Forward Paul Zipser doesn’t believe he’ll be back with the Bulls next season, he told a German newspaper in a story that was relayed by BlogABull.com.
Zipser has a non-guaranteed contract of approximately $1.545MM next season that becomes guaranteed if he remains on the roster through July 18th.
Zipser said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the Bulls decide to let him go before the guarantee kicks in. Even if they do guarantee his salary, he doubts they’ll keep him.
The 6’8” Zipser saw his playing time dip in his second NBA season. He averaged 4.0 PPG and shot just 34.6% from the field while playing 15.2 MPG in 54 appearances. In his rookie campaign, he averaged 5.4 PPG and 2.8 RPG in 19.2 MPG while playing 44 games.
Health is also a concern, as Zipser had surgery to repair a broken left foot last month. According to Zipser, the injury was a stress fracture.
Zipser told the Rhein Neckar newspaper that foot pain was a major reason for his dropoff in performance.
“If your foot hurts, you simply can’t play as hard as normally. You don’t want to suffer a serious injury and be out for some time,” Zipser said according to the English translation provided by BlogABull. “It was difficult to focus on the game – I didn’t manage that very well.”
Zipser also said the Bulls’ decision to go into tank mode caused great consternation, though he didn’t have an issue with coach Fred Hoiberg.
“That finally destroyed the morale of the players. But even before you could notice that some decisions didn’t make any sense with regards to having a successful season,” he said. “The conversations with the coach were always very honest, I really appreciate him.”
In this day and age any nba player making only $1.5m is worth keeping around.
Unless it’s a 2nd round pick I guess…
Also, the fact that he sucks a$$.
Adios, Zippy. Don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya on the way out!
Chicago… SMH