NBA Chat with Joel Brigham, 9/22/2011

1. Gunnar

   Everything is leading to a great draft in 2012. Giving there will be some kind of season, do you thing some teams will be bad on purpose with an eye to get into the lottery?

   • Joel Brigham

     The league is always about winning over getting into the lottery, and there’s enough parity in the league right now for a good number of teams to legitimately make a push at the postseason. You look at teams like the ’07 Warriors and last year’s Grizzlies, and it really is good enough to just sneak in as a low seed and make hay while the sun shines.

     As for the teams that are genuinely bad, there’s enough really great talent in the top fifteen that I don’t see one guy worth tanking for. There are soooo many talents that could step right in and help a franchise–Jared Sullinger, Quincy Miller, Anthony Davis, Mike Gilchrist, Austin Rivers, Harrison Barnes–that even getting the 7th or 8th pick will net you a solid guy. It’s a great draft, for sure, but not so great where halfway decent teams would tank. Everybody will stay as competitive as they can for as long as they can.

2. Anthony Gonzalez

   Joel, what would you think if a deal based around Beasley and R. Lopez? Beas would be an inexpensive project in phx that could give Nash a great scoring option while he’s there and Lopez is a much better overall defender than Darko.. Thoughts?

   • Joel Brigham

     Phoenix already has a few guys that sort of play Beasley’s position, and seven-footers that can actually play are quite a bit more rare. It clears a logjam for Minnesota and gives them someone at center (perhaps) a little more formidable than Darko, but it doesn’t do enough for Phoenix, at least not in my opinion. He’d score, but to get him to pair with Nash would be silly since Nash is only going to be around for another two years or so. Not the heir apparent I’d want for my franchise.

3. Anthonyk

   WHat are your predictions for the celtics as in free agency and trades for the up coming season?

   • Joel Brigham

     Don’t look for anything major. All the big guns are still under contract. We’re looking at $63 million for five guys (Rondo, Ray, KG, Pierce, and Jermaine), so I’d say things are pretty bleak in terms of the guys they can add. Last year for Boston to make a run with this core, so hopefully there’s a season for them to actually do so. That’s where your hope needs to be now. We’ll talk again in July of 2012.

4. Rafi

   Yo J! Any word on what Rose has been working on this offseason?

   • Joel Brigham

     I’ve heard strength and his post-up game. He wants to add muscle in strategic areas to steer clear of injuries (because he knows he’s going to get banged around like Iverson next season), but the post-up thing is to just add another dimension to his offensive game. As if he needs any more of those, right? Like a lot of Bulls fans, I hope he comes back strong. I don’t expect him to get another MVP trophy any time soon, but I do expect him to keep Chicago in the championship discussion for a while. Anything less is a disappointment, so whatever work he’s doing will undeniably help.

     Just know that he was very, very ashamed of his ECF loss to the Heat, and there’s no way he’s not working his butt off this summer. He’ll come back strong, I have no doubt.

5. Faizan

   Give a percent chance you think we’ll have an entire season? a shortened season? and no season at all?

   • Joel Brigham

     I’d say there’s a 25% chance of no season at all, an 80% chance of some kind of shortened season, and a 20% chance that the full season plays out. Those three percentages don’t add up to 100, but I don’t think they’re all in the same pie chart. I don’t think. Please don’t rip my math if I’m wrong…

6. Vince

   Owners/Players meeting today again. I feel optimistic that they can reach a deal. Both sides want to start season on time and have too much to lose. What do you think?

   • Joel Brigham

     Spoke with one assistant coach recently who says his feeling is that something’s going to get done. Nobody on either side wants to miss games (and the fans obviously don’t either), so I hope feelings go back towards happy and positive at today’s session. I need to hear some good news about this thing. Starting to get burnt out on nothing happening.

7. Vince Jordan

   I say a good resolution to the Lockout would be BRI at 51/49 for players. Soft cap with major restrictions. No sign and trade, mid lvl exception or biannual. Can only resign players and go over cap. Also double luxury tax if teams cross salary cap. What do you think?

   • Joel Brigham

     I don’t mind keeping the sign-and-trade, but only if it’s for the same deal they’d get for either team. LeBron and Bosh sign-and-trades need to go bye-bye, but situations where the most you can get out a S&T is what you’d get from the new team helps the home team not lose a player for nothing. I’m not opposed to that.

     Everything else you’ve thrown out there makes sense to me, and it’s probably going to be something like that that finally gets the job done. There’s a lot of posturing and negotiating that has to happen before we get there.

