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| Boozer will be ... doing whatever this is for a while on the same contract. (Getty Images) |
As reports of a potential trade between Chicago and Toronto to swap Carlos Boozer and Andrea Bargnani surfaced Thursday night, an interesting bit of news got slipped in regarding Boozer's future with the Bulls. From the Chicago Tribune:
Despite the talks, there are no plans to use the amnesty provision on Boozer this summer. Boozer is having a strong season, but shedding his salary could improve the Bulls long-term financial picture.
via Chicago Bulls News: The Bulls and Raptors have engaged in trade talks centered on Carlos Boozer and Andrea Bargnani. - chicagotribune.com.
That's part of what makes the trade concept interesting. The easy answer for both teams, cap-wise, is to simply amnesty their respective forward albatross contracts. But that requires still paying the money out. So if you save the money that you'd spend in the luxury tax, you make up most of that with new contracts. It's one thing if you're OK with that because you legitimately want to improve the team and are willing to accumulate costs for it. But the Bulls in particular want to save money, having avoided the luxury tax every year.
So with this, it makes sense. But the fact that it's being ruled out completely is kind of surprising. The Bulls have made mention before of looking toward not a rebuild but a reload around Derrick Rose once he's back to full strength, maybe moving away from some of the core pieces that they've built around in recent years. Boozer doesn't have forever left on his deal, but it's long enough and expensive enough to make you wonder how far off those moves will be if Boozer will still be part of the core.
