It's midday July 3. Third day of free agency in the NBA, and the day on which LeBron will meet with the Bulls delegation in Cleveland. I'll be anxiously watching the news to see what rumor we can gleam from comments made by seemingly everybody. The Bulls appear to have had some positive developments yesterday when they met for a second time with Dwyane Wade who's now reported to be on the fence about Chicago or Miami. Another interesting tidbit is that Chris Bosh reportedly joined the Bulls and Wade for that second meeting. D-Wade is a great player, and he wouldn't make the Bulls a worse team if he joined them by any means, but I think LeBron is still the prize and best fit. Dwyane Wade is the ultimate combo guard, and most experts seem to agree he doesn't need to play on a team with a great creative point guard. I agree with those experts and think that Wade and Rose on the same team puts you in a position where you "waste" a portion of either player's maximum performance potential by having them on the floor at the same time.
Incidentally, I know that LeBron also handles the ball at times and definitely likes to distribute, but he doesn't have to have the ball to play his game and is at least as good away from the ball. As such, I kind of feel that if you put Rose and LeBron on the same roster you have a chance to multiply the talents of both with Rose handling the ball most often but LeBron giving you a hugely different look from time to time. A D-Wade/D-Rose combo would be hard to defend, but a LeBron/D-Rose combo would be even harder to defend as far as I'm concerned. That's all ignoring the defensive advantages that I believe LeBron offers over D-Wade.
The Bulls have also reportedly met with David Lee and Carlos Boozer. Both a talented offensive power forwards who rebound well and have defensive problems. Both would be decent fits in Chicago and probably command less than a maximum deal. I believe Boozer (as much as I enjoy watching him at times) is a lesser player and injury prone to boot so I don't know that I want him regardless of what develops with Bosh. Bosh, I think, is the obvious prize for low-post scoring but I think he wants to get paid so a sign-and-trade is probably required. I do believe the Bulls are fairly well positioned to make a sign-and-trade but I think that if it doesn't work out David Lee would be an excellent fall-back option. Rose-James-Lee is only a little less attractive than Rose-James-Bosh as long as Joakim Noah is still on the roster to do all the dirty work in the paint.
Anyway, it should be a lot of fun as it unfolds, and I'm still hoping for my "ultimate" outcome of Bosh and LeBron joining the Bulls along with another free agent to handle outside shooting duties (Mike Miller seems like an excellent potential fit)... Stay tuned, or whatever.
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