Rip Hamilton

The trib is reposting that the Bulls are going to use their Mid level exception on Rip. 
Clicky Clicky

Two years and 10 million?  I think there are better options out there.  Jason Richardson has not been picked up yet.  Not sure what he wants, but he would be a better fit.  Rip is not a guy who can get his own shot.  he is more of a run off screens and shoot. 

Yes, he is better than Kyle Korver. 

I hope the Bulls have a trade in the works too.  This move will give them nothing but league mins to offer.

The more I think about the less I like it.

The Heat have used their Mid-level.

The Celtics have used most of theirs.

The Lakers only get 3 mill, and have used half of it. 

The Mavericks get 3 mill and used theirs on Vince Carter.

The Knicks are done with FA money. 

The Magic look to be in rebuild mode.

The Hawks want Gilbert Arenas.

The Thunder are still out there I guess. 

Who is left that is any good that a SG would want to go to?  The Bulls have more than about any other really good team with their full 5 million to spend.  If someone wants to compete for a championship and get more than the league min, the Bulls are about the best spot. 

I think they could have done better.  There are going to be more amnesty moves and more players that are available.  Richard Hamilton is not all that good.  Especially, when you talk about creating his own shot.  Jason Richardson is still out there.  Nick Young has not signed yet.  I really hope the Bulls have a trade up their sleeves. 

czman- I agree. This isnt a great move. Now we are stuck.  Cant add anyone else unless a trade and I still think we can make a trade.  We can now either trade Brewer or Kover.   The problem who can wee get.


Another question: Now that we got Rip what about getting Crawford as our 6th man.  Just asking.  I dont mind Crawford as a 6th man just not a starter.   

This is what i posted on that other thread:

Eh. Im ok with this. This is pretty much like the Boozer signing. Cant do much else and this is the last case, albeit decent, option (though I never felt that way bout Boozer, always hated that signing).

Im weary though. Chauncey Billups just got amnestied by the Knicks. There any chance he can come to the Bulls? If we could sign Rip and Chauncey, that'd be both pretty cool and practical. Well, Practical if we could figure a way to dump CJ Watson.

Billups would be an excellent backup PG, absolutely excellent, and he could be everything the Bulls were trying to make CJ Watson be when we were playing Rose and Watson at the same time. 

Id love to get both Rip and Billups here for the season, that'd be pretty cool. But you gotta dump Watson on somebody, anybody.

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That was before I knew it was a MLE deal. I dont know if Rip is worth that kinda money or not. I havent watched him play in a while, really nobody has. Does he still got it? If this is the only move we make its OK, but its not too good and its not an answer. 

Im weary though. Chauncey Billups just got amnestied by the Knicks. There any chance he can come to the Bulls

I heard that he wants to go play for the Heat.  That would be really bad for the rest of the league.  I don't think the Bulls can put a claim in on him.  If he clears waivers he is probably going to the Heat of the Lakers.  If the Lakers get Chris Paul, he is on his way to the Heat. 

The NBA is turning into a joke. 

I dont know if Rip is worth that kinda money or not. I havent watched him play in a while, really nobody has.

My point in the second post is where is he going to go.  It seems to me like of the teams with a real chance the Bulls are the only one who could even offer 2 million.

You can break the total 5 million up into more than move.  They could give 2.5-3 million to Hamilton and save the other 2.5-3 million for another move.  I don't see any reason to give him the full 5 million.  Not unless someone else is offering close to it and he wants to go there.

Why bid against yourselves?  They have already overpaid for Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, and Joakim Noah. 

It looks like it is a done deal.  Richard Hamilton is coming to the Bulls for 2 years 10 million.

Clicky Clicky.

I think the Bulls were bidding against themselves on this one.  With the way he acted in Detroit it was obvious he wanted to go to a contender.  I don't think any contender could offer him more than the league min, for him it would have been 1.5 million.  I am not sure why the Bulls paid him more than 2.5 mill. 

I know he is only 33, so he should have something left.  The fact is he is not a guy who can create his own shot and he cannot create for other.  I don't see how this is much of an upgrade.  Ronnie Brewer is healthy, more athletic, and a decent mid-range jump shooter. 

This is a waste of a mid-level.

If they had only paid him 2.5 mill they could have used the other half (2.5 mil) to after Chancy Bullips or Barron Davis if he gets amnestied. 

Don't like this move at all.  I know Jason Richardson just resigned with the Magic.  Anyone else find it odd that he did that right after the Bulls decided to grab Hamilton.  I honestly think the Bulls choose Hamilton over Richardson and then Richardson realized he had no real contender options so he went back to the Magic.

This will be a major mistake by the Bulls.  I am really starting to hate the Bulls ability to find SG talent.  They have not drafted or even found a a good SG in years.  They seem to be able to find bigs fine.  SGs they suck at. 

If Billups goes to the Heat, its over. I may not even watch the NBA. They would be so incredibly stacked. What a joke.

There should be a rule, a guy coming off a contract is not allowed to turn down an offer of half his most recent pay check if it is offered to him. For example: Player made 10M a year on his previous deal, player is now 34 years old.  Player is not aloud to sign with a team that is over the cap for the minimum if another team is offering him 5m+. This would help with balance and stop this bull shit****tery. I know it wont happen, but still.

Not giving up hope on Billups signing with someone other than Heat though. As far as Bulls is concerend, Rip is a pretty strong selling point id Think. I know he said "i dont want to be a backup/a mentor". But if he came to the Bulls, hed be backup PG AND backup SG. He'd still get plenty of PT.

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As far as Rips contract, it upsets me too. If its 2 years 10m, thats basically saying this is the only significant thing the Bulls are doing this offseason. Its upsetting.

