Ben Wallace Signs With Bulls

Chad Ford is reporting that Ben Wallace has agreed to a four-year, $52 million contract with the Chicago Bulls.

What does this have to do with the Blazers? Plenty. Chicago had been considered Portland's main competition for Joel Pryzbilla's services; but that was predicated upon Wallace going back to the Pistons. Now that Chicago has signed Wallace, they won't be pursuing Pryzbilla. Because Pryzbilla's decision will come down to a combination of contract offer and team quality, the Bulls were really the only of the under-the-cap teams who were clearly head and shoulders above Portland in team quality. So this signing is actually a good thing for the Blazers as it likely means that whomever they will be competiting for will either A. be a very bad team (one that likely does not have the quality of youngsters that Portland does), or B. be offering the exact same contract offer as Portland -- essentially the mid-level deal.