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Bulls Remain ‘Very Active’ In Trade Talks

February 1st, 2018 at 10:02pm CST by marksuleymanov

The Bulls remain “very active” in the trade market with the February 8 NBA trade deadline looming, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes.

On Thursday, the Bulls completed a deal that sent forward Nikola Mirotic to the Pelicans in exchange for Omer Asik, Jameer Nelson, Tony Allen, and a future first-round pick. Per reports, Allen is expected to be waived and while Nelson will join the team, he may also be traded before the deadline or waived at some point.

Bulls executive vice president John Paxson told reporters, including Johnson, that there is a week left until the trade deadline, so the Bulls still have time to decide on waiving or trading players.

At 18-33, the Bulls are not in playoff contention, so all of their moves are made with an eye toward the future. The Mirotic trade adds some guaranteed money to the Bulls’ 2018/19 cap in the form of Asik’s contract, but should give the team an extra 2018 first-round pick to continue stockpiling talent. With a young core of rookie Lauri Markkanen, Kris Dunn, and Zach LaVine, Chicago has the talent to put forth a contending team next season.

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Pelicans Acquire Nikola Mirotic From Bulls

February 1st, 2018 at 5:15pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pelicans and Bulls have finalized a trade that sends forward Nikola Mirotic to New Orleans, with both clubs confirming via press releases that the deal is official. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link) first reported that the Pelicans and Bulls had reached an agreement in principle.

The two teams appeared to be on the verge of a trade earlier this week, but hit a roadblock in the form of Mirotic’s $12.5MM team option for 2018/19. The veteran forward, who had veto rights unless that option was exercised, wanted New Orleans to pick it up, but the Pelicans were initially unwilling to do so due to concerns about their ability to retain Mirotic and re-sign DeMarcus Cousins without going into luxury tax territory.

The Pelicans have now guaranteed Mirotic’s $12.5MM salary for next season, which clinched the deal, per Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Omer Asik and a future first-round pick are headed to Chicago, as was the case in the initial agreement.

New Orleans needed to include at least one more salary to stay under a hard cap, so Tony Allen heads to Chicago too, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Allen will likely be waived by the Bulls, Woj tweets.

The Pelicans will open one extra roster spot by also adding Jameer Nelson to the trade, tweets K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. Nelson may also be cut, but it probably won’t happen immediately, per Johnson, who tweets that the point guard’s future is unclear. Paxson said that there is a week left until the trade deadline so the Bulls still have time to decide on waiving players, Johnson tweets.

In order to complete a three-for-one deal, the Bulls will have to open up a roster spot, since they currently only have a single opening. Quincy Pondexter looks like the strongest candidate to be waived.

[RELATED: Bulls to waive Pondexter]

Speaking of Pondexter, according to Johnson (Twitter link), the Bulls will also be returning the Pelicans’ own 2018 second-round pick to New Orleans after initially acquiring it in a September trade that landed Pondexter in Chicago. That pick served as an incentive to convince the Pelicans to exercise Mirotic’s second-year team option, Johnson notes (via Twitter).

The first-round pick the Bulls are getting in the swap will be the Pelicans’ 2018 first-rounder, and it will have “minimal” protections, tweets Wojnarowski. TNT’s David Aldridge clarifies (via Twitter) that it’ll be top-five protected this year, while Johnson tweets that it’ll be top-eight protected in 2019. Finally, Woj adds that there will be a pick-swapping option in the 2021 draft, with the Bulls having the opportunity to swap their second-round pick for the Pelicans’ second-rounder.

“The draft asset we acquired was far and away the best thing we had got (in talks),” Bulls executive vice president John Paxson said to reporters, including Johnson. “It’s consistent with the direction and plan we talked about this summer.”

Mirotic, who has been the subject of trade rumors throughout the 2017/18 campaign, was sidelined with facial injuries to start the season after being punched by teammate Bobby Portis during an altercation in practice. Mirotic’s camp reportedly issued an ultimatum in the fall in an effort to get the Bulls to trade either Mirotic or Portis, but the power forwards were willing to bury the hatchet and coexist on the court when Mirotic got healthy.

Since returning to action, Mirotic has enjoyed the most productive year of his NBA career, averaging 16.8 PPG and 6.4 RPG to go along with a .474/.429/.823 shooting line. All of those numbers are career highs. Despite his solid play and the club’s improved record, Mirotic was still said to prefer a trade out of Chicago, and was pulled out of action this week as the Bulls attempted to finalize a deal.

