ESPN: Boozer Talks Substantive

July 9th, 2009 by Andrew Wamboldt

According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, the rumors regarding Carlos Boozer going to the Jazz are real and substantive.

Another major multi-team trade might be looming in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls having discussed a deal that would be headlined by Carlos Boozer and Kirk Hinrich, according to NBA front-office sources.

Sources stressed to ESPN.com that no deal was imminent Thursday and that both Portland and Utah are still evaluating multiple trade scenarios. But two sources with knowledge of the three-team proposal confirmed that there have been substantive talks regarding a trade that would land Boozer in Chicago, Hinrich in Portland and Tyrus Thomas in Utah.

It looks like this trade has a good chance of actually being completed. It is a good trade for the Bulls, and I think it would have been much better if Gordon was still here.

How would the Bulls look going into 2010 following this trade? Using a $52 million salary cap (in between the high and low figures the NBA released in their recent memo), the Bulls would have $20.504 million in cap space, as Derrick Rose, John Salmons, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, James Johnson, and Taj Gibson would count against the Bulls’ cap.

That gives the Bulls enough money to sign one max free agent, and then be able to offer a second free agent $5.377 million.

If John Salmons opts out, the Bulls would have $25.839 million in cap space. They could sign a player to the max, and hen offer a second free agent a contract starting at $10.712 million, which works out to a $62.1 million over 5 year ($12.4 million a year) or $81.1 million over 6 year ($13.5 million a year) contract.

The Bulls ideal situation would be for Salmons to opt out. They could then sign a guy like Dwyane Wade or Joe Johnson to the max, and hope the remaining cap would be enough to re-sign Carlos Boozer. There is no guarantee that Boozer would be able to be had at that price, as there’s going to be a lot of teams with cap space looking for a player to spend it on.

If the Bulls could end up with Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade/Joe Johnson, Luol Deng, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, James Johnson, and Taj Gibson going into the 2010-2011 season, they may be able to compete for a championship.

This depends on a lot of things falling in place. But it would put in place a better championship team building strategy than if the Bulls were to go into 2010 free agency with the roster as is.