[jonus grumbyParticipant]

 I am far from a capologist so wanting some help.  Do the Bulls have the ability to sign two max players next summer?  

http://www.spotrac.com/nba/chicago-bulls/cap/2019/

 

 

[HitsterParticipant]

Depends what level of max you are talking about. But looking at the link you provided and Hoopshype. The Bulls have about $50 million of guaranteed salary for next season. Add to that team options for Jabari, Qualifying offers for Portis and Payne plus the likely opting in of Asik for nearly $12 million. So that would likely fill up a lot of this space.

But lets say they don’t take up option on Jabari, stretch Asik then you suddenly have $50 million plus cap space if they renounced rights to Portis and Payne. I’d think they’d like to try and keep one at least so lets say we take the middle ground. The Bulls could easily have over $40 million cap space next summer.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

Asik is only guaranteed $3 million in 2019-20. Also, if the Bulls sense that they can get one or two of the team altering free agents, I think Felicio would be the stretch provision candidate. He will be owed $15.6 million over the final two years of the deal, but can be stretched out over five (double the remaining years plus one). They get Asik and Felicio’s dead money down to $6.1 million. If they then renounce Portis (no guarantee of that happening, but let’s imagine for the scenario Durant is interested), Payne, Holiday, and Lopez, and decline the Parker option (and assume there is no Asik like buyout associated with declining the team option), then they will owe $41 million to six guys and sit at $47.2-ish with the dead cap counts. Tack on $3 million-ish for their 2019 first round pick (let us assume low to mid-teens), which puts them at 7 slots. The minimum salary is projected to be $897,158, so use that to fill in the empty roster slots to get the cap to 12 ($4,485,790). This would mean the Bulls would sit at $55 million in committed salary on a $108 million cap.

 

[sweaterflexParticipant]

If they renounce their cap holds on everyone except Jabari and stretch Asik they will have room for 1 supermax (10+ years experience), if they renounce Jabari and stretch Felicio as well they can get to two minimaxes (7-9 years experience).  

[cominup7Participant]

 If the Bulls can sneak into the playoffs or get close, I think they become a very interesting team for potential FA’s to consider. But looking at 2019 I don’t really see anybody that fits their current timeline, and the Bulls’ front office has historically built teams through homegrown talent so I don’t think they’d really consider adding big salaries until they think they’re real contenders in the East.

This summer was where they wanted to spend their money with Jabari and Lavine, which I thought were actually pretty good signings considering their age, potential and where they are in their rebuild. 

[HitsterParticipant]

Thanks to BothTeamsPlayedHard for clearing up Asik contract details for 2019-20. He could actually be a nice trade candidate for a team looking to shed cap with that deal or the Bulls could potentially buy him out now and stretch the deal over possibly 5 years. That way they get further cap space this season too.

With all the talent going West and talk that some 2019 FAs want to link up and form their own star team, if the Bulls could get cap space they would be an interesting location for FAs to consider. Chicago is a big market and it is the house that MJ built, bringing success back to Chi-Town could appeal to a player’s ego, So if the Bulls got the relevant cap space which seems possible then they are an attractive option.

Throw in 4 or 5 decent young players already on the roster, another nice draft pick or if a couple of these really look legit NBA stars then the FAs have got their running mates and a wider contending window to look at.

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