Bulls To Swap Nocioni for Miller?

July 29th, 2008 by Andrew Wamboldt

According to the very reliable blogger, known as Tech N9ne or Victor Bellan, the Bulls and Kings are discussing a trade of Andres Nocioni, Cedric Simmons, and a future first round pick to the Sacramento Kings for Brad Miller. He says that the trade likely will not happen until both Gordon and Deng are resigned.

Tech N9ne broke the Donyell Marshall signing, both Jalen Rose trades, the Tyson Chandler trade, the Eddie Robinson signing, the selection of Gordon and Deng, and most recently, the Ben Wallace trade before anyone else.

What does this mean? Paxson is preparing for the 2010 free agency, which will feature Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Yao Ming, Joe Johnson, and Tyson Chandler among others. Brad Miller’s contract expires after the 2009-2010 season.

Tech mentions that the Kings want Joakim Noah in place of Cedric Simmons. I would personally not be shocked to see the Bulls let go of Noah, as he was a major strain on team chemistry last year, missing practices, fighting with coaches, and constantly being fined by the team. The veterans on the team did not appreciate a loud mouth rookie who didn’t put in the work. Noah followed the eventful season by being arrested for marijuana posession and showing up for summer league grossly out of shape. On Friday, Noah appeared on ESPN’s First Take and said he’s looking forward to winning, but does anyone believe him? He spent the majority of of his time on that ESPN segment not taking responsibilty for his mistakes and just displaying himself as a guy that doesn’t get it and who will probably never get it. Noah followed up his apperance on First Take by being a no show for a planned chat with ESPN.com, just as he was a no show for multiple Bulls practices last season.

By including Noah in the trade, the Bulls would have an additional $3.1 million of cap space in 2010. There doesn’t seem to be a spot for Noah in the long term with Omer Asik coming over in 2010. Asik plays a similar role to Noah on a team, but Asik projects to be a much better player than Noah. Longterm, the Bulls likely big man rotation will be Tyrus Thomas, Omer Asik, Aaron Gray, and the blockbuster free agent they plan on signing in 2010.

While it seems the Bulls giving up a future draft pick seems to be overkill in this scenario, the Bulls will likely not want their first round picks for the next two years (unless they end up back in the lottery). Mid to late first round players generally don’t pan out and they would just be chipping away from our potential 2010 cap space. If the Bulls decide to keep the picks, they will likely take a foreign player they can stash over in Europe the next two years or trade the pick like Phoenix has in the past.

[Tech's Blog Post on the Rumor]