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 million

Total, 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…

So thus ends the tale of Ben Gordon and the Chicago Bulls.  In general he was underappreciated by the fans, media and the organization as a whole.  He was exactly what he purported to be, which was a pure shooter and an explosive offensive threat.  His defensive skillset was not as bad as most people thought (though I might be the only one who feels that way), but we all agree his strengths were on the offensive end.

Now he goes to Detroit, and StevieY pointed out to me that they appear to be trying to create a UConn reunion.  With Rip already a part of the team, and now Gordon and Villanueva joining up, the only logical next step is to go out and acquire Hasheem Thabeet and Ray Allen and call it a day.  In all seriousness, this makes the Pistons annoyingly competitive.  Not competitive in a Championship sense, but competitive enough to give the Bulls problems in the bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoff race.  On the bright side, this cuts into the Pistons ability to compete for free agents over the next 5 years since they have a decent chunk of change wrapped up in these guys.  Gordon’s contract is reported at 5 years $55 million and Villanueva’s is 5 years $40 million.  Those two guys together equal 1/3 of the Pistons cap space, with the Cap unlikely to rise anytime soon (it may even shrink this summer).  Hopefully this will keep Detroit mired in mediocrity for a while while the Bulls shoot past them in the standings over the next few seasons.

For Ben Gordon himself, it is really an unfortunate situation that he was treated like crap while Deng was so beloved and got rewarded the big contract.  Not to say Deng didn’t deserve it, but the fact of the matter is that Ben Gordon was one of the top 10 shooting guards in the league by most statistical metrics for the last few years, while Deng was injured and performing at an average rate, and management and fans were all certain he would “take that next step” (He’s still injured, by the way).  If I were Ben Gordon, I would feel similar to the way he feels.  Would I have rejected the 5 year $50 million dollars that the Bulls were offering me the past 2 summers?  Probably not.  But whether he really rejected them or whether he was being jerked around by Paxdorf, the fact that the organization continually made him look like the selfish bad guy in the media would have been enough for me to say “see you later”.  Ben Gordon was a hard working gym rat who was very coachable and well-liked by his teammates.  Hopefully Detroit understands and appreciates his skills and attitude and doesn’t continually hang him out to dry like they did in Chicago.  The big difference now is that he is playing under the weight of a huge contract and with huge contracts come huge expectations.

For the Bulls, this changes things a bit.  It is good to finally be done with the Ben Gordon saga, which seemed never ending.  Also he would have put the Bulls into the luxury tax (though only for a year and then they would have BG AND the space needed to sign a big name free agent like Bosh or Wade).  The problem is that their starting lineup is now: Rose, Hinrich, Deng/Salmons, Thomas, Noah.  Hinrich is very effective and if he can get back to the defense that he earned him his reputation as a tough player, it could be an effective lineup.  Whether he does or not, however, where will the scoring come from?  Rose?  Salmons?  Sure those guys can score, but replacing 20+ points a night (and as efficiently as BG’s excellent 45% shooting) will be very tough.  You have to think Gar Paxdorf has more moves in mind, but moving Kirk may be more difficult than it seems, since he is on the hook for $11 million a year and his contract extends past the 2010 free agent bonanza.

Overall I think this was a good move for the Bulls and Gordon and an extremely risky one for the Pistons.  Hopefully the Bulls can find a replacement for BG’s scoring, and hopefully the Pistons have locked themselves into mediocrity for the next 5 seasons.  Only time will tell.

If If you were screaming for Paxson to make a move for the past 5 years, you finally got your wish.  He made three major moves in the last couple days right before the deadline.  Did he make the moves we all wanted?  I don’t see Chris Bosh or Amare Stoudemire in a Bulls jersey, so the answer is no.  However he managed to juggle salaries and bring in some talent that will contibute in positive ways.  Let’s take a look at the 3 moves he made (and the two he didn’t) and give out some grades.

