According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Chicago Bulls have exchanged trade proposals, one of which includes a three way trade that would net the Bulls Amare Stoudemire.

The Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves have been exchanging trade proposals that include a possible three-way deal with the Suns that would send Stoudemire to the Bulls, a Western Conference executive said Tuesday night.

So far, nothing that the Bulls and Wolves have brainstormed has brought the Suns closer to moving Stoudemire. Nevertheless, one proposed deal would send Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas to Phoenix, along with the expiring contracts of Chicago’s Drew Gooden and Minnesota’s Jason Collins. Minnesota would receive the player it covets – Chicago guard Kirk Hinrich – and Bulls guard Thabo Sefolosha.

That three-way scenario remains improbable, but there are several possibilities between Chicago and Minnesota that are alive. The Bulls want expiring contracts and draft picks to dump Hinrich and forward Andres Nocioni. Chicago has shopped them separately to several teams, but sources say Minnesota has no interest in Nocioni.

The Bulls have also had discussions with the Los Angeles Clippers regarding center Chris Kaman, one Western Conference executive said.

The Amare Stoudemire, three way trade scenario is the one that all Bulls fans want. Bringing in Stoudemire while dumping Kirk Hinrich’s contract would be great. Is it a probable scenario? We will just have to wait until Thursday.

Ignoring Amare Stoudemire for a moment, what trades could the Bulls work out involving just the Timberwolves? Trade talks would certainly circle around Jason Collin’s big expiring contract and obviously, Kirk Hinrich and Thabo Sefolosha. The Timberwolves have an assortment of players on one and two year contracts that they could mix and match with the Bulls to make a trade that doesn’t oush the Bulls over the luxury tax.

What’s this trade do for the Bulls? It rids them of Kirk Hinrich’s long term contract, allowing them to potentially become players in 2010 free agency. It allows them to re-sign Ben Gordon this summer, while remaining comfortably under the luxury tax threshold.

The Chris Kaman talks are somewhat intriguing. Kaman is a good player, but he’s not Amare Stoudemire, he’s not Chris Bosh, and he’s not Carlos Boozer. Landing Kaman after those three names were mentioned as possibilities would be underwhelming, but could be a good trade depending on what we have to give up to get him. If Tech N9ne’s information is correct, then it would take Drew Gooden and Tyrus Thomas to land Kaman. That’s too much. Drew Gooden and Joakim Noah? That price sounds just right.

Bulls fans right now have given up all hope on Amare Stoudemire, and this is misguided. This is not to say that the Bulls have a good chance of landing Stoudemire, but as chronicled earlier, Sarver’s financial mess will not just magically go away, and a Stoudemire trade to the Bulls could save him over $20 million over the next two years. There is still 38 hours until the trade deadline, and a lot can change in 38 hours in the world of NBA trade talks.

Update: 11:45 PM

The article originally had this included as well, but it was later removed.

However, sources say the Wolves and Bulls are discussing Hinrich and Sefolosha for Collins and Brian Cardinal. The Wolves are intrigued with Hinrich’s ability to play the point and off-guard and see him as a good complement to Randy Foye. Collins and Cardinal have shorter-term contracts that bring Chicago payroll relief.

If that is the proposed trade, then the Bulls would have to include either Michael Ruffin or Cedric Simmons to make a trade scenario with Minnesota that doesn’t push the Bulls into the luxury tax.

Update: 12:19 PM

The portion of the article regarding the potential Kirk Hinrich and Thabo Sefolosha for Jason Collins and Brian Cardinal has been added back into the article.

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Tags: Adrian Wojnarowski, Amare Stoudemire, Andres Nocioni, Brian Cardinal, Chicago Bulls, Chris Kaman, Jason Collins, Kirk Hinrich, Minnesota Timberwolves, Phoenix Suns, Thabo Sefolosha, Yahoo Sports

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 11:42 pm and is filed under Rumors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.