In news that's been coming for a while, Orlando Magic General Manager Otis Smith announced today that the team has opted to match Chicago's offer sheet to J.J. Redick, who will remain with Orlando under the terms of the offer sheet contract. After a week of internal strife, Orlando have decided that it's worth paying $14 million to keep their backup shooting guard.
Bugger.
Whilst initially somewhat sour at the offer, I adjusted to it and began to hope it happened. The Bulls were willing to overpay Redick to get him, because they figured he was the best fit for their needs on the free agent market. And I agree with that.
Unfortunately, however, it seems that they couldn't overpay enough.
The remaining free agent shooting guard crop is not pretty. The best players on it - Dwyane Wade, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, Mike Miller, Anthony Morrow and Redick - have all gone. Manu Ginobili never joined it. John Salmons never made it beyond the first half hour of free agency before he was off the table. The remaining list now reads, essentially; Ronnie Brewer, Marquis Daniels, Keith Bogans, Rodney Carney, Devin Brown and Larry Hughes. A pretty awful list, but those are our pickings now.
Failing that, we're either starting Kyle Korver at two guard, or going the trade route. A breakdown of backup possibilities will follow shortly.
Filed under: Free Agency
Tags: Bugger, chciago bulls, free agency, J.J. Redick, orlando magic
Bummer is right I was getting used to the thought of Reddick starting at the 2. Let's see what our backup plan is. Hopefully we have some trade talks in the works b/c that list of SG FAs isn't starting caliber material.
Jerry Sloan believes Brewer is starting caliber, as he has pretty much been a starter his entire career and has been a starter on playoff teams.
What do you know that Jerry Sloan doesn't?
Also, Derron Williams seems to be a very big fan.
I believe the English phrase is "bugger".
We should go after Barnes and Brewer. I for one am happy the Reddick deal fell through because with Korver we don't need Reddick. We need a decent wing defender SG/SF and Barnes can be that guy. I hope for backup PG we talk to Carlos Arroyo, I liked him in Int'l play but I don't think he's gotten much of a chance in the NBA.
While we need a decent starting SG, I rather us go after a defender like Barnes especially with TT. Brewer is young and has good size and athletism so I think TT could do wonder for him.
I'm all for a young project at SG since we are a young team and have a good nucleus already with Rose/Noah/Gibson.
I don't know why Mr. Happy is so against JJ. I really want him to show us what he can do. He lost 25 lbs and is already very athletic and has a strong frame so I have a lot of hope in him already. He's more of a SF then SG, but I could see him bothering the defending the better SG if we can't get Barnes that is more of a defensive specialist. I just love Barnes hustle and can see him work with a awesome hustle in Noah! I like this young and blue collar team! I rather go with a team like that...04' Pistons rather then Pre Madonna Lakers or now the Magic "Dream Team".
GO BULLS!!!!
Really JJ just needs to cut down on the TOs and he will be fine. His shot is improving and he is athletic. If we could just develop some of the talent we already have we should be fine.
Sucks.
I am disappointed that we lost Redick. We are now down to the scrap heap. The main problem now is we can't seem to use all this cap space for good use unless Kahn from Minnesota wants to help us out.
We missed out big time on Anthony Morrow. That would have been a great deal(12 mil/3 yrs)....
This is a big miss by the FO ....Unless they can trade that cap-space for a decent SG, then this off season was a little bit of waste. Boozer was a good starting piece and Korver a great bench piece. If we have to trade Taj or JJ, we are losing a good young piece when we didn't use any draft picks this year.
I think the best solution is try for a trade and if it doesn't work out, sign some one/two from the scrap heap and wait for the trade deadline.
Boozer is a bit more than a starting piece he is a top 5 PF. His prescence helps us make a big jump(interior scoring/interior passing). Plus pick-and-rolls w/him and D Rose should be deadly. This isn't a wasted off-season by any means...
TRADE:
The Bulls need to go get the two Memphis kids, Ronnie Brewer and Sam Young.
