As originally pointed out by imagge on the RealGM forums, the Bulls ownership group received some additional money, a sum greater than $6 million, in escrow money.

The NBA’s escrow system is in place to make sure that players don’t receive more than 57% (except in a few cases) of the basketball related income (BRI) in salary and benefits. The league will take a certain percentage of a players paycheck (9% this past season) and put it into the escrow account. If there is an overage, some of the escrow money will be distributed back to the teams.

This past season, each team received $6,467,847.

This is in addition to the $2,911,756 that the Bulls received from being a team under the luxury tax.

That makes for a total of $9,379,603 in kickbacks for the Bulls from the league office.

However, savings for the Bulls don’t stop there. The Bulls also saved $1,600,000 for this coming season when they bought out Tim Thomas for $4,866,600 as pointed out by Mark Deeks on Bulls Confidential.

So between the escrow and tax kickbacks, and the Tim Thomas buyout, the Bulls saved a whopping $10,979,603.

When the Bulls are saving that much money through various avenues, it gets a bit annoying to hear Jerry Reinsdorf set the luxury tax as a hard barrier of sorts for the team. Those savings are more than enough to cover the cost of the luxury tax payment that would have been in order had the Bulls chose to retain Ben Gordon this past summer.

It’s really disheartening as a fan to see a player of the caliber of Ben Gordon become a tax casualty when the Bulls’ ownership group is saving that kind of money this summer.

Check out Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ for more information on the escrow system.

According to Sam Smith of Bulls.com, the Bulls have bought out Tim Thomas once again.

The Bulls worked out a buyout with Tim Thomas, which freed up enough money to pay Pargo the biennial exception of $1.99 million for one year. Thomas didn’t figure in the Bulls plans, though the buyout doesn’t affect the expiring contract situation for 2010 with Pargo on a one year deal.

The Bulls are getting way to cheap. There was no reason to buy out Tim Thomas, except to save money. He is an expiring contract, and they are going to be valuable at the trade deadline, when teams might start looking at unloading some good talent to buy a ticket into the 2010 frenzy.

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 the Boston Globe, Tim Thomas would like to join the Boston Celtics.

The source also said veteran forward Tim Thomas, who will be paid $6.4 million next season, has told people close to him that he’d like to be moved to the Celtics. The 6-foot-10-inch, 240-pounder averaged 8.5 points and 3.1 rebounds and shot 41.3 percent from 3-point range with the Clippers, Knicks, and Bulls in 64 games last season. Thomas played with Allen in Milwaukee.

His expiring contract is too valuable as a trade building block to agree to a buy out with him this early.

I don’t see the Celtics being willing to send Kendrick Perkins or Glen Davis in a sign and trade to the Bulls, so I don’t see any real type of trade being worked out. If a trade were to be a pure expiring contract swap, Brian Scalabrine would have to be involved, and I can’t see the Celtics wanting to move their human mascot.

I don’t see this panning out for Tim Thomas. Maybe after the trade deadline, but it is highly unlikely for Thomas to join the Celtics before then.

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

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.

The Chicago Bulls defeated the New Jersey Nets 103 to 94 at the United Center in a matinee game.

The Bulls almost let this one slip away, ceding the lead to New Jersey late in the game.  But Brad Miller scored to give the Bulls a 95 to 94 lead.  Then John Salmons was fouled by Devin Harris on a breakaway, and the refs called it a flagrant.

It is hard to say whether or not the foul was a flagrant. It’s easy to see why the refs called it the way they did, but Harris obviously had no malicious intent, whatsoever with the foul.

Salmons made 1 of the 2 free throws.  Then, out of the timeout, the Bulls ran a play for Ben Gordon.  Ben Gordon ended up with the ball on the left wing.  The Nets gave Gordon a little bit of space and he pulled up and sank a three point shot.  This gave the Bulls a 99 to 94 lead, and the Nets fell apart after that.

Ben Gordon was just great down the stretch.  He started the game 0-10 shooting, but closed out the game making 3 of his last 4.  Gordon got to the line very well tonight, taking 12 free throw attempts.  Gordon finished with 18 points in the game.

