Thoughts on a rumor

Rumor has it the T-Wolves will send Kevin Martin (3 yrs/$20m) to the Bulls for Mike Dunleavy (1 yr/$3.3m), Tony Snell (3 yrs/$4.5m rookie deal) and a 2nd round pick.  I kinda like this deal for both teams though I'm surprised the Bulls want to take back that much salary.

The Wolves will basically be trotting out a brand new team next year: they just traded for Anthony Bennett (PF) and Thaddeus Young (SF/PF), Andrew Wiggins (SG/SF) and Zach Lavine (SG) are rookies, they brought in Mo Williams (PG), Gorgi Dieng (PF/C) is still an unknown commodity, they haven't figure out what to do with Shabazz Muhammad (SG) and factor in that Nikola Pekovic (C) was basically injured all last year, that's all shiny new players to watch next year.  Bringing in Dunleavy and Snell would give them 10 dudes in entirely new roles for the T-Wolves this year.  The climate in which they signed Kevin Martin has changed completely and now his salary outweighs his potential production; flipping him for Dunleavy (SG/SF) makes long term sense and doesn't really diminish the output; Tony Snell (PG) could be a nice PG off the bench; and everyone loves 2nd round picks nowadays.  Dumping salary for players that can be useful is the ultimate win-win.

The Bulls have put together the best roster they've had in eons, adding Kevin Martin just gives them that much more scoring to round out the cold nights.  A return to form from Derrick Rose, an avoidance of dropoff from Pau Gasol, any growth from Jimmy Butler, and disaster-free rookie years from Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott should make the Bulls tough to beat in the East (especially considering they finished 3rd last year none of what I just listed above).  Martin is a good addition to the squad on the court, but I'm a little surprised they'd be willing to take back a 3-year deal, as that will limit their opportunities next summer and pretty well guarantee (a la the Pacers) that 2014-15's team will be cemented for 2015-16 as well.  Going forward they have all of those guys (except Butler) already signed for 2015-16 too (in addition to Taj Gibson and Kirk Hinrich).  Tough call for the Bulls: Martin is a nice fit on the court, but contract-wise I might rather have Dunleavy, Snell and options for next summer.  I'd like to think the thinking is: 'let's win now, worry about the money some other time' and I applaud that.  But sitting on my couch without team allegiances, I wonder if the future wouldn't look brighter without Kevin Martin (as the T-Wolves are hoping).