As the Bulls explored the market for Mirotic, the Jazz and Pistons were cited most frequently as potential trade partners. However, Detroit landed a bigger fish on Monday, acquiring Blake Griffin from the Clippers, and Utah was reportedly unwilling to include a first-round pick in an offer for the stretch four.

The Bulls, who were said to be seeking a first-rounder for Mirotic all along, will get that pick from the Pelicans, though they’ll have to give up a second-rounder and take on an unwanted contract in the process. Asik, a former Bull, is earning about $10.6MM this season, with a guaranteed salary worth $11.29MM in 2018/19. The veteran center has one more year on his deal in 2019/20, but it’s only partially guaranteed for $3MM. Allen and Nelson are on expiring minimum salaries, so they won’t have any impact on the cap beyond this season.

As for the Pelicans, they’re set to fill the lineup hole created when Cousins went down on Friday with a season-ending Achilles injury, and they may not be done adding frontcourt help. New Orleans has been strongly linked to Greg Monroe, who is being bought out by the Suns, and Scott Kushner of The Advocate tweets that the acquisition of Mirotic won’t adversely affect the club’s pursuit of Monroe. In fact, by clearing a little salary and opening up a pair of roster spots in this deal, adding Monroe may be even more viable for the Pelicans, who have room to add two players on minimum salaries, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link) — still, the team may not be able to offer him as significant a role with Mirotic now in the mix.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Bulls Waive Quincy Pondexter

February 1st, 2018 at 5:13pm CST by Luke Adams

5:13pm: With the Nikola Mirotic trade now official, Pondexter has formally been waived.

12:57pm: The Bulls intend to waive veteran sharpshooter Quincy Pondexter, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The move will clear a second roster spot for Chicago, allowing the team to accommodate the incoming players in a three-for-one trade with the Pelicans.

Pondexter, who will turn 30 in March, missed the last two NBA seasons while dealing with health problems that were viewed as potentially life-threatening. However, he was able to get back on the court this season, playing for the Bulls after a September salary-dump trade sent him from New Orleans to Chicago.

Although Pondexter has been able to play again, he hasn’t been his old self — in 23 games (8.5 MPG) for the Bulls, he has averaged just 2.0 PPG with a dismal .286/.136/.824 shooting line. Coming into 2017/18, he owned a career .424 FG% and .365 3PT%.

Pondexter’s $3,853,931 salary will remain on the Bulls’ cap for this season, but that’s not of major concern to the franchise, since team salary remains below the minimum floor for 2017/18. Pondexter’s contract expires at season’s end, so Chicago won’t be on the hook for any future salary.

Bulls Plan To Hang Onto Jameer Nelson

February 1st, 2018 at 3:49pm CST by Luke Adams

As part of the trade that will send Nikola Mirotic to New Orleans, the Bulls will receive three players: Omer Asik, Tony Allen, and Jameer Nelson. While initial reports indicated that the Bulls would likely waive both Allen and Nelson, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets that the club is now planning to keep Nelson on its roster.

K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune first reported (via Twitter) that the Bulls wouldn’t waive Nelson right away, adding that the point guard’s future was “TBD.” Wojnarowski’s reports suggests that Nelson will at least stick around Chicago for the time being, though it’s not clear if the veteran is safe for the rest of the season, or just for the next few weeks. If a player wants to be bought out while retaining his eligibility to play in the postseason for a new team, he must be waived before March 1.

For now, Nelson appears poised to help mentor a young group of Bulls point guards that includes Kris Dunn and Cameron Payne. In addition to providing a solid locker room presence, Nelson has also posted respectable on-court numbers this season, averaging 5.1 PPG and 3.6 APG with a .410/.364/.765 shooting line in a part-time role for New Orleans. He’s on a minimum salary contract.

Assuming the Bulls waive Allen and keep Asik and Nelson on their roster after finalizing the Mirotic trade, the team will be left with one open roster spot.

Grizzlies To Sit Tyreke Evans

January 31st, 2018 at 7:36pm CST by clarkcrum

7:36pm: Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer is reporting that multiple teams have already put a first-round pick on the table for Evans.

5:59pm: As trade discussions involving Grizzlies guard Tyreke Evans intensify, the team will sit him out until a deal is completed, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Evans will not play this evening in Indiana, as confirmed by Michael Wallace of Grind City Media, who reports that he witnessed the veteran guard leaving Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Wallace adds that Evans believes any potential deal would send him to a playoff team.

