[The Krakken]

We'll torch ben Gordon as much as he torches us. He doesn't fight through screens and cant stay in front of his man. I hope he spends a lot of time being forced to guard Derrick Rose in the future.

[PD]

I would have loved to see Gordon in the Bulls uniform after the playoffs but not for $11M, which would killed our Cap next season. Thanks Mr. Gordon for your service! Now, we can concentrate on bringing in a big name player. Rose - Salmon - Hinrich is a great combo.

[RSP83]

I have no bad feelings toward the Bulls organization or Ben Gordon regarding this matter. He's been a good professional during his time with the Bulls. The organization expressed how much money they think he's worth, and Gordon didn't like it, twice. I think the opinion that Gordon got disrespected by the organization during the two time contract negotiation is really subjective. I honestly think the Bulls offered him a fair amount of money. But he just didn't like it. When he decided that he wanted it, the offer is off the table. What I'm saying is Gordon had his chance. Now he got what he wants, so good for him. It is funny though that the amount is very close to what the Bulls have offered in the past. But then again, we don't have enough cap space to resign him. Finding a fair and the right trading partner is no easy task too (Hinrich).

Anyway, good luck to Ben Gordon. I think this move will renew the Bulls-Pistons rivalry. And hopefully, this also means a big boost to Rose development. He fully owns the team now. As I said before this is also good for other young players because now they're going to be pressured to increase their effort in developing their game to fill up holes. This some of the things that I think will happen next season:

1. Thomas will try to score more. So, hold on tight. This could be rough to see. I just hope as the season progresses he gets wiser.

2. Better ball distribution. Not necessarily better result, because we still have to be able to score. But, at least it's good to get our young players accustomed to this style of play. Especially since we have good passing bigs like Noah, Miller and the rookie Johnson.

3. There's a chance that Derrick Rose is going to have a tough sophomore year. With Gordon gone and no other lethal scoring option, defenders are going to be all over him. But, this is a good test to see how well Derrick can make his teammate's better. I thought Chris Paul was going to have trouble offensively. But, he made David West better. I'm hoping Rose will find a way to increase the level of play of his teammate. He has a good amount of talent to play with in Deng, Salmons, Hinrich, Thomas, Miller all have unique offensive talent.

4. This one is just sort my personal expectation. I'm voting Hinrich to win comeback player of the year (if there is such).

[RSP83]

BTW, now it's time to find the 4th guard to give our 3-guard rotation some rest. I like us to go for a veteran 2 guard with legit size. Ime Udoka is a solid backup who's available.

[yodurk]

Originally Posted by 68topls

The bulls lowered their offer, added an extra year and then when he said OK decided it was too late. They got what they deserved.

The real problem was racking up too many just-above-average players. You can't pay all of them. Gordon wasn't leading us to any titles IMO, so I'm not crying about this.

Bulls may be very happy with this in the long run. Detroit just locked themselves into mediocrity for the next 5 years with Gordon, Villanueva, Prince, Stuckey, and Hamilton as their core. That's good for us, since we're in the same division.

Let's face it, we're only go as far as Derrick Rose takes us. There was a big question mark as to if Gordon was the ideal fit there long term. That cap space may be better spent elsewhere.

[Good Hope]

Too much money in what was not a viable starting option alongside Rose.

Joe Johnson?
D Wade?

Salmons is ok for now, with Kirk backing them up.

[yodurk]

Originally Posted by The Krakken

We'll torch ben Gordon as much as he torches us. He doesn't fight through screens and cant stay in front of his man. I hope he spends a lot of time being forced to guard Derrick Rose in the future.

That's a good point. I've probably said it 4 times in this thread now, but Detroit is just so...mediocre looking. They have no defense in that backcourt either. Stuckey, Gordon, Rip, and Will Bynum are the ones defending Rose. Looking forward to that.

[yodurk]

Originally Posted by RSP83

I have no bad feelings toward the Bulls organization or Ben Gordon regarding this matter. He's been a good professional during his time with the Bulls. The organization expressed how much money they think he's worth, and Gordon didn't like it, twice. I think the opinion that Gordon got disrespected by the organization during the two time contract negotiation is really subjective. I honestly think the Bulls offered him a fair amount of money. But he just didn't like it. When he decided that he wanted it, the offer is off the table. What I'm saying is Gordon had his chance. Now he got what he wants, so good for him. It is funny though that the amount is very close to what the Bulls have offered in the past. But then again, we don't have enough cap space to resign him. Finding a fair and the right trading partner is no easy task too (Hinrich).

Anyway, good luck to Ben Gordon. I think this move will renew the Bulls-Pistons rivalry. And hopefully, this also means a big boost to Rose development. He fully owns the team now. As I said before this is also good for other young players because now they're going to be pressured to increase their effort in developing their game to fill up holes. This some of the things that I think will happen next season:

1. Thomas will try to score more. So, hold on tight. This could be rough to see. I just hope as the season progresses he gets wiser.

