12:19pm: The Magic are asking for “a bundle” in return for the shooting guard, tweets Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. The Hornets remain interested in acquiring Afflalo, a reality that Bonnell notes has been “no secret” for months.
9:39am: The Bulls are pursuing a trade with the Magic to acquire shooting guard Arron Afflalo, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. League executives believe Orlando is prioritizing a trade of Afflalo over reaching an agreement on an extension with the shooting guard. Afflalo has two years and $15MM total left on his contract, but owns an early termination option for the 2015/16 season.
The Bulls are considered a front-runner for landing Carmelo Anthony this offseason, and a trade for Afflalo could complicate that pursuit. Wojnarowski writes that it is unclear how the Afflalo movement in Chicago is affecting their thinking about Anthony. A league source told Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that the Bulls are the most likely destination for Anthony, but Chicago would need to shed major salary to acquire Anthony as is, let alone if Afflalo was another permanent piece on the books.
At 29, Afflalo is one of the oldest players on a Magic roster loaded with youth. The Magic are still in the process of a rebuild that started when Dwight Howard departed, and aren’t expected to contend at least for another year. That combination led to Afflalo’s reported openness to being traded to a contender.
My guess is Chicago is worried about handing Jimmy Butler an extension after his rookie deal expires. Ditching Butler, Dunleavy, and a first rounder equates to around 7 million of cap room. Then Chicago flips picks/Mirotic+ Boozer contract to New York for Carmelo and fields what’s possibly the best starting lineup in the NBA.
PG Rose
SG Afflalo
SF Melo
PF Taj
C Joakim
That team, if healthy, wins the east.
dont think the knicks will touch boozer contract. thats just my opinion. bulls might need a 3rd team to help them pull this off
I think they touch it if it comes with Mirotic and picks, easily.
boozer is not in the long term plans, so your trading a top10 player in the nba for 3 players who have never played 1 nba minute…. the picks arent even high lottery picks. i think its a bad deal
It’s not a normal trade, though. It’s a S&T where NYK has little to no leverage. That’s like saying the Cavs got unfair value for LeBron in their S&T with Miami.
i actually think the knicks do have leverage because the bulls cant sign Melo outright with out making cap adjusting moves such as maybe using the amnesty on boozer something they dont want to do and moving Taj gibson. the cavs on the other hand had to take what miami offered them because the heat had the cap space to sign LB23 outright
But the Bulls can make moves to sign Melo outright. So can a couple of other teams, if Melo wanted to go there. Honestly, I’d be surprised if the Knicks end up with more than a conditional second round pick on top of players to match salary.
Also Melo would just go somewhere else if the Bulls didnt sign him. NY’s best option is to get something of value like Mirotic or first-rounders. Their only other sign-and-trade option would be something like Asik-Lin and a first, which is a worse package. The reality for the Knicks is that they should blow up the team if ‘Melo leaves. Get some first rounders back, trade Chandler to a contender and tank the hell out of next season.