The Chicago Bulls made a big move last night when they sent Luol Deng to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Andrew Bynum and three draft picks.According to Alex Kennedy of Hoops World, the Bulls are expected to cut Bynum, which will help the team save more than $15 million in salary cap and luxury taxes.
The Chicago Bulls are expected to waive Andrew Bynum at some point in the next three hours. Expect an official announcement soon.
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) January 7, 2014Sources say Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau was very against the team trading away Deng. Deng was one of Thib's guys, and one of the key members of the Bulls core in their run to the Eastern Conference Finals a few years back.
With the move, Bulls general manager Gar Forman and Thibodeau have now grown closer apart from each other in their relationship. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports says it's "easily the worst in the NBA."
As @KCJHoop reports on Gar Forman's dismissal of Tom Thibodeau's top aide, relationship between Bulls' GM and coach easily worst in NBA.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 1, 2013And it doesn't look like the Bulls are done yet in dealing. Carlos Boozer is probably going to be next.
It appears at this point, the Bulls are in a big rebuilding stage. Now, they are at the point where they will be looking to go after Derrick Rose's sidekick through free agency and/or the draft. But then again, we don't even know if D-Rose sticks around either maybe.
As for Thibodeau, it appears he could pull a Doc Rivers. He doesn't appear to be interested at all in a rebuild.
With that said, expect Thibodeau to want out pretty soon this year or in the offseason. And once he does, the New York Knicks are expected to make a run at him once they fire Mike Woodson, writes ESPN's Marc Stein.
It's going to be a rough road for Bulls fans this year.
