My biggest question after the first three weeks of the season isn’t about Derrick Rose’s health, our shaky rebounding or Thibodeau’s insistance on playing our starters extended minutes. It’sWHY DID WE NOT EXTEND JIMMY BUTLER!?!?!?!?!?!

I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of a plausible explanation for the Bulls’ refusal to meet Jimmy’s contract requests, and I think I’ve found it. The answer is money of course!

I’m not here to beat the “Bulls are cheap” drum, that analysis is lazy and over-done. This isn’t about frugality, it’s about maximizing your spending.

The luxury tax threshold for this season is $76,829,000; while this is projected to rise nobody knows by how much, if at all it will.

Let’s take a look at the Bulls’ salary cap information for next season (all numbers courtesy of shamsports.com):

Derrick Rose $20,093,064 Joakim Noah $13,900,000 Taj Gibson $8,500,000 Pau Gasol $7,448,760 Nikola Mirotic $5,543,725 Kirk Hinrich $2,854,940 Doug McDermott $2,380,440 Tony Snell $1,535,880 E'Twuan Moore $1,015,421 Cameron Bairstow $845,059 Rip Hamilton* $333,333 Total $64,425,622

*When the Bulls cut Rip they used the stretch provision which spread his remaining salary out over three years.

Add in the cap holds for Mike Dunleavy Jr. ($4,324,106) and Jimmy Butler ($5,021,870) and you’re still below the luxury tax ($76,829,000) at $73,771,598. Like I stated earlier however this isn’t about frugality, it’s about maximizing the Bulls’ spending power.

In order to be eligible to use the full Mid-level Exception ($5,305,000 in 2014), a team must be below the luxury tax threshold after its use. With the addition of the full MLE the Bulls would stand at $79,076,598, or $2,247,598 over the current luxury-tax level.

But there’s still hope.

Between the 2013-14 season and the current one, the luxury tax threshold jumped over $4,000,000. If a similar increase occurs this summer, the Bulls will still be under the luxury tax threshold following the use of the MLE, giving them access to utilizing the exception and adding another important piece.

What does all this have to do with Jimmy Butler?

Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY SportsIf the Bulls had signed him to an extension his new salary figure (presumably $12+ million) would have counted against next year’s cap, all but eliminating the possibility of using the Mid-level Exception. By holding off however, they will be able to add a player for around $5 million then still re-sign Jimmy Butler.

With how confident Jimmy was after the deadline passed for signing an extension that he’d still remain in Chicago I have to believe the Bulls and Jimmy got on the same page regarding this plan. Now excuse me while I got plot all available Mid-level Exception targets this coming off-season.