When the Bulls decided to let Ben Gordon walk to the Detroit Pistons this past offseason, they signaled that they were going to pursue 2010 free agency. The Bulls face one major problem, which is that they will not have enough cap space to sign a max free agent if John Salmons opts into his contract. So at the trade deadline this year, the Bulls should first look at trying to move either John Salmons or Kirk Hinrich, to ensure that they can sign a max free agent in 2010 free agency. But the Bulls shouldn’t stop there, the Bulls should work to move all three of Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, and John Salmons for expiring contracts. Moving all three would make the Bulls the biggest power player in the biggest free agent year in NBA history.

First, I would like to clear up some misconceptions. A recent RealGM 2010 Free Agency primer said that the Bulls would have $21.1 million in projected cap space using a $52.5 million even with Salmons opting in. I am not sure where the author got this number, but he either doesn’t quite understand all the subtleties of the CBA, has bad salary data, made some mathematical errors, or a combination of all three.

If Salmons chooses to opt in, with a $52.5 million cap, the Bulls would have approximately $11.468 million in cap space, well short of the $15.75 million needed to sign a max free agent in 2010 free agency using the $52.5 million cap. If Salmons chose to opt out of his contract, the Bulls would have $16.803 million in cap space, enough to sign a max free agent. This of course doesn’t include the Bulls draft pick, which would further reduce the Bulls’ cap space, although if the Bulls were to trade their draft pick, they could have these cap space figures.

If we were to choose to go with the 2010 plan for one max free agent, moving either Kirk Hinrich or John Salmons would ensure that we have the proper cap space for 2010 to sign a max player. Luol Deng could also be moved, but he would be a better piece to keep here to try to attract a max free agent than either Hinrich or Salmons.

However, an even better plan for the Bulls would to move all three of Hinrich, Salmons, and Deng. This would allow the Bulls to sign two max free agents, even if they were to be blessed with the salary commitments that come with the top overall pick in the draft.

How would the Bulls accomplish this feat? They could target a few separate deals moving these players for expirings. But there are two teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks, who could trade for all three in a single trade.

The Cavaliers could do so in a trade based around Shaquille O’neal’s massive expiring contract. Shaq has only produced 10.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per a game for the Cavs this season, and moving Shaq in a trade for talent to help the Cavs win a championship this year would probably please Lebron more than if the Cavs were to trade his good friend, Zydrunas Ilgauskus, who Lebron promised to win a championship ring for.

The Mavericks also are a championship contender who could use an injection of talent to better their chances at winning the rings. With the window closing on the Dirk Nowitzki era of Dallas Mavericks basketball, I think Mark Cuban in particular would consider such a deal to try to win a championship with Nowitzki. A trade with the Mavericks would include Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, and Kris Humphries going to the Bulls, as well as some more of the Mavericks small expiring contracts.

If the Bulls were to pull off such a trade, they would only have salary commitments to Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, and James Johnson.

The Bulls would take a major stepback talent wise this year, and would probably slide into a top seven draft pick. The Bulls main selling point to the 2010 free agents would be that they would be able to play with Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, a top 7 draft pick, as well as another max 2010 free agent.

Here is how the salaries would work out, using the dream scenario of the Bulls winning the top overall pick.

The salary for the #1 overall pick will be $4.287 million for the 2010-2011 season. Therefore the Bulls would then enter free agency with $33.398 million in cap space.

After they sign their first max free agent, starting at $15.75 million, they will have $18.085 million in cap space.

After they sign their second max free agent, starting at $15.75 million, they will have $2.808 million in cap space.

The Bulls could use that left over cap space to either sign another established NBA player to build depth, or bring Omer Asik over from Europe. The amount of left over cap space would grow depending on how

If the Bulls are able to sign any two of Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Joe Johnson, and Carlos Boozer, using this plan, I think they will have a pretty good team. I think signing any two of these players would make the Bulls title contenders. Of course, which two out of these six players they sign is important, because the Bulls could be left anywhere from being a lower level contender to an absolute juggernaut, but I think they will be contenders none the less. How their 2010 draft pick pans out also would play a role into what kind of contender they become, as will the continuing development of Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.

