Proud night to be a Bulls fan. Those guys are gutty and Thibs gets the most out of them. It will be sad to see Marco and Nate go next year if they Bulls don't pony up. Looking forward to more basketball Those guys deserved to win the series.
I don't think the Bulls can pony up much. They have like the MLE to split between them and then vet minimum deals is all they can do. I'd be surprised if Nate does't get offers of at least half of MLE. Marco is likely to turn into one of the better starting SGs in the league for someone else.
Most likely they have even less than that. It sure looks like they'll keep Boozer (smart move) for next season which means that they'll be firmly in luxury tax territory link and therefore only have the taxpayer's MLE of just over $3mil. Belinelli's 2012-13 contract is for $1.957mil and the Bulls can offer him up to 120% of this or a contract starting at $2.348mil without using the taxpayer's MLE. We all like to talk about how certain it is that some team is going to offer our guys a lot more than they're making now, but that's probably what Golden State fans said last season about Nate Robinson (Nate had a higher PER with GSW than he had with the Bulls), yet Nate signed a league minimum deal with the Bulls for this season that wasn't even guaranteed. As for Belinelli, he actually had a sub-par season statistically. His 10.4 PER is the lowest he's posted since his rookie season. His true shooting of .513 is also the worst he's put up since his rookie season. In fact, he was pretty much down across the board. I can't see why anyone would think he's going to be a hot commodity.
Belinelli as a starter getting 30+ minutes, puts up outstanding statistics. As a bench player, not so much. Case in point the last two games in the playoffs, where he sure seemed to come up big. 22 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists followed by 24 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists. Why would anyone think he's going to be a hot commodity? A team like Portland has cap space and no bench and would love to have Belinelli as a starter with Wes Matthews off the bench at SG/SF. Who'd have thought someone would give Eddie Robinson a big contract?
Those who think that Belinelli's stats as a starter with the Bulls will somehow wow NBA decision-makers are likely wrong. His pre-Bulls starter stats are better than his Bulls starter stats. Despite this fact, no team stepped up to offer him a starter role or starter money this season. It's illogical to think that his play this season will improve his market value. Not saying it's impossible, just illogical.
The Lakers need a starting SG. Dallas may be looking of Mayo signs elsewhere. He'd be a good fit in Utah, where Randy Foye isn't wowing anyone. That's only a few teams off the top of my head (already mentioned portland). When Rip and Kirk went down early in the season, Marco became starter. 23 points, 16 points, 22 points, 18 points, 16 points, 19 points, 13 points, 10 points, 22 points, 4 points (22 minutes), 15 points. 11 consecutive games, about 1/8th of the season. You really can't see why a team would want that in their starting lineup? A similar stretch toward the end of the season: 20 points, 21 points, 22 points, 11, points, 0 points (22 minutes), 13 points, 18 points For those 18 games, he averaged 15.7 points per game. 18 games is closer to 1/4 a season. He started another 9 that he didn't score so well. Like this game: http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201302280CHI.html 6 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals in 27 minutes of an 11 point win. I think NBA decision-makers would do much better analysis than you or I have done so far and would see: 1) Marco sucks off the bench, is unhappy coming off the bench, isn't a good role player off the bench 2) As a starter, he flourishes 3) The Bulls had no reason to play him - they're not going to want to pay him 1/2 MLE size deal going forward. No future. 4) The Bulls were insistent upon starting Rip Hamilton (45 of the 50 games he played) come hell or high water. 5) The Bulls wanted to play Jimmy Butler at SG, he is the future (and started from game 69 until the end of the season) You'd think the 15.7 points per game would be the kind of numbers he'd put up if you started him and left him alone. Among SGs, Kobe scored better than 15.7. Among guys who played PG and SG, Curry, Wade, Ellis, and Crawford scored better. Among guys who played SG and SF, Harden, DeRozan, JR Smith, George, Klay Thompson, Joe Johnson, and Batum scored better. That's less than half the teams he might not start for, but... Kobe's out, Smith and Crawford are 6th men, Curry is starting PG for the Warriors, and Batum is the starting SF for the Blazers.
I want to keep Nate, but I dont think we can afford him based on what the FO has done in the past. If we were the knicks, Lakers, Nets, Heat, that would be different.
I don't even think it's an issue of being "cheap." The guy's going to be a UFA, and the CBA limits what the Bulls can offer him since they're over the cap. The Bulls don't have bird rights or any other exception, that i know of, that would let them match someone else's offer if large enough. "large enough" isn't a really big contract by any stretch.
