The term "tanking" is not sitting too well with head coach Tom Thibodeau. Derrick Rose feared this might happen after he went down with another season-ending knee injury and so far the Bulls are following that downward path. The team completed a trade sending away Luol Deng and Thibodeau is not thrilled his forward is gone.
Chicago made a trade sending Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Andrew Bynum and future draft picks. The team then waived Bynum on Tuesday afternoon in order to avoid paying him his $12.3 million guaranteed salary. This got the team under the luxury-tax threshold. Wipping away Deng's $14.3 million salary saved the team over $20 million. Bulls vice president John Paxton said the move was necessary.
"Look, it's not realistic to ask Tom or his staff to be happy about taking a player of Lu's caliber off your team," Paxson said, via ESPN.com. "[General manager] Gar [Forman] and I put ourselves in Tom's shoes a lot. Every day, really. And we know what he's facing. We're not sitting up here saying be happy about it. It's hard. It's difficult. But what has to happen within an organization is that when decisions are made, that as a group you have to align together, and you have to move forward. And our focus now has to be on how best to take advantage of what we've just done."
Along with the trade of Deng, USA Today reports that the Bulls are also shopping point guard Kirk Hinrich. NBA sources note the Golden State Warriors are interested if their pursuit of Andre Miller fails. In the offseason, the team is expected to use the amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer, saving even more money. This would allow the team to buy out Euro-center Nikola Mirotic and sign a free agent to a max contract. No matter what, this season is a loss.
"I had a chance to voice my opinion," Thibodeau said.. "Their job is to make financial decisions, to make player personnel decisions, and things of that nature. Their job is to do that. My job is to coach the guys that are here. That's the way it works."
Thibodeau stressed that he trusted the moves being made by Paxton and said that while he was certainly disappointed in the trade, these things will not change the two's relationship. "Your owner, management, and sometimes things may not go your way, but you have to be professional about it. You have to move forward. There's a lot of decisions that get made. And as long as you have your input, that's all you can ask for."
Paxton did not discuss any future moves the Bulls are targeting. He confirmed the team had the amnesty clause but shied away from saying Boozer was going to be the victim of it
