Bulls Rumors: Vince Carter Is an Ideal Candidate for SG-Needy Chicago

As expected, the Phoenix Suns are reportedly about to use their amnesty clause to waive veteran shooting guard Vince Carter to get his remaining $18 million salary off the books. An ideal landing spot for Vinsanity at this point would likely be with the Chicago Bulls.

According to Marc Stein and Chris Broussard, the Bulls are one of a few contending teams that would seem to have interest in Carter. One of Chicago's biggest issues last season in the playoffs was the lack of secondary and scoring and a quality backcourt mate for MVP point guard Derrick Rose.

At 34 years of age, Carter is no longer the same player that averaged 20 or more points per game in 10 straight seasons, but he remains a legitimate offensive threat provided he is healthy. Rose can do a lot in terms of creating his own shots, but he simply can't do it all.

Rose didn't have another offensively-gifted perimeter player to run with last season, and that ultimately prevented Chicago from making a run at the NBA Championship. Even at his advanced age and with his eroding skills, Carter can still create his own shot, and that would take much of the burden off Rose.

Some of the responsibility has to be shouldered by the likes of Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah as well, but the Bulls can't afford to go another year with a role player like Keith Bogans at shooting guard.

Championship-level teams simply don't have glaring holes like that in their lineups, so it is something Chicago's front office needs to patch up. At this point in his career, Carter likely wants to go someplace where he can compete for a title and play a major role.

I don't think that there is any team in the league that can offer that combination quite like Chicago. Not only are the Bulls returning a core that led the Bulls to the league's best regular-season record last year, but the coaching staff would give Carter as much playing time as he can handle.

On top of that, while Carter has never had much playoff success, it never hurts to add an experienced player. Sometimes saying a player is experienced is just a nice way of saying his best days are behind him, and while that may be true of Carter, he has some offensive skill left in the tank.

It isn't as if the Bulls have a lot of great options at this point, so they could do a lot worse than signing a proven commodity like Carter. If Carter doesn't work out, then it won't cost Chicago much, but even if he simply puts up 14 points per game like he did last season, it will be a major improvement over what the Bulls have.