NBA Trade Rumors: Chicago Bulls acquiring Carmelo Anthony deemed a long shot
By Josh Hill
The Chicago Bulls are suffering through a terribly mediocre season, and that has fans looking ahead to next year and what the team can do in the offseason to make sure that these kinds of seasons don’t happen again. While the primary focus of the Bulls will be to bring over Nikola Mirotic in the offseason, many are starting to believe that Carmelo Anthony could be in play for the Bulls.
A report over the weekend from Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Melo was leaning towards the Bulls when it comes to where he wants to sign in free agency this summer, but Chicago Tribune reporter K.C. Johnson is cautioning fans not to read into that too much.
According to Johnson, it is indeed possible that Melo could sign with the Bulls, it just looks to be a long shot at actually happening.
"One issue is even if the Bulls use the amnesty provision onCarlos Boozer, they won’t have anywhere close to enough salary-cap space to offer Anthony a maximum contract. It would take the Bulls making go-for-broke moves like they did in 2010, when they traded Kirk Hinrich into Wizards’ salary-cap space and took nothing in return for a run at LeBron James and Dwyane Wade."
Bulls fans went through this same song and dance when Dwight Howard was looking for a way out of Orlando, and Chicago showed no interest in pursuing him. They’ll likely be in the conversation to sign Melo, but as any Bulls fan will tell you, the team just doesn’t spend that kind of money even if it has to.