As we detailed earlier today, the Bulls are doing the same thing with trade candidate Nikola Mirotic, holding him out of games while pursuing potential trades. Bobby Marks of ESPN suggests both teams’ decisions, while unprecedented, are the right moves given that both the Grizzlies and Bulls have little chance of making the playoffs.

Marks also tweets that teams interested in trading for Evans are being cautious due in part to Evans not having either Bird or Early Bird Rights this offseason, meaning a team over the apron (i.e. the Cavaliers, who are reported to have interest) would be limited to offering Evans a starting salary in the range of about $5.4MM, the projected value of the taxpayer mid-level exception.

Earlier reports linked the Sixers, Celtics, Cavaliers, Pelicans, Thunder, Heat, and Rockets to Evans.

Latest On Nikola Mirotic

January 31st, 2018 at 4:37pm CST by Luke Adams

4:37pm: The Bulls will hold Mirotic out of games while they attempt to trade him, a source tells Goodwill (Twitter link). According to ESPN’s Nick Friedell (Twitter link), Mirotic won’t play until after the trade deadline or until Chicago completes a deal.

1:00pm: For a brief time on Tuesday, it appeared that the Pelicans and Bulls were about to finalize a deal that would send Nikola Mirotic to New Orleans. In fact, according to Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago, an agreement was so close that Mirotic was pulled off the Bulls’ practice floor and left the facility, believing that his time in Chicago was ending.

Instead, the trade hit a snag — or, more accurately, a pair of related snags. Until Mirotic’s $12.5MM team option for 2018/19 is exercised, he has the ability to block any trade that involves him, and as K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune tweets, the power forward is unwilling to approve a move to New Orleans without that option being picked up.

Conversely, the Pelicans like the idea of having flexibility with that ’18/19 option, since exercising it may complicate the team’s ability to sign DeMarcus Cousins to a new mega-deal. New Orleans would still have the ability to re-sign Cousins, but with both big men on board for next season, the team would likely go over the tax line, a threshold ownership has been reluctant to cross.

According to Johnson, neither Mirotic nor the Pelicans appear willing to change their stance on that $12.5MM option for now, so it’s not clear if the Bulls and Pels will be able to make a deal before the February 8 deadline. I’m somewhat surprised the option is a sticking point for New Orleans — given the way Mirotic has been playing, his $12.5MM expiring deal should be pretty tradable this July, if necessary. But perhaps the Pelicans don’t want take the risk of Mirotic suffering a major injury or having his value decline in the coming months.

With talks between the Bulls and Pelicans at an impasse, the Jazz have continued their pursuit of Mirotic, tweets Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune. However, the Jazz remain reluctant to include a first-round pick in their offer, according to Jones. Goodwill adds that the Bulls are “enamored with” Utah’s Rodney Hood, but says that the Jazz have been unwilling to part with Hood in a Mirotic deal thus far.

2018 Free Agent Stock Watch: Chicago Bulls

January 30th, 2018 at 8:01pm CST by Austin Kent

After navigating the drama of last season and coming out in a solid position, the Bulls will need to do everything they can to keep the momentum of their rebuild rolling.

The club has shown glimpses of being a competent squad at times this season, with a number of intriguing assets already on the roster. However, nobody would bat an eye if the Bulls end up bottoming out with a solid pick in the lottery.

Much of Chicago’s long-term success will come down to the eventual growth of players like Lauri Markkanen and Kris Dunn, but don’t think that the forthcoming free agency period won’t represent its own opportunities for progress.

Zach LaVine, SG, 23 (Up) – Signed to a four-year, $9.6MM deal in 2014
It’s hard to believe that LaVine is still so young considering how long he’s been in the league. This summer he’ll hit the market as a restricted free agent following a torn ACL that sidelined him for parts of each of the past two seasons. That’s good news and bad news for Chicago. Like the rest of us, the Bulls are intrigued by LaVine’s ceiling and an abbreviated campaign isn’t enough to base such an important long-term decision on. That said, other teams will have even less to base a substantial offer on. Given the uncertainty around his health and even his ability to be a primary offensive weapon, it’s hard to imagine the Bulls offering a max contract but they’ve got enough cap flexibility to make him their highest-paid player in 2018/19 and beyond, assuming they like what they see out of him down the stretch.

