Forman: We've got a lot of factors working for Bulls
One remnant from trade deadline day is New York ended up clearing enough cap room to sign two top-level free agents and the Bulls didn't.
The Bulls will have enough cap room to sign one major free agent outright, and general manager Gar Forman thinks his team has the assets to get it done.
"The (Bulls') nucleus of players is attractive and matches up well with any team in the league that will have this type of flexibility," Forman said Thursday. "Then you take into account the city of Chicago. We have the greatest fans in the NBA. We continue sell out the United Center night in and night out. So I think we've got a lot of factors working for us that make it an attractive place for free agents to come."
The Knicks created more cap space through a three-way trade with Houston and Sacramento that brought Tracy McGrady's expiring contract to New York. But it came at a high price.
In order to get away from the final year of Jared Jeffries' contract, the Knicks gave up rookie Jordan Hill, the No. 8 pick in last year's draft, while Houston also gets New York's first-round pick in 2012 and the option to swap picks in 2011.
The Knicks' best player, David Lee, will be an unrestricted free agent and plays the same position as Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer and Amare Stoudemire.
Learning from past: Gar Forman joined the Bulls in 1998 as a college scout, so he knows the lesson of what happened in the summer of 2000.
The Bulls were hoping to rebuild quickly by signing a pair of "full-boat" free agents, as former general manager Jerry Krause called them. But the Bulls were turned down by Tim Duncan, Grant Hill, Tracy McGrady, Eddie Jones and Tim Thomas before finally landing Ron Mercer and a much younger Brad Miller.
"I was involved in all the meetings and that sort of thing," Forman said. "I think our nucleus of guys we have now is so much different. I think it's a totally different situation."
In both cases, the Bulls had a No. 1 draft pick on the roster - Elton Brand in 2000 and Derrick Rose now. But the Bulls were coming off a 17-win season in 1999-2000, while the current team expects to make the playoffs for the second straight year.
Good for Charlotte: Tyrus Thomas seemed to get frustrated by inconsistent playing time during his four seasons with the Bulls. His new coach, Charlotte's Larry Brown, doesn't sound concerned.
"We'll show the kid he's important to us and we really want to help him," Brown said in the Charlotte Observer. "We all have to grow up sometime."
Bulls general manager Gar Forman praised Thomas on Thursday.
"Tyrus has great potential and he's made strides every year," Forman said. "He came into the league at such a young age. I believe he's still trending up and has a chance to reach that potential."