Westerlund: 5 Thoughts On Bulls' Acquisition Of Dwyane Wade
By Cody Westerlund--
(CBS) The Bulls were at the center of the NBA universe Wednesday evening, reportedly agreeing to a two-year, $47.5-million deal with shooting guard Dwyane Wade to bring him back to his hometown. Here are some notes and observations on the significant deal for the Bulls.
1. Stunning is the best way to describe this move. After years of not attracting A-list free agents and just a few weeks after general manager Gar Forman expressed a desire for the team to get younger, the Bulls landed one of the most high-profile players on the market in Wade, a 12-time All-Star who has won three championships. While there will be plenty of talk about the 34-year-old Wade's fit, make no mistake: This addition makes the Bulls a much better team, assuming he remains healthy. He played in 74 games last season.
To clear room for Wade's large contract, the Bulls dumped the contracts of forward Mike Dunleavy to the Cavaliers and veteran point guard Jose Calderon to the Lakers in trades, according to reports. So viewed through one prism, they've replaced two players who weren't going to be central figures or big contributors next season with one who is expected to be just that. Wade averaged 19.0 points on just shy of 46 percent shooting last season.
Before free agency began, the talk was whether Chicago could even reach .500. Now, the Bulls are squarely back in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
The addition of Wade also lends a lot of credence to Forman previously calling the Bulls' offseason a "retooling" rather than the rebuild everyone felt like it was. Being competitive remains a primary objective for this organization.
2. The basketball fit of Wade with two-time All-Star Jimmy Butler and newly added point guard Rajon Rondo is a serious concern. All three of them are poor outside shooters. Butler's a 32.8 percent 3-point shooter for his career, while Rondo checks in at 28.9 percent and Wade at a 28.4 percent clip. More recently, Wade shot an awful 15.9 percent on 3-pointers last season.
On top of that, all three at times display ball-stopping tendencies. That doesn't align well with coach Fred Hoiberg's preferred system, which is predicated on spacing and, ideally, quicker ball movement.
Rondo is still a brilliant passer who sees the game in a manner few others can, and Wade and Butler have high-end ability to get to slice through defenses, get to the rim and finish strong or draw fouls. The Bulls should have confidence in adding playmakers, but they'll need every last bit of creativity and togetherness to get the offense humming, because the lane figures to be mucked up with defenders who sag off on the wings with the aforementioned trio on the floor.
3. Wade's presence will shift Butler over to small forward, which many believe is his best position.
Here's a quick look at the depth chart as of late Wednesday, with Dunleavy and Calderon on their way out.
PG: Rajon Rondo, Jerian Grant, Spencer Dinwiddie
SG: Dwyane Wade, Denzel Valentine, Tony Snell
SF: Jimmy Butler, Doug McDermott
PF: Nikola Mirotic, Taj Gibson, Bobby Portis
C: Robin Lopez, Cristiano Felicio
The power forward slot isn't set in stone like the other four starting positions, but with a dearth of shooting in the backcourt, it would make sense to start Mirotic there. Hoiberg gift-wrapped Mirotic a starting job last season at the expense of defense as he played alongside Pau Gasol. The experiment was largely abandoned by mid-Decemeber. This time around, Mirotic and Lopez would seem to complement one another better.
After seeing the struggles of Butler and Derrick Rose together last season, Hoiberg admitted late in the year that he was going to look into staggering their minutes more. With that in mind, it would seem like a good idea to implement a similar plan with Butler and Wade, who have overlapping skill sets. Doing so would also keep a primary playmaker on the floor at nearly all times.
4. The Bulls now sit right around the $94.1 million salary cap for 2016-'17. They still own a room exception of around $2.9 million to add another player on a roster that now sits at 13 players. After that, the veteran's minimum would have to be used to add a player.
Looking further ahead, the second year of Wade's deal is a player option, the Tribune reported. Assuming Wade remains in the picture for two years, the Bulls will have about $65 million committed to him, Butler, Lopez, Portis, McDermott, Grant, Felicio and Valentine heading into the 2017-'18 season. Rondo will also be owed about $14 million, but there are reportedly team protections on the second year of his deal that's not fully guaranteed, so it remains to be seen how the math plays out on that.
With the cap expected to jump to as much as $110 million, the Bulls would have room to add one maximum-salary player in summer 2017. Adding Wade has made it impossible to add two max-salary players next season without more significant trades, but that always seemed like a pipe dream anyway.
5. This should be stressed again: The signing of Wade is a departure from not only what the Bulls have said recently – that they want to get younger – but also from what Hoiberg wants to do.
With the caveat that it was college ball, Hoiberg's best teams have had an array of capable shooters. There also was little, if any, isolation ball. Butler and Wade have been known to get their fair share of isolation touches, and they're now the two best players on the team.
Simply put, the onus is now on Hoiberg to adjust to his personnel. The ability to do so is a hallmark of successful NBA coaches. Whether he can remains to be seen. We just know he'll find out under a microscope that's now brighter than anything we imagined just days ago.
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for CBSChicago.com and covers the Bulls. He's also the co-host of the @LockedOnBulls podcast, which you can subscribe to on iTunes and Stitcher. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
