In depth look at the Bulls luxury tax situation... Brooks and Brewer for Dunleavy makes sense for both teams and saves them over $1mm, pulling them away from the luxury tax threshold. Not to mention, simply giving them an extra body that they will probably need before the end of the season to comply with NBA rules (see article).
I think the Rockets have to receive consent from Brooks if they want to trade him. I think Garcia for Dunleavy would be nice.
Yes. And Brooks would actually play meaningful minutes for Chicago and give himself a shot at a decent, perhaps multi-year contract next year. He's not going to turn that down.
Garcia does have to give consent. However Garcia can also be released and picked up by another team. That is a little bit of leverage for Morey. I'm sure Garcia would probably prefer a trade to the Bulls (playoffs) rather than being released and picked up by a team like Philly. In theory, we could pay Philly $425,000+ for a future second round draft pick (get our own 2014 second round pick back), release Garcia and Philly pick him up. The $425,000+ we gave them for the draft pick covers the balance of Garcia's salary from Feb. 21st and puts a little cash in their pocket for the hassle. This leverage may entice Garcia (or Brooks) to agree to a trade to a team like Chicago (playoffs) rather than waste away the rest of the season riding the pine on a lottery team. Morey says, "Cisco, we're either going to release you or trade you. We've got a trade lined up with Chicago, we can either trade you there with your agreement or we will release you to make room on the roster for another guy we want to bring in." Garcia can then choose whether he wants to be traded or released. Now, with all that said, it would take Garcia and Brewer or Garcia and Smith or Brewer and Smith to get a deal done for Dunleavy. I suspect Chicago would want Garcia and Smith IF they agreed to a Dunleavy trade with us. But perhaps they would take Brewer instead of Garcia for defensive purposes. The latest scouting reports I've looked at regarding Dunleavy is he is getting lazy on D. Don't know if that is a function of him knowing the end of the line is coming for him there or if he is regressing defensively. In my heart I really don't feel like Garcia is hindering this team. If I were Morey I would be trying to get Dunleavy with Brewer, Smith, and a second rounder and leave Garcia here. And if I couldn't get Dunleavy for that then I'd probably skip the trade altogether and look for something else.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=kwxx879 Houston in: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ekpe Udoh Milwaukee in : Omer Asik, Greg Smith, 2014 1st Round Pick This gives us a solid back up center and a bright young player who plays great defense and can shoot the three. I doubt that Milwaukee is willing to say goodbye to ABC but if they are this might be enticing.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=l6no9ru Rockets send: Asik, Lin, and Brewer expiring Bucks send: Ilyasova, Pachulia, Brandon Knight, and Gary Neal I'd add in a pick if need be, but I think that gives us a great option for a solid option behind Dwight, a very good fit at the 4 next to Howard, a young PG who could be a steal and a solid shooting backup G in Neal. Bucks are already discussing Ilyasova and want to get rid of Neal for expiring or picks anyway. It gives them good value back man for man and salary flexibility a year or two earlier. The only issue for the Rockets is it locks them out of the 2015 FA market. Of course I think the Love hope is a pipe dream anyway, so I would rather put a much better team on the floor for the next 1.5 seasons to give us a couple more legitimate runs.
I am pretty confident that Chicago dodged the luxury tax by making that Luol Deng trade. In which case they will not be giving away a good player (Dunleavy) for garbage/filler. Chicago would expect a good return for Dunleavy. Also, Chicago is actually trying to win games this season, so there is yet another reason why Dunleavy probably stays put. I do agree that Morey has probably inquired about Dunleavy's availabilty but that he moved on after realizing that Chicago isn't particularly interested in trading him.
Something that works under the rules (and I think make some sense to all teams) is some form of 3 way deal among Houston, Atlanta, and Toronto. Houston's part would be to trade Asik, TJones, one of either Lin or Beverley, 1st/2nd round picks, and some filler contracts for Millsap, Lowry, plus some role player(s) like a big guy from Toronto (Patterson, Hayes or Hansbrough) and/or DeMarre Carroll. This would give Houston a starting 5 with 3 Allstars, one more guy who really should be an Allstar, and Parsons. We'd still have one of Lin or Beverley off the bench (whichever isn't traded) along with AB, and plus DMo, Casspi, Garcia and some of the other acquired pieces (Caroll, and some Toronto big). It's essentially gonna be Asik+Jones to Atlanta, Lin or Beverley plus draft pick(s) to Toronto, and Lowry and Millsap plus whatever pieces we can fit in under the 150% rule to Houston (with filler contracts to balance the ledger).
Read the article that I linked to. They are within a few hundred thousand of hitting the luxury tax and all indications are they really don't want to do that. They will be forced by league rules to sign a 13th player as they are at 12 now which will put them at the brink. With any other injuries and having to sign another player, even perhaps a 10 day contract, they will go over. Taj Gibson also has a $250k bonus for making all defensive second team, a real possibility, that would count against the tax. Perhaps they could get better offers for Dunleavy. If so, maybe Morey sweetens the pot with a 2nd round pick. But Brooks has been very solid this year and could arguably be just as valuable a contributor as Dunleavy at a position they need (Brooks' PER is on par with Dunleavy's). Of course Morey is going to explore bigger moves first. Dunleavy is not going to put us over the top. But I wouldn't at all be surprised if he ends up here should nothing else materialize.
Well, then how about Brewer or Covington, even Canaan. These players should have similar contract as Fredette who is a 2nd year player.
