RealGM

Firstly, I'm a Bulls fan, so lets get that out of the way.

Being an unrestricted free agent, being that we have some cap space, and being that we've been looking for a quality shooting guard for some time, more and more Bulls fans have been bringing up Lance as a legit opportunity for the Bulls to aim for in free agency.

Personally, I think he'd be a terrible fit. He freelances too much, he seemingly gets into it with his teammates whether it because of his freelancing and his attitude, but most of all, we need consistent shooting and I don't think he provides that for the Bulls.

Don't get me wrong, regardless of his faults as a player (what players don't have faults?) I think he is a talented player, but a player who needs constant attention and handling to make things work, and for a player of his caliber to need that much attention he seemingly needs, I don't think it's a good combination. In addition, for any team to wiggle Lance from the hands of the Pacers, I'm thinking that it would take close to 8 million per for that to realistically happen.

I'm curious to know from a Pacers fans perspective what the pros and cons of Lance is, and whether he'd be a good fit with the Bulls?

He doesn't seem like a Thibs kind of guy, first of all. Seems like the whole Bulls team is comprised of hard-nosed, disciplined guys that don't go off track from the gameplan.

Lance is pretty much the antithesis of that. Wild, unpredictable, flashy. He's incredible when he's hot, and he hypes up the crowd better than anyone I've ever seen with his ridiculous streetball moves, but that also leads to a lot of overdribbling and bad shots. He really hurts the team when he gets out of control.'

Might be a double up on ball dominant guards. When Rose comes back, whenever that may be, they might hurt each other's production.

More than that, the Bulls would have to overpay out the ass to get him. From everything I've heard, Lance loves the Pacers, and not that he owes it to us or anything, but Bird's belief in him is the only reason he's not playing overseas most likely. I can't imagine the Pacers letting him walk after this season after he's been such a huge part of our success these past few seasons. It'd take a massive payday.

But yeah, if the Bulls decide to give him a massive paycheck (and even then, who's to say Lance doesn't stick around?) and they think they can control him 100% of the time, then yeah, he'd be a great player. I wouldn't exactly see the Bulls doing it though, for what it's worth.

If i had to put money on it, and i'd say if he doesn't re-up with the Pacers, he will sign with Dallas. He seems like the kind of guy they would want over there and Cuban has been desperate for a big money deal for a while now and keeps falling short. They'll go after Melo but no way he leaves NY imo.

if you want Lance, you'll have to go a lot higher than 8 because if the bidding stops there, we're keeping him. we won't compete without limit but I think we're very comfortable at 8.

Wizop wrote:if you want Lance, you'll have to go a lot higher than 8 because if the bidding stops there, we're keeping him. we won't compete without limit but I think we're very comfortable at 8.

I've heard Greg Raikstraw on a couple of occasions (as recently as last night) say that Indiana can't keep Lance without moving another big contract. He then mentioned George Hill or Roy Hibbert. I'm not sure how he is doing the math. On Hoopshype we are a 65 mil right now for 2014-2015. They project the luxury tax at 77 mil. Your contention that we would be very comfortable at 8 mil seems to fit with those numbers.

I'm not convinced the money to do the resign is the issue as much as the faith that keeping him and everything that comes with him is a good long term decision. The memory of Stephen Jackson, Jamal Tinsley and Marquis Daniels behaving like fools and possessing long term contracts is haunting. Moving Jackson caused us to take back even worse contracts (Dunleavy and Murphy) to move him. At this point I have to wonder if that outcome isn't weighing on the minds of Pacer management.

Bulls fan here as well.

We have enough low basketball IQ big contract players with Rose and Boozer, DO NOT sign Lance!

8305 wrote:I've heard Greg Raikstraw on a couple of occasions (as recently as last night) say that Indiana can't keep Lance without moving another big contract.

we've talked about this before here. most think the most we might have to do is cut Scola unless the bidding goes crazy.

Even if he was available, I think he'd be a dreadful piece for Thibodeau. He just won't accept that sort of authority, so no, bad fit.

Its hard for me to imagine him working with Rose. Anyone taking on Lance is going to have to have a strategy for getting him to play off the ball. I think we are struggling with that right now.