The Raptors Have Options

 Why does everyone think Luol Deng is worth so little?!?!?!

The dude was an All-Star last season, a guy that the Bulls have constantly turned down trade offers for, and one of the best perimeter defenders in the league!

Calderon in the last year of his contract and the #8 pick in a draft without a lot of top teir talent would be a horrible move!

Toronto does have options, there are teams looking to trade a swingman ( Memphis, Philly) but Chicago is not shopping Deng.  

Memphis announced 3 days ago that he is off the trading block and they’re going with him. TOR is looking at Iggy. And JoeWolf’s right about Deng. 

The question: How much is Deng worth?  He’s a very good player, but he’s currently being paid $12M, which will go up to $13M next year.  Is that what he’s worth?  Is he worth more/less?  He’s an elite defender, but an inefficient scorer (.412 fg%) with a weak PER (14.13).  After identifying his value, determine whether he gives a surplus or deficit in terms of value.  If you conclude he’s a $15M contributor being paid $12M, he’s basically giving the team $3M/year.  On the other hand, if he’s a $10M contributor being paid $12M, he’s a $2M loss regardless of the fact that all $10M contributors are bound to be impressive players.

Then, take that deficit/surplus and compare it against the deficit/surplus you’d be likely to get out of Calderon’s 1-year $10M contract + a rookie being paid $2-3M/year. 

IMO this would be a good (not great) trade for the Bulls, but I doubt they’d go for it.  Teams tend to value their players more than they are worth. 

 Will Jose Calderon and one of the prospects in the (6-10) range make Chicago better than keeping Luol Deng?

Probably not.  When Chicago is matched up with Miami in the playoffs, is Jose Calderon or Dion Waiters going to be able to handle Lebron James on the wing?  

The NBA is a business, but the Bulls are at a point where they are trying to win a title.  To do that they have to get past Miami, in the East.  If Chicago were trying to rebuild, then yes, this could make some sense, but Luol Deng is 27 and him Noah, and Rose are the guys they are going to keep going forward.

If Rose comes back and that team isn’t good enough, then yes, they’ll probably blow them up and start over, but with their current core, I they’re going to make another push before giving up.  They’ll probably lose Brewer, Korver, or Watson.  They’re going to shuffle the deck a little, but they’re not going to get rid of their best wing defender and set back their team 2 years waiting for a rookie to develop for $2 million dollars.  

They’ll cut elsewhere to keep their core in Chicago.

I say get rid of all your international players but keep Jonas

That meens no Jose, Andreas ,Linas

 I’ve heard they would consider trading him for a top 5 pick, but that they’re not shopping him very heavily.  I don’t think a guy availiable at 8 would make the Bulls any better, nor do I think they would blow up that nucleus for so little in return.

They’d want’ Beal or Barnes, not Waiters or Jones.

In the short run this trade hurts the Bulls.  And I agree completely that the Bulls are in "win title now" mode.  However, as an outsider looking in, I don’t think the Bulls current core is likely to be enough to win a seven game series against the Heat or Thunder.  And given their substantial cap constraints caused by signing players to bad contracts (Boozer, Hamilton, etc.) they don’t have the capacity to add necessary pieces to push them over the hump. 

I think the Bulls are easily a top-5 NBA team that will be in contention virtually any year Rose is healthy.  However, the primary reason this is true is that Rose is a $25M value on the court being paid just $7M a year.  Rose’s massive over production compared to his salary is basically subsidizing the team’s bad decisions.  If my goal were to maximize regular season wins over the next five years, I’d keep things as they are in Chicago.  But I don’t think they have the pieces to win it all.  You can’t win championships with role players eating up 80% of your cap space.

Heisley is in the process selling the team………

BC is going to do something (most likely stupid) as all his rebuild talk was just an excuse for losing as both he & Casey said at the season ending presser that the Rebuild/Build was over….

Plus BC got burned in the CBosh transaction….badly.

Chi needs a pg….