Chicago Bulls: what are the non Carmelo free agent options?

Happy Carmelo Anthony visits Chicago day. This isn’t the 2010 NBA free agent summer of love, but it’s still a great “silly season.” I truly get into this aspect of the league way more than the actual games. I love the business/transaction part of the NBA. As predictable and boring as this year’s NBA Finals, and Conference Finals were, my feelings are in the opposite for this year’s free agency period.

So if Melo isn’t coming….then what?

Pau Gasol is the main target. He has a meeting set up with the Bulls already.

Wilson Chandler is right up there too. Here’s more on that. 

Lance Stephenson could make the most sense and fit in nicely. We explored this idea in-depth back in the winter.

It was thought that Nikola Mirotic is coming over this summer, not next. Everyone jumped on that rumor this past weekend. However, the Bulls still aren’t sure that’s really going to happen.

-Kevin Love is just a pipe dream. That’s not happening. And to be frank, if the Bulls whiff on ‘Melo, then it could be big trouble. This isn’t 2010 when the Bulls had all that cap space open. They won’t likely be able to give anyone a max contract this time out.

Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports and Yahoo! The Postgame. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world. Banks has been featured in numerous media outlets including NFL.com, Forbes, Bleacher Report, Deadspin, ESPN, NBC, the History Channel and more. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)