Chicago Bulls Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Eastern Notes: Anthony, Bucks, Meeks

July 6th, 2014 at 12:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Lakers interest in Carmelo Anthony could possibly help the Bulls acquire the free agent forward, writes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Johnson opines that the presence of a third serious contender could make the Knicks more amenable to a sign-and-trade deal for Anthony if they are unable to re-sign him.

Mavs Notes: Anthony, Hayward, Gasol

July 6th, 2014 at 8:28am CST by Eddie Scarito

A source told Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Carmelo Anthony is going to re-sign with the Knicks and that his inclusion of the Mavericks on his recruiting trip was a “charade.” Anthony has also met with the Lakers, Bulls, and Rockets.

Western Notes: Pelicans, Hawes, Anthony, Bosh

July 5th, 2014 at 9:38pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pelicans haven’t made any moves in the free agent market yet, but still have Anthony Morrow in their sights, writes John Reid of The Times Picayune. New Orleans’ primary focus though, continues to be finding a trade partner to move either Eric Gordon, Austin Rivers or center Alexis Ajinca in an effort to create enough cap space to absorb center Omer Asik‘s $8.4MM cap hit, notes Reid. The article also notes that several teams remain interested in acquiring forward Ryan Anderson in a trade, but the Pelicans are still reluctant to part ways with him.

Free Agent Rumors: Bosh, LeBron, ‘Melo

July 5th, 2014 at 3:32pm CST by Charlie Adams

So far today we’ve heard that Devin Harris struck a deal to remain in Dallas, while the Bucks are trying to find a way to pry one of Eric Bledsoe or Greivis Vasquez away from their respective clubs. Let’s have a look at even more happenings around the free agency front:

Chris Bosh is the key to keeping the Big Three together in Miami, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Unfortunately for the Heat, there are rumblings around the league that Bosh might actually prefer to take a max-salary contract elsewhere rather than stay in Miami for a discount.
At this point, some teams actually believe LeBron James is more likely to leave the Heat than Carmelo Anthony is to depart from the Knicks, passes along Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter).
A source tells K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune that the Bulls would hope to engage the Lakers in sign-and-trade possibilities should they get a verbal commitment from Pau Gasol. The Bulls would dangle the expiring $16.8MM contract of Carlos Boozer and likely would have to include sweeteners, possibly in the form of draft picks.
If ‘Melo re-signs with the Knicks, expect Phil Jackson to make a run at trading for Kevin Love, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN. Still, Wolfson doesn’t see a good match between the Wolves and Knicks.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Knicks Will Not Take Boozer In Sign-And-Trade?

July 5th, 2014 at 10:17am CST by Zachary Links

JULY 5th: While some have been skeptical that the Knicks would go for Boozer in a sign-and-trade, new team president Phil Jackson would have to consider it, and a person with knowledge of the situation said it’s expected that he would, writes Sam Amick of USA Today.

JULY 1st: The Bulls might want to work out a sign-and-trade deal with the Knicks for Carmelo Anthony, but they won’t be able to do it with Carlos Boozer, writes Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. Chicago would probably want to include Boozer, who has been mentioned as an amnesty candidate, in such a deal, but the Knicks aren’t interested in the veteran forward.

Of course, this is all somewhat premature since the Bulls have yet to reach out to New York about an S&T scenario. Still, it stands to reason that the Knicks would want to get something in return for Melo if he skips town.

Boozer is set to earn $16.8MM this season and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf is probably less than thrilled about the prospect of paying him for nothing. However, if he’s willing to go through with the amnesty clause, Broussard lays out some possibilities for the Bulls if they get Anthony to agree to sign. If the Bulls dump Boozer and trade away Mike Dunleavy for nothing, could start a four-year deal for Anthony at $15MM in the first year. If they moved Jimmy Butler as well, they could start Melo off at $17MM. Of course, that’s still less than the $22.4 million the Knicks can offer him next season.

And-Ones: Bogdanovic, Blatt, Anthony

July 5th, 2014 at 8:56am CST by Eddie Scarito

Serbian shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, the 27th overall pick of the Suns, is finalizing four-year deal with Fenerbahce, reports David Pick of Eurobasket. The deal contains an NBA escape clause after the second year, according to Pick.

Here’s more from around the league:

Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer looks at the road that led to David Blatt becoming the latest Cavaliers head coach, and the challenges ahead of him with the franchise.
The Knicks consider the Bulls the only real threat to lure Carmelo Anthony away from New York, writes Sam Amick of USA Today.
According to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), the free agents the Heat have been linked to so far are Isaiah Thomas, Pau Gasol, Anthony Morrow, Marvin Williams, Kris Humphries, Vince Carter, Shawn Marion, and Caron Butler.
Jay Yeomans of the Deseret News looks at why the Steve Novak trade makes sense for the Jazz.
Sam Amick of USA Today (video link) examines the ripple effect across the league that the signings of Anthony and LeBron James will have.
Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders takes a look at what the fall back is for each of the teams that are trying to woo Anthony.

Nikola Mirotic To Join NBA This Year

July 4th, 2014 at 9:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

9:33pm: Sources have told K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune that Mirotic is hoping for assurances from the Bulls that he won’t be traded before completing his buyout.

11:08am: Mirotic and the Bulls don’t believe they have far to go to complete a deal, but no agreement is imminent, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM.com.

8:47am: The Bulls are indeed working to sign Mirotic, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, who notes that it doesn’t mean Chicago is abandoning its pursuit of Anthony.

8:00am: Nikola Mirotic has decided to leave his Spanish league team and sign an NBA contract this summer, reports Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Twitter link). It’s not clear just what sort of contract he’ll end up with from the Bulls, who hold his rights, but it appears the 6’10” forward widely considered the best overseas player is finally bound for the NBA.

