my take on the Pippen situation

["Jeff Tepper" <jaytee@itasoft.com>]

I'm with the rest of you who think that this deal isn't a good idea, and
the reasons have already been given by most of you.  On the surface it
doesn't make sense to trade for him because of his age, but let me propose
two reasons why it may not be such a horrible idea.

1) if getting Pippen is just trade bait.  Pippen would be a very attactive
to a team that is in the running for a championship.  I guess that this
isn't such a probable idea, because if the Bulls could get something good
for Pippen from another team then they would have already done so and
wouldn't be talking to Boston.

2) the trade would free up the salary cap room in 97-98 that we would
otherwise have invested in whoever we would take at 3 and 6.  With the 3
and 6 combined that would be about 3 or 4 million a year that we could put
twords one of the good free agents in the 97-98 free agent class.  Then we
could resign Pippen for whatever he wants and only the 2.25 million he
stands to make next year would count twords the salary cap due to the Larry
Bird rule that says that you can sign your own free agents for the value of
their current contract (which i believe is 2.25 million in Pippen's case). 
What Pitino wants is cap flexibility for free agents next year.  Without
having 2 players from this draft (who could possibly turn out to be busts)
signed for 3 years, our cap situation for next year looks decent.

I still don't like the deal, and if it were up to me i'd tell chicago to
forget about it, and take Van Horn and McGrady at 3 and 6.  But i do have
faith in Pitino.  If he thinks that either of these two options would be
better for the team than drafting at 3 and 6 then i'll stand behind him.

Jeff