Coming out of the offseason, the Bulls main components would be Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, James Johnson, 2010 Max Free Agent 1, 2010 Max Free Agent 2, 2010 Leftover Cap Space Free Agent, 2010 Top Draft Pick. I think just this here could leave the Bulls ready to compete for a championship in the 2010-2011 championship. They will then have to try to convince veterans signing for the minimum that Chicago is the place they should sign, in order to add depth. I think Brad Miller is one of the expiring guys from this year’s team who would return next year on the minimum salary.

Otherwise, during the 2011 offseason, the Bulls would be able to add depth using the MLE, LLE, and their 2011 draft picks.

This is the plan that will give the Bulls the best bet at winning a championship anytime soon. The Bulls finally need to go all in for a championship, and the best way to do that is going all in for 2010 free agency.

The Chicago Bulls have been blownout in two consecutive games. First Friday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, 101-87, and then last night against the Toronto Raptors

Cleveland Cavaliers 101 vs. Chicago Bulls 87

In this first game, the Bulls held tough with the Cavs in the first half, trailing by only 1 point at the end of the first half.

The Bulls were able to hang tough with the Cavs because of a strong first half from Taj Gibson, who finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

In the second half, it was all Cavs as they went on to the easy victory. The victory was so easy for the Cavs, it caused Lebron James to begin dancing in the middle of the game.

This caused a verbal altercation between Joakim Noah and Lebron James, in which Noah shouted to James, according to Ric Bucher, “This is so ****ing old, you’re a b**ch.”

It is good to see this type of fire in Joakim Noah, and to stand up for his team.

Lebron James had a good game as usual, finishing with 23 points and 11 assists. James made it difficult for Deng to find open shots, limiting him to 11 points on 4-9 shooting.

Daniel Gibson finished with 15 points on 7-9 shooting.

There were bad games all around for the Bulls. John Salmons finished with 12 points on 5-12 shooting, Derrick Rose had 13 points on 5-16 shooting, and Joakim Noah had 7 points on 2-7 shooting and 10 rebounds.

For the Cavs, Shaquille O’neal had 8 points on 4-5 shooting, Mo Williams had 15 points and 7 assists, and Anderson Varejao had 10 points.

With the loss, the Bulls fell to 7-10 on the season.

Toronto Raptors 110 at Chicago Bulls 78

Vinny Del Negro rested his starters in the fourth quarter against the Cavs, but that proved to be useless as they were getting outplayed badly from the get go by the Toronto Raptors.

Joakim Noah played well, scoring 9 points on 3-3 shooting and grabbing 7 rebounds in 18 minutes. He was ejected in the third quarter after receiving his second technical foul.

I think this will be a hard season for Noah, as the Bulls are going to get embarrassed in a lot of their losses as a result of a lack of ability to score the ball, and I think Noah is going to take it hard.

John Salmons was solid too, scoring 13 points on 6-12 shooting, but the rest of the team played poorly. Derrick Rose had 9 points on 3-9 shooting, and Luol Deng had 9 points on 4-9 shooting.

Chris Bosh was dominant for the Raptors, posting 25 points and 12 rebounds.

Four other Raptors scored in double figures. Demar Derozan finished with 11 points, Marco Bellinelli with 15 points, Antoine Wright with 10 points, and Rasho Nesterovic with 12 points.

The most embarrassing moment of the game came for the Bulls at the third quarter, when Jarrett Jack decided to pick up the ball and tie his shoe. None of the Bulls made any attempt to steal the ball from Jack.

With this embarrassing loss, the Bulls fall to 7-11 on the season.

Closing Comments

This season looks like it is going to take a dip towards the ugly. The Bulls are a team that does nothing well on the basketball court. They can’t score, and after a strong defensive start, their defense can no longer stop anyone. Following the loss to the Raptors, the Bulls were ranked 27th in Offense and 19th in Defense, down from 15th in Offense and 18th in Defense last season. In losing Ben Gordon, the Bulls made themselves one of the worst offensive teams in the league while also making no improvements on the defensive end. That is a recipe for disaster, and that is the exact word that can be used to describe the Bulls season thus far.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 86-85 in Cleveland last night.

The game looked like it was going to set up for a Cavs win. Luol Deng missed a shot, which the refs ruled to be an airball, which led to a 24 second violation and the Cavs getting the ball back with a few seconds remaining. The replay showed that the shot probably hit the rim. We were going to see the same story we’ve seen many times before, Lebron drives to the basket, refs call a foul, and the Cavs win.

