Bulls deal Salmons to Bucks for Warrick and Alexander

In a move with major ramifications for their ability to sign someone from the most heralded free-agent class in NBA history, the Bulls have agreed in principle to trade John Salmons' and his potential gum-on-the-shoe player option to the Bucks for the expiring contracts of Kurt Thomas and Francisco Elson.

So John Salmons is gone, likely for Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander,

Milwaukee has four expiring contracts available and any combination of two players would work in this deal.

Early reports had the Bulls receiving veteran big men Kurt Thomas and Francisco Elson from the Bucks. Later in the night, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that power forward Hakim Warrick and seldom-used small forward Joe Alexander were headed to the Bulls.

It’s also possible the players are yet to be determined. It’s my understanding the Bulls want the big men as replacements if they end up dealing Brad Miller. Warrick didn’t play at all against Houston on Wednesday, but Kurt Thomas did.

John Hollinger
(1:27 PM)


Coming shortly ... I'm going to need to exit and post my trade grades. Before I go, two pieces of news to share. First, one tidbit that went unreported in Salmons deal is that Bucks got rights to swap first-round picks with Bulls, top-10 protected.

The Chicago Bulls traded John Salmons to the Milwaukee Bucks for Joe Alexander and Hakim Warrick (pronounced Ha-keem). In addition, Chicago traded the Bulls' regular second round draft choices in 2011 and 2012. Also, Milwaukee has the option in NBA Draft 2010 of switching first round picks with Chicago, so long as Chicago's first round pick is not a top 10 selection.