Luol Deng will return to the Chicago Bulls for his 5th season in the NBA and with the Chicago Bulls after signing a new contract with the Bulls this summer.

Things didn’t always look like they would go well in the Deng negotiations. In mid-July, Luol Deng gave the Bulls an ultimatum. Deng reportedly told the Bulls sign me, or I am taking the qualifying offer and not negotiating with you [The Bulls] next summer. Then two days later, a Greek news source broke a story that stated that the Greek club, Olympiakos, had offered Luol Deng a $23 million over 2 year deal, which Manouselis, the Olympiakos general manager, later refuted.

In he end, Luol Deng agreed to a $71 million contract, that could be worth as much as $80 million after incentives with the Bulls.

Deng then went on to spend the summer under the tutelage of Chris Finch, playing for Chris Finch, for the Great Britain National Team. For awhile, it looked like Deng may never play for Great Britain because of an insurance issue. Deng’s back was one of MetLife’s 14 body part exclusions. Eventually, Deng was cleared to play after Great Britain officials came up with $500,000 to pay for supplemental insurance.

Luol Deng and Great Britain were able to qualify for the 2009 European Championship after winning Group D. They started off the tournament with a disappointing overtime loss to Israel. Deng had 30 points and 3 blocks in this game. Great Britain redeemed themselves by beating the Czech Republic 87-68. Deng finished this game with 21 points. Great Britain won their next game against Bosnia and Herzeogovina 82-74. Deng finished the game with 29 points. Luol Deng scored 21 points as Great Britain beat the Czech Republic 67-63 to claim their spot in the 2009 European Championship.

During the European Championship qualifying games, Deng did a pretty good job scoring the ball for international play, but it is hard to see that transferring over to the NBA. In the European Championships, Deng had turnover problems, often traveling, carrying the ball, and sometimes dribbling it off his legs.

Deng worked hard during the summer to try to become a first option.He worked out at IMG Academy with David Thorpe. He worked on improving putting the ball on the floor and driving to the basket from about 19 feet out. He has worked on his three point shooting, a Scottie Pippen bank shot, and his dribbling. He has been working on moves that will help him become a number one option.

Unfortunately, it seems as though Deng doesn’t have it in him to be a quality first option in the NBA, but that’s alright. The Bulls have Derrick Rose and Ben Gordon who can be the first two scoring options on the team. Deng can play off of those two, and be quite successful in that third option role.

This will be a bit of a redemption year for Deng. Last year, he struggled as a result of a back injury, which came as the result of an achilles injury. Deng will look to make up for his poor showing last season, although Deng has struggled early on in preseason.

The big question is, will Luol Deng live up to his $80 million contract? The answer depends on what you will be looking for out of Deng. If you expect him to be a first option for that kind of money, you likely will be disappointed. If you expect Deng to just be a good second or third option behind Rose and Gordon, than Deng will probably succeed in living up to his contract.

Great Britain defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina this afternoon, 82-74, to maintain its spot in first place in Group D of the 2009 European Championship Qualifying tournament.

Bosnia and Herzegovina played Great Britain tough in the first quarter, trailing Great Britain 20-18 after the first quarter. They continued to play Great Britain tough, making it a tie game, 41-41 at half time.

Unlike in the last game against the Czech Republic, Luol Deng had a strong first half this game. Luol Deng finished the first half with 14 points.

Great Britain started the 3rd quarter on a 17-2 run to race ahead to a 58-43 lead halfway into the quarter. Luol Deng drained two three point field goals during this run. Great Britain led 66-52 after three quarters.

Bosnia and Herzegovina was able to bring the lead down to only 6 points, but Great Britain responded with a tip in by Andrew Sullivan off of a missed Flinder Boyd layup attempt. This was followed by a Nate Reinking layup, a Pops Mensah-Bonsu slam dunk, and a Luol Deng three pointer to cap off the run. This run gave Great Britain a 15 point lead with just under 4 minutes remaining, allowing Great Britain to go into cruise control mode.

Luol Deng finished the game with 29 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Luol Deng looked a bit more comfortable in the first option role today, however, he is still struggling with turnovers. Most of Deng’s turnovers were ballhandling related or traveling related. These are not that indifferent from Ben Gordon’s classic turnovers. These types of turnovers seem to be the result of trying to create offense with the entire defense being focused solely on one player.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu finished the game with 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocks. Mensah-Bonsu has slid nicely into the role of Deng’s number two man.

Chris Finch made the determination that Andy Betts was not quite ready to play in this game. Prior to the game, there were reports that Andy Betts might be available for today’s game.

Following this game, Great Britain is in first place in Group D. Both Great Britain and the Czech Republic have 2-1 records, but Great Britain is winning the point tiebreaker by one point (Great Britain has a 17 point differential and the Czech Republic has a 16 point differential).

Great Britain’s next game is on September 13th, against Israel, in Liverpool, United Kingdom.

The Great Britain National Team will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina today at 1:30 CT in Birmingham, England. Great Britain is coming off a powerful 87-68 victory over the Czech Republic. Bosnia and Herzegovina is coming off a 77-71 victory over Israel.

Right now, after tiebreakers, Great Britain is currently in first place. Right now, all four teams are sitting at 1-1 records, so the tournament is up for grabs for whoever wants it.

Luol Deng comes into the game as the leading scorer for Great Britain at 25.5 PPG. He is currently trying to become comfortable in the role of a number one option.

Great Britain have their star center, Andy Betts, for the first game in this tournament. Betts has been suffering from a back injury. Chris Finch will stick with the same starting lineup, however, and bring Betts off the bench.

Bosnia and Herzegovina really does not have anyone of note on their team. According to betting sites, Great Britain is about a 7 point favorite in this game.

Great Britain coach, Chris Finch, has given Ben Gordon an August 19th ultimatum to resolve his contract situation with the Bulls and join the Great Britain squad in Belgium for the second part of Great Britain’s training camp in preparation for the European Championship Qualifying Tournament. Finch is understanding of Gordon’s situation as Gordon was open and honest about how he was going to handle this since the beginning.

Finch said: “We understand Ben’s position and he has been consistent and up front with us about it all year.

“But when our training camp moves to Belgium later this month, we need him with us if he is going to play.

“That would give him nearly two weeks of practice before we open our group games against Israel and a player of his quality could easily integrate into our team in that time.” ((http://www.basketball247.co.uk/news/archives/00000145.shtml))

It is beginning to look more and more likely that Gordon’s contract situation will not be resolved by then, and he will end up not playing for Great Britain this summer. Gordon is having difficulty getting the Bulls to go into the luxury tax this year. ((http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9692)) At this point, it seems that Gordon will likely end up on the Bulls qualifying offer.

It is unfortunate that the Bulls are blocking this great opportunity for Gordon and his Bulls teammate, Luol Deng, to play together in a structured, competitive situation during the summer. Given the Bulls chemistry woes last season, you would imagine that the Bulls would be doing everything they could to try to get a deal done with Gordon, so him and Deng, the Bulls current top two players, could go play together for a month and a half before training camp starts. Unfortunately, Bulls ownership does not seem committed to winning at this juncture.