
On twitter, there was a mention that Melo wasn't happy when Phil told the press about Melo needing to take a paycut before the start of free agency, as Phil thought that he could have Melo cave into taking less. Not sure how credible it is. On paper Bulls have the best roster that Melo should go to that can contend and beat the Heat in the weak East, on the Lakers, there wouldn't be enough defense to go around at all and at best Lakers might be a 5/6 seed AT best.

Not including the drafted rookies, and with just Kobe, Nash, Marshall, & Sacre on the roster, Lakers have 35 million in salary currently, with 28 million in cap space available. Lakers offered Melo the 4 year 97 mill max, his 1st year he would make I believe 21 mill, so than we would have 7 million left to spend, and use that to go over the cap to re-sign Pau and than sign a bunch of young and athletic players like last season to vet minimum deals and fill out the roster seems like the plan.