Bulls give away assets, gain cap space

Kirk Hinrich is a nice point guard, right? So good, in fact, that the Bulls are giving him away. They're also giving away the 17th pick in tonight's draft. Both are going to the Wizards. In return, the Bulls are getting nothing.

Ah, the posturing continues. By not having to pay Hinrich or the salary of the 17th overall pick, the Bulls now free up more than $9 million in salary cap space, which now puts them over $30 million under the cap. That gives them enough money to sign two max-level free agents while still having Luol Deng out there as a possible sign-and-trade candidate. The Bulls have drafted a lot of good players since 1999 (although no one great, unless Derrick Rose turns into that) and now the rebuilding plan Jerry Krause set out on after running out Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen might finally be coming to fruition by having enough of those guys to move around in sign-and-trades and to fit in around, say, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

The Bulls could realistically have a front line of LeBron, Bosh and Joakim Noah with Rose and, gosh, who knows (Ray Allen or Raja Bell at the veteran's exception?) in the backcourt. Off the bench they'll have, well, Flip Murray and whatever veterans LeBron can convince to come in for the minimum (Rafer Alston? Steve Blake? Roger Mason? Quentin Richardson? Eddie House? Kurt Thomas?)

(By the way, this deal could still fall apart since it cannot officially happen until July 8 but it also sounds like Sacramento is ready to make this deal if Washington changes its mind.)

It all sounds good. Of course, the Bulls fail to sign LeBron, all of this blows up in Chicago's face.

Given what Rose has shown in his first two seasons, getting rid of Hinrich makes sense. No team needs a $9 million backup point guard, which is what Hinrich is (although he started most of the season as a two-guard). He should be a nice mentor to John Wall as the Wizards point guard.