The feeling around the league is that by the Halloween deadline, the Chicago Bulls will reach some kind of contract extension to his rookie deal deal with Taj Gibson. They like him too much to risk losing him as a restricted free agent next year — he’s a lock-down defender, good athlete, solid rebounder and his offense is making strides in efficiency.
But these kind of talks go down to the deadline — this is not a James Harden “max or nothing” kind of situation, this is about Gibson’s agent and the Bulls finding a number that works for both sides. (While that puts cap pressure on the Bulls in a couple years, they have the relief valve of amnestying Carlos Boozer.)
Gibson didn’t really want to talk about it when Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago.com asked him about the situation.
That is right out of the textbook of what you’d expect him to say. Gibson and Harden — who played against each other in AAU ball and the then Pac-10 — form a mutual admiration society in the Sam story.
There are a lot of GMs around the league in that same admiration society and they hope the Bulls and Gibson don’t reach a deal, they would like to take a run at Gibson as a restricted free agent next summer. Who doesn’t need athletic, hard-nosed defending forward? And with Derrick Rose out more scoring could be asked of Gibson this season, increasing his stock and price.
After losing Omer Asik last summer to a Rockets bid, the Bulls don’t want to go down that road with Gibson. Look for a deal to get done.
Just don’t expect Gibson to talk much about it.
