While in Las Vegas for Summer League action, Bulls GM Gar Forman spoke to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times about his team, and the shape he expects the roster to take moving forward. Here are a few of the more notable quotes from Forman's conversation with the Sun-Times scribe:
On Luol Deng's future with the Bulls:
"Well, we love Luol. We see Luol as a valuable member of this team moving forward, so the window is open to talk about an extension. We’ve had some conversations. Whether something gets done, I don’t know. But whether it’s this summer or next summer, those are conversations we’ll continue to have."
On the Bulls' roster for the coming season:
"I mean our goal has been to bring this group back, and I know [Deng’s] name was floated out there [in trade rumors], but we didn’t initiate calls. We’ve gotten calls on some of our guys, but our goal has been to bring this group back healthy."
On how the Collective Bargaining Agreement has limited the Bulls' options:
"We put this team together and then the new CBA came out. The new CBA is very restrictive in your ability to improve your basketball team because it’s taken away a lot of the avenues there are to continue to build your team. So I’ve talked about it as almost a stock market correction…. We like our team, we have a good group of guys, but we haven’t had flexibility. Next summer will be the first chance we have to have some level of flexibility in order to add to the team."
On the possibility of bringing over 2011 first-rounder Nikola Mirotic a year from now:
"We knew he wouldn’t be able to come under the rookie scale slot that he was drafted, so we knew it would be at least three years. And it could be longer, but we’re hopeful at that point there will be an opportunity to bring him over."