Bulls not looking to deal Luol Deng

[Scoot26]

Despite being mired in a season that has been derailed by injuries, the Chicago Bulls are determined not to trade impending free-agent forward Luol Deng, sources told ESPN.com.

Teams are inquiring about Deng's status with the Bulls, who continue to sink in the standings in the wake of the knee injury that wrecked another season for Derrick Rose.

Deng told the Chicago Sun-Times this week that he's been preparing for the possibility of being traded, but sources said that's not in the team's plans.
Despite failing to come to terms on a contract extension before the season, the Bulls remain optimistic they will re-sign Deng next summer.

Having spent his entire 10-year career with Chicago, Deng has consistently said he wants to stay with the Bulls, though the sides were far apart on contract talks before they were tabled.

Deng is in the final year of a contact that will pay him $14 million this season, and the Bulls are facing a luxury-tax bill that could exceed $13 million. Some league executives believe that the Bulls, who'd never incurred a luxury tax until last year, may have an interest in offloading payroll ahead of the trade deadline. For now, though, that will not include Deng.

The Bulls (9-16) lost their fourth consecutive game Thursday night and have dropped eight of their last 10 in falling to 10th place in the Eastern Conference.

Already without Rose, the team has shut down Deng until at least next week as he continues to battle a sore Achilles. Jimmy Butler, who recently returned from a toe injury, suffered an ankle injury Thursday night and may be out for some time. Joakim Noah, who missed games earlier with a groin injury, has been battling a knee issue.

Chicago has its own first-round draft selection next year and will also get the Charlotte Bobcats', should it fall outside the top 10. The Bobcats (12-14) are in sixth place in the East.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/nba/story/_/id/10170892/chicago-bulls-not-seeking-trade-luol-deng

 

[ChiSoxCity]

Great, lets give Deng a butt load of money to miss games and disappear during pivotal games for the next four years. Get his ass out of here and rebuild this team!

 

[Axl Rose]

boosting his value....i hope

but it wont be the first time bulls held onto a player and ended up letting him walk for nothing

 

[CreepyBasementGuy]

What could we even get for him? What is his value exactly?

 

[PlatinumPlus502]

What could we even get for him? What is his value exactly?

Well a few years back there were talks that LA and Chicago were going to work a deal with Kobe for Deng. Obviously never happened, but still. I'd say a first round pick and possible a solid off the bench player.

 

[scottiepippen1994]

DENG WILL RETIRE A BULL AND SO WILL HINRICH.....I BEEM SAYING THIS FOR YEARS......THEY ARE PAXSONS LOVE CHILDS.....

THAT IS 1 of the many reasons PAXGAR HAVE TO GO FIRST, AND THEN IT WILL BE MORE LIKELY THAT DENG AND KIRK WILL BE MOVED.....OR NOT RESIGNED.....IF PAXGAR ARE STILL IN CHARGE AT THE END OF THE SEASON, EXPECT DENG AND KIRK TO REMAIN HERE AS WELL......

 

[clonetrooper264]

In the words of Chris Smoove, that's a noob move

 

[BNB]

Seriously, why the **** not? Why want to extend a guy that has already peaked and hasn't been good enough to push you to where you need to get (championship)?

Trade Deng now, even if it's for a decent [mid-round] 1st round pick or something, and you free up cap space in the summer PLUS you weaken your team now which will help your chances in the lottery where you can potentially replace Deng for a much cheaper price. The logical thing to do? Why extend Deng of course! We'll need him when he passes 30 and starts to decline for more 2nd round exits.

 

[scottiepippen1994]

Seriously, why the **** not? Why want to extend a guy that has already peaked and hasn't been good enough to push you to where you need to get (championship)?

Trade Deng now, even if it's for a decent [mid-round] 1st round pick or something, and you free up cap space in the summer PLUS you weaken your team now which will help your chances in the lottery where you can potentially replace Deng for a much cheaper price. The logical thing to do? Why extend Deng of course! We'll need him when he passes 30 and starts to decline for more 2nd round exits.

Not happening as long a PaxGar reign supreme.

 

[JosMin]

He's more expendable now that we have both Snell, Butler and Dunleavy. With the way he's been playing, he's never going to get more valuable. The problem is if he gets injured again for an extended period of time or his quality of play slips, his value will only drop. If the Bulls are able to get a young player, an expiring deal and a first-rounder of any kind, you have to pull the trigger.

 

[Crystallas]

While Deng is valuable, most of the teams that can offer us a worthwhile deal are also gambling on the draft where they can land a cheaper SF that may be as good or better. Deng's market value is also taking that into consideration.

