Lets Be Real

Free Agents Next Summer: Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Amare, Joe Johnson, Carlos Boozer, just to name a few. However, lets be real: James, Wade, and Bosh are the ones the Bulls have their eyes on. With the Cavs acquiring Jamison, Lebron is all but going to stay put in Cleveland. Wade probably leaves if the Heat don't miraculously pull in Boozer and he would probably prefer Chicago to NY. However, with NY freeing up $9 million in the McGrady deal, they could make an offer to both Wade and Bosh. Even if Wade would rather play in Chicago than NY, I'd have to bet Wade would rather play with Bosh in NY than in Chicago sans Bosh. While we still may be able to get Joe Johnson, Amare, or Boozer, we may not have a realistic shot at any of the "Big Three" since we probably can only afford one free agent. We simply were not aggressive enough which has been the trend since Jordan of Bulls management. I think our trades were fine, but NY and CLE put everything on the line for next summer and we seemed to say "Hey, we'll do enough to make us seem active, but we won't give up Kirk Hinrich." If not giving up Kirk costs us Wade or Bosh, lets hope Gar Forman and John Paxson are wearing bullet-proof vests.

To make an Econ 101 reference, the Bulls trade deadline rendered an accounting profit but an economic loss. We put ourselves in a better position relative to our position before (more cap room, relatively similar talent in return for this season); however, compared to our competitors (Cavs, New York mainly), we did much worse. Thus, overall we were out-dueled by NY for Wade and Bosh, and completely out-dueled by CLE for Lebron. Though we did more than the Heat, they have the inherent edge of currently having Wade, and NY definitely did more than us to package Wade and Bosh. Lets hope this speculation isn't accuracte.


Thoughts?