Left at the altar again!

I am not arguing whether Rice is better than Fizer or not. But the current team + Rice could have contended for a playoff spot. Now we are left with current team + $7.5M. If we don't use it on somebody, it is not going to help the team (Reinsdorf will just pocket it). Using it on Rice or Joe Smith (if available) would at the least provide some trade baits for future manuvers.

Anyway, my beef is with players and agents using the Bulls as leverage and breaking verbal commitments. It is ironic that Falk had to use Krause even after his earlier criticism of him in the Miles issue. Krause falling for it again is even more pathetic.

I t si still obvious that Krause plans on doing something though, i mean think about it.

1) They waive Hawkins

Krause is done, he just doesn't know it yet.

Actually no. They don't gain even a nickel of cap space by waiving Hawkins. Since his contract is guaranteed, they don't gain cap space until after next season when his contract runs out either way. I think that they just waived him as a favour to Hersey after Krause realized that he had virtually no trade value unless he wanted to take an even longer contract back in return.

They weren't under contract anyway, right?

This is only partially true. Supposedly the rookie's salaries of the 1st round picks are counted against the cap the moment they're drafted, but there is still some sort of cap advantage to delaying their signing.

But something is bound to happen. The Bulls only have 8 signed players on the roster right now.

Thanx Larry. I didn't think about the Charlotte thing as most of the released players with big contracts from the past never signed with anyone else. (Greg Minor, BJ Tyler etc..)

*That* is Larry's gig.

Read the report below from NBAtalk. it explains why Krause made these moves.

And then 2 days later Falk has the gall to blast the Lakers organization for their ethics. Among other things, he said that the Lakers purposely underused Rice to lessen his value and didn't come through on promises made to Rice when he was acquired. Classic. I guess Rice should have been the go-to guy ahead of Shaq and Kobe. Maybe then they would have won the championship.

And Falk never explained why the Lakers would possibly want to lessen the value of one of their players.

And I guess he was referring to Rice being on the bench too much, but isn't playing time the coach's decision?

Larry Coon University of California

The NBA Salary Cap FAQ:

I believe the promises he is talking about involved commitments to sign Rice to a long term deal at big bucks instead of picking up his option for one year at $7 million.