Mirotic’s contract with Real Madrid involves an NBA buyout that costs the equivalent of more than $3MM. That’s well above the Excluded International Player Payment Amount of $600K, the most NBA teams can pay without the money counting against team salary. That means the majority of the buyout will come out of Mirotic’s NBA paychecks and count in Chicago’s books.

That’s part of the reason why Mirotic has stayed out of the NBA since becoming the 23rd overall pick in the 2011 draft. Since three years have passed, he’s no longer subject to the NBA’s rookie scale, which wouldn’t afford him a salary nearly high enough for him simply to break even this year. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com heard in March that Mirotic would seek salaries worth $3-4MM from the Bulls, but Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com wrote in January that the Bulls would be quite pleased if Mirotic were to settle for the $5.305MM mid-level exception.

Another report from March indicated that Mirotic and Carmelo Anthony was an either-or proposition for the Bulls, pointing to the tight financial squeeze required if the team were to be able to sign ‘Melo. Indeed, the Bulls would have to clear cap room to sign ‘Melo unless the Knicks agreed to a sign-and-trade, which they appear reluctant to do. Opening cap space would cause the $5.305MM non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception to vanish and be replaced by the $2.732MM room exception, which wouldn’t cover the cost of Mirotic’s buyout. Still, the report frames the decision as coming from Mirotic, and not the Bulls, so it’s not necessarily an indication that the Bulls are counting themselves out of the race for ‘Melo. Chicago could trade the rights to Mirotic as it seeks a deal for Anthony.

The 23-year-old Mirotic scored 12.1 points and grabbed 4.9 rebounds in 23.4 minutes per game for Real Madrid this past season, but perhaps most intriguing, he shot 40.9% from behind the three-point line. Assuming he ends up with Chicago, he figures to be a key floor-spacing weapon for a Bulls team that had serious trouble scoring in 2013/14.

Eastern Notes: Pistons, Raptors, Rose

July 4th, 2014 at 8:09pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Andre Drummond said he’ll do whatever’s necessary to convince restricted free agent Greg Monroe to remain with the Pistons and feels confident Monroe will return given his affection for Detroit, as Drummond told MLive’s David Mayo. Drummond expressed doubt that the team would trade Josh Smith, in spite of rumors.

Here’s more from the east:

The dispute over just how large a role Derrick Rose played in Chicago’s pitch to Carmelo Anthony seems to indicate a disconnect somewhere, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com believes it signals a deeper misunderstanding between the Bulls and Rose’s camp (Twitter links).
Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira appear likely to join the Raptors this year, but GM Masai Ujiri has indicated that the team probably won’t ink second-round pick DeAndre Daniels for this coming season, writes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
The Raptors are enamored with P.J. Tucker, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun, who wonders if the team will throw an offer sheet his way now they know Steve Novak‘s contract is coming off the books (Twitter links).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Carmelo Anthony Rumors: Friday

July 4th, 2014 at 4:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

Carmelo Anthony has been plenty busy, meeting with five teams in the first three days of free agency. He doesn’t have a visit on the agenda today as he takes the holiday weekend to decide where to play next season, but there’s still chatter surrounding the perennial All-Star. Here’s the latest:

The Knicks already appeared to be leading the ‘Melo sweepstakes, and Thursday’s meeting between Anthony and the team only upped New York’s chances, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Team president Phil Jackson cleared any doubt about the strength of his desire to have Anthony re-sign and the star forward left the meeting mostly sharing the Zen Master’s vision for the club’s future, Wojnarowski hears.
A brief hello was all there was to Derrick Rose‘s participation in the Bulls‘ recruiting pitch to Anthony on Tuesday, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. Most other reports indicated that Rose had a somewhat larger presence, speaking to ‘Melo for 15 to 20 minutes in the locker room, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune notes via Twitter. The Bulls never asked him to formally take part in its presentation, but he would have done so if they had, as Broussard details.
Anthony and Kobe Bryant aren’t as close as most dispatches make it seem, a person who knows both well tells Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.

Talks Between Stephenson, Pacers Hit Snag

July 4th, 2014 at 12:55pm CST by Chuck Myron

FRIDAY, 12:55pm: Stephenson’s representatives spoke with the Pacers earlier today, but they’re not any closer to a deal, according to Broussard (Twitter link).

WEDNESDAY, 7:35am: The Pacers and Lance Stephenson have reached an impasse in negotiations, with the shooting guard unwilling to accept Indiana’s offer of five years and $44MM, tweets Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. The Alberto Ebanks client will move on to discussions with other teams, and the Bulls, Lakers and Hornets have interest, Broussard adds.

Indiana rolled out the red carpet for Stephenson in the hours immediately after free agency began, reportedly producing a movie in his honor as the team sought to win him over. President of basketball operations Larry Bird has spoken on multiple occasions of his affection for the tempermental 23-year-old, in spite of some apparent misgivings from others in the organization. Bird nonetheless prefaced his remarks a month ago by saying the team had a price ceiling that it wouldn’t exceed to re-sign him.

At least one NBA GM believes Stephenson would be worth $10-12MM on talent alone, but his on-court antics and alleged selfish behavior knocked his value down to $8-10MM in the GM’s eyes, as Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops reported last month. Another GM pegged him all the way down in the $4-6MM range annually, so it seems like the average annual value of $8.8MM that the Pacers apparently have on the table wouldn’t be much of a sacrifice.

Still, players of Stephenson’s talent rarely hit unrestricted free agency at such a young age, so perhaps he can find a team willing to pay more. A report linked the Lakers, Bulls and then-Bobcats to Stephenson as far back as early February, so it seems those clubs weren’t turned off by Indiana’s second-half swoon.