Nikola Mirotic, PF, 27 (Up) – Signed to a two-year, $25MM deal in 2017
It’s hard to imagine that Mirotic will still be in a Bulls uniform come next summer considering that earlier today it seemed all but certain he would be traded to the Pelicans. Nonetheless, Mirotic’s contract situation will be similar wherever he lands up — his $12.5MM team option for 2018/19 is a bargain. Mirotic has shown that he’s capable of having a major impact on his ball club and any team that brings him on ahead of the February 8 trade deadline would be wise to lock him in at the discount. The open-ended contract buffs his value as a trade chip for Chicago but at the end of the day he’s a stretch four with no major red flags. That’s worth $12.5MM.

David Nwaba, SG, 25 (Up) – Signed to a two-year, $1.4MM deal in 2017
The Bulls are rebuilding their roster from the ground up, so players like Nwaba hold appeal even if they don’t necessarily scream team cornerstone. Nwaba is a respected perimeter defender that gels well with other, more offensively inclined weapons on the roster. There may be a few teams interested in poaching him for the intangibles that he brings to the court, just as Jonathon Simmons had suitors last summer, but a dearth of league-wide cap space may keep things in check. My guess is that the Bulls would be happy to cut Nwaba a check similar to Simmons’ (~$6MM per) so long as it’s on a short-term deal.

Quincy Pondexter, SF, 30 (Down) – Signed to a four-year, $14MM deal in 2014
It’s impressive enough that Pondexter is back on the court after his years-long battle with injuries and illness. This year, his first with the Bulls after coming over in a salary clearing trade from the Pelicans, is the last of a four-year contract extension that’s basically felt like 12. It’s hard to envision Pondexter back in Chicago once the deal expires, but he could stick around the league if he can prove to other teams that he’s healthy enough to play the role of veteran gunner. He’s certainly earned the opportunity, at least.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Kris Dunn Didn't Travel With Bulls To Portland

January 30th, 2018 at 6:15pm CST by Austin Kent

The Bulls didn’t expect Kris Dunn back in the lineup when they played Portland on Wednesday but they did expect him to travel with the team. That is no longer the case, K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune writes.

Pelicans’ Deal For Nikola Mirotic Falls Apart For Now

January 30th, 2018 at 1:40pm CST by Luke Adams

1:40pm: In his full report on the story, Wojnarowski suggests that Mirotic’s 2018/19 option is the primary source of the stalemate. Mirotic appears unwilling to sign off on the deal if his option isn’t exercised, and the Pelicans are reluctant to commit to that option due to concerns about next season’s payroll.

12:59pm: Goodwill classifies the trade as having hit a “snag,” while Johnson says the two teams remain in “advanced discussions” (Twitter links). So while nothing is officially done yet, it sounds like the deal isn’t dead either.

12:48pm: The Pelicans and Bulls had a deal in place for Mirotic, but it has fallen apart for now, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter) that the Pelicans’ proximity to a hard cap prevented the team from trading Asik straight up for Mirotic.

If the Pelicans include another player for cap purposes, the deal could still happen, tweets K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. However, New Orleans hadn’t yet agreed to pick up Mirotic’s team option, so a trade would also require his OK, assuming the Pelicans don’t relent and agree to exercise that option.

12:40pm: The Pelicans and Bulls have reached an agreement on a trade that would send power forward Nikola Mirotic to New Orleans, according to Vincent Goodwill of NBC Sports Chicago (Twitter link). Goodwill reports that the Bulls will receive Omer Asik and a first-round pick in exchange for Mirotic.

There have been no further reports or official announcements confirming the move so far, but it’s possible the two teams are working out details related to Mirotic’s contract. His deal gives him the ability to veto trades unless his 2018/19 team option is exercised, though there was a belief that he’d give his approval to a deal if the Bulls found an offer they liked.

Mirotic, who has been the subject of trade rumors throughout the 2017/18 campaign, was sidelined with facial injuries to start the season after being punched by teammate Bobby Portis during an altercation in practice. Mirotic’s camp reportedly issued an ultimatum in the fall in an effort to get the Bulls to trade either Mirotic or Portis, but the power forwards were willing to bury the hatchet and coexist on the court when Mirotic got healthy.

Since returning to action, Mirotic has enjoyed the most productive year of his NBA career, averaging 16.8 PPG and 6.4 RPG to go along with a .474/.429/.823 shooting line. All of those numbers are career highs. Despite his solid play and the club’s improved record, Mirotic was still said to prefer a trade out of Chicago.

