1:03pm: The Bulls have issued a press release confirming that they’ve sent a heavily protected 2020 second-round pick to the Thunder in exchange for Luwawu-Cabarrot and cash. The team has also officially waived Anthony, lining him up to clear waivers on Sunday.
Chicago plans to hang onto Luwawu-Cabarrot, per K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune (Twitter link).
12:39pm: The Bulls and Thunder are in the process of finalizing a trade that will send Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and cash considerations to Chicago, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Chicago currently has a full 15-man roster, so the club will need to trade or waive a player to finalize the deal. It sounds like that player will be Carmelo Anthony, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Anthony had remained in limbo after being sent from Houston to Chicago in a trade last month, but appears set to become a free agent, assuming he goes unclaimed on waivers. The Lakers remain a “real possibility” for Carmelo, Woj adds (via Twitter).
The trade itself between the Bulls and Thunder appears financially motivated. Oklahoma City will be on the hook for a huge tax bill at season’s end, so clearing TLC’s $1,544,951 salary will save the franchise exponentially more than that in tax penalties. ESPN’s Bobby Marks pegs the tax savings at $7.3MM.
As for the Bulls, they’ll likely receive enough cash from the Thunder to cover more than Luwawu-Cabarrot’s remaining salary, so they’re essentially being paid to use a spot on their 15-man roster — the deal is similar to the financially–motivated swaps Chicago made with the Rockets earlier in the season. It’s not clear if the Bulls will hang onto TLC, an unrestricted free agent in 2019, for the rest of the season or if they’ll replace him with another player after trading for him.
The 24th overall pick in the 2016 draft, Luwawu-Cabarrot hasn’t developed into a reliable NBA rotation piece. In 142 career games (14.9 MPG) for Philadelphia and Oklahoma City, he has averaged 5.5 PPG and 1.7 RPG with a .385/.317/.829 shooting line.
The Thunder will dip to 13 players as a result of the deal and will have two weeks to add a 14th man to their roster. By signing a player – or player(s) – to a 10-day contract or a prorated rest-of-season deal, the club will save some money on its year-end tax bill. I explained this concept last week when I identified Luwawu-Cabarrot as a potential trade candidate.
Meanwhile, the Bulls will use part of the $2.73MM trade exception they generated earlier this season in the Justin Holiday trade in order to absorb Luwawu-Cabarrot’s salary, Marks notes. The Thunder, in turn, will create a TPE worth TLC’s salary ($1,544,951).
Thrilling
If the lakers get ad I’d guess melo signs with them to fill the void. Not saying it’ll help but it would make sense
I completely agree and I’ve been saying I think the same thing. I think they will have roster spots to fill and he makes the most sense. Especially since they gotta give up the whole damn team to get AD lol. If they get him that is. Not even sure they will.
Pope, lance, rondo, Beasley, McGee, Tyson, hart and melo is still a decent team around the 2
Pope gotta go in that trade tho right?
I still say they gotta try to hold onto Ball, or bring back a usable PG…
What was mentioned above is why trading Ingram & Kuz is fine. Lots of forward depth on the roster + Melo
I think it’s possible to get done without pope involved
Who has a big enough salary besides KCP?
How does Anthony continue to get a job? He’s apparently not wanted…
Key word is apparently… We don’t know what’s going on… Maybe melo don’t want to play for most teams in what might be his last year.
He didn’t want to play for the team he chose to sign with in the Rockets?
Rockets didn’t want to use him..
Not sure why they signed him.
There’s a difference in melo not wanting to play and MELO CANT PLAY ANYMORE :)
melo to the pacers is a done deal – wait till post all star break
This may be the only “Anthony” the Lakers get, if they’re still interested.
Melon should sign with Milwaukee or Toronto. Bucks really need consistent scoring off the bench although we like guys to play defense
It will be interesting to see if “Waterfalls” gets any time in games for the Bulls. Nader and Diallo passed him up early and made him an after thought all season.
I always liked TLC. You know… it seems Brett only invested real time into developing only a few of the guys they drafted. Some felt more entitled than others, but they spent a 1st round pick on this guy, they should have had him come over later.
Being a bulls fan sucks. All they do is trades to generate cash flow.
You had 6 titles and the greatest player to ever suit up….cry me a River your team sucks a few years…..