“Look, we’re set to pay the luxury tax!,” the Chicago Bulls wanted everyone to hear. They wanted to remind that, even after it was assumed that star guard Derrick Rose was set to miss half or even the entire 2012-13 season as he returned from an ACL tear, that the franchise was willing to take on more money in order to keep the team’s fortunes afloat. And even with Rose still possibly months away from returning, the squad has done well to develop a defensive identity around a batch of new players, and eke out a 14-10 record.

Of course, because these are the Bulls, not everything can be done in admirable ways. It’s true that the team spent money in the summer, but they also cut contracts, declined options, and traded key players away for absolutely nothing. All while signing one of the strangest contracts of the summer – a two-year, $8 million deal for front office favorite Kirk Hinrich, bidding against absolutely nobody, strangely constructed outside of the sign-and-trade settings that could have saved the team money (Chicago dealt Kyle Korver to Atlanta soon before, for absolutely nothing in return that will ever be utilized by the team), and put the franchise in a locked-in hard cap position that would have prevented them from even signing minimum salaried players for the first part of the season.

Now, the team is talking to any local reporter that will listen as they point out that guard Nate Robinson could be waived before the start of the 2013 calendar year. Nate, you might recall, is the player that nailed five three-pointers in Tuesday’s impressive win over the Boston Celtics, a player that has kept the Bulls in several games and eventual wins this season. K.C. Johnson has the initial report:

The Bulls signed the veteran guard to a deal that doesn't become fully guaranteed until Jan. 10. That means they can waive Robinson with no penalty any time before that date, an option that always has been under consideration internally.



[Rookie Marquis] Teague's development, not to mention Derrick Rose's expected return, could make Robinson expendable.

Johnson also points out that “solid play when given extended minutes” from Teague could make this a workable option for Bulls brass. And while we’re huge fans of K.C.’s and think he’s great at what he does, Teague has been far from solid when given extended or limited minutes. Though he played well in Saturday’s home win over Brooklyn, Teague has shot 3-10 in two other games that he’s worked double-digit minutes in. During the win over Boston on Tuesday it was Teague’s work in garbage time that allowed Boston to leak out and make what was a 20-point cliff from Boston look like a reasonable 11-point loss.

Put it this way – by all rational and advance measures, Kirk Hinrich has had another miserable year on the offensive end. And by looks or production or some combination of the two, Teague isn’t ready to even take over Kirk’s minutes. And dumping Nate to bring in Teague should least of all occur because of Derrick Rose’s “expected return,” because if Bulls brass are trying to get him back on the court by Jan. 10 then they should be court-martialed by military police.

This has nothing to do with development or not enough minutes to go around, though. These are the Chicago Bulls. They’re over the luxury tax, they have about two months left to figure out a way to chip some $3.2 million off of their payroll so as to avoid it (teams only pay the tax if they’re over it when the season ends, and the trade deadline is in late February), and with the injured Rip Hamilton unable to showcase his skills as year-long trade bait, cutting Robinson is a way toward that end.

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