Well...I have always thought that a player that was truly after a title would sign for less and go to a team like us or heck even Miami. Butler and JRich going to the teams they did show they choose money over championships, and you know what? Too bad for them.
Regarding the question, you could say both. The argument could be made that the Bulls overpay their current players and are too cheap to give out the same money to a decent free agent (which in this context means giving a full MLE offer to Richardson or Butler or Crawford or whoever).
Looking at how things are playing out though, with Richardson reupping with Orlando, Butler going to LAC, Carter going to Dallas, TMac going to Atlanta, and a lot of reports saying we're going to sign Hamilton, I can't really blame the Bulls FO too much. Hamilton is still an upgrade...though and aging one who doesn't exactly do what we need. But an upgrade is still an upgrade. We'd be tripling our point production from the SG spot, and idk if we can realistically ask for much more.