Gar Forman: Bulls’ Goal Is To Re-Sign Gordon

May 22nd, 2009 by Andrew Wamboldt

Gar Forman was officially named the new general manager of the Chicago Bulls yesterday.

Forman, unlike Paxson, made it clear that re-signing Ben Gordon is the goal, and not just something that management will try to do.

“We like Ben. Ben’s been a key component to our team. I think he’s our kind of guy. He has great make-up and character, a great work ethic. Obviously, he’s a very talented player. Our goal is to re-sign Ben Gordon,” Forman said.

“The conversations that we’ve had, I think Ben wants to stay here in Chicago and be with the Bulls.”

Forman would then extend an olive branch to Ben’s agent, Raymond Brothers.

“I think Raymond understands, like I do, that as we hit the July period, every negotiation is a new negotiation.”

“I’ve read some of his comments and Ben’s comments that say the same thing. It’s going to be a new negotiation.”

He finished off the talk about Ben by saying, “Ben will know that we want to have him back, with the Chicago Bulls.”

It is good to see Forman come out right away and set the tone for negotiations for Ben. Gordon is an unrestricted free agent this year and could be signed by another team and be gone. There will not be any goofing around in negotiations by the Bulls this year. Ben is one of the premier unrestricted free agents, and the premier unrestricted free agents usually have their fate decided in the first few days of free agent, so it’s important for the Bulls to come out with a strong offer from the get go.

When Forman talks about Gordon knowing that the Bulls want him back, I would assume that Forman means that the Bulls are going to make a strong offer from the get go. I would hope that the Bulls offer Gordon more than they did last year, just to show that they’re rewarding him for going out, playing hard, and having a good year. If the Bulls don’t offer Gordon more than they did last year ($54 million over 6 years), there may be no hope at re-signing him.

That is the danger, words won’t get the job done, and the Bulls need to understand that. Just talking won’t get the job done, they need to follow their words up with actions, and that action is making a good contract offer to Gordon, likely in excess of $10 million a year. In the past few years, the Bulls have given $9.5 million a year to Kirk Hinrich, $10.5 million a year to Tyson Chandler, $11.8-13.3 million (depending on incentives) a year to Luol Deng, and $15 million a year to Ben Wallace. The Bulls have shown that they are willing to spend big money on players, and none of those four players deserved big money more so than Ben Gordon.