Chicago Bulls rumors: Resisting Carlos Boozer amnesty?

The Chicago Bulls have less than one week to use the NBA supplied amnesty provision on Carlos Boozer, but if Jerry Reinsdorf has his way Boozer will be sent out in a trade and not released. Why exactly the Bulls chairman feels such a way is unknown, but that seems to be the case.

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In recent weeks the Chicago Bulls have reportedly attempted to trade Carlos Boozer to a handful of teams and were said to have interest in sending him to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for Pau Gasol. Of course, that didn’t make a ton of sense for the Lakers and no such deal is likely to happen, especially after the proposed Jeremy Lin trade which will eat up a large portion of the Lakers available funds.

Regardless, Reinsdorf would prefer to not use the amnesty clause on Boozer according to ESPN’s Marc Stein.

The option for the Chicago Bulls to amnesty Carlos Boozer runs through July 16th. Doing so would allow them to remove his $17 million dollar contract from their books, though, the organization would still have to pay him even if he’s technically off their books.

Trading Boozer obviously makes the most sense for the Bulls considering they’ll be able to obtain some type of asset in exchange for the former Duke product. But given his age, average production, defensive woes and salary, teams aren’t going to be lining up at the door to take such a problem off Chicago’s hands.

Presumably, the Chicago Bulls will likely continue efforts to trade Boozer if they do not amnesty him.