The Chicago Bulls could for the Washington Wizard’s Brendan Haywood, in a rumored deal that would send Tyrus Thomas and Jerome James to Washington, according to a RealGM user, who is said to be reputable.

The Bulls would come out as major winners in this trade as Brendan Haywood is the best player in the trade, and he is also an expiring contract. Haywood is averaging 9.7 PPG 10.3 RPG and 2.1 BPG this season.

After such a trade, the Bulls would have a big front court with Brendan Haywood, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, and Brad Miller in the big men positions. I would move Joakim Noah down to the power forward position and start Haywood at center. With Noah and Haywood manning the big positions, I think the Bulls would be dominate defensively.

To make the trade work under the CBA, someone else would have to go out from the Wizards side.

I am not sure of how reliable the guy who is supplying the rumor is, but if a trade with these principles is on the table, than the Bulls front office needs to jump on it

According to Chris Broussard on True Hoop, the Chicago Bulls are trying to trade Kirk Hinrich, and they are using Tyrus Thomas as a sweetener in trying to get rid of Hinrich.

As for the Bulls, Kirk Hinrich is ahead of even Tyrus Thomas on their list of players they’d love to trade. In fact, Thomas is being offered around the league as a sweetener in any Hinrich deal. But with two years, $17 million left on his contract after this season, there’s not a great market for Hinrich.

It makes sense that the Bulls would like to move Hinrich. His contract could prohibit the Bulls from signing a free agent to a max contract if John Salmons opts in to his contract for next season, which could prevent some of the players from coming to Chicago in free agency this summer.

A trade that is thrown out in this article is Kirk Hinrich and Tyrus Thomas going to Houston, as the main components of a trade for Tracy McGrady, who is an expiring contract. However as Broussard writes, teams aren’t in a rush to trade for Hinrich’s contract, which is probably considered a bad contract around the league with the way Hinrich has played this year.

Broussard throws out the idea of Houston wanting Joakim Noah, as he writes:

Chicago, which has definite interest in McGrady, also has the combination of young talent and expiring contracts the Rockets are looking for. There is a Bulls player Houston covets, but it’s not clear who that is. Since the Rockets surely realize that Derrick Rose won’t be traded, logic suggests it’s Joakim Noah.

A package of Noah, Brad Miller and Jerome James (the latter two have expiring contracts) would work financially, but sources say the Bulls have no desire to part with Noah.

The Bulls would obviously want to take no part in getting rid of Joakim Noah for a half season rental of Tracy McGrady.

It appears that Chris Broussard is misinterpreting what the Bulls intentions would be in trading for Tracy McGrady are. If the Bulls were to trade for Tracy McGrady, they wouldn’t be trading for McGrady the player, they would be trading for his expiring contract. Therefore there is no reason that they would throw away a good young talent in Noah to have marginal cap space benefits for next season. If they are going to trade for McGrady, it will be some combination of expiring contracts, and a long term contract that they wish to get rid of (Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, or John Salmons).

I think the Bulls best bet might be to try to work out a package around John Salmons. Salmons has played better than Hinrich this season, and has at most, one less year left on his contract than Hinrich (and a smaller contract at that), and Salmons may even choose to opt out after this season, which would leave Houston, in this scenario, with no contracts going past this year.

Salmons could also choose to opt out if the Bulls keep him, but a trade like this where the Bulls package John Salmons with definite expiring contracts for another definite expiring contract would allow the Bulls’ front office to sleep easy at night, as they would have certainty that they will be able to offer someone a max contract in 2010 free agency.

According to Mike Jones, a former Washington Wizards beat writer, Caron Butler and Mike James could be traded to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Kirk Hinrich and Jerome James.

The Wizards might not have a hard time dealing Caron Butler in a package deal with James, however, but not to Houston. I’m hearing Butler and James could be headed to either Miami or Chicago. Some of the pieces Washington could be trying to get back from Chicago, the source said, could be Kirk Hinrich and Jerome James.

