Bulls lose out on J.J. Redick, sign Ronnie Brewer

According to ESPN, the Orlando Magic have decided to match the Bulls' 3 year, $20 mil offer sheet to sharpshooter J.J. Redick. He will cost the Magic, who are already over the salary cap, an average of $14 mil a season ($7 mil to Redick and $7 mil for the luxury tax). This is an exorbitant price to pay for a backup SG. With all the off-season happenings in neighboring South Beach, it's possible the Magic felt pressured to make some sort of summer splash.

Drafted 11th overall in the 2006 draft out of Duke, it is clear Redick worked very hard to earn this contract. He entered the NBA with with a beautiful outside stroke, traces of acne on his back, and a lack of muscle. In his first two seasons, he played sparingly off the bench. This year, a now ripped J.J. Redick showed signs of promise averaging nearly 10 points off the pine and playing meaningful minutes in the playoffs.

Redick would have been a perfect fit in Chicago, who with recent signee Kyle Korver would have had two potent outside threats for Derick Rose and Carlos Boozer to kick to. With Redick now unavailable, the Bulls were forced to move on to plan B and have signed former Jazz wing man Ronnie Brewer to a 3 year deal worth $12.5 mil. Brewer is not nearly the shooter Redick is (he and Joakim Noah might have the ugliest mechanics in the league), but is a long, athletic, defensive oriented wing who is capable of knocking down the mid-range J.

At 3 years for $12.5 mil, this is a great signing for the Bulls, who were in dire need of a defensive stopper on the wing after trading away Thabo Sefolosha in the 2009 season and Kirk Hinrich right before the 2010 draft. At 25 years old, Brewer is entering the prime of his career. He averaged 13.7 points on 50% shooting and 1.7 steals just two seasons ago. Last year, he averaged 8.8 pts/per game before getting traded to the Memphis Grizzlies in a salary dump. He played only 5 games with the Grizzlies before sustaining a season ending hamstring injury.

With the Bulls, Brewer should start at SG with Kyle Korver coming off the bench. Chicago has now acquired 3 former Jazz players this summer in Korver, Brewer, and Carlos Boozer. The Bulls were 41-41 last season without an outside or low-post threat. Now with Korver and Boozer, they have both. With these additions, along with the continued development of All-Star Derrick Rose, the Bulls should be a 55-win team and find themselves in the top half of the Eastern Conference competing with Orlando, Miami, and Boston for supremacy in the East.

However, the Bulls are built eerily similar to the Jazz of the past few seasons, who were perennially in the top half of the Western Conference but were unable to get over the hump and compete for the championship. Unless Derrick Rose turns out to be better than Jazz PG Deron Williams (who might be the best PG in the league), it's hard to imagine the Bulls getting passed Orlando or Miami in the playoffs.