Bulls trade Luol Deng in major salary dump

[Da Coach]

Luol Deng was due to become a free agent after this season. The Bulls tried to re-sign him, but he turned down their offer. So now the Bulls have traded him to the Cleveland Cavaliers for underachieving and essentially worthless big man Andrew Bynum.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10255605/cleveland-cavaliers-agree-trade-andrew-bynum-chicago-bulls-luol-deng

The Cavaliers are desperate to make the playoffs, so they were willing to take the chance on Deng, considering they are not real likely to re-sign him after the season. There is a good chance the Bulls will cut Bynum. If they cut him before 5 PM today, the remainder of his $12.3 million salary will come off their books. In addition to relieving them of the majority of Deng's $14.3 million salary, the move will reduce the Bulls' team salary enough to relieve them of a large "luxury tax", saving them over $20 million this season.
The Bulls also get a bunch of draft picks, including a future first round pick, and the right to switch first round picks with the Cavs in 2015, plus a couple 2nd round picks. More importantly, it helps the Bulls drop in the standings this season and will help them fall into a lottery pick in the 2014 draft, likely to be one of the deepest drafts in history. The Bulls already will have their own draft pick, plus the Charlotte Bobcats' pick, so they could have as many as 3 high picks in the 2014 draft.

[wily coyote]

Luol Deng was due to become a free agent after this season. The Bulls tried to re-sign him, but he turned down their offer. So now the Bulls have traded him to the Cleveland Cavaliers for underachieving and essentially worthless big man Andrew Bynum.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10255605/cleveland-cavaliers-agree-trade-andrew-bynum-chicago-bulls-luol-deng

The Cavaliers are desperate to make the playoffs, so they were willing to take the chance on Deng, considering they are not real likely to re-sign him after the season. There is a good chance the Bulls will cut Bynum. If they cut him before 5 PM today, the remainder of his $12.3 million salary will come off their books. In addition to relieving them of the majority of Deng's $14.3 million salary, the move will reduce the Bulls' team salary enough to relieve them of a large "luxury tax", saving them over $20 million this season.
The Bulls also get a bunch of draft picks, including a future first round pick, and the right to switch first round picks with the Cavs in 2015, plus a couple 2nd round picks. More importantly, it helps the Bulls drop in the standings this season and will help them fall into a lottery pick in the 2014 draft, likely to be one of the deepest drafts in history. The Bulls already will have their own draft pick, plus the Charlotte Bobcats' pick, so they could have as many as 3 high picks in the 2014 draft.

Hate losing Deng but probably weren't gonna get him signed. Love the idea of 3 1st round picks ,could give two hoots and a holler about Bynum. Hope they cut him. This should get them in the Lottery,now if they can get lucky?????

[AZ BU Fan]

Salary isn't the only thing the Bulls dumped.
They dumped on all their season ticket holders as well, who now get the pleasure of going to games with absolutely no chance of winning.

Seems to me when a team gives up on a season before the all star game, season ticket holders should get some sort of refund on their tickets and any seat license they have paid.

[Canton BU fan]

Salary isn't the only thing the Bulls dumped.
They dumped on all their season ticket holders as well, who now get the pleasure of going to games with absolutely no chance of winning.

Seems to me when a team gives up on a season before the all star game, season ticket holders should get some sort of refund on their tickets and any seat license they have paid.

or at least a discount on next season

[LongTimeFan]

That first can turn into a second rounder if Sacramento does not finish out of the bottom 12 this year and finish out of the bottom 10 in the next two years. I have never heard of anything like this before.

[jasonpeoria911]

While the season ticket holders should get some sort of perks from the team, I would imagine the ticket holders can easily sell them on ebay to get some of the money back. I've never been to a Bulls game, but wife and I was going to go several seasons ago. Bought 2 tickets the day they went on sale for about $300 with taxes. Bulls majorly sucked that season, so wife and I decided not to go and sold the tickets on ebay for roughly $290 if I remember right.

Jason

Salary isn't the only thing the Bulls dumped.
They dumped on all their season ticket holders as well, who now get the pleasure of going to games with absolutely no chance of winning.

Seems to me when a team gives up on a season before the all star game, season ticket holders should get some sort of refund on their tickets and any seat license they have paid.

[Da Coach]

Luol Deng with some critical comments about his new team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the management, and the players-

Luol Deng not happy about being traded into mess that is Cleveland Cavaliers

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/lawrence-deng-isn-happy-traded-mess-cleveland-article-1.1598983

That article may require subscription- so here is a summary-

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1945039-luol-deng-reportedly-unhappy-with-cavs-gm-chris-grant-expected-to-be-fired

Deng has been complaining of the situation in Cleveland to a close friend, saying, "The stuff going on in practice would never be tolerated by the coaching staff or the front office back in Chicago. It??™s a mess."

Guard Dion Waiters was kicked out of practice, but he still received his usual minutes in Cleveland's next game.
Several players were out late partying the night before Cleveland's embarrassing 117-86 loss to the New York Knicks, the fifth loss in their last six games.
Unspecified players taking off their uniform tops at halftime and refusing to play.
Unspecified teammates mouthing off to Cavs head coach Mike Brown.

[LongTimeFan]

Maybe the Bulls weren't so bad after all.