The Chicago Bulls reportedly have no intention of trading Luol Deng this season, although they still have the option of using the Amnesty provision on Carlos Boozer. News of Deng staying off the trade block follows a report that Derrick Rose does not want to be part of a rebuild in Chicago.
Deng, whose contract expires in July, appears set to stay with Chicago for the season. The Bulls are adamant about not trading Deng despite the team's struggles with injuries, according to ESPN's sources.
"Deng is in the final year of a contract that will pay him $14 million this season, and the Bulls are facing a luxury-tax bill that could exceed $13 million. Some league executives believe that the Bulls, who'd never incurred a luxury tax until last year, may have an interest in offloading payroll ahead of the trade deadline," ESPN's Brian Windhorst wrote on Friday. "For now, though, that will not include Deng."
The Bulls and Deng were far apart from reaching an agreement on an extension earlier this year and must now wait until the summer to resume negotiations.
Another player at risk to leave is Boozer, who makes $15.3 million this season and is due $16.8 million the next. If the Bulls were looking to cut costs, the franchise could use its one-time Amnesty provision on the 32-year-old veteran after the NBA moratorium in July.
The possibility of returning to a new-look, rebuilding team doesn't sit well with Rose.
"Rose has told several confidantes that he is worried that the Bulls will start to let the team hit the skids by allowing key players to leave via free agency, forcing him to go through a rebuilding program that he wants no part of," Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News wrote on Saturday.
"Derrick is worried that the Bulls are going to lose what they have," a league source told Lawrence. "He doesn't want to go through rebuilding."
