That is a good point. Anything legit that comes out seems to come out of no where this summer (AD, Mutombo, Sura & Ward). It is odd that they would release specifics of the proposal to the media. If this deal does indeed go down, I hope the Bulls can throw in Trybanski. He is a project, but he is a 7'2, 25-yr. old project. Heck, its worth a shot to get him and bring him into camp to see what he can do.
According to Bender, Mutombo has one year left and then a team option: http://www.dfw.net/~patricia/contracts And this link says that Deke only signed a two year deal last year: http://asp.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/salaries/playerdetail.aspx?lname=M&player=279 Either way he won't be on the books two years from now.
I like it. At worst we're giving up some very average role players for a great backup center for Yao. How can we go wrong here?
well to be fair isiah is an idiot and the bulls would like to have him but he seems to not want to play for their sorry team in his waning years and is basically making them get rid of him. i, too, was a little worried when i first heard mutombo brought up a few days ago, but if you look at his numbers, they are very close to cato's (he actually outblocked cato 1.9 to 1.4) and he played a healthy 23 minutes a game last year for 65 games (cato only played 69) and since i don't see him spending any time at PF, he most likely will only be asked to take on about 2/3 of that this year. so in essence, we're getting a guy who gives us what cato gave us for a little over 1/2 the price and with 1 less year left on his contract. now of course, injuries do get more likely with each passing year, but i think that's a risk we may just have to take to get yao a decent backup.
gaines imo will be work in progress like boki, and like al harrington, austin croshere, jonathon bender, to name a few, were in indiana, i think that both boki and gaines will be quality players in a few years
Wow, i'm surprised how many of you forgot about Gaines already...I saw to posts w/the roster spots filled and no Gaines in this thread alone...
Last year's compared stats... Yao per game average 9.0 rebounds 1.9 blocks .27 steals 32.8 minutes Mutombo per game average 6.7 rebounds 1.89 blocks .28 steals 23.0 minutes Deke put up VERY comparable stats to Yao last season (except for points) with nine less minutes played per game. Nuff said!
I was REALLY hooping that the kid would be getting decent playing time and eventually turn into a nice player. But, with the signings today, I just can't see it realistically happening.
Ehh, I'd rather have a less offensively disruptive stiff, he makes Cato loook like Kelvin Abdul Jabbar, but oh well, better than literally nothing, which is what we had before I guess.
I think that Mutombo will be more effective defensively than Hakeem was in his last two years of playing. I just remember watching Dream as a Raptor and it was just agonizing seeing his diminished skills and overall lack of athleticism.... Mutombo looked real slow in the couple games that I saw him last year, but then again he never relied on quickness in his defensive game.