So on the very next play, Lebron James drives left to the basket, being bodied up by Luol Deng. Joakim Noah then came over to help, and Lebron lost the ball out of bounds.

This was defense executed to perfection. You had Deng not giving into Lebron, staying between himself and the basket, leading Lebron into the defensive wall, preventing Lebron from getting to the rim in Joakim Noah.

It is defense like this for why the Bulls beat the Cavs, and defense like this for why the Bulls are 3-2. The defensive improvement has come entirely from the front court. Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, and Brad Miller have been making smart rotations on defense, and have played the pick and roll well.

Derrick Rose had an alright game tonight, scoring 14 points and dishing 11 assists. His passing was impressive, and he set up many of his teammates for easy looks. However, he is still scoring the ball very poorly, as he took 15 shots to get his 14 points tonight.

Luol Deng finished the game with 15 points and 7 rebounds. He had a rough night scoring the ball, taking 16 shots to score his 15 points, but he did a good job on the boards, and did a solid job of defending Lebron James, which is no easy task.

John Salmons scored 14 points in the game on 6-13 shooting. Again, efficient scoring was a problem with him, as he didn’t make a lot of three pointers, and didn’t get to the line much. Additionally, John Salmons last point came with 5:58 remaining in the third quarter.

Taj Gibson gave the points 11 points and 7 rebounds, and Joakim Noah put up 7 points and 11 rebounds.

Kirk Hinrich had a solid 9 points, 6 rebound, 4 assists game and Brad Miller added in 10 points.

For the Cavs, Lebron James continued his excellent play, finishing with 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. Anderson Varejao put in 12 points and 13 rebounds, and Shaquille O’neal had 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocks. Mo Williams and Anthony Parker had 11 points a piece.

The Cavs offense just hasn’t been the same ever since they lost their offensive guru, John Keuster, to the Detroit Pistons this offseason.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 3-2 on the season.

Last night at the VMA’s, Kanye West took the microphone out of Taylor Swift’s hands as she was accepting her award for Female Music Video of the Year, to put Taylor on blast, implying that Beyonce should have been taking home the award.

Similarly, on Friday, Michael Jordan put his enemies on blast during his speech during the Hall of Fame induction. During his speech Jordan called out Jerry Krause for his organizations win championships comment. He called out Isiah Thomas for freezing him out at the 1985 Allstar Game. He called out Jeff Van Gundy for saying that Jordan conned players by befriending them. He called out Byron Russell for saying that he could cover Jordan if he was still playing when Jordan was retired in 1994.

Kanye West’s actions were obviously much worse, but both have been talked about as classless. While they are similar in that respect, they are also so very different, because of who Michael Jordan is.

Kanye West thinks he can say anything he wants about other musicians without repercussions because he has self deluded himself into thinking that he’s The Beatles. Michael Jordan, however, can say whatever he wants, because he is The Beatles.

Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. Not only that, he is the greatest athlete to ever play in any sport, and that is why it seemed okay to do what he did last Friday.

Him being the greatest athlete of all time, as well as donning the Chicago Bulls uniform is also why it’s now Monday, and this is just being written. The fact that Jordan is the GOAT and also wore a Bulls uniform makes this a hard post to write, because I want to make it a good one. I want to make it a perfect one, just like Jordan, the perfect basketball player.

And I know I’m not alone in this. Kelly Dwyer explains the same difficulty in writing about Jordan that I have.

At least Dwyer know completely what Jordan meant to him, as he got to witness it all. Doug Thonus of Chicago Bulls Confidential and Matt from Blog-a-Bull are admittedly indifferent about the entire thing. I am the in between, which is incredibly difficult to write about.

As a sports fan, I root for all of the same professional teams that my Dad did. That is the Packers, Cubs, and Bulls. So I was out there watching the Bulls when they were out winning these last three championships. But it wasn’t until after Jordan retired from the Bulls that I really got into basketball (I started becoming a hardcore basketball fan in 1998).

While I was watching Jordan win these championships, it wasn’t with the same fervor that I watched Ben Gordon lead the Bulls to the second round of the playoffs or Rusty Larue lead the Bulls to 17 wins. The Bulls winning a championship now would mean a lot more to me than the ones they won in the 1990’s.

