Darius Miles Davis

Obviously, we'd like to resign Eddy, Tyson, and Chris, and I'd like at least some of the negotiations to be smooth. By smooth, I mean we make an offer, and the player accepts. Maybe there's some back and forth in there, but I don't want each of them to be signing offer sheets with other teams like the Clips' players. That just reeks of bad faith and makes it look like we are cheap and desperate.

Is that what's going to have to happen? You never know what gets said or hinted at in that situation. Maybe it's like Elton's offer sheet with the Heat, ridiculously front loaded with the intent of the the Clips not matching. So the Clippers had to take him back knowing he didn't really want to be there. Regardless of what he said, there was the proof in the pudding. Meanwhile, maybe it could be like Q Rich's situation, or Odom's, where they begged the Clippers not to resign him.

It's early in the summer, free agency hasn't even begun, and I'm sick of ugly negotiations. The Bulls can help to make up for some of this ugliness I feel with some cordial signings of their free agents, with handshakes and smiles that say "this is exactly the way this was supposed to be," not "(cough) I guess we had to give you your money."

PR folks, PR. Don't we want to be a desirable destination for free agents in '06?

__________________
Visit my myspace page and listen to some of my music: http://www.myspace.com/libmanj

BG7

Eddy Curry's will be a very smooth process. Eddy respects John and trusts the franchise.

Rhyder

I expect the Bulls to give each player an offer. If they are happy with it, then they will resign. If not, they will test the FA waters and sign an offer sheet if they can get more.

I do expect the Bulls to offer reasonable (lowball if you prefer that terminology) contracts to Chandler and Curry, expect that Chandler and Curry will think it is too low, test the FA market, and I expect the Bulls to match the offer sheets. Even if they sign max deals they will still be tradeable assets as young big men. That's the point of RFA, a test to see how much a player is worth.

What I do not expect is either Chandler or Curry to sign for the qualifying offer. That would be the only thing I would view as "messy" regarding the young big men.

I do expect the Duhon and Othella negotiations to go much more smoothly (assuming that we do not go after someone else in place of Du).

yodurk

This is definitely a concern. I have no doubt that the Bulls front office will give fair market value for a player who has a place on this team...and all 4 of our free agents certainly do (I'm including Othella as someone who Pax will try to retain). But I get a little nervous about a couple things...first, the players usually get bad advice from agents that make them think they're worth more than they really are (I'm particularly worried this will happen with Chandler). And secondly, there are teams like the Hawks who could sign one of them (again, Chandler) to an inflated offer sheet that will make the Bulls think twice about matching. Contract negotiations aren't meant to be hugs and kisses, so a little griping here and there isn't too frightening. But it does get frightening when players start publicly complaining and start making a scene.

And although I know many of you will say how these sorts of problems don't happen in other organizations, you're flat out wrong. Just a few recent examples include the Lakers and their inability to reach an extension with Shaq (which was a large reason for trading him)...there was also the Sonics' unwillingness to re-sign Gary Payton, which is why they traded him to the Bucks right before his contract expired. And these are players who were ALOT more proven than anyone the Bulls have.

yodurk

Actually, I would say Eddy Curry is the most likely to end up in a messy contract dispute due to his health concerns. That's just controversy waiting to happen. Tyson Chandler's could get a little messy, too, just because of the varying opinion of his worth...you could argue that his offensive limitations make him worth $8M per year at the most, while others (namely, Tyson himself) will argue that he's worth no less than $10M per year since he is a rare talent.

I agree with Rhyder though...Duhon and Othella should be fairly easy to re-sign. Othella in particular has been very appreciative for his opportunity to play meaningful minutes for a winning, team-oriented franchise.