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By Sam Smith | 06.13.2014 | 9:35 a.m. CT | asksam@bulls.com | @SamSmithHoops
What do you think about the latest Melo to Miami rumor? Being Cole's the only guaranteed contract on the team, could the big three opt out and resign for less so that there is room for Melo? If the four of them sign for 15 million per year they should stay under the projected cap of 63 million and still earn more than they could get if they choose to go elsewhere. Add on to that the fact that Melo and LeBron are really close friends and the low taxes in Florida that you often bring up and it all could make sense.Cosimo Sarti
Should be a very interesting summer for the Heat should they lose these finals. Could the panic button be pressed? Andrew Brown
I took my son shopping for some new kicks today at Old Orchard mall in Skokie. As I walked into the Finish Line store, I recognized a tall and familiar face inside. Dalibor Bagaric. We started chatting since I’m Macedonian and he is Croatian and we both speak Serbo-Croatian. He was extremely polite and we ended up talking for almost 30 minutes about basketball, soccer etc… He mentioned that he was visiting friends here in Chicago, that he used to play professional ball in Italy, but he also said that Chicago is one of his favorite cities in the world. I asked him if the winters here ever bothered him, and he said it was never an issue. How much is the Chicago weather just an excuse and an overrated reason for free agents? NBA players spent 9 months with their teams (camp, preseason, season, playoffs), traveling from city to city. In the off season, most of them take vacations with their families anyways. Most people find Chicago to be an awesome city, and I think the weather has been overplayed in terms of free agency. Do you really find the weather to be the main reason free agents skip the Bulls, or the main reason lies with the organization, coaches and personnel? Bobby Grbevski
We need you to help explain to people why it does not make sense for the Bulls to trade both the 16th and the 19th pick for Denver's 11th selection, with no other compensation. This is a deep draft and the Bulls can get two serviceable players with the picks at 16 and 19. This is a year that we need to get both a shooter and another back-up BIG to make a push next season. Carmelo would be nice but is a long shot, no guarantee Mirotic will come over this season. Time for Gar to make a move for sure, but two for one unless we move up to the top 5, is a non-starter in my opinion. Craig Chandler
Do you think the Bulls will be able to move up in the draft and if they get into the lottery who will they be targeting? Megan Wong
I tend to agree that the Bulls won’t get Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love. I personally like the current Bulls major players and mix. I’d hate to see Jimmy Butler or Taj Gibson traded. Anyway read an interesting article in Bleacher Report regarding Arron Afflalo being available in a deal. I’ve always been an Afflalo fan. Plays great defense, can consistently score, and he’s only 28. I agree that Afflalo alone won’t get the Bulls to the promise land but it will get them closer, make them better and he’d fit well with the Bulls current mix. Supposedly, Orlando is going for the youth movement and willing to deal Afflalo for a draft pick and some fringe players. Afflalo has a two-year 15 million dollar contract. Don’t know where this falls in the Bulls scheme money wise but believe it’s worth exploring. Art Moore
Let's assume the Spurs win the championship (still a long way to go), do you think there's any part of LeBron James that'd want to play for the Spurs. Before you completely dismiss it, look at their cap sheet. If they find a way to dump Splitter's contract (who's good but not great), they'd have around $18 mil in cap space with Parker, Duncan, Ginobili, Belinelli, Mills, and Leonard still on contract. Add LeBron James to that team and they'd be unbeatable. Why not join the Spurs? As a basketball fan, that would be nirvana. Al Mirza
I think Thibs is a great coach and the most important element to the Bulls success the past few years. But I am in the camp that believes his staunchness regarding minutes and lineups occasionally costs the team. Do you think he will take anything away from watching the success Coach Pops has had with mixing different lineups and reacting to certain matchups? Starting Diaw in Game 3 appears to be a little move that made a major impact on the game, and maybe even the series (although it's becoming clearer now that the Spurs are just the better team). This seems like the type of move Thibs would never make. Obviously the Spurs are blessed with a deeper bench than the Bulls had this year, but I think Thibs has earned enough respect from his players where he would be trusted to make those types of decisions in the future. Robbie Sager
I've been looking at Embiid a lot. The kid can play really well. Has great footwork and quickness in the post and can step out mid-range to hit a jumper. Great prospect. Do you think he would drop because of his injury concerns similar to what happened to Nerlens Noel? If he did how far do you think he would drop? Seems like a guy you can build a team around a lot like Dwight Howard just not as athletic and strong. Jonathan Prosper
This isn't so much of a question, but more an angle that could be worth exploring given the inundation of emails you are likely to get about speculation that Heat will make a run for Carmelo. Although this is probably just rumor at this stage, it does beg the question of what the league could do if players were to create an all-star team by all taking pay cuts. The Australian league has an interesting system that doesn't simply cap teams by salary. It has players ranked in some way and given a points value. Team rosters can only contain a certain number of total points. I think there may be some concessions for home-grown talent and maybe a marquee player exemption, but essentially it limits one team collecting the limited number of stars in one team, and helps to promote a more even competition. Good management is still rewarded and teams can still create mini dynasties (the NZ team I support recently achieved a 3-peat), but at some point too much talent can't be amassed on one team. Chris Dodds
I started watching basketball in the late 50s, early 60s and I can say basketball was truly played for the love, enjoyment and competition of the game. The one thing that most media types don't discuss is that Michael, Magic and Bird era did most of all was transformed basketball into a business. And, ever since, I have watched the integrity of this sport drop. To me, the biggest drop was when David Stern allowed for Pat Riley, LeBron, Wade and Chris Bosh to conspire to combine their talents in south beach and would not Chris Paul to go to Lakers. The NBA can live with that with the generations after the Michael Jordan era because it's about being a business. I not only have a bad feel for the Miami Heat but also for the NBA.
To me, the NBA has gone from the number two sport to the number four sport behind the NFL, the MLB and the NHL. Sam Shannon