NBA Trade Rumors: Latest Buzz on Joakim Noah, Tom Thibodeau and Draft Deals
As the NBA prepares the transition into what promises to be an eventful summer, a lot of teams are facing bigger questions than they have in a long time. The number of marquee franchises entering a transition phase is staggering.
Look at the top of the draft with the Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks picking second, third and fourth, respectively. Even though those teams haven't been relevant in the title picture for years, they still draw massive crowds because of the cities in which they play, and no one's quite sure what their respective futures hold.
There are also playoff teams facing questions about their rosters, whether it's a team trying to re-sign a superstar free agent or trade rumors starting to simmer out, this offseason is shaping up to be one of the most memorable in a long time.
Here is the latest word on rumored deals and the impact it can have on the league.
Joakim Noah's Final Stand in Chicago?
Joakim Noah is everything a team could want in a basketball player. He's fiery, passionate, dedicated and fearless. There are few athletes in any sport who will lay their heart on the line more than the Chicago Bulls star.
As great as those attributes are, Noah is also 30 years old, just had his worst season since he was a rookie (7.2 points, 44.5 percent shooting, 9.6 rebounds per game) with a $13.4 million salary next season and has been unable to stay healthy. The Bulls are facing a crossroads after being eliminated from the playoffs by a LeBron James-led team yet again.
Jimmy Butler is set to be a restricted free agent, and the Bulls have been anticipating making him a max offer this summer.
Grantland's Zach Lowe reported a max contract for Butler would put the Bulls' payroll around $80 million for 11 players, making Noah a potentially intriguing trade candidate even though Taj Gibson may be their first choice if a move happens:
"Gibson is the likeliest trade candidate, though there is some intrigue around the league about Noah on an expiring contract. Executives are curious: Is Noah forever diminished, or can we rehabilitate him? But Noah is so central to Chicago’s culture that the Bulls may be reluctant to move him. He is their soul. Then again, people said that about Luol Deng, and when the Bulls found a killer trade, they didn’t hesitate.
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The idea of Noah as a reclamation project sounds good. He averaged a double-double in each of the past two seasons prior to 2014-15 and isn't making an exorbitant amount of money. (Roy Hibbert will make $2.1 million more than Noah in 2015-16, for example.)
Yet Noah has never been the picture of health, missing 15 games this season and averaging 30.6 minutes per game. The former All-Star has only played 80 games twice in seven full seasons (excluding the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season).
The best thing that could happen to Noah is for him to land in a spot that has a deep and talented roster that's ready to compete for a championship—and he wouldn't have to be one of the three best players. His best role is as a defensive stalwart, so having a potent offense around him will allow his skills to shine.
Bulls Possible Succession Plan
Sticking with the Bulls, who look like the biggest story of the offseason at this moment, the story with head coach Tom Thibodeau seems headed for a divorce of some kind. Whether it means the front office fires the former Coach of the Year or trades him, change is coming on Chicago's bench.
According to Ken Berger of CBS Sports, the Bulls' plan is to have a successor for Thibodeau that will allow them to shop him around to get compensation since he has two years left on his contract:
"But one thing the Bulls won't do, according to league sources, is let Thibodeau out of his contract for compensation without knowing they have a replacement who excites them.
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The point is, most people wrestling with how and when the Thibodeau divorce with the Bulls happens are getting the variables backwards. First comes the replacement, then the compensation talks for the embattled -- and in demand -- Thibodeau.
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Berger mentions Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg as Chicago's top choice to replace Thibodeau, though "there is strong doubt among NBA front office sources that he'd (Hoiberg) be inclined to make the jump" because of his family ties in Ames, Iowa.
The report also mentions that if Hoiberg can be hired by Chicago, that would allow Bulls general manager Gar Forman and vice president John Paxson to "leverage the other head coaching openings -- New Orleans, Denver and Orlando, at the moment -- to extract draft-pick compensation for Thibodeau."
It's a shrewd business move for the Bulls, one that makes sense since they need to supplement their roster with some young talent and don't have the resources to be major players in free agency if Butler re-signs.
The Bulls only have one draft pick, 22nd overall, so finding some way to add to that would certainly be a huge help to this roster. The problem they face is everyone knows the marriage with Thibodeau is at the very least strained and at worst irreparable.
Teams may want Thibodeau because he's a great coach, but why give up assets to acquire him if it's obvious the Bulls want to get rid of him? It's the same situation the San Francisco 49ers had with Jim Harbaugh last season, resulting in a "mutual parting of the ways" that allowed him to become head coach at the University of Michigan.
Lottery Teams Ready to Make a Deal
The NBA draft lottery is an exciting—or in the case of the Knicks, crushing—day for basketball fans. Other than the actual picks being made, it's the day when hope and optimism are high for all 30 teams.
However, in the case of some teams that have been rebuilding for a few years and want to expedite the process, it's an opportunity to leverage a high pick for assets that will make an immediate impact.
ESPN's Chad Ford reported four teams in the lottery will make serious efforts to deal their first-round picks:
Orlando owns the fifth pick, Sacramento picks sixth, Detroit and Charlotte have the eighth and ninth selections, respectively.
Orlando is the most fascinating team Ford lists. The Magic had the worst record (25-57) of that foursome, giving them another chance to add an impact player to a talented young roster.
But there's only so much youth a franchise can have before it becomes imperative to add a significant veteran presence to turn things around. Elfrid Payton, Nikola Vucevic, Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris and Evan Fournier are all between the ages of 20-24.
That doesn't even include Aaron Gordon, who is 19 and only appeared in 47 games. The Magic have an outstanding young nucleus to build around that is either going to explode and make them one of the best teams in the league over the next two years or implode and cause the franchise to endure another rebuild.
As Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel wrote, it's time for the Magic to start taking control of their destiny instead of relying on the bounce of ping-pong balls:
"For the Magic to make a jump after seasons of 20, 23 and 25 wins, the franchise will need to manufacture a turnaround without the benefit of luck. The mostly likely paths would be through its coaching hire, through offseason improvements from its current players and through free agency.
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Even though Robbins doesn't dive deep into the trade winds, simply saying it's "another route" the team could take, he does note the Magic could end up having around $14 million in cap space before free agency begins.
The Magic need to start balancing their young talent with an established veteran who is more than a role player, such as recent additions Channing Frye and Ben Gordon. Saying it is one thing. Being able to find a trade partner willing to give up a player like that, even for the fifth pick, is something else entirely.
Contract information and stats via Basketball-Reference.com.
