Hamilton on horizon; Howard looms large
Bulls general manager Gar Forman kicked off media day by answering questions for nearly 20 minutes Sunday at the Berto Center.
As far as what player transactions are coming next for the team, there were no answers.
The Bulls are expecting to add veteran shooting guard Richard Hamilton once he’s officially released by the Pistons and clears waivers. But that may not happen until the middle of the week.
In the meantime, Forman and the basketball operations staff needs to decide whether to make an offer for Orlando’s Dwight Howard, who has formally requested a trade, and try to find an extra big man now that Kurt Thomas decided to pass on a second season with the Bulls.
“We’re still exploring ways we can improve this team,” Forman said. “We’ve still got some roster spots and some flexibility. Hopefully something will happen in regards to that in the next few days.”
The task all summer was to find an offensive upgrade at shooting guard, giving Derrick Rose a stronger late-game scoring partner. Hamilton, with 120 career playoff games under his belt, would be an appropriate fit.
“If we were to get him, I think he would be great,” Rose said. “He’s always in perfect shape running around, especially for his age (33). He has the experience where he’s a winner.”
Rose is supposed to be one of Howard’s best friends in the NBA. The two have filmed commercials and gone on promotional tours together for Adidas.
But when Howard talked trade this weekend, he asked to go to the Nets. The Brooklyn-bound ballclub is vying to sign free agent power forward Nene and landed point guard Deron Williams from Utah last season. So Howard would make a nice three-star lineup.
The Nets would presumably offer center Brook Lopez and a couple of first-round draft picks for Howard. But any team that trades for the all-star center will likely be asked to take on Hedo Turkoglu, who is owed roughly $34 million for the next three years.
Another suitor for Howard is the Los Angeles Lakers, who figure to dangle young center Andrew Bynum as the centerpiece of a deal.
The Bulls will explore trading for Howard, thinking that Rose and Howard should be a championship-contending combination for the next decade.
A logical offer would be Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, first-round picks and another player. If the Bulls included one of Omer Asik, Taj Gibson or Ronnie Brewer, they would be able to take back both Howard and Turkoglu, who make a combined $28.4 million.
If such a trade were to come to fruition, the Bulls’ theoretic starting lineup could include Rose, Howard, Turkoglu, Hamilton and Carlos Boozer.
Forman mentioned several times Sunday that he likes the current nucleus of players. But the Bulls won’t sit idle when a player of Howard’s caliber is available.
“Our feeling has always been, we’re not going to make a move just to make a move,” Forman said. “If we don’t feel it’s a plus for this team, we’ll bring this team back as is and feel really good about our group of guys.”