8. Justin

   The Bulls need a shooting guard, why not look into Randy Foye who can be had for cheap. Foye is an scoring improvement over what the Bulls have now.

   • Joel Brigham

     Not enough of one. The Bulls are weird in that they’re VERY conservative when it comes to trades. They’ll value chemistry and the great year they all had last year as a reason to avoid change unless it’s an undeniable upgrade. Randy Foye really isn’t that, even if he could probably score more points than Keith Bogans or Ronnie Brewer.

     I’m with you that they need something new at the two, but Foye isn’t the answer.

9. Zach

   Why were the magic not more involved in the melo trade talks last year? They had Vince expiring gortat Nelson bass/anderson and a pick. Surely melo would have wanted to play with dwight

   • Joel Brigham

     I don’t think it was necessarily about what Carmelo wanted (though what he wanted was New York). it was more about Denver getting the best package back, and while Gortat is an interesting young talent, they still have relatively long-term plans for Nene. Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari gave them two opportunities to find someone who could fill in for Melo, and Orlando just didn’t really have that. Nobody was interested in Vince Carter as a real savior, and Bass/Anderson aren’t the sort of talents GMs are crawling over one another to get. New York’s offer was better than anything Orlando couldn’t thrown at them (realistically), plus that’s where he really wanted to be.

     Personally, I would’ve dug the tax-free thing in Florida, but Melo spends more money on dinner than I do for a mortgage payment, so I can’t really compare apples to apples on this one…

10. kevin

    Do you see kyrie irving starting for the cavs this season..?

    • Joel Brigham

      Absolutely, 100%. That team is going nowhere in 2012, so you might as well get the kids in there and let them start figuring out how to adjust their games to the NBA tempo and aggressiveness. I don’t know how great I think Kyrie will be, but he’ll get where he’s going a whole lot faster if he’s given the opportunity to actually play. Sorry, Baron Davis. I love the guy personally, but he’s going coming off the bench there. It’s what’s best for the organization.

11. kevin

    Do you see the cleveland cavaliers getting another top 5 pick in next years draft class??????

    • Joel Brigham

      Absolutely a real possibility. Harrison Barnes would be perfect for what they’re putting together there. Anthony Davis would be too intriguing to pass up. One of those two would be a franchise-changer, even more so than Kyrie and like a bajillion times more so than Tristan Thompson. I don’t see them having a great year with so many young guys, but they’re rebuilding, and that’s how you do it the right way–be bad for three or four seasons, stockpile a core to move forward with, then let that core gel and hopefully be good.

12. Theo Been

    What should the knicks do at this point to better the team? Who could we get at the center spot without harming our cap space? Do u really think we have a chance at getting another superstar to come to NYC Knicks? Do u even think we need another star?

    • Joel Brigham

      I say this every week, but there is a zero percent chance that another superstar comes to the team unless they’re willing to play for peanuts, and he will not be willing to play for peanuts. That said, I think Sam Dalembert is a best-case scenario, which is not a particularly rosy outlook. Kwame Brown would work, or you could get an older guy like Kurt Thomas or Jeff Foster to step in and bruise for a year, then try again with the ’12 free agency class. The options aren’t pretty, but there are some guys (Thomas, specifically) who really do want to play in NY. These aren’t guys that sway the Knicks towards suddenly being a championship team, but at least they’re actually centers. No offense, Ronny Turiaf and Jared Jeffries.

13. ace

    Hey joel, just read about how its possible for the blazers buying out Brandon Roy. If thats the case he becomes a free agent… Any chance of him joining the bulls for a lower pay check? Possibly bring him off the bench for the scoring that they need at the 2?

    • Joel Brigham

      Tough to say, but they’d have to at least sniff at it. I don’t think there’s any denying that he’s damaged goods at this point, so the flier they (or any team) takes is going to have to come cheap and probably short term. At his best, he’s fantastic, but I don’t think he’s got a whole of at-his-best left. Two years, something like a mid-level, I’d be in favor. But that hampers anything else you might do with a player who’d have a better chance of staying healthy and contributing more consistently.

14. AJ

    Brandan Wright and Yi Jianlin both came in to the draft with high expectations but have disappointed. Who do you think may take a gamble on them? What do you think is the ceiling for each player?

    • Joel Brigham

      We’ve seen their ceilings, and they’re low. Freaky low. Like, Willy Wonka foyer low.

