Chicago Bulls eyeing Marco Belinelli and Nazr Mohammed – NBA News
The Chicago Bulls are finally making offseason moves in order to improve the roster and get a line-up for the 2012-2013 season finalized and ready. ESPNChicago.com’s Nick Friedell has reported that the Bulls are close to signing
a one year contract with Marco Belinelli, while also closing a deal with veteran centre Nazr Mohammed that could see him moving to the Bulls for next season.
The Bulls are also expected to refuse a three year $25.1 million Houston Rockets offer for backup centre Omer Asik. The fourth year Turkish big impressed as a reserve centre for the Bulls in the 2011-2012 season, but a $25.1 million
contract would put the Bulls into luxury tax threshold and that is something they have been avoiding all offseason.
Belinelli is a former first round 18th pick of the Golden State Warriors and played for the New Orleans Hornets last season, where he averaged an impressive 11.8 points and 2.6 rebounds while averaging 29.8 minutes per
game. He is expected to sign with the Bulls for the bi-annual exception worth under $2 million.
Mohammed played for the Oklahoma City Thunder last season and is a good option for the Bulls to replace Asik. He witnessed a significant drop in numbers last season while being a member of the Thunder roster as he got reduced playing
time, but averaged 7.1 points 4.9 rebounds in just 17.1 minutes of playing time in the 2010-2011 regular season.
He is expected to sign with the Chicago Bulls for the veteran’s minimum of $1.3 million. The addition of Mohammed automatically means that the Bulls have decided not to match the offer for Asik, and now Nazr will be backing up
Joakim Noah.
The Bulls have also officially announced the signing of Kirk Hinrich, who played 7 seasons for the Bulls before being traded to the Washington Wizards in 2010. He played for the Atlanta Hawks in the past two seasons, averaging
6.6 points and 2.8 assists in the last one.
"I'm very excited to be back in Chicago and to wear a Bulls uniform once again. I look forward to getting back out on the court as a Bull, and contributing to the team in any way I can,” said Hinrich.
The Bulls also signed Vladimir Radmanovic a few days ago and are now looking to fill out the rest of the roster with minimum salaried players.
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