Just off the top of my head, here are some of the athletes that mean more to me than Michael Jordan:

Sammy Sosa, who was the only exciting thing about the Cubs for a long while, and one of the greatest home run hitters to ever play baseball.

Dwyane Wade, who graced us with his presence for two terrific seasons at Marquette, culminating in a Final Four appearance.

Ben Gordon, who helped in re-energizing the Bulls, leading them back to the playoffs for the first time since the guy I’m writing this article about.

And also Aaron Rodgers, the new face of the Green Bay Packers, and one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

But this list is still very small. Michael still means a lot.

The first video game I ever owned was Bulls vs. Blazers and the NBA Playoffs for Super Nintendo.

While I was more excited for Bugs Bunny at the time, Michael Jordan is the reason why Space Jam is still one of my favorite movies of all time. (Although I still find Bugs hilarious!)

The first jersey I owned of any athlete was Michael Jordan. Elton Brand, Derrick Rose, and Ben Gordon are the only other Bulls that I have owned a jersey of.

When I used to wear headbands when playing basketball (before deciding it was tacky), about half the time I would wear a white Air Jordan headband. I owned a pair of those butt ugly Jordan Retro 5’s, but thought they were cool because they were Jordan’s shoes.

My basketball card collection, which I stopped collecting for during the 2004-2005 (just enough time to get some Ben Gordon rookies!), has a massive pile, dedicated to just cards of Jordan.

When NBA 2K3 came out, in quickplay games I often played as the Wizards (although Jay Wiliams was sick in that game too!). In franchise mode, Jordan would curiously be traded for (or fantasy drafted) time and time again to the Bulls, and I would try to win the championship before Jordan retired in the game.

I also watched a lot of Wizards games that year. Anytime they were on national TV, I would watch them, although I never brought myself to get a Jordan Wizards jersey. I’ve gotten jerseys of guys on other teams in the past. I had a Shaquille O’neal and Penny Hardaway Magic jerseys, a Chris Webber Kings throwback, and a Tim Duncan Team USA jersey. But getting an MJ Wizards jersey just seemed wrong, and I never ended up purchasing one.

During the offseason I will often find myself watching one of the documentaries or games on the Ultimate Jordan collection. It’s also not uncommon to be on youtube re-watching some of Jordan’s greatest moments on youtube.

But my memories of Jordan when he was actually playing for the Bulls are thin. My memories of Jordan are more from the culture Jordan created than anything Jordan actually did in a Bulls uniform.

So now, at the end of the article, I still cannot say what Jordan meant to me in exactness. He probably means more to me than both Doug and Matt, but less than Kelly Dwyer. Maybe I will never know how much Jordan means to me, or my basketball fandom, but I can tell you one thing, Michael Jordan was the greatest athlete to ever play a sport.

As many readers of Yahoo Sports, such as myself, have probably noticed that Kelly Dwyer has been posting top 10 lists for the 2000’s in his Balls Don’t Lie blog. Today he did top 10 defenders, and I felt obliged to comment on this, not only because of the number of the Bulls on the list, but also, how low he ranked a certain defender.

His top 10 defenders list is:

10. Kirk Hinrich
9. Eric Snow
8. Jason Kidd
7. Bruce Bowen
6. Ron Artest
5. Dikembe Mutombo
4. Tim Duncan
3. Ben Wallace
2. Shane Battier
1. Kevin Garnett

(You can see Dwyer’s analysis on the list here)

It’s neat to see so many Bulls on the list. Three Bulls, Kirk Hinrich, Ron Artest, and Ben Wallace made the list.

I agree with Dwyer’s inclusion of Hinrich, and also his analysis. In 06-07 and 08-09, Hinrich was definitely one of the top perimeter defenders in the league.

However, the main reason I am posting this, is because of how low Ben Wallace is ranked. There is no reason why Shane Battier should be ranked higher than Ben Wallace. Because Battier is a perimeter defender, his potential impact on defense is less than Wallace, who is a big man. A perimeter defender can only affect their man, for the most part. An interior defender can affect the other team’s entire offense.

In the list, Dwyer is more concerned about the players’ primes, and not their prolonged impact. Ben Wallace was the best defender of this decade in his prime.

