Here's something we didn't get to last night with all the Donaghy fallout and Ron Artest getting dealt to Houston: Luol Deng, who has been in a contract dispute with the Bulls for almost a year, is close to agreeing on a six-year, $71 million extension.
Marc Stein has chapter and verse here. I spoke with someone connected to the Deng impasse last week, and that person didn't seem optimistic at all that a deal would get done. Things change, things change.
UPDATED 2:18 p.m.: Spoke with someone familiar with the Deng negotiations and confirmed that the deal has been agreed to in principle -- six years, $71 million. The Bulls apparently responded to Deng's two-week deadline for completing an extension for two reasons: they didn't want to endure a season-long contract headache as they did with Deng and Ben Gordon last season, and they couldn't make any more deals until the Deng situation was resolved.