Knicks confident but Bulls have moves 'teed up' to clear cap space for Carmelo Anthony
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While the New York Knicks continue to express confidence that unrestricted free agent Carmelo Anthony will re-sign with the club, the delay in his announcement has to have fans worried.
What should also worry fans is a Thursday night report that the Chicago Bulls, long thought to be the best basketball fit for Anthony, remain in the mix at this late juncture, according to a report from CBS Sports.
The Bulls are still under consideration for Carmelo Anthony, a person familiar with his thinking tells @CBSSports.
— Ken Berger (@KBergCBS) July 11, 2014
While the Bulls don't presently have the cap space to sign Anthony outright, they are reportedly ready to create the requisite space if Anthony gives them the go-ahead.
Carmelo Anthony's intentions have not been communicated to the Bulls, source says. But Chicago has cap-clearing moves teed up.
— Ken Berger (@KBergCBS) July 11, 2014
Step one would be using the amnesty provision on Carlos Boozer, clearing the $16.8 million owed to him off of the books. That still wouldn't be enough, however, and finding a home for Mike Dunleavy and Tony Snell by paying a team with cap space to take them on could be the next step.
If the Bulls made those moves, waived the non-guaranteed deals for Mike James, Louis Amundson and Ronnie Brewer and renounced cap holds to everyone but Doug McDermott and Nikola Mirotic, the Bulls would still be short of the max cap room, based on numbers from Sham Sports.
That means that a sign-and-trade or pay-cut for Anthony is probably required to make this work, unless the team is willing to sacrifice Taj Gibson in the process. You jump through these hoops, though, for a Derrick Rose-Anthony-Joakim Noah core.