Ben Gordon will become a member of the Detroit Pistons come July 8th. As Gordon said in his parting comments on the Waddle and Silvy show, the writing was kind of on the wall. The situation of Gordon leaving the Bulls, and how he left the Bulls was entirely predictable, in fact, I did a pretty solid job predicting most of this mess. Here are a few posts that I made over the past year regarding the Gordon situation, that largely predicted most of what transpired.

Last August, I wrote about how the qualifying offer would be Gordon’s best bet. Here is an excerpt of that post:

Ben Gordon has little to lose taking the qualifying offer. He will only lose about $1.2 million next year if he takes the qualifying offer instead of the Bulls offer, which would be peanuts if he got the big extension he is looking for. If Carlos Boozer doesn’t opt out next summer, Gordon will be the top free agent on the market, so a big offer will likely come his way.

The Bulls need to start taking the Gordon situation more seriously, because if they continue to play hardball with him and end up disrespecting him, they will probably lose him to a conference rival next summer.

Carlos Boozer ended up opting out, and Ben Gordon became the top free agent on the market, and Gordon ended up being able to get the type of offer he was looking for.

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The Chicago Bulls forward discusses the Ben Gordon signing, NBA draft picks, & secret handshakes. T-Time tells MOUTHPIECESPORTS personality Mitch Robinson why he thinks BG will get a nice ovation when he returns to the United Center as a Detroit Piston.

Ben Gordon appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show on ESPN 1000 today, to talk about him becoming a Detroit Piston. Here is a recap of what he had to say.

• He is happy about the situation he’s going into.  Joe Dumars is really focused on winning and his priority is winning a championship.  That’s also Ben’s main goal as a player.
• He first knew he was going to sign with the Pistons right after he met with Dumars.  Dumars exuded winning, and everything he talked about was building a team to win a championship.  Dumars convinced Ben pretty easily to sign, and it was a no brainer to sign with the Pistons.
• The Bulls didn’t pursue him at all, they didn’t even make an offer.  It was pretty much a one team race.
• On whether the Bulls were lying when they said it was a top priority to re-sign him, Ben said that it is what it is.  There was no offer made.  You have to put it together.
• He felt that he always got a lot of love and respect from the fans that really followed the games.  When walking down the street, people always showed him love.

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According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, Ben Gordon will become a member of the Detroit Pistons for $55 million over 5 years.

The Detroit Pistons have reached agreement with free-agent guard Ben Gordon(notes) on a five-year contract worth around $55 million, a source with knowledge of the talks told Yahoo! Sports Wednesday evening.

Well, looks like the Bulls are going back to the lottery next season. The Bulls lost their best player and will suck next year.

Everytime John Paxson and Gar Forman said that the Bulls would like to have Ben Gordon back, they were lying. $11 million a year is a reasonable amount for Ben Gordon, you had to expect he would want something in that neighborhood. Although those two are not to blame, they were just lying for their boss.

This move all comes down to Jerry Reinsdorf. All he cares about is his how much money he can make, he doesn’t care about winning. The man is a disgrace of an owner for letting the Bulls’ best player walk. Unless the Bulls can get lucky in the lottery and land another superstar potential player in the draft, as they did a year ago with Rose, they will be unlikely to compete for a championship for awhile.

Today is a big setback for the team on the court. They will suck next.

As of 11:00 PM Central Standard Time, Ben Gordon is no longer a member of the Chicago Bulls and has become an unrestricted free agent.

Ben Gordon looks to cash in big, as he is coming off a big 2008-2009 season, and is the top free agent of the 2009 free agent class.

Last summer, Gordon agreed to sign the Bulls $54 million over 6 year deal, but the owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, refused to let him sign the deal, so Gordon signed the one year qualifying offer, which made him an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Gordon’s competition for dollars decreased today, as Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur of the Utah Jazz both opted into their contracts for next year, as did Kobe Bryant. The Pistons, one of the teams with cap space, had interest in Boozer.

The Pistons are said to be in hot pursuit of Gordon, and appear set to offer Ben Gordon at least an $11 million a year contract.

Oklahoma City and Portland are other teams with cap space that could become possible landing spots, but unless Portland waives Steve Blake and/or Travis Outlaw, it would need to be a sign and trade. The Knicks and Heat both tried to sign Gordon last summer, but were nixed in sign and trade deals by the Bulls.

In a matter of days, hours, possibly minutes, Ben Gordon may no longer be a Chicago Bull. It still comes down to the fundamental question, and that is, are the Bulls willing to pay Ben Gordon what he is worth?

According to Chris Broussard, Ben Gordon would re-sign with the Bulls if the offers are similar. The Bulls should go ahead and match the Pistons offer, as $11 million a year is a reasonable contract for a team’s top scorer.

No matter what happens with Gordon, Bulls fans should appreciate what he did here. He has been the best player on the Bulls since Michael Jordan retired.

At the end of this process, Ben Gordon should be a Bull, but it is very likely that he will not. The Bulls’ ownership group, led by Jerry Reinsdorf, has been more profit driven than winning driven. The Bulls have been the most profitable team in the NBA for over a decade, yet they’re still grasping at the luxury tax as being a barrier for their spending.

It’s time for Jerry Reinsdorf to start acting like he is the owner of a big market team, and re-sign Ben Gordon for what he is worth.

Chris Broussard appeared on ESPN to discuss the Pistons’ surprise firing of their coach, Michael Curry and as well as the Pistons’ free agency plans.

Broussard said that the Pistons like Ben Gordon and that he is high on their radar. Gordon is telling people close to him that he thinks the Pistons will offer him $11 million a year. Gordon wants to stay in Chicago. As long as they’re offering him anything close to what the Pistons are offering him, he will stay in Chicago.

This news is great. Chicago’s outlook to becoming a great team looks a lot better than Detroit’s, and Chicago is a much nicer city than Detroit. Gordon will also not have to deal with the process of moving to another city and re-situating himself.

The Bulls should offer Gordon something in that ball park. That’s a $2 million more a year than they offered Gordon last year, but it’s not an exorbitant amount for a player of Gordon’s caliber.

The Chicago Bulls introduced James Johnson and Taj Gibson in a press conference today. Here is a rough recap of what was said during the press conference today.

Gar Forman: We are very excited about how things turned out.  Think with both players there is great versatility, both for the roster, but also as far as their games are concerned.  James can play inside and outside.  He can play at the 3 and the 4.  Taj is a skill player, who brings length and activity to the floor that will really help us.

James Johnson: Chicago is a great city, going to be happy to play here.  They’re a great young team.  Going to be fun running with Derrick and the rest of the guys.

Taj Gibson: I feel the same way.  I’m blessed to be here, a great city, a great team.  Looking forward to filling any need the team has, looking forward to the season.

Reporter: Do you liken yourself to anyone in particular or the kind of style of play?

James Johnson: I watch everyone.  I have a couple guys, inside and out.  Try to take everyone’s game who makes great moves, and make them in my game.

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