Signing Ronnie Brewer alone, still leaves the Bulls thin at SG.
I think we're gonna end up with Keith Bogans and Ronnie Brewer. Then i think we'll sign some players from the summer league squad. Bogans really isn't that bad. When Bruce Bowen retired he said that Keith Bogans was as good as a defender as him if not better, that's why the Spurs signed him. He's said to be a Thibs favorite for his defense so it wouldn't surprise me if he's on the roster.
M.O.N.,
You have to realize that Bogans and Brewer are both DEFENSIVE guys.
I have no doubt that the Bulls will get one of them, but I doubt they land both.
My guess is they end up with Brewer. I hope Young comes with him.
The problem with a trade is that we dont have many assets to get someone good.
JJ isnt going to get anything signifigant, our picks are high so they dont count, and Taj has value but not enough.
We might as well go the short term route with Roger Mason and BRewer and hope to get a steal in the draft or something.
I'm curious about Richard Jefferson. He's a FA. It seems no one has spoken about him I no he's listed as a Small Forward, but hasn't he played the 2 guard position in his career? He's not a shooter but he's a scorer that can space the floor. A trade possibility might be Rodney Stuckey of Detroit. He is a big guard, can score, but is only a career 41% shooter avgd.16 ppg. The upside is he's young, he's coming towards the end of his rookie deal. The Piston's have Ben Gordon and Rip Hamilton and they are averaging about $10 MM in salary making it impossible to move.I also believe that they should pursue Nick Young of the Wizards. He's not costly, a big guard at 6'5", he projects out well as a scorer. He averaged 8ppg in 19 minutes. The Wizards have a glut at guard. Wall, Hinrich and Arenas. Has anybody considered Corey Brewer of the Timberwolves? He's long 2 guard at 6'9", can score very athletic and he's at the end of his rookie deal.
I don't know how good or bad Nick Young is. Every player has his fan/non-fan....but we need a honest opinion from somebody who has seen him a lot and can analyze his game/potential.
Maybe the Wizards do us a bit of a favor and trade him for something like a 2nd round pick or something cheap. We just need a good shooter like a Redick.
Also, I am kind of worried we are putting all our eggs in Thibs defense basket that he will make everyone a defensive wizard or a better defensive player. We need to see how these young guys respond. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce were good players who didn't play defense before because they probably had so much offensive load before they all got together...
Well it's pretty obvious it's down to one name: Brewer. A good player but a terrible fit. I guess you just have to run with it and hope either Rose & Deng can shoot threes this year, or you can move Deng for a shooter somewhere down the line.
We have about $12M in cap space, $22M before the hard cap so we have lots of room. I like going with the young guys like Brewer who are athletic and work hard. I'd go after Brewer and Barnes at SG/SF and Arroyo as backup PG.
Stuckey is a favorite in Detroit and they traded away Billups to let him develop so I doubt we can get him.
Hard cap? There is no hard cap in the NBA, what are you trying to say?
And I just heard on the way home on ESPN 1000 that the Bulls have signed Ronnie Brewer, who FWIW played a lot of PG at Arkansas (in that he brought the ball up the floor quite often).
It would be crazy to give away Taj & JJ...especially Taj he made the rookie team and did awesome being thrown into the fire as our starting PF as a rookie! JJ shed 25 lbs and is very athletic. I say give these guys a chance this year...no sense giving them away for pennies on the $. I'm all for building a young, athletic, and fun hard nosed Defensively orientated lineup!
MINNESOTA:
The Bulls' management could look there as well.
I think Wayne Ellington or Corie Brewer could be had in a trade.
Ellington is worth a flyer. He could really shoot in college.
Missing out on Morrow while sitting around waiting for Reddick was a huge mistake. Morrow at his deal was a massive homerun.
On this I have to agree with you, I was more than somewhat sour on this signing at first, but as I thought about it more, the more that it grew on me, and I am definately dissappointed that the Magic matched. Reddick would have had a career year opposite Rose.