Bulls GM Forman: 'We're not panicked'
Most of the rumors focused on Pau Gasol, but the only Chicago Bulls player moved before Thursday's trade deadline was veteran guard Kirk Hinrich.
Hinrich will join the Atlanta Hawks for the second time in his career. The Bulls received 6-6 swingman Justin Holiday and a second-round pick from Utah.
"We're disappointed where we're at right now, but we're not panicked and we're not going to make a trade just to make a trade," Bulls general manager Gar Forman said in a phone interview. "We're not going to make a panic trade."
The most prominent rumor making the rounds was Gasol and Tony Snell to Sacramento for shooting guard Ben McLemore and center Kosta Koufos. The Sacramento Bee reported the Kings are "aggressively pursuing" Gasol.
But once the trade deadline passed at 2 p.m., Forman suggested there were never any serious talks involving Gasol to the Kings. For the rumored deal to make sense for the Bulls, Sacramento would have needed to find a way to loosen the protection on their 2016 first-round draft pick, which the Bulls get if it's not in the top 10. If the season ended today, the Kings would have the ninth pick.
"The rumor out there we were shopping him was absolutely false," Forman said. "We value Pau. We think Pau is a big part of what we're doing. Did we get calls? Yeah, we get calls on a lot of our guys. It's our job to listen and you've got to have a pulse on what's going on around the league. He was never shopped."
The Bulls will face a dilemma this summer, since Gasol can opt out of his contract and Joakim Noah will also become a free agent. With the salary cap set to rise, free-agency will be unpredictable, since virtually every team will have ample cap space.
"We value Joakim. We miss him," Forman said. "Joakim's been a big part of the success we've had over the last decade. We've been very active. We looked at a lot of things. At the end of the day, there wasn't anything we thought made sense right now."
Forman was asked if he might try to reshape the Bulls' roster this summer to fit better with coach Fred Hoiberg's preferred up-tempo style. He suggested the evaluation of the current group of players is incomplete because there have been so many injuries.
"We knew there were going to be some ups and downs when you bring in a new staff and a new system," Forman said. "Quite honestly, this isn't an excuse, it's just a fact - the injuries have had a real effect on us."
Hinrich leaves the Bulls for a second time. He ranks third in franchise history in games played with 748, trailing only Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Hinrich is the Bulls' all-time leader in 3-point baskets.
By trading Hinrich, the Bulls will shave a couple million off their luxury-tax bill. They'll also get to take a look at Holiday, who won a championship ring with Golden State last season, although he logged just 11 minutes total for the Warriors in the playoffs.
"We've got some intrigue (on Holiday), so we'll obviously take a look at him and we'll have him through the summer and take it from there," Forman said.
Two Central division teams completed trades Thursday. Detroit sent a first-round pick to Houston for forward Donatas Motiejunas. Cleveland acquired stretch-four Channing Frye from Orlando and sent Anderson Varejao to Portland in a three-way deal. Washington added troubled forward Markieff Morris from Phoenix for a draft pick. Memphis sent forward Jeff Green to the Los Angeles Clippers for Lance Stephenson and a draft pick.
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