Is it an upgrade? Yeah, but its not the RIGHT upgrade. We dont just need a better SG, we need a SG that can create his own shot! Thats the whole point of this. Getting Rip will help, but come playoff time, its going to look like more of the same. Rose struggling and nobody there to take the pressure off.

Shoot, Billups would be a much better SG for us. He can create and make things happen, Rip cant.

Rip makes us more complete, yes. And yeah, he is an upgrade. But its not what we need in the playoffs. Really, against the Heat, we'd probably still be better off starting Brewer for his defense anyways. 

he is more of a run off screens and shoot. 

aye, might be a better option than Kyle Korver coming off those screen tom loves to run.

I was hoping you guys would get Jamal Crawford from us, the Hawks. I hate to see him go, but if he has to go i was hoping it was to you guys. he is underated, can drop 30 on any given night and can create his own shot easily. He could be a nice plug in next to rose and help you guys out big time against the Heat.

The Clippers claimed Billups. All hail the clippers! Saviors of the NBA! Thank goodness he didnt get a chance to go to Miami.

I'm ok with Rip at the 2.  6'6" so he matches up with Wade.  Plays D.  Can score and run.  He is a improvent over Bogans.  

The thing is this team won 62 games last year.  That means they needed a tweek to get over Miami in a series.  They don't need to blow the team up. 

News is coming in that the Bulls and Rip are closing in on a THREE year deal at 15M.

If true, I dont like it one bit. Im not even fully convinced that Rip has 1 year left at being worth 5m per, let alone 3 years. 

Its a 2 year deal. 3rd year is a team option. Overall an ok deal. Rip is alot better then bogans. This does help us. Bad news i have watch him wear that damn mask. I hate that thing. LoL. Overall good fit.

Positives: He can shoot, play D and hit free throws. Also can create his own shot against poor SG's. I think this is ok.

From what I am hearing, the deal is for 3 years with the third being a team option.

I for one do not have an issue with Rip coming to the Bulls. He was really the only option. Jason Richardson would have been nice, but he resigned with the Magic for more money then we could have offered. Crawford is a nice scorer, but one of the worst defenders in the league. Hell, even bogans could score on him. lol. I am not a Crawford fan. He is great for a 6th man, but not a starter on a championship level team.

So who else was there? J-Rich resigned and Crawford is really not the best choice, even if he can drop 30 points on any given night. His lack of any defense would have had all of us pulling out our hair. The bottomline is that we have to get past the Heat, and Crawford is simply not going to be able to defend Wade. I think that that was a factor in the signing of Rip.

Rip is not the greatest defender one on one, but he is a pretty darn good team defender. Let us not forget about the Pistions of only 4 or 5 years ago. I remember that season they held like 10+ teams in a row to under 70 points. Something crazy like that, Sure Rip is 33, but he reminds me of a poor man's Reggie Miller. Hell, even Reggie Miller himself has said that Rip reminds him of himself a lot. Rip takes great care of himself and his conditioning is 2nd to none. Even last season he was still running around like a crazed man, cutting corners and running his man through screen after screen. Also, not all older players are crap. Look no further then Jason Kidd or Grant Hill. Rip will be productive for the Bulls. He might only play 25-30 minutes a night, but he will be that other scoring option that we need.

The real issue for the Bulls is keeping Noah and Boozer healthy. If those two can stay healthy, then the signing of Rip should be enough to challange the Heat.

Also anyone looking at last season's stats for Rip should know that they are very misleading. Rip sat out a bunch of games after having issues with the Piston's ex-head coach. Plus the Pistons had Ben Gordon and Rodney Stuckey for Rip to fight for linutes with. Go back just one more season to were Rip was 31 years old and he was dropping 18+ a night. Now we will not see those numbers from him here in Chicago because we have Rose, Deng, and Boozer, but Rip could easily chip in a healthy 13-15 important points a night. WE do not really want the ball out of Rose's hands anyways, and Rip is perfect in that regard as he is more of a spot up shooter. He is not going to be dribbling all over the place with the ball killing the clock like Crawford would have, or like Ben Gordon used to do. We do not need a big time shot creator on this team at the 2 guard, we need someone how can draw defender away from the paint and someone that can bring some movement to the offense, and Rip does both of those things.

I for one think this was another unsexy move by the Bulls that will pay off. Let the media and all the attention follow Chris Paul and Dwight Howard around all they want, the Bulls now have a solid roster that is two deep at every position.

Yeah, this is very underrated and very solid move by Bulls, only thing they need to do is to sign veteran PF/C type and that's all (get that 5th big man just in case of injuries).

But overall team depth is great, IF they avoid long term injuries:

PG - Rose, Watson
SG - Rip, Korver
SF - Deng, Brewer, Butler
PF - Boozer, Taj
C  - Noah, Asik

Yeah, this is very underrated and very solid move by Bulls, only thing they need to do is to sign veteran PF/C type and that's all (get that 5th big man just in case of injuries).

Dont worry about that, they resigned Brian Scalabrine. LMAO

I think this move will push Roses assists up over 10 per game.  He now has a scoring wing where he can now play more as a point and set guys up.  Boozer came to camp 20 pounds lighter.  

I'm thinking Deng will be regulated to more of a set 3 point shooter now.  

Rip will get more off off the screen mid range jumpers.  

Boozer hould be good in pick and rolls and some low post game.  

If this team can get points form 4-5 guys I'm ok with Rose taking a step back as a scorer and to start ficitalatating the ball to his team mates more.  He needs to grow more as a point.  He is not a 2 thet needs to shoot 25-30 per night to impact the team.  If he droppes back to 18 per with over 10 ast per and gets Deng and Boozer over 20 per night and Rip adding in 16 per this team will be fine.