Rumor: Gordon Has $11 Million Promise From Pistons

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Bulls.com posted a horrible piece, conditioning the fan base for the end of Gordon. None of those players listed in the article will be anywhere close to being as good as Gordon. However, they need to start working up the fan base for Gordon not being here.

http://blogs.bulls.com/chicago_bull...ook-at-guards-who-may-be-in-their-future.html

However, there was one interesting tidbit in the article, and that is.

But I also heard that Gordon’s agent allegedly has been saying he has an $11 million promise from the Pistons.

That would be sick if we let Gordon walk for that. I think he takes Chicago over Detroit for the same money. Detroit's a dump.

What it will come down to is whether the Bulls are willing to pay Ben Gordon what he's worth. The Bulls ownership has been hiding behind the restrictions on Gordon of restricted free agency, which restricts him to a regulated market. This summer he will be on the open market, and can get his true market value...which per this rumor, is $11 million a year. That's actually right where I had him pegged fwiw...

It will be sick if the Bulls let him walk for that amount. The luxury tax is not a hard barrier and should not enter the thought process for the most profitable team in the NBA keeping their best player and leading scorer of four years.

 

[Shakes]

I feel 11 million is a big ask for Gordon. Maybe he's worth that much in a vacuum, but I think you'd have a tough time trading him on that kind of contract. Detroit might sign him to it, but that will just prove they have cap space and are desperate to sign someone, much like we were when we overpaid Ben Wallace.

Also I'm not even sure spending 11 million on a SG is that good an idea full stop. I mean other than Kobe the starting SGs on the conference finalists were Delonte West, Dahntay Jones and Courtney Lee. It seems if you're going to skimp anywhere, SG is the position to do it at.

 

[houheffna]

Hell no, you don't pay Gordon $11 mil. Ain't happening.

 

[Kush77]

Why can't we pay 11 million for the best player over the last 5 years??? Can someone answer that for me?

But paying Luol Deng was okay? what did Luol Deng accomplish to desevere his deal last year. Which I was fine with Deng's deal by the way, I'm just asking the question.

Deng got his contract after a season where his numbers were down from 06/07 and the Bulls won 33 games.

Ben Gordon is coming off a year where his number were better than 07/08 and the team won 41 games and made the playoffs.

Deng gets rewarded but Gordon shouldn't. Like I say on my podcast, the Bulls live in Bizzaro World.

 

[st. park]

houheffna wrote:

Hell no, you don't pay Gordon $11 mil. Ain't happening.

Just curious, do you ever post other than to make some disparaging remark about Gordon?

 

[engies]

2 possibilitys here

His agents have said things before that turn out not to be true esp the Moscow offer
or
He does have this offer

This is how stupid JR is.....could've had him on an awesome tradable (if need be) contract at 54/6 & you go & pull it so he can get unrestricted money.

I guess we only have about 2 more weeks to at least see how things can pan out. Bulls should pay 11 mill for him i think thats the max you should pay him, but even if they do they still screw themselves stupid for pulling last years offer.

Even though I'm prepared I still think it will come as a shock when Ben leaves, even though it shouldnt, it still will shock & sadden the many BG advocates. While others like HouHeffna, the media drones & others in the anti BG catergory will be happy, we'll wait until we dont make the playoffs next season before they start to change there minds

It disgusts me as much as it disgusts Fred & many others, but I almost want it to happen just so Ben gets the best he can get as well as so we can say "we told you so"

 

[charity stripe]

Makes no sense for Dumars to make promises now. This is a false rumor, possibly coming from Brothers.

BG will sign with Chicago.

 

[mlewinth]

I agree with Kush 100%. What is wrong with us paying our best player $11 million. I have said from day 1 that I think what Gordon adds to most teams is not nearly as much as the Bulls would loose if Gordon walks. In short, I think Ben means more to us then he would to most teams. No surprise that JR is crappin himself right now for pulling that offer last season.

