bulletbill wrote:Lose out on a big? You know the Bulls can easily dump Hinrich (who has decent value again) if necessary, PDX is just waiting for our call. Salmons is too old to extend (same age as Rip, who DET could get rid of for BG). It really makes 0 sense to lose Gordon, especially when Wayne Ellington was sitting there @ 26 and we took Taj. I would say the Bulls are not only prioritizing but banking on BG to return.
Well, almost for sure, Rose will be a max contract player. Once that kicks in, you're going to have a really hard time creating enough financial flexibility under the tax to be able to be ready to grab a great big man. Not only that but Noah is a up for extension next year and will need to be re-upped either then or the year after; that won't come cheap. On top of that, you've got Deng. If he can't shake the recent injury bug and mesh well with Rose, he could become quite the albatross. Nonetheless, without Gordon on the payroll (and perhaps even Hinrich as well) we'll still have enough room under the cap to offer a max contract.
In other words, if we have Rose and Bosh or Rose and Amare or even Rose and Millsap/Boozer/West locked in already, retaining Gordon would indeed be a no-brainer. But until then, Cliff Levingston would lean toward staying flexible and not committing too much money to a back court that's far from ideal.
