As Korver's replacement, Belinelli had an OK season for the Bulls. He's clearly not the sharpshooter Korver is, but I think the fact that Belinelli's a much more versatile player than Korver served the Bulls well during this perpetually shorthanded season. While many local media guys seem to believe that Belinelli enhanced his market value this season, I don't quite get that. By most measures, Belinelli had an off year so I don't see some team giving him a big raise. While Belinelli does nothing extremely well, he does just about everything OK (this kind of makes him the opposite of the "one trick pony" that Korver is). The thing I really like about Belinelli is that he's not afraid...when the game's on the line, he's just fine with the ball in his hands. Personally, I hope the Bulls bring him back. Despite his meh numbers this season, I wouldn't mind seeing Belinelli get a 20% raise (allowed under the non-Bird exception). This said, and despite the fact that Belinelli performed best in a starting role, I don't see Belinelli as the Bulls' starting SG of the future.
We all watched the games, right? I think you look at the aggregate numbers and meh. I think you look at how he contributed from start of season through the playoffs and not so meh at all. Unlike CJ, who I would have kept!, who started out on fire and really sucked through the end of the season to have his stats end up worse than meh. You don't think he's going to be the starter, though I think he should be with Jimmy backing him and Deng up at SG/SF. I'm all for it if it reduces Kirk's role to a few minutes at backup PG. Though I'd really like to see someone with a long term future with the team get the chance. Like Teague. And this is a funny picture.
He had a good year for us and was a better fit for this team than Korver would have been. It's hard to see KK having the same sort of impact in the playoffs as Marco had. He's a good team guy but ultimately very replaceable. I'd be happy to take him back on the same contract and start him inbetween Lu and Derrick. Jimmy gets the bulk of the minutes as a backup SG/SF, but Marco gets the starting nod due to his shooting touch and ball handling ability. Play him the first 7 minutes of the 1st and 3rd quarters, and as a hot hand in the 4t. Next to Derrick I think he can be a very high TS%/low volume scorer who might be able to sniff 50%/40%/80% from the field. I don't think he's played himself into a bigger contract. He played to his historical averages, so I'm not sure why some team is going to offer him a much bigger contract than we did. Probably the most important change to the new CBA is that the market for journeymen really sucks. The surest way to hamstring your team is to be saddled with contracts for replaceable bench guys. So I actually think we can have Marco if we want him, and I think the Bulls will look for something better before they decide to give him a contract. But there's a good chance neither one is going to have any better options.
Count me in, bring him back. He is better than Korver in some things. He can hit the 3 as well. He did well for us, although I agree with Transplant it was not a 'great' year for him. It took him a while to get going.
Ive been wanting marco on the team for a while and he played pretty well for us after he got going. While Kyle is obviously the better career shooter, he's only one dimensional and was easily shut down/disappeared in the playoffs for us where Beli had some pretty big moments. I want him back, we need all the shooting we can get to put around Derrick
