According to Adrian Wojnaroski of Yahoo! Sports the Chicago Bulls are in fact interested in trading Richard Hamilton to avoid paying the luxury tax. This is in line with a lot of the things I have written about deals the Cavaliers can be trying to pull off. My idea was a simple flip of Josh Selby for Richard Hamilton. It would save the Bulls about $6 million and keep them from being a repeater taxpayer in future years. In exchange, the Bulls could send us either their first round pick, or a Bobcats pick owed to them in the future. Wojnaroski, though, says the Bulls really don't want to give up picks to get out of the tax.
Obviously, I am not a General Manager, but if I ran the Bulls I would be willing to give up a first round pick to avoid the tax. With the heavy punishment coming down the line for repeat tax offenders, the flexibility this costs them moving forward will probably be more painful than losing a pick in the 20s. Their owner is notorious for being cheap, and has owned the team for decades. There is no reason to believe he is changing his stripes. Furthermore, Derrick Rose isn't getting them the title this season; there is no reason for them to be in the tax this year.
Anyways, I am kind of bitter, because I thought this was really one of my better ideas. It wouldn't be a fun trade for the Bulls to have pulled off with Cleveland, but I strongly believe it would have been smart.