      They can still get jobs in the league, but they’re not going to be leaving their mark on any team. Just roster-fillers. At this point, whatever potential they may have had has been lived up to. Sad, but true.

15. 1mike1matt

    bulls trade booz/bogans for rip/jerebko/1st then trade cj 2 kings for thornton.kings need vet pg,detriot get booz and loses headache rip, bulls get massive firepower and save $30 mill.

    • Joel Brigham

      Kings aren’t trading Marcus Thornton for someone like C.J. Watson. They value him a lot more highly than that and want to give him a full year to gel with the group and score a buttload of points (which he’s going to do). Perfect fit for the Bulls. Perfect. But it’s not happening.

      As for the Detroit trade, I think something like Boozer for Rip straight up is more likely, but I’ve also said in the past that Detroit seems primed to rebuild. Not sure why they’d invest $60 million in an aging power forward when youth is clearly where the hope for that team lies. Of course, not sure why they paid Ben Gordon $11 million a year either, so I guess you never know. But that as a straight up trade makes more sense than Detroit conceding Jerebko. He’s better than people realize.

16. 1mike1matt

    in an interview c landry said he would b great addition 2 bulls because he has great success against haslem.

    • Joel Brigham

      Bulls have Boozer and Taj Gibson. Unless they trade away one of them, I can’t see them making a play at Landry. They’re not going to have the money to make a competitive offer anyway.

17. 1mike1matt

    i heard gant hill is interested in heat. would gh really do that? does seem like ghs style.

    • Joel Brigham

      Grant Hill wants a ring and he’s old, so a situation in which he’s coming off the bench for the defending Eastern Conference champs could be pretty ideal for extending his career a few more years and having a great chance at getting that elusive championship.

      Hill’s kind of an interesting case because he hardly played for the middle portion of his career. He’s something like 38 years old, but doesn’t have the miles on his legs that someone like Steve Nash does because he pretty much got loads of rest for the better part of three or four seasons of his prime. That sucks for his prime, but also means he could play (and play relatively well) for another 3-4 years. Miami, with it’s great weather and tax freedom, would be a sweet place to close out your career. LeBron is going to get a ring at some point in that 3-4 year window. He is. There’s nothing wrong with attaching himself to that. Nothing at all.

      Were I not so loyal to the Chicago Bulls, I’d say that I would do the exact same thing.

18. 1mike1matt

    battier/mayo to bulls, asik/cj to griz. do bulls then beat heat in playoffs?

    • Joel Brigham

      About a million percent sure those salaries wouldn’t match up, and anyway Battier is a free agent this and so wouldn’t be involved in any Memphis trade.

      Nitpicking aside, I think an Asik-for-Mayo deal (with whatever cap pieces you’d need to match salaries) is one of the more realistic options the Bulls may have to make a serious upgrade at the two. But it’s dependent on whether or not Memphis is able to re-sign Marc Gasol or if he gets too expensive. If they end up letting him walk because somebody throws $14 million a year at him (and they’d have to… they can’t afford to pay Gay, Z-Bo AND Marc Gasol that much money), then Asik gives them some legit depth at center, and you could argue that Mayo actually is expendable for the Grizzlies.

      Having said all that, I don’t make that deal if I’m the Grizzlies. Asik is a solid young talent, but I’d be afraid Tony Allen’s season was a fluke and would rather keep the depth at the swing positions. Mayo’s still got some room to grow. Too good an asset to let go for someone like Asik, even though he really could help the Grizz.

19. 1mike1matt

    what was with durant wearing that bulls hat in his interview? pretty disrespectful to okc and teamates no?

    • Joel Brigham

      Noooo, not at all. Can’t the man just be a fan of basketball? He made a good point on his Twitter account that as long as he’s wearing the Thunder jersey for all 82 games a year, fans shouldn’t be upset. He loves the game, he grew up watching Jordan, so he wears the Bulls hat. Not a big deal.

      Next step is trying to get him to wear a Bulls UNIFORM… Now we’re talkin’…

20. erik

    what free agents do you see new jersey targeting this season. I think a sign and trade of humphries for millsap makes more sense for that team.

    • Joel Brigham

      Millsap would be a good fit for Jersey, but I don’t really see Utah’s motivation for making that move. I think Enes Kanter is going to see big minutes at center, which means you’re already going to have Millsap and Favors and Jefferson fighting for minutes at the four. If they’re going to cash out Millsap, it wouldn’t be smart do it for another power forward. Better to make that trade to bring in some small forward help or something with more of a need…