Cheap free agent scoring guards/guards to fill up roster spots.

The MLE has nothing to do with penalizing higher-spending teams, in fact it was introduced to allow teams over the cap to add a decent free agent at the average salary. Without the MLE, teams over the salary cap- which most teams are every year- wouldn't be able to sign any free agents except for the ones they could get with the minimum salary.

Lowering the MLE for taxpaying teams is a way to "penalize" them, sure- they are trying to keep the league competitive and prevent teams from trying to just buy a championship. As I pointed out yesterday, teams with the highest payrolls don't usually win the championship anyway, and the difference in payroll between #3 (for example) and #8 is usually minimal, maybe $5 million tops. That's not a big difference, less than 10% of total payroll, about one average salary player.

A team that is $1 million under the cap doesn't lose it's MLE, though. A team has to be more than the MLE under the cap to lose the MLE, because then they have to renounce the MLE to create that cap space.

The room MLE was just added to the last CBA as a way to allow teams under the cap to use all their cap space AND still add more salary even after they have signed players with their cap space.

For example, a team $1 million over the cap has the MLE to spend ($5.305 million). A team wouldn't renounce its MLE to get $2 million under the cap, they're better off just keeping the $5.305 million MLE and staying over the cap.

The whole point of going under the cap is to be able to sign a player for more than the MLE. But if you can get to $6 million under the cap by renouncing your MLE, you can sign a player for $6 million AND a player for the Room MLE of $2.7 million. The team that's over the cap can't sign that $6 million player.

 

I have no doubt the Bulls will find someone to do the job Nate and DJ did over the last two years. They always do.

Which is why I can't understand why so many fans (not you) are so freaked out about the Bulls losing DJ. Freaking out about what the roster looks like TODAY- the season doesn't start for another 3+ months, they will add another PG and another SG once everyone who can get more than the minimum has signed.

 

I'll take this team with Gasol over Deng any day of the week.

I'm really liking Snell's defense and ball-handling, and his 3-point shooting is going to be huge. I was a giant Deng fan, but he just never became a good enough 3 point shooter for today's NBA, where you need guys who can spread the floor.

And I'm very high on Mirotic, but just in case he isn't ready to play big minutes yet, we'll still have an awesome three man PF/C rotation. If Mirotic can contribute quite a bit right away, we can trade Gibson for someone better than Deng IMHO.

 

I see your point - with the harsh financial penalties now imposed on teams who are always over the LT, and the team-building penalties for any time you are over the LT, why not give everyone between the "Salary Cap" figure and the LT have the same MLE and BAE and let them keep their trade exceptions, and just reward teams who are fiscally responsible enough and have good enough front office to get under the Salary Cap?

It would just get teams closer to the luxury tax sooner.

 

Yeah very true K4E, but folks had to know Kirk was going to be here, Thibs loves him so he wasn't going anywhere.

And you had to know they were going to finish the roster with a vet min DJ/Nate/Lucas3 type. Scoring PG is the deepest position in the league, hell probably the world, right now.

 

Very fair question.

We didn't miss Deng much during the regular season but definitely did miss him during the playoffs. I'm inclined to say this year's version with Gasol is a bit better because I think last year showed that Deng and Jimmy were less than the sum of their parts when they played together. Too heavy on rebounding and defending and too light on ball handling and shooting.

Of course it's no guarantee and the big counterpoint is whether or not Gasol is able to withstand father time for a few more years. Hell if I know. But I'm inclined to think we have one of, if not the best frontcourt in the NBA which will be a bigger matchup advantage than having Lu around.

And as for Snell:

I think this is a little too optimistic. I agree he's looked very good in Summer League, but so did Lonny Baxter. This isn't meant to disregard his progress, but he was basically a Zero as far as NBA rotation players go. He's got a long way to go before he catches up with Deng.

I don't think he'll ever have anything close to his motor, and it's hard for me to see him scoring in volume the way he did despite Tony's higher level of offensive refinement.

My biggest source of optimism about him is it looks like he tightened up his stroke, which will be huge if he can shoot 3-4 times a game @40% or so.

