Bulls weren't 'All-In' for Anthony

Scoot26

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Their best offer without a sign-and-trade and with keeping Taj Gibson checked in at four years and $73 million.

The Bulls didn't want to gut the team for Anthony. Whether or not you believe they should or not is well.. up to your opinion. The Knicks were reported as saying over and over again they would not do a sign-and-trade and Carmelo seemed unwilling to just simply state "I'm going to sign with Chicago" to the media to then force New York's hand. Melo also was probably afraid NY still wouldn't do a sign and trade, thus forcing Melo to take less money.

So because the sign and trade seemed off the table, that was really all the Bulls could offer at that point. They would have probably moved Dunleavy and others while trying their best to keep a lineup of Noah-Gibson-Melo-Butler-Rose.
 

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Toast88

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The Knicks were reported as saying over and over again they would not do a sign-and-trade and Carmelo seemed unwilling to just simply state "I'm going to sign with Chicago" to the media to then force New York's hand. Melo also was probably afraid NY still wouldn't do a sign and trade, thus forcing Melo to take less

That's easily the dumbest part of this whole fiasco. If only LeBron had applied the same hair-brained logic in 2010 as Carmelo, he never would have left Cleveland in a sign and trade.

It shows me that although money was king in Carmelo's decision, he really wanted to have it both ways---winning and money. His only option to have both was to publicly commit to the Bulls and force the Knicks' hand. He was unwilling to do that, apparently because the risk of it not working out and him not getting his money wasn't worth it to him, although anyone will have a hard time convincing me Phil wouldn't have done a sign and trade once he knew for sure Carmelo wasn't coming back.

Carmelo had an ace in his pocket to have it both ways, but he was scared. So he handed it to the Knicks. If reports are true, what a putz
 

Axl Rose

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honestly im tired of even talking about Melo

spent 2 weeks talking about him for absolutely no reason

we had 30 threads with 100 pages a piece on him at realgm
 

clonetrooper264

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That's easily the dumbest part of this whole fiasco. If only LeBron had applied the same hair-brained logic in 2010 as Carmelo, he never would have left Cleveland in a sign and trade.

It shows me that although money was king in Carmelo's decision, he really wanted to have it both ways---winning and money. His only option to have both was to publicly commit to the Bulls and force the Knicks' hand. He was unwilling to do that, apparently because the risk of it not working out and him not getting his money wasn't worth it to him, although anyone will have a hard time convincing me Phil wouldn't have done a sign and trade once he knew for sure Carmelo wasn't coming back.

Carmelo had an ace in his pocket to have it both ways, but he was scared. So he handed it to the Knicks. If reports are true, what a putz
Lebron's scenario was a little different because Miami could sign him outright. It ended up being a S&T so that Cleveland would get a little bit in return for a player they had already lost. It was actually the same thing when we signed Boozer as well. It was one of those things where the prior team said "hey since we're losing this player to you guys anyway, why don't you let us have a trade exception?"

It was different here because we couldn't sign Melo outright for the max without losing Taj, who Melo supposedly wanted kept on the team. If he wasn't willing to sign for less, what leverage would he have to get NY to do a S&T? NY can just laugh at us and say "screw you guys, we're not trading you anything" and that's basically what happened. If Melo had been willing to take less or if he had said that he'd commit if we traded Taj to clear up space, it might be a different story. So really, it does seem that Melo was going more for the money in which case, we really didn't stand a chance against NY. No one did.
 

Scoot26

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honestly im tired of even talking about Melo

spent 2 weeks of talking about him for absolutely no reason

we had 30 threads with 100 pages a piece on him at realgm
Actually we've been talking about him since 2010.
 

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I would like for once a player to say "It's not about the money" and then back it up. Has that ever happened ever?
 

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so Bulls should have traded Gibson without a commitment and then Melo re-signs with NY anyway?

If your backup plan was Pau Gasol, yes. Also, maybe they should have drafted a PF last year or this year. Taj isn't hard to replace.


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Didn't Melo say he wanted Taj on the team? Which is why he wasn't traded, when the Bulls had lined up suitors. Or did we all forget so soon.

Also, didn't Melo say he was going to take a paycut to win, because money wasn't important?
 

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Didn't Melo say he wanted Taj on the team? Which is why he wasn't traded, when the Bulls had lined up suitors. Or did we all forget so soon.

Also, didn't Melo say he was going to take a paycut to win, because money wasn't important?
He did Crystallas.

He cut $6M off a 5 year contract.

If that doesn't say commitment to winning, I don't know what does.
 

ThaGator

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Didn't Melo say he wanted Taj on the team? Which is why he wasn't traded, when the Bulls had lined up suitors. Or did we all forget so soon.

Also, didn't Melo say he was going to take a paycut to win, because money wasn't important?

Not sure if Melo wanted Taj on the team, or the Bulls were unwilling to trade him. And yeah, Melo said that, but I don't think he meant that massive of a paycut. Every team besides the Knicks could offer him around 30 million less than the Knicks, the Bulls were offering even $20 million less than that.


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ThaGator

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And no, I'm not incredibly pissed at the front office, I think the Bulls are going to be very good this season. I also don't think they're 100% without blame for missing on another star free agent, despite having an excellent pitch.


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......at least he's staying in New York and not going to Miami or LA....I shudder at the thought of the fuckery that would've insued plus those two fanbases are undeniably the most insufferable in the league
 

Scoot26

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And no, I'm not incredibly pissed at the front office, I think the Bulls are going to be very good this season. I also don't think they're 100% without blame for missing on another star free agent, despite having an excellent pitch.


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Why can't we just accept that Melo wanted lots of money that we didn't have and move on?

I do think its a combination of both. If the Bulls were truly all in they would have gutted the team and made a max contract offer possible for Melo. Melo of course still could have turned down the Bulls for more money, security, and to still play in his hometown.

At some point the Bulls will hit on someone. But they still in cap hell until 2016 free agency now, and may still be in cap hell if they give Butler a good extension (something he hasn't earned at this point).
 
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I think the only big free agents the Bulls could probably get would be a player who's from Chicago
 

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