Gooden, Nocioni, Simmons for Miller and Salmons: A-

I already broke this trade down in an earlier post.  I will summarize what I said there briefly.  In terms of talent it was a very good deal for the Bulls.  Acquiring Miller was a significant upgrade over Gooden and Salmons was a huge upgrade over Nocioni.  Miller will hopefully complement Rose well for the next year and a half and be a decent defender in the paint, which is what we have been needing as much or more than post scoring.  Also, Salmons looks to have enormous upside.  Getting rid of Noce is addition by subtraction, since he was a liability on defense and very trigger happy.  In terms of salary, it was an excellent move.  Nocioni’s long-term contract is gone and is replaced by Miller’s $112 million dollar deal that expires in 2010 and Salmons who is making $5.5 (or $7.5?) million through 2011.

Hughes for Jerome James and Tim Thomas (and Roberson?): B

This trade really has very little impact in terms of on-court improvement.  Hughes was already getting DNP-CDs every night and Jerome James isn’t going to play.  Tim Thomas has been a Bull before, though only briefly before Skiles sent him home and the Bulls released him.  This time around he may get a few minutes here or there at the 3/4, but probably won’t have any real effect.  Salary-wise this move does one thing.  It takes Hughes $12 million dollar 2010 expiring contract and breaks it up into two, far more movable, $6 million dollar deals.

Also my understanding of a medical retirement in the NBA is that if James does not play for one year, the Bulls can put him on medical retirement and as long as he doesn’t play the rest of his contract, his salary would not count against the Bulls 2009-2010 cap.  Its possible that James will never play again, so this move has the potential of freeing up some of that $12 million as early as 2009 season.  (UPDATE: This cannot happen based on the current CBA.  Oh well. The Bulls will only have to pay about $1.5 million to him next year, but the full $6.6 million will count against the cap).

Sefolosha for OKC’s First Round Pick (The lesser pick of the Nuggets or San Antonio’s pick that OKC acquired via trade): C+

Yeah Thabo would be buried on the bench now with Salmons, but I still believe he will become a very good player in the league.  It looks like this move was done because the Knicks deal put the Bulls slightly over the cap for this year and Pax needed to shed some salary to avoid the tax.  The loss of Thabo is unfortunate and I have very little sympathy for Reinsdorf having to pay a little tax this year.

Inability to Land Stoudemire/Bosh/Camby/Boozer And Non-Trade of Kirk: B

Once again Pax didn’t get the big deal done that would make the Bulls a legitimate contender.  We can only speculate over whether a big offer was possible or even on the table.  Amare was being shopped, but Phoenix clearly took him off the table in the last few days.  Bosh was only coming here in a deal involving Amare, so that went out the window when Amare came off the table.  Camby is too old and hurt.  I also don’t think the Boozer deal was ever offered.

Also, why didn’t the Bulls move Hinrich’s contract?  Pax claims they had an offer but they feel they can get more in the summer.  Whether that’s true or not, the Salmons acquisition leaves Kirk with less minutes and now he knows he’s being dangled as trade bait all season.  Hopefully this works out but it seems very odd.

Cap Management: B+

The moves give us little to no cap room this summer, but position the Bulls to make a big move in the summer of 2010.  With Bosh, James, Wade, Anthony and Stoudemire all becoming free agents, the Bulls will have a ton of cap space.  If they pick up Noah and Rose’s options, they have only about $35 million committed in 2010/2011, leaving almost an estimated $30 million to offer to one of those free agents.  Another option is that the Bulls will have a combination of $30 million dollars of expiring contracts to trade this summer and during the 2009/2010 season to another team trying to clear space for a free agent in the 2010 summer.  Also dividing Hughes contract into two smaller contracts may make them easier to move.  Perhaps all the expiring deals could be used to pry a star away in a trade from one of those teams.

Overall Deadline Grade For Paxson: B+

He made all good moves but once again failed to bring in something for fans to get excited about and that would make the Bulls a contender.  At least he did something this time I guess.