As the Bulls explored the market for Mirotic, the Jazz and Pistons were cited most frequently as potential trade partners. However, Detroit landed a bigger fish on Monday, acquiring Blake Griffin from the Clippers, and Utah was reportedly unwilling to include a first-round pick in an offer for the stretch four.

The Bulls, who were said to be seeking a first-rounder for Mirotic all along, appear poised to get that pick from the Pelicans, though they’ll have to take on an unwanted contract in the process. Asik, a former Bull, is earning about $10.6MM this season, with a guaranteed salary worth $11.29MM in 2018/19. The veteran center has one more year on his deal in 2019/20, but it’s only partially guaranteed for $3MM. By comparison, Mirotic will earn $12.5MM this season and has a $12.5MM team option for ’18/19.

While the Bulls did well to find a first-round pick for a player whose value looked to be on the decline just a few months ago, it’s worth questioning why the team is willing to take on a toxic contract like Asik’s to make it happen, just seven months after selling a high second-round pick to the Warriors for a mere $3.5MM.

As for the Pelicans, they’re set to fill the lineup hole created when DeMarcus Cousins went down on Friday with a season-ending Achilles injury. The move signals that New Orleans still fully intends to make a playoff push this season, pairing Mirotic with Anthony Davis in the frontcourt. The club will also have the financial flexibility to retain Mirotic on his team option next season, since it’ll only cost about $1.2MM than Asik’s guaranteed salary would have. The ability to retain Mirotic is solid insurance in the event that Cousins leaves in free agency — if Cousins re-signs, it’d be interesting to see if the Pelicans would want to carry all three players on next year’s roster.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Two Teams Remain Below 2017/18 Salary Floor

January 29th, 2018 at 1:49pm CST by Luke Adams

When we discuss the NBA’s salary cap, we often refer to a team’s position in relation to either the cap itself or to the luxury tax line. For the 2017/18 season, the league has a salary cap of $99.093MM, with a luxury tax threshold of $119.266MM. With the exception of a few potential taxpayers and a few clubs with cap room, most team salaries fall between those two figures.

There’s at least one more key figure related to the salary cap though, and that’s the salary floor, as it’s informally known. The salary floor, which is 90% of the salary cap, is the minimum amount that a team must spend on its roster in a given NBA season. For 2017/18, that amount is $89,183,700.

While it’s possible that more teams will dip below the salary floor based on moves they make at the trade deadline, for now there are just two teams below that line, according to Basketball Insiders’ salary data. Those teams are the Mavericks ($85,669,472) and the Bulls ($83,223,828).

Both the Mavs and Bulls are actually functioning as over-the-cap teams at the moment, since they have various mid-level and trade exceptions that they haven’t renounced — added to their respective team salaries, those exceptions take them over the $99.093MM cap line. Still, that exception money isn’t technically being spent on any players right now, so it doesn’t count toward each club’s minimum salary.

Under the NBA’s old Collective Bargaining Agreement, it was fairly easy for teams below the salary floor to game the system. At the deadline, a team could simply acquire a highly-paid player whose cap hit would take the team over the salary floor, despite the fact that the club would only owe that player a prorated portion of his salary.

For instance, a year ago, the Sixers took on Andrew Bogut‘s $11MM+ salary as part of the deal that sent Nerlens Noel to Dallas. Bogut’s full $11MM+ cap hit counted for minimum team salary purposes for Philadelphia, but the Mavs had already paid a majority of the center’s salary, since the trade happened with less than two months left in the season. In other words, despite only having to pay about $3MM that was left on Bogut’s contract, the Sixers were able to artificially put an extra $8MM toward the calculation of their minimum team salary.

The league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement closed that loophole. Now, players traded or acquired during the season will only count toward a team’s minimum salary for the amount that they were paid by that team. So the Bulls can’t simply acquire a player earning $7MM to get above the salary floor — if 40% of the season remains, that player would only count for $2.8MM toward Chicago’s minimum team salary, with the other $4.2MM applying to his old club’s minimum team salary.

With those new rules in mind, it will be interesting to see how the Bulls and Mavericks approach the trade deadline. In order to reach the salary floor based on the new guidelines, each team would have to use nearly all of its remaining cap room. While Chicago and Dallas should be willing to take advantage of that cap space to take on a contract or two if it means acquiring some extra assets in the process, that sort of deal may not be worth it if it adds major long-term money to the books. In that case, it may simply make more sense for the teams to finish the year below the salary floor, then make up the difference at season’s end by paying out the shortfall to their players.