RZZZA

The way I understand it is that The Bulls offered the Grizzlies a sign and trade and it didn't work out. The only way they could get him was through a S&T. And we all know the luck the Bulls have had working out trades with the Grizzlies...

I'll just copy pasta it "O.J. Mayo appears a longshot for Bulls Yes, Mayo and Derrick Rose are buddies and they’re both part of the same star-studded offseason workout group that trains in Los Angeles. Unless Mayo elects to accept a pay cut while taking the Bulls’ long-term potential into account, however, Chicago doesn’t appear to be his landing spot. As it stands, the Bulls would likely have a shot to acquire Mayo if they choose not to match the lucrative offer sheet Omer Asik will soon sign with the Houston Rockets, leaving them with the full mid-level exception at their disposal. It would be unfair to expect Mayo to take anything less than that exception – worth around $5 million annually – but even that proposal might not be enough to ink him to a contract. The Suns had freed up approximately $8-9 million in salary cap space before claiming the recently-amnestied Luis Scola on Sunday. Then, they gave themselves some relief to remain in the hunt for Mayo, Courtney Lee and Shannon Brown by waiving Josh Childress under the amnesty clause. Given the fact that Phoenix will almost assuredly be able to offer Mayo a bigger, better deal than the Bulls – as well as a run-and-gun style that’s conducive to scoring and potentially a larger role – the Suns are seemingly the frontrunners for him. Nevertheless, the question begs: Could the Bulls work out a sign-and-trade with the Grizzlies? They have reportedly dangled Rip Hamilton and his expiring $5 million deal in trade talks, but it is hard to imagine that a team would want to take on the 34-year-old who looked fragile and had unproductive stretches a season ago. " "Could the Bulls have really had Mayo? I still have my doubts that O.J. Mayo is worth the 10+ million a year I thought he would make in the NBA this summer, but what I never had any doubts about was whether he was worth a one year deal the size that Kirk Hinrich had or a three year deal at just over the MLE. Some of these issues are timing, but in an ideal Bulls off-season, they trade Kyle Korver to Atlanta and take O.J. Mayo from Memphis in a sign and trade back. Of course Mayo would have had to agree to a 3/19 deal vs the 2/8 with the second year being a player option that he did. Assuming he feels he'll get 10 million a year next season, he could ultimately have upside of 3/24 over the first three years instead of 3/19, of course his downside is 2/8 vs 3/19, so it would have been a pretty solid move for him to take the 3/19. The Bulls could have sent John Lucas to Memphis as well in a sign and trade for the minimum with cash to cover his salary with an agreement in place that the Grizzlies waive him [though then Lucas would have the prospect of some other team waiver claiming his deal, so those details would need to work out] in order to raise the offer to Mayo up to 3/23 which would effectively give him as much upside as what he's likely to achieve on his short one year deal while guaranteeing him more money. In short, it could have worked out, and the Bulls could have kept Mayo long term if they signed him using the S&T. If they signed him to the one year + player option deal Dallas did the upside is much smaller. Still better than what we did, but we wouldn't be able to retain him long term."

Well, after typing in "O.J. Mayo Bulls" into Google, I've found a few more likely scenarios for why the Bulls didn't land Mayo beyond "They wanted Kirk instead", since that is patently ridiculous on its face.

Something complex went on there for sure, I doubt its as simple as saying "They wanted Kirk instead"

Why didn't they pursue Mayo in the first place is my question, I know they wanted him badly. They were prepared to trade Brewer for him a few years ago I guess its probably because they expected him to command a larger salary than they were prepared to give. Then they sign Kirk, then lo and behold Mayo signs for an amount they could have afforded

There's just no way the Bulls would pass up on OJ Mayo to sign Kirk, something else happened that prevented the Bulls from signing Mayo. I would bet a million dollars on it.

What were the reasons the Bulls didn't get OJ? I remember we tried but it didn't work out for some reason

Admittedly I don't watch Love nearly as much as I watch Boozer but I was under the impression that he has a similar lack of defensive instincts as Boozer. It helps that he's younger and maybe he can still learn

Dwight would fit a lot better in Thibs' system though. Love might get the Carlos Boozer treatment in the 4th because of his lack of defense.

That's the same thing I heard about Dwight. He's Derrick's friend, they're Adidas buddies! Finding videos and quotes in the media in an attempt to convince themselves that Dwight to Chicago could happen. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice...the fool can't get fooled again.

Isn't if funny how little it takes from the SG position to excite Bulls fans? Marco is a great shooter but he can also handle the ball a little and drive from the top of the key. We were even using him to set up the offense a few times in the past few games which I liked a lot. Giving the defense something they haven't seen before. It's like, wow, a SG doing SG things. I'm amazed.

Oh noez, not another big target chase. Dwight might not re-sign in L.A. either, are we gonna have to go through all that again? *sigh* What are the chances that the Bulls lure a big time player to come to the Bulls? I don't want to get my hopes up again

His injuries worry me, throwing a lot of money at one guy is risky. Ryan Clady is also going to be on the market.

I remember last season when Bears fans wanted us to throw a ton of money at Mario Williams Or Nmandi Asomghua, remember him?

I'm not certain of the wisdom of throwing a lot of money at one position when the Bears have many positions of need. The interior of that line right now is not good either, and really hasn't been that good the entire year. Do you recall Jay stepping into a nice comfy pocket much this season? I've seen the middle get pushed back a lot which results in jay having to dance around and throw off his back foot.

I agree that DL was a need at the time, Lovie's defense depends on pressure from the front 4 and we weren't getting that pressure last year. This year, when everybody was healthy, we had one of the best front 4 rotations in the league. And that included contributions from guys like Shea One of the problems is that we have so many needs and just not enough ways to fill them all.

For all the people complaining about the Shea pick, let me just remind you that Emery also took alshon jeffery who before his injury was leading all rookie Wr's in yards and tied for most TDs with Stephen Hill. He may well be the BEST rookie WR in the league. So I'll take that. And who knows, Shea might still be good.

But Tice loves Webb, he never treated him as if he was crap. He goes on and on about his size and athleticism and potential.

I'll take an average offense now, aren't we ranked near the very bottom this year?

exactly though, our backups are better than our starters in many cases. I can't justify or explain that.

He's giving plenty of input on the type of players he wants. Webb is his project, and has been for years. Webb is also one of the worst starting LTs in the NFL, and has been for years. did you see Webb get beat yesterday? He's going inside and allowing a free release on rushers from the outside. It was turrible.

Consider this: Our starters on the Oline were TERRIBLE at pass blocking. Then a few of them go down due to injuries and we're forced to put some backups in, suddenly our Oline is slightly better at pass blocking. explain that. Because frankly, that s*** mystifies me.

I really don't believe that he's given zero input on who to put on this line.

I really think Tice needs to be blamed for that. The Oline is his baby, and it's an ugly baby. We have a bottom 5 Oline every year.

I think our offense looked much crisper under Martz. Maybe someone could find the stats to prove my point, I'm in a bit of a rush right now, but at least Jays individual statistics bear this out. And for all of Tice's talk of protecting the QB he has not been able to do it any better than Martz did. He's got 31 sacks now. Last year at 7-3 Jay was sacked 21 times.