The Daily Herald was able to get in an interview with Ben Gordon to print an article for the paper. According to this article, Ben Gordon sees the writing on the wall and has concrete offers from European teams that he can fall back on as a last resort.

Here is a snippet of the article:

Ben Gordon hasn’t given up on staying with the Bulls, but he does see the writing on the wall.

The Bulls don’t want to pay the luxury tax, and unless that policy changes, they have a finite amount of money to offer Gordon to start a new contract.

Add it up over six years, and the restricted free agent would have to accept a smaller average salary (about $9.8 million) than the team offered him last summer.

“It looks that way,” he said Friday. “I don’t think they want to lose their leading scorer for nothing. Maybe they do, I don’t know.”

Gordon, the Bulls’ top scorer for three straight seasons, knows his alternatives to accepting the team’s offer are not ideal. He says he has concrete offers from European teams, but those seem to be a last resort.

“I think, for me, I’d like to just have some clarity. We have all these guys at one position. I think things should work out naturally. There’s no reason it shouldn’t, for myself and the organization.”

Gordon said he’d like to set a deadline for getting his contract resolved, but he didn’t want to name a date and clearly wants to give the process more time. He also will not join Luol Deng on the Great Britain national team next month unless his contract is signed.

“All you need is one,” Gordon said of a potential trade partner. “You don’t need 29. All you need is one. A sign-and-trade, both sides would have to agree, so we’ll see what happens.

“I want to make it clear to the fans that I want to come back. But something good has to be done that both sides feel comfortable with. That’s pretty much it.”

Source: Daily Herald

Things are probably not as gloomy as the media has been putting out there. Keep in mind, Tuesday afternoon, ESPN was saying that the Bulls weren’t willing to offer Luol Deng what they were last year and that Luol Deng was the most likely restricted free agent to take the qualifying offer. Later that night, news broke out that Luol Deng had agreed with the Bulls to a $71 million contract.

The gap between Gordon and the Bulls doesn’t even seem large enough for concern. The Bulls can offer Ben Gordon approximately $58 million, about $9.7 million per a year, before they hit the luxury tax. This is widely assumed to be what the Bulls are offering Gordon. According to HoopsWorld, Ben Gordon is looking for something in the $11 million per year range, or $66 million for the total deal. It does not seem like the Bulls will have too much difficulty bridging an $8 million gap.

If the Bulls truly fear the luxury tax, they have a few options. They could take back less salary in a Kirk Hinrich or Andres Nocioni trade. The Bulls could also try packaging Cedric Simmons and their 2010 first round pick to a team who is approximately $1.7 million under the cap still. This would allow the Bulls to give Gordon a contract he will be happy with and not have to worry about the cap hold of a 2010 draft pick, giving them more flexibility in 2010.

If the Bulls are serious about retaining Ben Gordon, this affair shouldn’t drag on much longer, given that Reinsdorf is handling the negotiations and the gap is so small.

• According to the Suntimes, according to league sources, the Bulls and Ben Gordon are still far apart on a contract. This is nothing to hit the panic button over because all indications are that serious negotiations haven’t started with many fo the restricted free agents.
• Luol Deng, according to the Suntimes, will opt for the $4.5 million qualifying offer if he cannot agree to a new deal with the Bulls by August 4th, so he has insurance in case he gets injured while playing for Great Britain in the European Championship Qualifiers.
• According to The Daily Herald, the Portland Trailblazers plan to pursue Ben Gordon or Luol Deng next summer if they are restricted free agents.
• Greek basketball fans are saying that the Greek Club, Olympiakos, are offering Ben Gordon a two year contract worth $20 million USD after taxes and agent fees. This would be the equivalent to about a $32 million over 2 years contract in the NBA. Olympiakos recently signed Atlanta Hawk’s small forward Josh Childress. If they are able to get Ben Gordon and Josh Childress as their two American players, they will dominate European basketball for the next two years.
• The Charlotte Observer is reporting that the Bobcats have reached an impasse with Emeka Okafor, and are not willing to offer the $12 million per a season they offered last year. Okafor is now open to leaving Charlotte.
• The Hoops Doctors are reporting that Denver has had discussions about sending future draft picks and the trade exception they received in the Marcus Camby trade for Kirk Hinrich. According to their sources, the Bulls turned down a Kirk Hinrich for Marcus Camby trade.

Now what exactly would the Bulls have to give up for Emeka Okafor? They could make a package based around Drew Gooden and Tyrus Thomas and trade that for a package of Emeka Okafor, Jared Dudley, and Jamero Davidson.

The Denver rumor might just be related to the idea of Okafor coming to Chicago. If the Bulls did the rumored Kirk Hinrich trade, the Bulls would receive a trade exception for the amount of Hinrich’s contract. So the Bulls could do a sign and trade of the trade exception they would receive in the Kirk Hinrich trade and draft picks for Emeka Okafor. Under this scenario, the Bulls would be able to offer Okafor approximately a 76.5 million over 6 years deal. This would be for an average of 12.8 million per a year, which is more than Charlotte is willing to give him. However, the rumored Hinrich trade could just be to clear cap space to resign Gordon and Deng comfortably and make another trade.

Remember, in past interviews in July, Paxson has maintained that he wants to try to package some players together to get a guy he really likes and who would improve the team.