In what will be the theme of the week, the Kings sent John Salmons and Brad Miller to Chicago in a money saving move for Drew Gooden, Andres Nocioni and Michael Ruffin.
While Sacramento takes on the troublesome contract of Nocioni, they will save money on the deal as Gooden is an expiring and Miller will make $12.25M in 09-10, while Salmons is due almost $5.5M next season and $5.8M in 10-11.
Chicago's financial additions do not greatly jeopardize any of their potential plans for 2010 and they will be in the enviable position of having two of the best expiring contracts this time next year in Miller and Larry Hughes' $13.65M. They will be capable of absorbing any contract in the NBA should teams look to sell off pieces because of the economy or to get sufficiently under the cap for the 2010 summer.
If they do let those expiring deals fall off the books, they will have a core unit of Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and John Salmons, which should compare very favorably to any other team's existing pieces that are trying to lure LeBron/Wade/Bosh.
On the floor, Salmons also gives the Bulls a multi-dimensional true wing for the first time in several years and will make the potential loss of Ben Gordon this summer less devastating. He is an efficient scorer and has become a much better 3-point shooter, shooting 41.8% from beyond the arc this season. His age (29) makes his long-term presence unlikely, but the Bulls will be paying below market value on Salmons for his final prime seasons.
As far as Miller, his game has eroded over the past few years and a somewhat resurgent 07-08 has not carried over to this season. He fits into a niche the Bulls have needed, however, and is capable of an occasional big night still, as he did when he had 30 and 22 against the Warriors, but he's much closer to a 10 and five, 25 minute a night kind of player at this point in his career.
Nocioni has declined significantly since landing his big free agent contract, but can be an effective rotation player, especially for a team as untalented as the Kings.
Gooden was a player the Bulls were excited about when they did the Ben Wallace deal last February, but he has had an injured/down walk year. There is virtually no chance that the Kings would be a player to re-sign him this summer.
The circumstances- Chris Bosh being a pipe dream and Steve Kerr pulling Amare Stoudemire made this trade become Chicago's fallback, while the Kings clearly did not get offers that would have created such financial flexibility in all of their many talks centered around Salmons. The Bulls' odds of making the playoffs should now be better than 50-50 and the Kings aren't stuck with Miller until this summer or next February.
There is always the thought that making a deal on the eve of the deadline rules out the desperate teams and prevents a true steal from becoming possible, but credit to both for making wise moves and clearing out of the fray that will follow over the next few hours.
Grade for Chicago: B
Grade for Sacramento: B-