Chisoxfn

I am hoping it is one of those never ever a shot at even a lottery pick and that if it doesn't work it eventually turns into a 2nd rounder...but that is to be seen. I am curious - wonder if we are going to see Lauri sign like a 3yr 45M type of deal or what will happen with Lauri.

AMinu was just what was needed to get salaries to work. So think of it as AMinu, Thad, and the picks for DD. Bulls are over the cap - so everything they are doing is operating in that stance - so you need to hit all regular trade rules as if you were an over the cap team. I presume they are not anywhere near luxury tax land - but they are probably a lot closer now than anyone would have projected entering this offseason.

Exactly - talk about a flexible lineup. It is long and athletic and is more fitting of the positionless NBA. I'm curious to see what happens with Lauri - but he's a pretty good fit in units with Derozan and Vuc cause Derozan can handle the ball and Lauri can be a real nice space creating in that dynamic. This is still a pretty athletic squad and still has a ton of youth on its side.

Think of it this way - White was one of the worst PG's in the NBA and the back court D was atrocious. They replaced that with Lonzo (who worse case is a mediocre starting PG -> best case we see more steps forward) and you have Caruso (elite defender - which was a huge hole and solid 3P shooter but on low volume). Maybe Caruso is compared to Valentine and Caruso clear upgrade. Derozan is significant upgrade compared to production they got from Williams/others on wing. So entire wing is massively upgraded -> bench stronger too (Thad gone - but replaced with White/Williams and you can assume Derozan will get some good run as a ball distributor on this side). This team is a heck of a lot better. Pretty clear team is stacking things up to be an attractive destination and next year I have a feeling this front office will just use any of these contracts and parts to S&T if the opportunity is there. This is no longer the - dont' sign anyone just in case - this is the - we are going to roll with as good of a team as we can maximizing all parts and we'll consistently churn things to get better. Front office didn't build a perfect team - but they leveraged a ton of assets to make themselves better while maintaining flexibility to move up (with the only piece being I don't think the 1st round pick was needed).

Could care less about the 2nd round picks - you can buy those all day long. The money - who cares. I presume we'll find a team option on the 3rd year..,.but he's not too old (31). Past his prime, yes, but this a guy who put up 22 and 7 dimes per game. This team is a lot better - and now they are in a spot where they should be an attractive destination for a star to force their way and you still have young chips like Williams, White, Lauri (who I presume now is going to stay).

3yr 85M

I like it. Thad and a future 1st. Don't love the future 1st but presume it has protections, etc .

Very true

Usually when KC tweets - things have already happened haha. I like KC - but breaking news was never his thing with the past regime haha. This is good though - I think this is a potential top 5 team in the east (and by that I mean 4 or 5...not better) with DeRozan and I didn't see many scenarios going into this offseason where I would have said this. And if a star becomes available - based upon how thus far this regime has acted this offseason, I figure they'll package some of these guys plus White and/or Williams and future picks.

Derozan meeting with the Clippers; Figure this is bad news for those that want him on the Bulls.

You can't use TPE's with other players. So they aren't "stackable" per say. But either way - they have options - if Spurs / Lauri are the fit - you go that way; if they'd prefer someone on final year of deal who is a solid vet like Thad to built it around you have that option.

Well played - I was about to post this - but sounds like a bit more smoke. I'm curious - obviously we are all assuming Lauri, but another route is Thad and some scraps (Valentine for example might be a fit) - to make things work cap wise with in a S&T (where Bulls pick Lauri over Thad). The nice thing about Derozan is - as you stagger minutes - he can be a primary ball handler with more of the bench players in - which is nice. Having multiple guys who can create is a major plus - and Derozan avg's more assists than any Bulls since prime Drose this past year. I really really like the idea of Derozan.

Has anyone other than Windhorst reported anything on DeRozan.

I know nothing of him - but his PER wasn't bad given his minutes. Presume this would be small dollars (i.e., BAE) and he would have played with Vuc - so some familiarity there. He also performed pretty well for the Raptors - who are a pretty sharp ran organization (after leaving Orlando). Seems like an analytics guy and a solid depth signing.

