Carmelo Anthony resigned with the New York Knicks despite speculation he may go to Chicago. Photo/Wikimedia Commons
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s has been customary for the Chicago Bulls franchise ever since Benny the Bull showed up to greet Tracy McGrady at O’Hare International airport on Friday July 8th 2000, the Bulls once again failed to get their target free agent.
The only difference between the Bulls missing out on McGrady then and missing out on their top free agent target of 2014, Carmelo Anthony, was the real chance to land the former and current New York Knick high scoring forward.
In 2000, McGrady revealed after signing a max contract to leave The Toronto Raptors for the greener pastures of the up and coming Orlando Magic, that he only visited the Chicago Bulls as a courtesy to the team since a meeting had already been scheduled. Unlike McGrady, Anthony was still heavily weighing his options to either join the Bulls while taking a huge pay cut or resuming his career with the Knicks, assuring himself of not losing over 54 Million dollars by choosing to do so.
Once again, the Bulls missed their target.
But fear not Chicago Bulls fans, this could be the best missed opportunity this storied franchise will ever witness.
Here are some of pros and cons of the Anthony decision.
Just like you, I was one of the fans holding my breath waiting on Anthony’s decision and dreaming what it would have looked like having him reside in Chicago for the foreseeable future. With the addition of Anthony’s 27 points per night, the Bulls surely would have been a force on offense. With a healthy Derrick Rose, the Bulls would presumably be the favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the finals. Anthony would have also helped the Bulls and their 93.7 point per game average, which represented 30th (Dead last in the NBA for the 2013/14 season). Anthony would have looked great in a Chicago uniform and formed quite a tandem with the aforementioned Rose along with the other pieces that the Bulls would have been able to salvage by obtaining Anthony.
Instead, Anthony decided take the money and rejoin the Knicks, which isn’t as bad as you may think. Here’s why:
Defense: The Bulls ranked dead last in offense last season, but ranked number one in points allowed per game. Anthony is not known for his defense, and his constant screaming “switch” when his defensive assignment gets free of his matador style defense would have driven the defensive minded Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau crazy. The Bulls defense definitely would have taken a step back and put much more of a defensive burden on the likes of defensive player of the year Joaquim Noah and the defensive force known as Taj Gibson. The Bulls actually improve on defense simply by not acquiring Anthony and ridding themselves of the equally not defensively interested Carlos Boozer.
Offensive Scheme: With all the offensive struggles the Bulls have went through for the past 20 months without Rose, they have remained a great passing team and continued to share the ball with fluid movement and unselfish passing. With a player like Anthony who needs isolation plays and usually stops any flow of offense when he gets the ball, those days of leading the league in assists would be gone. Anthony being a polished scorer and high volume shooter is a luxury to have on any team, but it also causes teammates to stand around and get out of the flow of the offense (See Kobe Bryant). The style of offense that is used by Thibodeau is one that does not benefit from the ball being stopped by one player; it is a ball movement style offense which is enhanced by moving the ball to the open man instead. Thus, keeping everyone involved and on their toes prepared for the pass at any given moment. It’s nice to have a proven scorer, but in the case of the Bulls, it is better to have several capable scorers involved in a ball sharing offense.
Salary Cap: The most recent NBA collective bargaining agreement makes it virtually impossible for big money markets to dominate the smaller market teams due to the repeater tax and hard salary cap. When the Bulls had the opportunity to land Anthony, they were able to offer him 14.5 million dollars as the first year of a possible 4 year contract. Prior to moving some smaller contracts, this would have walked the Bulls right up to the salary cap threshold. The Bulls would have had to trade Boozer and slot Anthony into that salary slot. In doing so, the Bulls would have exceeded the salary cap by taking on any contract above $940,000.00. There were no teams in the NBA that could have swallowed Boozers’ $16.8 million dollar contract without sending back a contract of at least one million dollars. Therefore, the Bulls would have only had the option of using “exceptions” to fill out the remainder of the roster. The room exception could at that point be used to bring back Kirk Hinrich, the mid-level exception could then be used to bring in a player like Danny Granger or Rodney Stuckey (Yeah, I am not impressed either), then the rest of the roster would have to be filled out with players who would come to the Bulls on make good veteran minimum contracts, which usually only attracts players like Nazr Mohammed, Mike James and Rasaul Butler to name a few. Although these veterans might be worthy of roster spots on some teams, these are not rotation players that you would associate with a championship contender. With signing Anthony, this is what your second unit looks like. Eventually the Bulls would have had to make a trade or two to get players that make sense for a team trying to reach the Championship, thus putting the Bulls severely over the Luxury tax level and unable to have any maneuverability in free agency or simply signing players that are waived as salary dumps. This leads me to why the Bulls did great by not landing Anthony.
Team Depth: Without Carmelo absorbing the remains of the available cash that was surrendered back to the Bulls after they used the amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer, the Bulls were able to put together quite a deep team. Nikola Mirotic has been labeled as the best player outside of the NBA for more than three years. With over $15 million dollars available, the Bulls were able to help Mirotic pay his way from powerhouse Madrid and finally come to play with the team that has owned his NBA rights since 2011. Mirotic might not crack the starting lineup right away with because Thibodeau usually prefers to bring rookies along like a red shirt freshman. But Mirotic will undoubtedly be an integral part of the Bulls long term plans with the possibility of being an impact player this year depending on how he adjusts to the NBA game. The biggest consolation prize the Bulls received as a result of Anthony returning to the Knicks is Pau Gasol. At 34 years of age, Pau took much less money than his market value to join a team that he thinks is “hungry” and has a “good chance to win a championship”. The Bulls could have landed the best possible player for their type of offense. Gasol is one of the best 3 big men in the entire NBA at passing, and pairing him with Noah, who has been labeled as the best passing center today, only adds to the Bulls offense. With the length and defensive willingness of Gasol, it will only help Noah to clean up everyone else’s defensive breakdowns in their team defensive scheme. With a big man rotation of Gasol, Mirotic, Gibson, and Noah, the Bulls have very few if any teams that can compare depth wise in the frontcourt. With a healthy Rose, Jimmy Butler, Kirk Hinrich, Rookie Doug McDermott, the improving Tony Snell, veteran Mike Dunleavy, and the possible addition of Aaron Brooks, the Bulls are the deepest, if not simply the best collection of talent in the entire Eastern Conference. Couple that with talent in the eastern conference being shifted around and not collectively added to one team like the Heat had for the last four years and the Bulls look formidable and definitely contenders in the east.
The moves the Bulls have made after losing the ‘Melo sweepstakes has definitely pushed them to the top of the conference. This could be the season the Bulls return to the finals, even after losing out on their man.