Also, WHY DOES DETROIT WANT HIM!!?!? I don't get it! Detroit needs to go after a dominant post guy. That teams core is Stucky and Prince, the Pistons are what we were 2 years ago, they have a nice core, a little depth, but no superstar. So they get Gordon, max their cap and have no other options. They have in essence dropped Iverson and replaced him with Gordon. I see that team being a perrenial 7-8th seed for the remainder of these guys contracts. I think personally Detroits best bet is sucking for a year, trying to get a good draft pick in 2010, then using your extra cap there to build around the pick. They have no reason to go after Gordon unless they can get a post guy like Boozer.

 

[charity stripe]

Even if they get Gordon + Boozer, they still have a huge hole at C. Amir Johnson or BJ Mullens are not capable of playing a full season starting at C. Currently their C is Kwame Brown. That's why Gordon doesn't make any sense for them, especially at $11mil.

 

[AirP]

mlewinth wrote:

I agree with Kush 100%. What is wrong with us paying our best player $11 million. I have said from day 1 that I think what Gordon adds to most teams is not nearly as much as the Bulls would loose if Gordon walks. In short, I think Ben means more to us then he would to most teams. No surprise that JR is crappin himself right now for pulling that offer last season.

Also, WHY DOES DETROIT WANT HIM!!?!? I don't get it! Detroit needs to go after a dominant post guy. That teams core is Stucky and Prince, the Pistons are what we were 2 years ago, they have a nice core, a little depth, but no superstar. So they get Gordon, max their cap and have no other options. They have in essence dropped Iverson and replaced him with Gordon. I see that team being a perrenial 7-8th seed for the remainder of these guys contracts. I think personally Detroits best bet is sucking for a year, trying to get a good draft pick in 2010, then using your extra cap there to build around the pick. They have no reason to go after Gordon unless they can get a post guy like Boozer.

There definitely is a reason if they've had preliminary talks with other teams and have other moves ready to go. Utah could really help their team greatly if they moved Boozer, maybe they tie in a bad contract like AK47 and try to get a package built around Hamilton and Prince? Just depends on what they want from Detroit, maybe they get R.Wallace in a sign and trade tossed in to get the contracts to match up? Utah could come up with a few different options to go with trading with Detroit, dump salary, acquire some youth, create a better team now, just a lot of different ways they could go.

 

[charity stripe]

^^ I don't think Sheed would agree to sign and trade with Utah.

 

[dougthonus]

Also I'm not even sure spending 11 million on a SG is that good an idea full stop. I mean other than Kobe the starting SGs on the conference finalists were Delonte West, Dahntay Jones and Courtney Lee. It seems if you're going to skimp anywhere, SG is the position to do it at.

SGs of the winners of titles in the past 20 years:
Michael Jordan (x6)
Kobe Bryant (x4)
Manu Ginobili (x3)
Dwyane Wade
Rip Hamilton
Clyde Drexler
Ray Allen
Vernon Maxwell
Joe Dumars
Mario Ellie

Almost every team who won had an all star SG.

 

[AirP]

charity stripe wrote:

^^ I don't think Sheed would agree to sign and trade with Utah.

No, but he could sign just to stay with Detroit, there's a lot of different things Detroit and Utah can do, the one common thing though is a trade with Hamilton and Boozer being the centerpieces.

 

[dougthonus]

It's awfully hard to see Detroit finding a taker for Hamilton.

He's set to make an average 11.6 this year than 12.6 the next three years. The final year has only 9 million of the 12.6 million guaranteed, but that's not really much of a savings if he's waived.

I especially wouldn't trade Boozer for Hamilton given that he'll have a similar contract while being in a far better position to earn it.

 

[AirP]

dougthonus wrote:

It's awfully hard to see Detroit finding a taker for Hamilton.

He's set to make an average 11.6 this year than 12.6 the next three years. The final year has only 9 million of the 12.6 million guaranteed, but that's not really much of a savings if he's waived.

I especially wouldn't trade Boozer for Hamilton given that he'll have a similar contract while being in a far better position to earn it.

Well, it could be this simple...
Boozer opts out, Detroit signs him outright, can't sign Gordon and lives with Hamilton at SG.

