After being left out in the cold by Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, John Paxson and GM Gar Forman have struck back in the LeBron sweepstakes, signing free agent power forward Carlos Boozer to a 5, year, $80 million contract according to ESPN.
Damn that's scary.
For those of you not in the know about Carlos Boozer, go look up his stats. He's a 20-point and 10-rebound a game forward who has dominating low-post moves. He's been playing with Derron Williams in Utah for the past few years, so he knows how to play with a premiere point guard. Tom Thibodeau already has a play in his offensive playbook: just steal Utah's pick-and-roll! Signing him to not quite max money means the Bulls have left themselves room for one max contract...
They may have lost out on a Wade/Bosh/LeBron super-team, but the Bulls are not quite out of the LeBron chase yet. Snagging Boozer means the big men LeBron may have preferred to team are in destinations other than Cleveland. If the King wants to win a title from an Eastern conference squad, his best chances are Miami or Chicago. The Cavaliers are an awful team, despite their solid/great regular season records. When Mo Williams or an aging Antawn Jamison are your second and third options, your team isn't very good.
Reportedly Boozer will extend a hand to James in the time remaining before LeBron's hour-long televised announcement special on ESPN. (Which is kinda silly.) Even if the Bulls don't land LeBron, they're only a piece or two away from being a major player in the east. A spot-up shooter like Ray Allen or Kyle Korver will spread out this offense and add some much needed perimeter play.
And now we play the waiting game...
Keywords: Carlos Boozer, Chicago Bulls, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, NBA
