The risky business of contract extensions

The Bulls have been pretty good at locking up their young players coming off their rookie contracts so far. Kirk Hinrich signed an extension for around $47 million the season before his rookie deal expired, and the Bulls resigned Andres Nocioni this past offseason for just under $40 million. But here come the two big ones: Luol Deng and Ben Gordon (pictured here during happier times). The two top-ten draft picks from 2004 see their rookie contracts expire after this season and are inline for big money deals. John Jackson in writes today's Sun-Times about the dilemma the two players face of signing their extensions before the season.

Basically, the decision for Gordon and Deng comes down to whether they want to risk suffering a serious injury this season. If that were to happen and their future health were to be in question, there's a good chance the Bulls' contract offer would drop significantly.

That's why guard Kirk Hinrich, who had a similar decision to make last year, opted to accept the Bulls' offer at the 11th hour. It wasn't the deal Hinrich and his agent were looking for, but Hinrich said it simply was too much money to pass up.

The risk might be worth it for Deng. If he's able to show the same brilliance he did in last year's first round playoff series versus the Heat, he may be able to get a max deal. The Bulls need Deng to become their franchise player this season, and if he takes another step forward I'm sure Paxson would have no problems dishing out big dough to the 22-year old.

Gordon is a different story. He's looking for a reported $70 million- something the Bulls would be insane to do. The Bulls want to give him around $50 million, and plan on paying their top scorer around as much as Hinrich. If Gordon sticks to his guns- which I don't see him doing- he could be shipped out by the trade deadline. But no team will give Gordon 70 million for a simple reason- he's a one dimensional player. All he does is score which is something a lot of shooting guards can do. In the NBA, 2-guards need to do more then that to get big money, especially those that are only about 6'1. My grand offseason scenario involved the Bulls dealing Gordon to the Bobcats- who, before the J-Rich deal, were in desperate need of scoring- for Gerald Wallace. When Wallace is on the court, and he has battled injury problems throughout his career, the 24-year old is spectacular. He defends, rebounds, and passes much better then Gordon, and is six inches taller. Of course, this deal never happened because Wallace resigned with Charlotte for 6 years, 57 million this offseason, so the Bulls will have to live with their flawed two-guard for another year, at least.  

Signing either player to an extension also complicates matters in trying to put together a trade for Kobe Bryant. I'm confident enough to say that trade will never happen, so it shouldn't factor into the decision making process unless Paxson and the Lakers start to get serious soon.