The trade puts a little more money on the Bulls’ salaries next year as Caron Butler makes $1.56 million more than Kirk Hinrich next year. Mike James’ and Jerome James’ expiring contracts cancel each other out. Past next season, Butler’s contract is more favorable than Hinrich’s, as it expires after next season, while Hinrich’s contract has an additional year.

Caron Butler is having a down year right now, averaging 16.9 points on 52.0 TS%, but that is still world’s better than Hinrich’s season, in which he is averaging 8.5 points on 44.7 TS%.

If this is trade is indeed on the table, the Bulls should take it, and then find away to move John Salmons for an expiring contract in order to keep their 2010 flexibility as good as possible. The trade is a no brainer talent wise, as even in his down year, Butler is a significant upgrade over Hinrich.

According to the SportsUnplugged twitter page, the Nuggets have inquired about Luol Deng.

SprtsX: Nuggets inquiring about Deng.

Apparently, earlier they made a tweet about how the deal was Jerome James and Luol Deng for Kenyon Martin, but they deleted the tweet.

The rumor makes zero sense on a multitude of levels.

First, for the Nuggets, they already have Carmelo Anthony at small forward, so there isn’t really much need for Deng, unless they want to play two small forwards out there, which isn’t a smart strategy out in the West with all those great big men.

Secondly, this trade would likely take the Bulls out of 2010 free agency. Kenyon Martin has a player option for next year, and it’s hard to see him passing up a $16.5 million player option. So the Bulls would be taking back a little more than $6 million in additional salary commitments for next season, which would prevent them from signing a max free agent in 2010 free agency.

This rumor should probably be disregarded, as it seems too absurd to have any truth to it.

According to Tech N9ne of Rumorpress.net, the Bulls may trade for Carlos Boozer.

Look for the Chicago Bulls to make a strong push for Carlos Boozer. Reports have indicated the Bulls are interested in trading for the Utah Jazz power forward and there is a lot of truth to it. General Manager Gar Forman has already had discussions with the Jazz about sending Boozer to Chicago and talks could heat up even more in the coming weeks. The Bulls are looking to send Tyrus Thomas and most likely Jerome James to the Jazz for Boozer, the problem is the Jazz are talking to several other teams and may wait to find a better deal. Either way, the Bulls will at least make a strong effort at trying to get Boozer in Chicago.

I think there is truth to these rumors. This would be a pretty good trade for the Bulls. They would finally get the lowpost scorer that they’ve been lacking since Eddy Curry left in 2005. Tyrus Thomas probably isn’t in the Bulls future plans, as he would have to be renounced if the Bulls decide to pursue a max free agent in 2010.

(more…)

According to Bill Ingram of Hoops World, the Bulls will keep Ben Gordon, and move a front court player to make it happen financially.

Faiz in Chicago, IL:
Will the Bulls make a trade this offseason? or will they stay the same? what about Ben Gordon? Please tell me some good news, i dont want the same mediocre team.

Bill Ingram:
Ben will be back . . .and they’ll move one of their front court players to help make that happen.

I can’t see the Bulls doing a salary dump of Tyrus Thomas, given how much hard work he has been putting in this offseason.

That means that Jerome James and Tim Thomas would be the logical targets for the Bulls to be trying to move, to make room for Gordon’s contract financially. If the Bulls sweeten the deal with future draft picks, the rights to Mario Austin or Omer Asik, and cash considerations, a deal might be able to be made.

According to Larry Coon, a cap guru, Jerome James’ contract could be excluded from the Bulls luxury tax calculations.

For the first question — the salary counts. It doesn’t matter whether insurance is paying it. The team can apply to have the salary removed, after a year waiting period.

For the second question — the Board of Governors can exclude the salary of disabled players from the luxury tax, and typically does so.

This would be huge for the Bulls, as it would give the Bulls’ much more room to operate under the luxury tax, allowing them to re-sign Ben Gordon without making any major moves.

Of course this is all dependent on Jerome James having to medically retire.