 

Slow down buddy, I didn't say or imply anything about catching up with Deng. All I want to see from Snell is close to 40% 3-point shooting and good defense and ball-handling.

Sometimes people forget how much guys grow from their rookie years. If anyone says they saw Noah being 1st-Team All-NBA and 4th in MVP voting when he was a rookie, or Gibson being 2nd in 6th Man of the Year voting when he was a rookie, or Butler being 2nd-Team All-Defense two years after playing a total of 359 minutes as a rookie...

Nobody is expecting Snell to win any awards this year, just to give up 15 minutes of solid defense and ball-handling plus 37%-40% 3-point shooting.

I remember reading from Bulls fans on multiple forums over the last year that GarPax blew it by taking Snell over Hardaway Jr... well as of this week, Snell has passed Hardaway Jr in the eyes of the voters.

Snell will most likely never make two All-Star teams, but as you already pointed out we couldn't play Deng and Butler together, that was obvious. I think we made the wise choice in keeping the cheaper, younger and more athletic player of the two.

 

I think free agency has borne out the fact that Hinrich is a more unique player than the DJ Augustin's and Aaron Brookes's of the world, even though the thought probably chagrins a lot of fans. He has his shortcomings (which we've discussed ad nauseam here), but it's easier to create flexible lineups with him than really short guys.

I think the Bulls liked DJ, but he was probably grabbing every dollar he could this FA and went to the highest bidder, no questions asked.

The Bulls have had some luck with their vet min shorties, but I think it's worth pointing out that reserving your minimum salary slots for the shortest guys on the team is probably a good asset allocation strategy.

As a matter of arithmetic it's a lot easier to find 6'1 guys who are really good at basketball than 7'1 guys. (Fun fact: if you are over 7' tall in the USA there's a 17% chance you'll play professional basketball!).

So if you walk into Free Agency with a million bucks there's a good chance you'll end up with a John Lucas III or DJ Augustin. Guys who are really talented, just short.

If you're looking for a big there's a good chance you end up with Nazr Mohammed. Awful at basketball, but really tall.

 

You responded to this question:

With this:

I interpreted this as "I liked Deng as a player, but feel good enough about Snell's progress that I think he'll fill in the void left by his absence."

AKA, Snell's improvement mitigates the loss of Deng.

It's true that many rookies improve a lot from when they come into the league, but I think it's more true that most don't improve enough to make their mark in the league, especially guys drafted in Snell's range.

In any event, we're probably only disagreeing by a matter of degrees. I'm bullish on Snell as being a good role player. The org also seems to have a knack for identifying guys that are good fits for their system, which I think really helps their development.

With a gun to my head, I think I like this team a little more than last year's due to added depth and shooting, but it's close.

When I look at this squad I'm really reminded of our 2011-2012 squad.

Both have very deep, balanced frontcourts. I actually see Doug's role on the team being closer to Rip than to Korver, which I think is huge. I've always thought people underestimated Rip's presence on that team. His output was statistically meager, but I thought it was clear as day that his ability to move without the ball and create offense in his own way had a big effect on the team. The team made a leap from 12th to 5th in offensive efficiency that year and I think it was him replacing Bogans that was responsible for the increase.

If Derrick's healthy I think this team has a better shot. Cleveland isn't a super team yet, we have better shooting, and Jimmy provides a rough facsimile of Deng.

 

That is an outstanding point. Big men are often overpaid because they are in short supply, but guys who are 6' are a dime a dozen.

As for Hinrich, award voting doesn't prove anything other than how highly the voters think of a player, but he finished 27th in voting for All-Defense last season.

Ahead of the following guys:
Ariza
Deng
Avery Bradley
Batum
Danny Green
Afflalo

 

In terms of supply, there's a big difference between 6'1 guys and 6'7' guys. The average non-asian guy is about that height, so it's literally the average joe walking down the street.

6'7' guys are a standard deviation or two down the bell curve.

There are probably quite a few small PG's who could walk onto an NBA team and be respectable. There are less 6'7' guys who can do the same thing.