 

[DirtyDutchDiggler]

In normal GM speak this means all the offers have been crap. If that's not the case and the sources are true which is usually never the case, we better be getting a discount on Deng to be able to get a quality piece in FA. I'm wouldn't be completely upset to keep Deng but at the right price (more than likely a pipe dream). We still need to make a move eventually. Boozer can not be here next year. It has been bad enough he can't play defense but now he can't play defense without fouling. I'm a bit clueless about what the FO is doing. Either most of us are correct about this that the FO is smoking crack or they are the best poker players I have ever seen. Either way, we are awful and should be a 5-6 lottery team and we can hope to get a hot ping-pong ball. I can't remember the last time the worst team actually got the #1 pick. 4-6 is usually a good spot to be in. Charlotte will fizzle in my opinion. So those two picks and adding what will be a decent second round pick is not all bad. What we do to supplement this is the real question and it all begins with Deng. We don't have to blow up everything, but we must retool. Either way GarPax still suck in my mind and they will F*** everything up. Get rid of them but in the back of my mind I think Jerry right now is the source of the problem and if that is the case we are in trouble.

 

[DirtyDutchDiggler]

He's more expendable now that we have both Snell, Butler and Dunleavy. With the way he's been playing, he's never going to get more valuable. The problem is if he gets injured again for an extended period of time or his quality of play slips, his value will only drop. If the Bulls are able to get a young player, an expiring deal and a first-rounder of any kind, you have to pull the trigger.

Snell will get better, his wide open shot is beautiful but his shot under defensive pressure is wild. This will settle when the game slows down for him. This year so far has worried me about Butler. Did he even work on his shot this off-season??? I do like his confidence when going to the rack but he needs to go a bit stronger. Getting blocked to easy. Dunleavy is nothing but a slower Frankenstienish Korver, I hate his game.

 

[Probie2429]

Bulls will only get low-ball offers for Deng at this point in the season. As long as the East remains this tight in the 4-8 spots, Deng will be dealt, IMO. Bulls will be so far out of playoff contention by the time the trade deadline comes around there won't be any choice.

This team is so bad without Rose. And everyone knows that Noah is going to get hurt eventually and miss a few weeks. It's going to get much worse before it gets better.

 

[Jerry Cortez211]

This season will have to play out and near the deadline and whatever offers the Bulls do get for Deng will be as good as it gets at that point.

 

[poido123]

This decision to keep Deng makes me angry.

So we would rather wait for free agency and end up overpaying him, due to other teams making offers for him, or worse having to let him walk when we could of got assets back now?

If we offload Deng for picks, we can continue to suck and get ourselves a decent pick in next year's draft. I don't know what the fck management are thinking on this one. I think a bit has to do with the fact that Rose is good buddies with Deng and has demanded to keep him.

 

[Jerry Cortez211]

The baby bulls era was fun and all but 2007 was 6 years ago....Ben is gone, Nocioni and Sefolosha are also gone, Kirk is done and should be coaching instead of playing, and Deng has aged twice as much based on his minutes/injuries, plus Rose is not an alpha dog type, at Simeon he had Tim Flowers and at Memphis he had Chris Douglas-Roberts. I'm grateful for Deng's contributions as a Bull and I will miss him dearly but it's just time to move on. Either build for contention or admit that 2011 was a fluke and be happy with mediocrity.....sorry paxgar, that may work in Atlanta or Memphis where they can fall back on SEC football, but this is Chicago....we've yielded nothing but garbage teams except the Kane/Toews Blackhawks and this is a sports town with high expectations, so do your job NOW

 

[zack54attack]

Really don't understand the Bulls FO on this one...

 

[scottiepippen1994]

Told yall.

The PaxGar machine lost there oil can like the tinman.

 

[JosMin]

In fairness, saying they don't want to trade him now is the "right thing" to say, in the sense that we're only a quarter of the way through the season. The landscape of the league could change drastically before the trade deadline. Shit, look at the Lakers -- Kobe comes back from a catastrophic injury, looks archaic, then hurts himself again. Guys can do down in a heap (see: The Chicago Bulls roster). Teams interested in his services aren't put into a position where they need to make an overwhelming offer to the Bulls because there's no deadline influencing them.

I still think as the season unfolds, a fringe contender wanting to "go for it" might make the Bulls a substantial offer. There are also the infamous "one move away" teams who feel like they need to add another veteran in order to give them crunch time depth.