That is the thing about Ben Gordon, he can be terrible for the first three quarters, and then save your butts in the fourth.  He is clutch.  When the other players tighten up and start missing shots they normally make, Gordon focuses in and plays at a high level.

His teammates seem to recognize this as well.

Joakim Noah had to say about Gordon after the game, “The thing with BG is there are not a lot of shots that he takes that you can say, ‘Oh that’s a terrible shot,’ because you know he’s capable of making it.  He’s really been huge for this ballclub all year, hitting big shots down the stretch. He’s been doing that since he’s been here.”

This is the truth. There aren’t many bad shots for Gordon, because he is so good at taking all sorts of difficult shots.  You will see him brick a wide open three and then come back and make a fade away shot over Chris Bosh’s extended arm.  That’s just Gordon’s nature, he can make any shot, and that’s why he is so much better than other players at making the big shots.

John Salmons had to say, “I’m never worried about him shooting the ball.  He can get it going like that.”

John Salmons came back to the Bulls today to give them 17 points on 7-16 shooting.  Not the most efficient night for Salmons, but he gave the Bulls another scoring option, which really helped.

Derrick Rose put in an efficient 15 points and 5 assists.

The Bulls got good production from their front court.  12 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, and 1 block from Joakim Noah.  9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks from Tyrus Thomas, and 13 points and 7 rebounds for Brad Miller.

But Tim Thomas finished with the stat of the game, scoring 12 points on 104.2 TS%.  It isn’t very often that you see a player score in double figures with over 100 TS%.

Brook Lopez was very impressive for the Nets.  He finished with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks.  He is a good young center who is going to be a good player in this league for a long time.  There are a lot of teams in the top 9 picks that are going to regret not drafting him.

Devin Harris finished with 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Ryan Anderson had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Keyon Dooling added in 16 points.

Jarvis Hayes had 14 points off the bench.

With the win, the Bulls improve to 37-40 on the season.

<h3>Closing Comments</h3>

Some brief closing comments.  Good win for the Bulls and it is nice to have John Salmons back.  Ben Gordon was great in the clutch as he always is.  The Bulls need to continue to win down the stretch.  They have passed up Detroit once again, putting them in the seventh spot, and have gained some good separation from Charlotte.  They need to keep this up and make the playoffs.  But not only that, Del Negro needs to push the Bulls to finish 4-1.  If they do that, they will not have had a losing season.  If the Bulls have a losing season and don’t win a playoff series, then I think Del Negro should be fired, because this team, with all the talent on the roster, should be a winning team.

The Chicago Bulls let a victory slip away tonight in Indiana.  The Bulls had a sizeable lead in the fourth, but Indiana stormed back, and took a 105 to 103 lead on a Danny Granger three.  Ben Gordon then came back down and hit a tough guarded shot to tie the game up at 105 a piece.

The Pacers then ran down the clock and T.J. Ford drove on Derrick Rose and fell back for a tough fade away jumper which he swished through the net.  The Bulls tried to answer with Ben Gordon, who was covered tightly by Danny Granger.  Gordon pushed off Granger with his left arm and lifted for a jumpshot, but came up short of the rim.  Tyrus Thomas could have potentially tipped it in if he wasn’t bumped by Brad Miller.

The Bulls lost for two main reasons.  Firstly, Ben Gordon couldn’t make his shots.  Secondly, the Bulls didn’t play any defense.

Ben Gordon just had one of those nights in which nothing went in.  The announcers mentioned that Gordon had a wrist injury, that could have been why.  He missed quite a few wide open threes, all of which would have been the difference in the game.  He finished with 12 points on 5-18 shooting.  Really bad game from Gordon.

Despite that, the Bulls were still in the game.  The problem was that the Bulls didn’t play any defense.  The Pacers were just getting whatever they wanted against the Bulls non-existent defense.  If Gordon was on his game today, the Bulls offense would have been more than enough to make up for the Bulls lack of defense, but he wasn’t, and their defense really hurt them tonight.

