The Chicago Bulls are currently offering Ben Gordon a $59 million over 6 year deal. Ben Gordon has yet to accept the offer.

But how much is Ben Gordon actually worth? I have attempted here to determine his worth by comparing him to the other restricted free agents and would be restricted free agents who accepted extensions last summer, based on statistics, size, and winning. Statistics account for approximately 82% of determining the contract value, and size and winning account for approximately 9% each.

The statistics used in determining the players value are PPG, RPG, APG, TS%, SPG, BPG, FTA, O-Rtg, and D-Rtg. The players combined past 2 seasons were the numbers used.

The amount of a winner that a player is, is determined by total wins, playoff appearances, playoff wins, and playoff series wins. Devin Harris is first in winning, Ben Gordon second, Luol Deng third and Al Jefferson is 2nd to last, and Emeka Okafor is last.

In terms of size, the centers get the biggest benefit, followed by the power forwards, then small forwards, than normal sized shooting guards, then point guards, then small shooting guards. Dwight Howard is ranked first in size, while Ben Gordon is ranked last.

The players are ranked in each category, and then they each have an overall rank that is calculated from each individual category rank.

I have extrapolated the total contract value of guys on five years deal to what they would be worth on a six year deal. The guys ranked in terms of total contract value below. Ben Gordon has been assigned the average value below for the guys that have already signed their new deals.

1. Dwight Howard - $106 million
2. Al Jefferson - $82 million
3. Andre Iguodala - $80 million
4. Josh Smith - $73 million
5. Luol Deng - $71 million
6. Emeka Okafor - $70 million
7. Ben Gordon - $70 million
8. Kevin Martin - $69 million
9. Monta Ellis - $66 million
10. Andris Biedrins - $63 million
11. Devin Harris - $53 million
12. Jameer Nelson - $38 million

Now, the players are ranked in their determined order based on their stats, winning, and size.

1. Dwight Howard - 4.36
2. Andre Iguodala - 5.45
3. Luol Deng - 6.18
4. Josh Smith - 6.18
5. Kevin Martin - 6.18
6. Andris Biedrins - 6.55
7. Monta Ellis - 6.64
8. Devin Harris - 6.73
9. Emeka Okafor - 7
10. Al Jefferson - 7.27
11. Ben Gordon - 7.54
12. Jameer Nelson - 8.91

So if we are to put these numbers on a normal curve, these are the contract values of the players:

1. Dwight Howard - $106 million
2. Andre Iguodala - $88 million
3. Luol Deng - $76 million
4. Josh Smith - $76 million
5. Kevin Martin - $76 million
6. Andris Biedrins - $71 million
7. Monta Ellis - $69 million
8. Devin Harris - $68 million
9. Emeka Okafor - $64 million
10. Al Jefferson - $60 million
11. Ben Gordon - $56 million
12. Jameer Nelson - $38 million

So based on this, Ben Gordon is worth $56 million. However, people should not take this to mean that the Bulls are offering too much with the $59 million offer. If you account Ben Gordon being a legit first or second option, while players such as Andris Biedrins and Devin Harris cannot be categorized as such, one would think that Gordon should get a bit of a pay bump for that, while Biedrins and Harris should have their pay brought down a bit, as Gordon is more responsible for the Bulls success than Harris was for the Mavericks. Therefore, the Bulls $59 million offer for Ben Gordon seems fair based on what the players have done in their careers and their role.

Ben Gordon should absolutely continue holding out (hopefully only to the Great Britain deadline) to see if he can get a few more million from the Bulls. But at the end of the day (in this case, negotiating cycle), Gordon should accept the Bulls $59 million offer, as it is a fair offer.

However, Gordon wouldn’t be crazy if he took the qualifying offer. The Bulls new focus towards a faster paced offense and the addition of Derrick Rose, should help boost Gordon’s scoring and passing numbers. In addition, the free agent market will be favorable to Gordon next year.

Still, the Bulls are making a very fair offer to Gordon. Gordon’s best course of action is to continue to hold out and fight for more money to see how much more he can get out of the Bulls, with it already determined in his mind that he will take the Bulls $59 million offer if that is the highest they are willing to go.