Fred seemed to be the most right during this whole thing. Gordon's shot isn't what killed the Bulls. The Bulls as a team just weren't getting stops, and Salmons/Hinrich followed that play with some missed shots and a turnover. Ben Gordon followed up the bad plays by those two by scoring 6 straight points.
As for the Pistons series in 2007, Scott Skiles is most to blame for that loss. The Bulls just couldn't score in those first three games, scoring 69, 87, and 74. Ben Gordon's scoring was down for the series, averaging 17 points a game, but he did it on par with his season efficiency, with 57.1 TS%.
The problem in that series is that Scott Skiles had Gordon just stand in the corner all series long. The Pistons were a well coached team, and they just had a bigger defender put on Gordon, who played Gordon tight. The previous series, Gordon got the ball at the top of the key, and destroyed Miami. Scott Skiles basically took away the Gordon advantage. He pulled his guy out, but we didn't have anyone who could drive well to take advantage of that. We should have had Gordon getting the ball at the top of the key some, running around off screens to tire out the Piston's defenders...and force them to double Gordon, opening up the game for everyone else.
And the defensive argument for the Pistons series is overblown.
Richard Hamilton averaged 18.3 points a game on 52.4 TS%. In the regular season, Hamitlon averaged 19.8 points on 55.1 TS%.
Chauncey Billups averaged 19.3 points a game on 57.9 TS%. In the regular season, Billups averaged 17 points on 59.1 TS%.
So you are blasting Ben Gordon for not being able to guard the Pistons backcourt. Richard Hamilton, who Gordon guarded for most of the series, scored less points on a lower efficiency than he did in the regular season. That's a defensive success.
Billups, who Hinrich guarded the majority of the series, scored more points, but did it on a lower efficiency. That's not bad defense either.
But here is why you don't get rid of Ben Gordon. On average, at every position, Ben Gordon outscored his opponent every season of his career.
Here is his shooting guard production and opponent production for each year.
04-05: Ben Gordon 29.1 PTS/48 vs. Opponent 18.9 PTS/48
05-06: Ben Gordon 26.6 PTS/48 vs. Opponent 19.1 PTS/48
06-07: Ben Gordon 29.6 PTS/48 vs. Opponent 19.4 PTS/48
07-08: Ben Gordon 28.4 PTS/48 vs. Opponent 23.1 PTS/48
08-09: Ben Gordon 26.2 PTS/48 vs. Opponent 20.6 PTS/48
Why would you want to get rid of a guy who outproduced his opponent in such a way, it's mind boggling.
As far as 2010 free agency, I don't see Wade coming to Chicago. I think when all is said and done, Wade will already have one teammate better than anyone on the Bulls (Michael Beasley), with the opportunity to add another player better than anyone on the Bulls (Chris Bosh/Lebron James/Amare Stoudemire/Dirk Nowitzki).
I think Wade is just doing a dance right now. The only reason he isn't signing an extension this summer is because he wants that extra year under the current CBA, which will probably be more player friendly than the next CBA.
I think Lebron is going to look really hard at signing with Miami. If he teams up with Wade and Beasley, the Heat could probably win 10 straight championships, and continue winning championships with Lebron/Beasley, even after Wade breaks down. The question is how does Lebron factor into his legacy that he was playing with two other stars in all or most of his championships.