Danny Granger ripped the Bulls for 31 points.  This one isn’t too bad, because Danny Granger is a great scorer, and the Bulls were playing Kirk Hinrich heavily at the small forward position.  But T.J. Ford, who finished with 22 points and 9 assists.  Derrick Rose has to put more effort into defense, and actually make a guy work for his points.  T.J. Ford was able to get wherever he wanted on the court, which allowed him to either score at ease, or set up his teammates for easy baskets.

Josh McRoberts had 10 points in the game, which is unacceptable.  He is horrible.  When you’re giving up that many points to McRoberts, you know your team has defensive problems.

For the Bulls, Derrick Rose was great on the offensive end.  He asserted himself from the beginning tonight.  He finished with 24 points, 6 assists, and 11 rebounds.  Very nice offensive and rebounding effort from Rose tonight.  Hopefully he comes out with this type of aggressiveness more often.

Kirk Hinrich played pretty well too.  He finished with an efficient 20 points, 7 assists, and 7 rebounds.  Overall good game from Kirk.  He could have done a little bit better job on Granger, make him work a little harder for his shots, but you can’t really single Kirk out for this when the entire team played poorly defensively and Hinrich was guarding a bigger player.  But then you look at it again and realize that Kirk Hinrich is the defensive leader of this team.  If you’re leader is mailing it in on the defensive end for the night, the other players will probably follow, especially on a team like the Bulls.  Hinrich also missed 2 clutch free throws that would have helped the Bulls in getting the win.

Tyrus Thomas had 20 points and 2 blocks, but only had 1 rebound.  Thomas needs to rebound the ball.  That goes for the Bulls as a whole.  They let the Pacers get a second chance after they failed to secure a rebound, which set up another posession for the Pacers in which Ford hit the game winner. The Bulls have had quite a few games where they gave the other team a second change to beat or tie them, and this is really costing them.

Brad Miller had a nice little game.  14 points and 8 assists.  He was setting his teammates up well.

Tim Thomas had 11 points on 4-6 shooting off the bench.

Brandon Rush had 11 points and Jarrett Jack had 10 points.

Joakim Noah only played 19 minutes from some unknown reason tonight.

The Bulls were without John Salmons tonight.

With the loss, the Bulls fall to 36-40 on the season.

Closing Comments

The Bulls blew this one tonight. Missed free throws, lack of rebounding, and lots of missed shots by one particular player, and a lack of defense from everyone tonight cost us. These are the games we have to win. Yes, it’s a road game, but it’s a team who has been effectively eliminated from the playoffs, so you need to win. The Bulls probably would have won with John Salmons tonight, but that doesn’t matter, because he didn’t play, and other players had to step up. Now the Bulls are only 1 game ahead of the Bobcats, who beat the Lakers tonight, and their playoff spot is in question. The Bobcats have the tiebreaker against the Bulls as a result of winning the season series. This is a little unfair, as it penalizes the Bulls for only playing the Bobcats once at home this season, while the Bobcats got two home games against the Bulls.

What do the Bulls have to do now? Take matters into their own hands and win. Beat a bad New Jersey team at home, beat a bad New York team at home. Beat Philadelphia at home. And they most definitely better beat the Charlotte Bobcats at home. Who knows, maybe when they’re playing the Bobcats they will have the chance to knock them out of the playoff picture. Then go out and beat the Pistons on the road. And then they have the Raptors at home to end the season. Win that game, don’t blow the season then and there.

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Tonight was an example of why I like John Salmons on the Bulls so much. Ben Gordon will have bad nights, although not usually like this. It is tough for the Bulls to win when Gordon has a game like this. But with Salmons out there scoring, the Bulls can usually weather a bad game like this from Gordon as long as Salmons is on his game.

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The main reason for this loss is the defense, and that can only be blamed on the coach. The Bulls defense seems to get worse and worse with every passing game. You’re defense isn’t this bad this late in the season if it’s not for bad coaching.

It looks like I am going to be calling for the firing of Vinny Del Negro after the season. I made the challenge to Del Negro a few weeks ago that if he doesn’t get the Bulls to .500, or win a playoff series with a losing record, then he deserves to be fired. Both don’t appear to be happening this season, therefore, Del Negro will probably deserve to be fired.

Bad loss from the Bulls tonight that mainly stemmed form bad coaching from Del Negro.