So That’s Why The Bulls Couldn’t Sign Ben Gordon
The NBA came out with its new salary cap numbers yesterday. Basically the cap is set at $57.7 million (down a bit from last year) and the luxury tax number is $69.92 million. That means for every dollar a team goes over the luxury tax number, they must pay a dollar for dollar penalty. As we know, the Bulls will not go over that tax, even though they have one of the top revenues in the league year-after-year. Why, you ask? Because Reinsdorf needs to make sure his great-great-great-great grandkids get the most expensive yacht on the market. Yeah I went there.
Anyways, the new tax numbers, while not unexpected, are bad news for Bulls fans hoping to make any kind of splash in free agency. Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald summarized the problem, I mean Bulls salary situation:
Bulls 2009-10 payroll
Brad Miller $12.25 million
Luol Deng $10.37 million
Kirk Hinrich $9.5 million
Jerome James $6.6 million
Tim Thomas $6.47 million
John Salmons $6.35 million
Derrick Rose $5.18 million
Tyrus Thomas $4.74 million
Joakim Noah $2.46 million
Aaron Gray $1.0 million
James Johnson $1.59 million
Taj Gibson $1.04 millionTotal, including Gray: $67.544
Luxury tax threshold: $69.92 million
So there you have it. With less than $3 million left under the cap, the Bulls options are pretty limited. Pargo may be willing to sign for that much, but that would put an end to the Bulls spending. Its possible a trade could free up a few million, but under the current CBA all trades have to include substantially similar salaries changing sides. Ben Gordon’s $11 million a year was clearly out of reach. Besides a few minor tweaks, you can probably expect that list to be your 2009-2010 Chicago Bulls.
Sidenote: Why did they offer Aaron Gray the $1 million qualifying offer? Just curious…
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