the new CBA will allow those kids to freely join the NBDL, other pro leagues, prep schools, or European leagues.
To re-interate what my aforementioned rant was about, While this age limit is kindof a shame, it'd be a greater shame if a kid's hands was forced to go to the NCAA. While Coach K may want you to 'develop as a student, develop as a human being', some kids just want to play basketball for a living.