I think the pressure of the race for the 8th seed will overcome the desire to see the yuts play

I believe Deng will get the same offer this year as the one he turned down. If you look at his statistics for this year, his points per minute and rebounds per minute are actually up from last year. His shooting percentage is down (mostly due to a slow start), but still above the average for his position. Obviously his games lost to injury is a negative, but if he plays the majority of games for the remainder of the season that is less of an issue.

That being said, I am disappointed that he didn't take his game to all star level as was widely expected. However, I think the general opinion of Deng is more negative because everyone had such high hopes for this season and the Bulls have been so God-awful.