Tag: Chicago Bulls (Page 6 of 26)

Pippen says that Heat won’t break 72-game record

Via ESPN Chicago…

Scottie Pippen, during Hall of Fame festivities Friday morning, took exception to a prediction Van Gundy made to the Miami Herald that the Heat will break the mark the Bulls set in the 1995-96 season.

“Those guys’ biggest goal is to win a championship and not try to win 72 games,” Pippen told reporters. “But if Jeff Van Gundy wants to take a bet, I would bet him that they won’t break it.”

“I think that Boston is still the best team in the East. Miami has to prove themselves.”

Steve Kerr said something funny on Bill Simmons’ B.S. Report the other day about turning into the Mercury Morris of the ’96 Bulls:

I’m gonna put the champagne on ice and Jud Buechler, Bill Wennington and I are going to get together when they lose their 11th game.

He wasn’t serious, but the thought of the three of them celebrating the Heat’s 11th loss with champagne is funny as hell.

Pistons agree to terms with T-Mac?

The Associated Press is reporting that Tracy McGrady will sign a one-year contract with the Detroit Pistons for the league minimum ($1.3 million).

I thought that the 31-year-old would perhaps sign a two- or three-year deal for $3-$4 million per season, and if he had been willing to accept a role off the bench, he may have been able to strike such a deal. The Bulls were interested, but when he balked at a reserve role, they moved on to Keith Bogans… Keith Bogans. Think about that for a second.

T-Mac is officially in Allen Iverson territory.

Presumably he agreed to sign with the Pistons in a starting role, but what does that mean for Rip Hamilton and/or Tayshaun Prince?

Bulls to sign T-Mac?

Mar. 12, 2010 - Memphis, TENNESSEE, UNITED STATES - epa02077082 Memphis Grizzlies O.J. Mayo (L) fouls New York Knicks tracy McGrady (R) at FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee, USA on 12 March 2010.

Looks like Chicago is getting closer to signing Tracy McGrady.

The Bulls are prepared to sign Tracy McGrady if he proves to be sufficiently healthy in a workout Monday and can convince the team he is willing to accept a bench role, one source familiar with Chicago’s thinking said Sunday.

“Nothing is done until it’s done, but I expect the Bulls to sign McGrady later this week,” the source said.

Although he has expressed interest in snagging one of the spots on Miami’s bench in support of the LeBron James-Dwyane Wade-Chris Bosh triumvirate and he auditioned for the Los Angeles Clippers last week, Chicago is undeniably where McGrady has been hoping to wind up.

McGrady made his desires evident in several recent messages on his Twitter feed, including his pronouncements Saturday that he has “unfinished business” with the Bulls and that it “could be fate this time round” with Chicago after drawing serious interest from the Bulls in the 1997 draft and again during free agency in 2000.

It obviously doesn’t hurt McGrady’s chances that Bulls star Derrick Rose told ESPNChicago.com’s Nick Friedell on Friday that the idea of signing McGrady — Rose’s favorite player as a kid — has his full support.

“That would be good,” Rose said. “I think that if he comes along, he could help our team.

“A player like him, with his experience and how he plays, I think it would help us.”

McGrady is/was a great player, when healthy. But ‘health’ has always been his biggest problem. He has missed a ton of games in his career, so his mileage maybe isn’t as bad as a typical 31-year-old. (Remember though, he came to the NBA straight out of high school, so he has played 852 games in his career.)

It sounds like the Bulls want him to anchor the bench, but it’s crowded on the wing with Luol Deng, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer and now possibly T-Mac in the fold. As long as the Bulls aren’t investing too much money in McGrady, it (probably) can’t hurt to roll the dice and see how much he has left.

Uh-oh, Derrick Rose has a consistent three-point shot

Watch out, folks. Derrick Rose has been working on his jumper and he’s ‘ecstatic’ about the way it has developed.

“It’s there; I have a consistent 3-point shot now,” Rose said Wednesday night. “You’ll see. I just have so much confidence in my jump shot now. It’s coming along so good. It’s past even my expectations at this point.”

I wonder if he got someone else take those practice shots for him.

Hey-o!

Rose only shot 27% from long range last season, but only took 0.8 threes per game. After the All-Star Break he shot 29% on 1.4 attempts per game.

What’s amazing is that even without deep range, he’s still able to get to the rim because he’s so wickedly quick and strong. If he starts to shoot in the 35%-40% range, he’s going to be unstoppable offensively.

NBA News & Notes: Robinson, Redick and Brewer

Nate Robinson is reportedly returning to Boston.

Robinson, an unrestricted free agent, has agreed to a two-year deal that will pay him around $4 million per season to return to the Celtics, the Boston Herald reported, citing a league source.

Shortly after Yahoo! Sports first reported news of the re-signing, the Twitter-friendly Robinson seemed to acknowledge the reports of his return by Twittering a song entitled, “Welcome Back.”

Asked by a follower why he chose that, Robinson then Tweeted: “Cuz I’m back n beantown baby yeah.”

Robinson is a talented offensive player and showed some pretty good passing skills when he got some run in the playoffs. He seemed to buy into Doc Rivers’ system and gives the C’s second unit some scoring punch off the bench. I’d expect he’ll play some more now that Rivers (at least somewhat) trusts him.

The Magic matched the Bulls’ offer sheet for J.J. Redick.

As expected, the Magic have matched the Bulls’ offer of three years and $19 million, meaning Redick will stay in Orlando.

In his rookie season, Redick was something of a joke amongst some pundits, but he quietly has turned himself into a capable NBA shooting guard. Offensively, he’s going to stick to what he does best — make open shots. Defensively, he has realized that he’s going to have to put in a lot more effort than he did in college if he’s going to get minutes in the NBA. He is pretty good at chasing through screens and annoying his man.

For the Magic, this was a pretty important signing because Orlando was simply a better team when Redick was playing instead of Vince Carter. At least with Redick, Stan Van Gundy knew what he was going to get.

Chicago strikes out on Redick, turns to Ronnie Brewer.

Sources confirm Bulls.com report that club has agreed to three-year, $12M deal with Ronnie Brewer. Story soon on NBA.com.

The Bulls needed shooters, but when they extended offers to both Kyle Korver and J.J. Redick, it seemed like the two players were a little too similar. Now that Redick is out of the picture, the Bulls can sign Brewer, who is more of a defensive stopper/slasher type. He was good in Utah and showed a lot of promise, but fell out of favor this season when Wes Matthews started to emerge.

Brewer, Korver and Deng will probably rotate at the wing spots. The Bulls might struggle to score when Brewer/Deng are out there as neither player is particularly good from range. But the Bulls will be running their offense through Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer for the most part.

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