NBA Rumors: Trade For Afflalo…Goodbye Melo?

Apr 14, 2014; Chicago, IL, USA; Orlando Magic guard Arron Afflalo (4) shoots the ball against Chicago Bulls guard Jimmy Butler (21) during the first quarter at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

If you are a fan of the NBA rumors that Carmelo Anthony is being fitted for the number 15 jersey in Chicago, well you might get disappointed. There is a report that is being floated around the campfire that will serve as a wake up call to those Carmelo Anthony coming to the Bulls dreams.

According to Adrian Wojanowski of Yahoo! Sports and various outlets (NBC Sports and Comcast SportsNet Chicago), the Chicago Bulls are trying to work out a deal to bring Orlando Magic Arron Afflalo, a shooting guard to Chicago. It seems that the Bulls have taken looks at Afflalo in the past to fill a glaring need of scoring at the shooting guard spot. As I’ve said before, it’s about time to bring in a solid shooting guard and move Jimmy Butler to the wing position. He basically took on the responsibilities of the small forward spot after the departure of Luol Deng, might as well give him the position to go with it.

Arron Afflalo averaged slightly over 18 points a game last season playing for the Magic while shooting 46% from the field last year. That statistic alone is a major upgrade from the bricklaying  averages of 39% that Jimmy “Bricks” Butler was putting up last year. To anyone that disagrees, let me add-on that 28% from the land of three that he shot as well. The advantages of Afflalo goes further than the offensive end. He is a capable defender that will fit well in Tom Thibodeau’s system. See everyone’s happy. Afflalo plays defense so that makes Thibodeau happy. He can hit shots in between commercial breaks, so that makes me happy. Maybe I can say this for once…”That dude can shoot!” Because I haven’t said it a lot in my tenure here at Pippen Ain’t Easy.

Obviously the Orlando Magic is in rebuilding mode and are  trying to build around the young talent of Victor Oladipo and Nikola Vucevic. Maybe the 28-year-old guard does not want to go through another losing campaign like last year. He has been in NBA rumors for quite a while now and he has an early termination option after next year. I think everyone knows the drill basically with the Kevin Love drama in Minnesota. Teams that know that players are going to opt out early, need to corral some assets while they can.

As of this writing, there are always things that have to be worked out when we deal with the front office of the Bulls.

1) Is it is true, will the Bulls pull the trigger?

The first thing that has to be done is a deal has to be worked out. If the Orlando Magic have any resemblance of common sense, a first round draft pick has to be considered in this deal maybe two. What if the Magic wants a player back from the Bulls? Who will the Bulls want to give up, considering they want a player  outside of the core group of Rose, Noah, Gibson, or Butler?

2) Why do the Chicago Bulls want this guy?

On the surface, the Afflalo deal looks like a good one. In my opinion, it’s a better, more cost efficient deal than Carmelo Anthony. He’s an outstanding three-point shooter, he’ll at least pretend to play defense and is a good second of third option in the offense. That is if they keep him. Another one of the 57,923 NBA rumors that are going around with this team is that the Bulls are acquiring him to do a three-way trade with Minnesota for Kevin Love.

3) Cash Rules Everything Around Me, C.R.E.A.M. get the money, DOLLA DOLLA BILLS Y’ALL!

It’s almost like Jerry Reinsdorf, John Paxson and Gar Forman were members of the WuTang Clan. I mean it did seem like WuTang had 553 members. The way the Bulls front office run their business, they must have co-wrote the song.

We can’t break down any moves of the Bulls with mentioning the bottom line with one question. How much?

Arron Affalo has two years on his contract with an early termination option which will almost certainly be exercised. Afflalo will earn 7.5 million dollars this season with a chance to earn 7.75 million dollars the next season.

With that being said, the Bulls are back in the same boat if this deal is done of leasing players for one year, doing what they  can and then watching the players move on to other teams. If the Bulls are watching every dime and decide to keep this guy after trading him, what makes you think the Bulls are going to give Afflalo the extension that he wants?

Finally, let’s talk the impact this deal would have on Carmelo Anthony. Let me make this simple and plain. It’s over. If the Bulls acquire Arron Afflalo, the Bulls in my opinion have decided to move on with the core players that they have and build on that. Which I feel is smart and have said so on numerous occasions. The Bulls lost in the playoffs because of lack of depth (or Thibodeau refusing to use it) which ran the top six players in the ground. That plus after Trevor Ariza threw D.J. Augustin’s game in the back of a 1954 Dodge De Soto, and drove off, no one else on  the Bulls could shoot straight.

Like I said before, this could be a case of using  Arron Afflalo as a trade chip for Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love. Umm I’m guessing no. Remember, one of those draft picks had to theoretically go to obtain Afflalo in the first place right? Why would Minnesota or New York want Afflalo and a middle first round pick? Doesn’t make sense.

Look Pippen Peoples, the 2014 NBA Draft is on Thursday. Hopefully everyone will see the method to the Bulls front office madness by then. Keep it locked to Pippen Ain’t Easy, the best choice for Bulls news, previews and reviews. It’s going to be a crazy week, trust me.