How Chicago Can Sign Three Max Players While Keeping Rose, Noah

By Daniel Leroux (writer for RealGM)

While it is true that the Chicago Bulls currently do not currently have the space for even two maximum free agents at the present moment, they can wield the rules of the NBA salary cap to get Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh with a little fancy maneuvering.

Before getting into the nitty gritty, there are a few basic assumptions:

1. The maximum contract each of the three players can receive is $16,568,908. This was estimated by RealGM numerous places, including this piece.

2. The Bulls are currently $3.5 million short of having the space for two max contracts, according to (Larry Coon)

From here, we need to rely on two different rules.

First we have the 125% rule. This rule indicates that any team can take on 125% of the contract values they send out in a trade, plus $100,000 of buffer room. As such, take the maximum contract value above, divide it by 1.25 and subtract $100k from that total and you get $13,155,126. This is the minimum value a team at or over the cap could send in contracts for a max-level player while satisfying this rule. However, cap space can also be used to reduce this number if it is available.

Since the Bulls are $3.5M short of two maximum salaries right now, a move that sent Luol Deng elsewhere bringing nothing back would give Chicago approximately $7.855M in cap room to work with beyond the space allocated for the second max free agent. As such, we could take this value off the top of the $13,155,126.

Doing so, the Bulls could work a sign-and-trade for the third max free agent that includes around $5,299,276 or more in salary. While the non-Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah Bulls (Taj Gibson and James Johnson) make less than this figure combined, Chicago could use a sign-and-trade of one of their current players like Brad Miller to do it. Using a current player allows the team to use Bird rights to re-sign that guy while not using up the space needed to sign the second max contract.

As such, a deal that includes some combination of Taj Gibson, James Johnson, signed and traded free agent(s) at a reasonable sum (as well as picks, in all likelihood) and adds up to around $5.3 million or more after or coinciding with a Luol Deng trade would make adding a third max player while still having Rose and Noah on roster a reality.

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