mudderfudder77

Closer to home - I'm surprised how close he and his former teammate are statistically. B-R Comparison

All Star voting is, yet again, a joke. Yi 3rd among forwards? JJ 9th among guards - 3 behind Ridnour? RIDNOUR? Devin Harris 10th? Hedo ahead of Granger?

I think its 10.5%

As many as 18 teams could have the cap space to sign 1 max FA in 2010.

Its a shame Al can't play against my Bulls pathetic front line every night. God did he look beastly in that game.

He played with Tyson Chandler. And don't be fooled - Curry is a waste.

Curry has 2 yrs at 20 million, plus a player option for a third year at 11.2 million. He's also been a net negative for every team he played for. It's been 7 years and the verdict is in, Eddy isn't very good. And for all the offensive production he gives you, he negates that with turnovers, his aversion to defense, and his atrocious rebounding.

LOL... Memphis isn't signing anyone else. Hell - Atlanta should be thanking Memphis for getting this done and at such a reasonable contract.

Compared to what the others in his class signed for - this contract is a steal. They better match this as soon as they get the paperwork. For their sake, for Josh's sake, and for the fan's sake.

Al measured at 6'9.75" in shoes at the pre-draft camp.

He actually wants more than Deng got - he wants to be the highest paid player on the team, which also means he wants more than Larry Hughes got in his outrageous contract. Gordon will either be signed and traded or he'll play out the QO and leave next year.

Yes, but J Smith also has a significantly higher usage rate. 23.6 vs. 15

And completely ignore the fact that they play in the Western Conference? It was a 13 game difference - Denver was a 50 win team - in the Western Conference. The records aren't even comparable. Oh, and Atlanta went, what, 15-18 with Bibby?

In professional sports it sure as hell is - at least if they want to keep their job it is. Now obviously there is a line, but lets not act like Pro Sports front offices even closely resemble the offices here on Clark and Adams.

So you've never been recruited for a job? Because I surely have, and that doesn't come close to level of recruitment involved in professional sports. You think Elton Brand had to call Philly? Or Baron Davis call the Clippers? Deng sure as hell didn't go groveling to Paxson - he made them come to him. Just like Okafor did. And Monta.

I can only laugh when people try to draw parallels between professional sports and any other business. They don't have close to the same rules. And when a sports team does try to run its offices like a corporation (see the bears in the late 80's and 90's) failure seems surely to follow.

According to Larry Coon's FAQ - if Smith signs the QO, the earliest he can be traded is Dec 15th and he would have to agree to the trade. Once agreeing to the trade Smith would lose all Bird rights. He could only re-sign with the traded team if they had cap room or used MLE/LLE/etc. He would be an unrestricted FA without any Bird Rights at the end of the season. I don't know how much value he would have in that case.

Why wouldn't he trust a guy who couldn't take the time to meet with him? Who offered a contract and then told him he'd have to wait to sign it. Who told him to go get a better deal and then said they weren't going to do a trade? Why wouldn't Childress be blindly loyal and accept the word of a man he had never met? Accepting a handshake deal would have made me question Childress' Stanford education.

If only NBA math worked like that. Utah lost to the Lakers and so did the Spurs - so Atlanta is better than both of them? And the Lakers?

Statistically it's Iverson and it isn't very close. Iverson: FG% .458 P/40 25.3 R/40 2.8 A/40 6.8 TS% .567 Ast 21.4 TO 8.9 Usg 25.4 PER: 20.92 Johnson FG% .432 P/40 21.3 R/40 4.4 A/40 5.7 TS% .535 Ast 20.1 TO 9.4 Usg 24.8 PER: 17.34

So you're saying Childress is the reason J Smith was shooting threes?

I'd argue that he showed a tremendous amount of intelligence and maturity by not accepting a "handshake deal" from a guy he never met with.

The max for raises works both ways - meaning the CBA allows a contract to have a 10.5% increase or decrease each year (I believe its the same both directions, but I'm not 100% sure). The last few years the Bulls have elected to sign FA's(Hinrich, Wallace, Nocioni - sort of) to contracts that decrease so that when Deng, Gordon, and others were eligible their contracts would not push the Bulls into the Lux tax. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Dengs new deal is done in the traditional sense of a 10.5% escalation each year - so that they have enough to sign Gordon to the qualifying (or a little above) without going into Lux Tax.

Yes. Short answer, no. But does anybody really? Seriously though, 2005-2006 Deng easily deserves that, 2006-2007 Deng not so much. The Bulls offered 5 for 57 last year, and Deng declined. This offer is only roughly less than a million a year more than that one - so its not that much difference. The Bulls couldn't afford to lose Deng - he's one of the most respected Bulls, and a fan favorite. Additionally hes only 23, so he's still got some room to improve hopefully. I would have liked to see him get Kevin Martin money, but what are you going to do?

Oh, and FWIW, looks like Deng will be resigning for 6yrs 70million.