Utah, looking to not lose Boozer for nothing agrees to sign and trade Boozer to get a better option at SG next to Williams and who knows what else they can get out of it, youth, another solid player, move a bad contract like AK(maybe get Prince in return)? Utah could possibly do a number of things to help itself out.

 

[dougthonus]

Well, it could be this simple...
Boozer opts out, Detroit signs him outright, can't sign Gordon and lives with Hamilton at SG.

It might be that simple. I was just making a side point that I don't know if they could get rid of Hamilton.

As for their space, I went in and updated the Pistons page today, I don't know why, but no one else has Hamilton's extension up.

http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-player-salaries/team/Pistons/

Anyway, they are at 38.24 million in salary now, I though the cap was supposed to fall to around 57 million. If that's the case they're 19 million under. Their 1st round draft pick would take about 1.5 million, they'd have cap holds for two more players at around 500k, so that puts them at roughly 40.75 million and about 17 million in cap space.

http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-contract-calculator?tsalary=55000000&years=5

That's not really enough money to sign Boozer and Gordon if Gordon's at 11 million per year average (over 9 million starting) as Boozer would certainly want more than Gordon.

Now there was a rumor that they were trying to trade Maxiell with their pick to a team under the cap in order to free up more cap room. If they could pull that off, or if they could pull it off with Amir Johnson or Kwame Brown, then they could have enough room to probably fit both in there.

It's also possible they could pursue Gordon at a lower amount and who knows how much Boozer will want (though I'd bet at least something starting at his present salary around 12 million per, but Boozer won't have many options, so he may get stuck with what they get if Utah's not willing to go S&T on him).

Anyway, I wouldn't rule the idea out, there are ways Detroit could make it happen, but it's not something that is likely to be accomplished straight forwardly.

Much like us with Ben Gordon, Detroit will be facing a timing issue. To free up enough space to get Gordon and Boozer as FAs, they'll need to dump Johnson, Kwame, or Maxiell with their pick, but they'll most likely have to do it on draft day. The value of the pick goes way down once it's made and a team no longer has a choice in who's selected.

I for one, would think the Grizzlies would buy the pick for Amir Johnson's 3.6 million expiring for certain since it gives them another building piece and they probably wouldn't use the cap space anyway, and they could simply reclaim it in a year. I don't think anyone would take Maxiell, but I could be wrong, I didn't watch the Pistons a ton.

So do the Pistons trade with Memphis on draft day and risk losing their pick just to clear off 3.6 million in salary or do they wait? If they wait then their options may be far fewer in terms of making a trade after draftday.

We face the same challenge with making a Hinrich draft day trade if we want to keep Gordon.

 

[dougthonus]

I just realized Bynum's contract was picked up as well. This doesn't change things substantially but it adds about 300k on to their cap, the overall theory of everything else said should be the same still.

 

[chi_hawks_23]

I wonder if Rip + pick15 for S&T Ben Gordon would be a possibility.

This would allow Detroit to land gordon and still have 15 mil or so available for Boozer.

Then Chicago would have 3 first rounders, Hinrich, and 25 mil in exprirings to use as trade bait for Bosh or Stoudemire.

Rose
Rip
Deng
Stoudemire
Noah

Not bad.

 

[AirP]

chi_hawks_23 wrote:

I wonder if Rip + pick15 for S&T Ben Gordon would be a possibility.

This would allow Detroit to land gordon and still have 15 mil or so available for Boozer.

Then Chicago would have 3 first rounders, Hinrich, and 25 mil in exprirings to use as trade bait for Bosh or Stoudemire.

Rose
Rip
Deng
Stoudemire
Noah

Not bad.

Why would Toronto or Phoenix want any expirings for Bosh or Amar'e? They could just let
them go to free up money. If they're trading either one of those players, they'll be looking to make their roster better, I doubt they look to get any expirings to free up
room unless they get a very good player for a low price and need fillers.

 

[AirP]

Yeah, they really can't outright sign both of them as FAs realistically. They have to have something up their sleeves... basically you'd have to think Dumars has a gameplan and started executing it when he got AI's expiring contract, no way you think AI is going to fit in with Detroit's roster.