Looking at the top 10 best seasons in terms of defensive win shares and defensive rating, we get the following:

1. Ben Wallace, 2003-2004 - 8.9 DWS
2. Kevin Garnett, 2003-2004 - 7.9 DWS
3. Dwight Howard, 2008-2009 - 7.6 DWS
4. Ben Wallace, 2002-2003 - 7.5 DWS
5. Ben Wallace, 2001-2002, - 7.2 DWS
6. Tim Duncan, 2003-2004 - 7.1 DWS
7. Tim Duncan, 2001-2002 - 7.0 DWS
8. Shaquille O’neal, 1999-2000 - 7.0 DWS
9. Tim Duncan, 2002-2003 - 6.9 DWS
10. Tim Duncan, 2000-2001 - 6.9 DWS

Based on DWS, Ben Wallace and Tim Duncan are the two names that pop out. Kevin Garnett had an elite 2003-2004 season, but that’s about it. Garnett’s second best season was 2008-2009 with the Celtics, which was the 24th best DWS season of the decade. Ben Wallace and Tim Duncan each have 7 seasons that are better than Garnett’s second best defensive season based on DWS.

Now a look at the top 10 defensive seasons based on D-Rtg. The following is the top 10 D-Rtg seasons for players that playd 24 or more minutes per game.

1. Ben Wallace, 2003-2004 - 87.5
2. Tim Duncan, 2003-2004 - 88.5
3. Ben Wallace, 2002-2003 - 90.0
4. Marcus Camby, 2000-2001 - 90.6
5. Kevin Garnett, 2003-2004 - 91.6
6. David Robinson, 2000-2001, 92.1
7. Rasho Nesterovic, 2003-2004, 92.2
8. David Robinson, 1999-2000, 92.2
9. Ben Wallace, 2001-2002, 92.9
10. Manu Ginobili, 2003-2004, 93.1

What conclusions can be made from looking at both of these rankings? That Ben Wallace, in his prime, was the best defender of the decade. His 2003-2004 season is both the best DWS season and also the best D-Rtg season. His 2003-2004 season is actually the best D-Rtg season in NBA history, 16th best DWS season in NBA History (all that are better are from 1973 or prior), and he followed that up with the best D-Rtg postseason in NBA history.

Kevin Garnett is an elite defender as seen by these rankings. However, putting Shane Battier ahead of Wallace is a complete disrespect for everything Wallace has done on the basketball court.

Shane Battier’s best defensive season based on D-Rtg was 101.6 in 2003-2004. That was good for the 306th best D-Rtg of the decade, behind seasons by defensive prodigies, such as Antoine Walker. Battier’s best DWS season was 4.5 in 2006-2007, which is again, worse than defensive prodigy Antoine Walker’s best season.

Battier doesn’t belong in this top ten list, let alone ahead of some of the best defenders in NBA history in Ben Wallace, Tim Duncan, and Kevin Garnett. Battier’s inclusion also knocked Shaquille O’neal off this list, who definitely belongs there.

Ben Wallace should have been #1 on this list.

According to Victor Bellan of rumorpress.net, Shaquille O’neal of the Phoenix Suns, could become a member of the Chicago Bulls.

Shaq was an allstar last year.

There is a possibility Shaquille O’Neal could be in a Chicago Bulls uniform next season. In a rather surprising discovery, the Phoenix Suns aoneal.jpgnd Bulls plan on engaging in trade talks that could send the future hall of fame center to Chicago, as soon as teams are allowed to talk after the playoffs. Suns GM Steve Kerr is looking to deal Shaq and is said to be interested in Loul Deng. The Suns would like to move the aging center mainly because he has slowed the up-tempo Suns down drastically. They feel Deng could bring some young, athletic energy back to the team. The Suns also feel Deng could still live up to his potential and contract if he can stay healthy.

The Bulls apparently will listen to the potential idea at the very least. However, Chicago fears that O’Neal will slow down the Bulls young, up-tempo style of play (with the Bulls already having a slow moving, aging center on the team in Brad Miller). On the other hand, the Bulls would love to get rid of Loul Deng’s huge contract, especially with the emergence of John Salmons and with their hopes to resign Ben Gordon. In addition, Shaq’s contract expires at the end of next season, freeing up even more money for 2010. The Bulls also feel Shaq could be a good influence on the young big men and could fit temporarily for one season as a low post presence. The trade would likely be O’Neal for Deng, Tim Thomas and Jerome James (assuming James exercises his player option) Look for the Suns and Bulls to at least toy around with the idea.

