Chicago Bulls Sign 5 Year Deal With Carlos Boozer

The Chicago Bulls missed out on Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and likely LeBron James, barring a surprise tomorrow night. But all is not lost in the Windy City. They still have Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah. And now another All-Star-type player is going to join them.

According to Ric Bucher and many others, the Bulls have agreed to terms with Carlos Boozer on a five-year deal worth $80 million. That puts Boozer below the max-contract level, so Chicago will have room to sign another star or several more players before free agency is done. This team just got a heck of a lot better no matter what else happens in the coming weeks.

Boozer is not a perfect player, but few power forwards are as productive. He’s an excellent scorer down low and a tenacious rebounder. His biggest faults with Utah have come at the defensive end guarding bigger players, but with Noah at center, he shouldn’t be exposed as often on that end.

Several people, including the incomparable Brian Windhorst, think that this could help the Bulls’ chances with LeBron, but that’s only the case if James has not yet made a decision. If he were to renege on his initial choice, that would be a pretty serious case of cold feet, even though the Boozer signing has ultimately made the Bulls more attractive.

Plus, remember that James and Boozer were once teammates (for a season, at least), and likely have had some discussion this summer, even if they haven’t held any high-profile summits. In other words, the Boozer deal only changes the LeBron situation if LeBron and Boozer have not had any contact. And that seems extremely unlikely, even if this deal didn’t open up for Boozer until Bosh chose to play for the Heat. James has had enough control over his free-agent destination that he had to have known this was a likely scenario. A contingency plan had to have existed long before this deal became official.

This is also a key moment for the Jazz, who must enter next season without one of their top players. Luckily for Jerry Sloan and Co., they have several players ready to step up, including the ridiculously efficient Paul Millsap. But don’t sleep on the potential resurgence of Andrei Kirilenko, either. With Boozer gone, AK47 should get far more minutes at power forward, the position at which he reached an All-Star team before Utah signed Boozer. This might not be such a bad development for the Jazz.

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