I think that will be answered when they s&t lauri or lauri is about to stay for the year - which isn’t terrible either. But I still expect a big trade and they still have Thaddeus young and the tpe worth the mle. Taj is tough and can do those things to - if they want to bring him back to Chicago.

I saw some stats that actually said Theis wasn't that good with Thad or Vuc on the floor so maybe Theis wasn't a good fit. That said - I feel like his toughness would have been nice, but I was more worried when Bulls lost him for nothing - once I saw we get a TPE (and maybe even the MLE back) - that was a game changer to me. I am curious what they do with Lauri/Coby/Thad - they seem like the most likely guys to potentially still get moved and this new front office seems to get something for all their assets (thank goodness). The Bulls perimeter D was so bad last year - so having Caruso/Ball will clearly be a massive improvement on that front.

Derozan S&T and a Taj bi-annual exemption type of signing would be quite nice.

This - this would be great - cause they'd retain the MLE and that is more fluid and no reason Lakers say no. I already feel like this group is playing some of the 3D stuff (common sense) that the former regime didn't do enough of. Call it leveraging an additional resource which to the ownerships credit - takes financial wherewither to do and it seems like they are giving the front office that cash. No clue whether Pax just didn't push it or what. I know they had some TPE's in past - but felt like everytime they ended up expiring/not being used. Right now they have leveraged every asset they basically had this offseason. Santo in S&T kept flexibility for Lonzo (While staying over cap - huge cause it gave you MLE) and now the use of this and they maintained Thad for flexibility (or to keep) and the Laurie move positions them to get value from him too. If they just let these guys walk they would have been bare bones in operations (and also from a cash flow perspective ownership would have saved a ton). They literally have done everything right in terms of maximizing use of its assets (whether you like the players they got/picked - that is its own question - but they have certainly used everything at their fingertips thus far in their first real offseason in charge).

Actually - I wonder if the Bulls can take that TPE and send it to the Lakers - thus Bulls maintain the full MLE still. I see no reason Lakers wouldn't do that - cause it would certainly help them a ton (more a question of whether AKME want to help out Lakers).

Bulls doing a S&T with Houston for THeis - will get a trade exception worth $9M. I don't exactly know what that means - but basically we can go acquire someone for $9M at this point and trade it for this. Will be curious if the Bulls actually use this cause I would have thought Theis at this price was better than Caruso. I'm also curious if maybe White is about to get dangled in a move bigger than any of us are thinking (not like there was any smoke before the Caruso news broke). Bulls could use a real athletic and talented big (as could most teams haha).

I was bummed Theis signed. I was hoping they would go over the cap on Theis and use their bird rights on him too. Theis brings a toughness down low that they are missing big time. But between Caruso and Ball - their back court D has taken a massive step forward.

https://mobile.twitter.com/LRiddickESPN/status/1422240456096821255?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1422240456096821255|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicitysports.com%2Fforum%2Fthreads%2Fofficial-training-camp-august-2nd.83998%2Fpage-12

So now I'm really curious what the final big move will be. They'll have some other small ones - but they have the ability to get one more impact player and even if Lauri accepted his qualifying offer - they basically are a better team that you can than flip Lauri, Coby, Williams, Thad, and others to make things work for any disgruntled superstar (or some combination of them). Or presuming the more likely that they pivot Lauri and Thad / AMinu into another S&T (even if 3 teams involved) - than they are even better destined for a potential move. Shoot...next thing you know its going to be...Bulls acquire a real star.

One thing I like - Caruso can shoot 3ball and play pretty good defense (from what I remember). That said - he was put in a pretty good spot playing next to Davis, Lebrun at time, so I think there is risk this ends up a pretty poor signing, but for now - its the offseason, so I will cheer it like all the other moves and hope the best case scenario plays itself out. If nothing else - this is looking like a far more existing offseason than I was projecting.

Isn't Caruso restricted? Edit - I guess not.