This would be an excellent move for the Bulls. Essentially, they would have last year’s playoff team back with the addition of Shaq. Who knows how far the Bulls could have gone with a scoring big. If Shaq could draw some double teams to free up Ben Gordon for some wide open three pointers.

In addition, Shaq is a good defensive center, and would help to improve the Bulls’ weak interior defense.

Additionally, Shaq’s contract would come off the books at the end of the year. By unloading Luol Deng, the Bulls would open themselves up to becoming players in 2010 free agency, while retaining the deadly backcourt of Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon.

Chris Sheridan said that the Suns still could trade Amare Stoudemire for financial reasons, during an appearance on ESPN’s First Take. Financial reasons will drive the Suns decisions between now and Thursday.

Sheridan says the Suns are a team that will lose $30 million if they stand pat. They want to move Shaquille O’neal primarily because that would take them from losing $30 milion, back to a positive $10 million.

Sheridan says that Robert Sarver is in Western Alliance Bancorp, and that company has lost 80 percent of it’s value in the past two years.

And this is why a trade involving Amare Stoudemire is still a possibility. There is a good chance the Suns will not be able to unload Shaquille O’neals contract and therefore, they will have to seek other avenues for financial relief.

If the Bulls were to trade Drew Gooden, Tyrus Thomas, and Cedric Simmons for Amare Stoudemire, Louis Amundson, and Matt Barnes, the Bulls would be saving the Suns a little more than $16.93 million next year (Sheridan’s Shaq number is exaggerated as not all of it would be under the luxury tax), in addition to $4.24 million in savings this year.

If the Bulls were to use their trade exception in a second part to the deal to take back Jared Dudley, the Bulls could sneak the Suns under the luxury tax this year, and save the Suns an additional $1.12 million this year and an additional $1.31 million next year.

This trade of Amare Stoudemire to the Bulls would save the Suns a total of $23.6 million in salary, and this is why a trade is still possible. Yes, a trade of Shaq for expirings would save more, but they aren’t likely to find a trading partner that gives them that package for Shaq.

In addition to these savings, the Suns would get extra savings from their share of the luxury tax revenue, as they would now be under the luxury tax in both seasons.

This is why the Bulls continue to have a shot at Amare Stoudemire. Trade talks in the NBA die and come back to life. That’s the nature of trade talks in the NBA. Even if talks are dead right now, there is always the chance that the talks resume. The Bulls and Suns will have talks on Thursday, to think they would not is naive.

Anything you read about the Bulls not being sure about the trade because the Bulls think Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah, or multiple draft picks is too much to give up for Amare is likely not true. The recent play of Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah isn’t good enough to halt an Amare Stoudemire trade.

Instead, the financial side of things would be why the Bulls turn down a potential trade for Amare Stoudemire. If the trade I proposed above (including Dudley for the trade exception) were the one to go through, the Bulls would take on an extra $7.07 million for this season. The Bulls would then have to spend $20.38 million more than they are obligated to right now, next season. And that is without Ben Gordon in the mix yet, who the Bulls would have to pay double the dollar for, as they would already be in the luxury tax.

In addition to these expenses, the Bulls would lose out on their share of the luxury tax revenue.

While this wouldn’t sink the Bulls into the red, it would cut into the Bulls profits quite a bit. Although these amounts would be somewhat mitigated from the extra revenue the Bulls would receive from making the playoffs, and extra ticket sales. (The Bulls have not been selling out every game this year).

For this reason, an Amare Stoudemire trade, if it does happen, might be accompanied by a salary dump of Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng, and/or Andres Nocioni. If the Bulls are unable to lessen their salaries from dumping one of those players, the Bulls could just let Ben Gordon walk in free agency. The latter option would make the Bulls far less competitive.

While the Amare Stoudemire trade is a home run trade basketball wise, the ownership group has to be less than ecstatic about taking on all the extra money.

If the Bulls somehow do end up in a position to reject an Amare Stoudemire trade, it will be a financial decision, not a basketball decision.

-The savings and spending numbers for this year should only be taken as estimates, as it is impossible to determine how much money has already been paid off.
-Next years numbers are based off the luxury tax staying the same at $71,150,000 and use the Shamsports.com salary data.