NBA Rumors: How the Chicago Bulls can sign Carmelo Anthony

Even if star point guard Derrick Rose returned at 100%, which seems highly unlikely at this point, the Chicago Bulls clearly need to add scoring to a team that already thrives on the defensive end.

That is why the Bulls are so often tied to New York Knicks’ forward Carmelo Anthony, who will likely become a free agent this summer.

Although the Bulls could have problems clearing salary, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders details what the Bulls can do to land Anthony this summer.

"The Bulls do have the option of using the one-time Amnesty roster cut on the final year of Carlos Boozer’s contract ($16.8 million) but even paying him to go away does not get the Bulls anywhere close to $22.5 million. It might get them to $16 million. The Bulls could try and trade away a contract like Mike Dunleavy Jr ($3.32 million) and get themselves to $19 million, but then the team is locked into Anthony, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson with little else.It is absolutely do-able, if the Bulls want to eat those costs, but Bulls sources have said from the beginning that they doubted ownership would approve paying Boozer $16 million to go away and then paying Anthony close to $100 million.If the Bulls could find a way to trade Boozer in a deal that returns Anthony, or Anthony would sign for something in the $15-$16 million range they would do that, but does Anthony really give Chicago a $21 million discount on a four-year deal?"

Of course, the Bulls could also give up one of their key pieces in a sign-and-trade, but that is not something they want to do.

Anthony averaged 27.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game last season.