The two longest-tenured Bulls are at a crossroads this offseason, with Joakim Noah eligible for free agency and Derrick Rose entering a contract year. Chicago’s offseason will hinge on whether Noah and/or Pau Gasol re-sign with the team, and whether the club decides to make Rose available in a trade. If the pending free agents don’t return, and/or Rose is dealt, the Bulls could have a huge amount of cap room to explore outside additions. If the club hangs onto its point guard and re-signs at least one of Gasol or Noah, it won’t have that same cap flexibility. After a season in which the team failed to earn a postseason spot in the East, it will be interesting to see whether the Bulls determine their roster requires a few minor tweaks or a more significant retooling.
See how Chicago’s cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.
Guaranteed Salary
- Derrick Rose ($21,323,252)
- Jimmy Butler ($17,552,209)
- Taj Gibson ($8,950,000)
- Nikola Mirotic ($5,782,450)
- Mike Dunleavy ($4,837,500)
- Doug McDermott ($2,483,040)
- Tony Snell ($2,368,327)
- Bobby Portis ($1,453,680)
- Justin Holiday ($1,015,696)
- Total: $65,766,154
Player Options
- Pau Gasol ($7,769,520)
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Cameron Bairstow ($980,431)
- Cristiano Felicio ($874,636)
- Total: $1,855,067
Restricted Free Agents (Qualifying Offers/Cap Holds)
- None
Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- Joakim Noah ($20,100,000)
- Pau Gasol ($9,683,388) — pending player option
- Aaron Brooks ($2,925,000)
- E’Twaun Moore ($980,431)
- Total: $33,688,819
Other Cap Holds
- No. 14 pick ($1,743,500)
Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Bulls need to blow it up! Gasol and Noah are leaving which gives them $22M capspace to replace two centers and fill their other needs.
And that’s assuming they keep Feliciano and Bairstow. If they let those two walk, they only have $24M to get five players.
Festus Ezeli and Bismack Biyombo may cost $15-18M/yr, a piece! And those guys will want to go to a winner.
With only $22M to get three players, Bulls are looking at Roy Hibbert.
They need to get rid of Rose. But who’s taking him. HoopsRumors reported last year that he was available to the league for free. No one bit. He played better at the end of the year. But who other than the Sixers needs a $22M point guard with only one year left.
Brooklyn? New York? Memphis, if Conley leaves? Rondo and Brandon Jennings are out there. So is Dellavadova and a few others. Atlanta’s making Jeff Teague available (at $8M).
If Hinkie were with the Sixers, he’d want Rose and the Bulls’ rights to SAC17x10. But since Bryan Colangelo is in charge, the Sixers should just take him off the Bulls hands for free. Chicago should try to make theSixers take Mike Dunleavy as well.
Still, $44M for four players is not good money in this year’s market. Especially when you need two centers and a point guard.
So here’s the BIG deal:
Lakers get Jimmy Butler & LA17 (owned by Sixers)
Sixers get Derrick Rose & #2pick (Brandon Ingram)
Chicago gets Jahlil Okafor, D’Angelo Russell, TJ McConnell and Richaun Holmes
That’s four rookie contracts (including two centers and two point guards), and $30M in cap space.
Now the Bulls have $50M+ to go after two players. That’s possibly two max deals, depending on the experience level. Kent Bazemore and Harrison Barnes? Those two (at$21.5M/yr would still leave Chicago with cap space left, and more of it next year when the cap goes up again.
D’Angelo Russell, Kent Bazemore, Harrison Barnes, Nik Mirotic,Jahlil Okafor
I wish it were that easy. I don’t trust GARPAX to help this team. I’ve lost faith in the Bulls, the same as the white sox. Both front offices need an enema! Be accountable. The new coach seems lost and he’s lost the respect of the team.
4 more years if hoiberg.. It’s going to be tough on Chicago fans..
I concur. This is likely my last year holding tickets, this front office is kust plain stupid and illogical.
Felicio isn’t walking, and proved to be fairly solid. Albeit, it was in a pretty small sample size, but still he showed some skills to work with. Atleast, I think it was enough for the team to keep him around and check out what he can do with some more meaningful minutes.
The Bulls truly need to hit on their draft pick this year!! Whether it is Sabonis, Baldwin, Valentine, Luwawu (sp?) Lol, etc.
I wouldn’t be so quick to say they trade D.Rose over the summer, but you’re definitely correct about Noah and Gasol leaving!! Noah apparently cannot co-exist with Butler, and that seemed to relatively create a major divide in the locker room…
I think you have to build around Butler. Portis, Taj, and Niko are all pretty solid complimentary pieces, but they ALL are best at the PF position!! Taj and Portis can play some Center, but that’s only against a small ball team, so neither of the 3 really provide the Bulls with much flexibility.
I would love the Bulls to trade Taj, their #14 pick, and possibly a future #1 for a pick in the top 6 to nab Dunn. I think he will be an excellent player at the next level, and believe he is one of the few (maybe 3-4 other players) possible All-Stars in this draft!!
Let Dunn play some point, behind Rose this year, and let him play a bit of combo guard as well. This move, in my mind, would set up the Bulls for the future the best.
I truly don’t see any benefit to throwing Max dollars at Biyombo, Ezeli, Bazemore, but Harrison Barnes does intrigue me quite a bit!!
So I’m saying sign Barnes and maybe a guy like Speights, make the trade for Dunn, re-sign E’Twaun, get rid of Dunleavy and Smelly, and then draft a project in the 2nd round or an overseas guy and stash him for 3 years or so…
Rose
Butler
Barnes
Niko
Felicio
Dunn
Moore
McDermott
Portis
Speights
Holiday
Also, if you play small, you could have a line-up of:
Rose
Dunn
Butler
Barnes
Portis
But I don’t think a back-up “line-up” of the following would be too bad:
Dunn
E’Twaun
McDermott
Portis
Speights
Although ideally Butler would play his typical high minutes load, and atleast Butler and Barnes can provide some stability and flexibility along with some solid versatile defenders capable of guarding 3-4 positions, each.