2. Better ball distribution. Not necessarily better result, because we still have to be able to score. But, at least it's good to get our young players accustomed to this style of play. Especially since we have good passing bigs like Noah, Miller and the rookie Johnson.

3. There's a chance that Derrick Rose is going to have a tough sophomore year. With Gordon gone and no other lethal scoring option, defenders are going to be all over him. But, this is a good test to see how well Derrick can make his teammate's better. I thought Chris Paul was going to have trouble offensively. But, he made David West better. I'm hoping Rose will find a way to increase the level of play of his teammate. He has a good amount of talent to play with in Deng, Salmons, Hinrich, Thomas, Miller all have unique offensive talent.

4. This one is just sort my personal expectation. I'm voting Hinrich to win comeback player of the year (if there is such).

Good points above. It kinda bothers me how many Bulls fans want management to just bend over and cater to the players during contract negotiations. If we followed that philosophy, we would've made some horrible mistakes by now (Curry, Crawford, to name a few). Not saying BG would be a mistake of that proportion, but overpaying just to avoid losing him isn't too smart if you ask me.

[jnrjr79]

Originally Posted by yodurk

The real problem was racking up too many just-above-average players. You can't pay all of them. Gordon wasn't leading us to any titles IMO, so I'm not crying about this.

Bulls may be very happy with this in the long run. Detroit just locked themselves into mediocrity for the next 5 years with Gordon, Villanueva, Prince, Stuckey, and Hamilton as their core. That's good for us, since we're in the same division.

Let's face it, we're only go as far as Derrick Rose takes us. There was a big question mark as to if Gordon was the ideal fit there long term. That cap space may be better spent elsewhere.

This is precisely right. Paxson talked often about acquiring assets rather than necessarily building a cohesive team. However, when you aren't able to consolidate those assets into fewer, more talented pieces, then inevitably you have to let players walk. I think it was right not to give BG a $55 million deal, and I don't think the Pistons are headed in the right direction, but it does nonetheless sting to lose Ben for nothing.

In any event, this is Rose's team, not Ben's, and the two of them wouldn't really be a good starting pair in the long-term in my mind. I do think the Salmons/Hinrich/Rose backcourt should be solid for some time. We've got the 2010 flexibility to go after Wade, Bosh, etc. If 2010 doesn't pan out (or a deadline deal in advance this year), the Bulls are quite screwed, so it's time to cross our fingers.

[yodurk]

Originally Posted by RSP83

There's a chance that Derrick Rose is going to have a tough sophomore year. With Gordon gone and no other lethal scoring option, defenders are going to be all over him.

I'd say it's equally likely that Gordon struggles in Detroit for this same reason. No Rose to draw defenders and clear space for him. It was no coincidence that Gordon had a career best 45.5% FG shooting playing w/ Rose. I expect that to drop next year for certain.

[Merk]

Originally Posted by Good Hope

Too much money in what was not a viable starting option alongside Rose.

Joe Johnson?
D Wade?

Salmons is ok for now, with Kirk backing them up.

Exactly

[Good Hope]

Sam says it's official. So does the Suntimes.

Ben Gordon looks like he’ll get his money. But it seems unlikely he’ll see the playoffs for some time to come.

The Detroit Pistons Wednesday agreed to show Ben the money with a contract estimated at five years for $55 million, sources throughout the NBA and Detroit said. One source said it is slightly above that figure. The Pistons also got an agreement on a five year deal estimated from $35 million to $40 million from former Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva.

The gist of his argument is that we'd have lost any chance of being players of 2010 to sign him for that much money. Basically right, imo.

[yodurk]

How are we looking for 2010 cap space now?

Hoopshype numbers suggest we will only have around $40M committed. That's for Deng, Hinrich, Salmons, Rose, Noah, and JJ (this would assume we cut Tyrus loose, though). Estimated cap of $58-60M definitely leaves room for a max contract to someone...

[Good Hope]

By the way, I really like Ben as a player. I have no frustrations with him for how he played on the Bulls. Given a choice between Rose-Hinrich or Gordon-Rose at the beginning of last season, I leaned toward the second combo. But Salmons tipped things in Hinrich's favor, and ... here we are.

Good luck, Ben!

[DaBabyBullz]

Originally Posted by giusd

BG and Rose were prehaps the worse defensive starting front court in the NBA.

I am sorry ben is gone but imho he hurt the team more than helped it most of last season with his D and TO's.

d

Those are the 2 points why I wanted him gone. That and the fact that he has a grossly inflated sense of his own worth and how good he actually is, as evidenced by his greed and reluctance to be the stud 6th man he's more suited for.