The Bulls and Kirk Hinrich have just one more week to get a contract extension done and all signs point to it waiting until next summer.
Hinrich's market value would be about $8 million annually.
''Right now, I honestly don't know if it will happen,'' Paxson said Monday. ''If it does, great. If it doesn't, it waits until next summer.
''As I [said] before, Jeff and I made an agreement that we aren't going to talk publicly about numbers or anything like that. We've had discussions. We've made our case, and he's made his. If it happens, it happens. But I've said this before, too: If we don't get a deal done, it doesn't reflect how we feel about Kirk.''
''It would be nice to have it done, but I don't have a problem with waiting,'' Hinrich said when he last addressed the negotiations. ''From the day we started [negotiations], I was just going to plan on playing another year with the same deal I have. Because if it doesn't happen, I don't want to be disappointed. ... If it happens, great, because I want to stay here. If not, I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing.''