10:43pm: The Bulls and Spurs have improved their offers, and the Cavs may be left behind, tweets Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio.
1:36pm: According to Stein (via Twitter), if the Bulls were to acquire Robinson, they would flip him in a subsequent trade.
12:31pm: Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio tweets that the Spurs remain in the running for Robinson as well, though it's not clear what a San Antonio offer would look like.
WEDNESDAY, 12:26pm: ESPN.com's Marc Stein is hearing that the Cavaliers No. 19 pick and the Bulls' No. 20 pick are both on the table for Robinson (Twitter link). Stein adds (via Twitter) that more and more league executives view Houston as the frontrunner for Howard, making a Robinson trade more likely.
TUESDAY, 11:38am: The Rockets are engaged in "advanced talks" on a deal that would see them trade Thomas Robinson, a source tells Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. According to Feigen, the Cavaliers and Spurs are among the teams with interest in Robinson. Feigen's source adds that the Rockets have also talked to the Bulls about a potential deal, though it's not clear if those talks related to Robinson or a larger trade.
The Rockets would like to move Robinson without taking any salary back in return, since the team hopes to clear enough space to make a run at unrestricted free agent Dwight Howard. The Bulls would be able to accommodate such a deal, since Chicago has a $5MM trade exception that could absorb Robinson's salary.
It's not clear whether the Cavs have quite enough room to take on Robinson's salary this week, since 2012/13 salaries still apply up until June 30th, but they'll have plenty of cap space available in July, so they could reach an agreement with Houston this week and make it official next month. As for the Spurs, their path to a deal with the Rockets is a little hazy, unless they renounced their rights to some of their free agents next month to create cap room for Robinson. A three-team deal could also be a possibility, as Feigen speculates.
According to Feigen, the Rockets may prefer to wait until July to move Robinson anyway, since trading him wouldn't be absolutely necessarily unless the team felt it had a strong chance to land Howard and needed that extra cap room to make a max offer. If Howard elects to sign elsewhere, Houston may be better off hanging on to last year's fifth overall pick.
If the Bulls really were motivated to move Deng, packaging Robinson along with him might be able to bring back a long-term asset. I wonder if they did acquire Robinson whether they could get a three-team trade going with Minnesota and perhaps Washington. The Wiz would get Minny’s 1st-rd picks and Deng…Minny would get their coveted top-3 pick for Oladipo/McLemore, Robinson, Butler, Chicago’s 1st-rd pick, and Charlotte’s 2014 protected 1st-rd pick…and the Bulls would get K-Love. A new quasi-Big Three of Rose, Love, and Noah in the Windy City. Salaries would need some matching up, but hey why not?
Poss 3 team deal, bulls rockets, and nets. Rockets get #20 pick and future 2nd from nets, bulls get brooks and #23 pick from nets. Nets get Thomas Robinson. Bulls could then trade boozer, butler, 1st from nets, and a future 1st to wolves for love.
That’s not enough for the wolves to move love. More like butler deng bobcats future 1 and mirotic
how does a “future 1st” get Kevin Love from the Wolves when Clevelands first overall pick wouldn’t?
Could Robinson help land Aldridge?? (Fingers crossed)