On his Bulls Confidential blog, Doug Thonus has some new details on Ben Gordon’s upcoming documentary.

Sometimes fortune smiles upon you, and last night was one of those nights. I spent about a half hour discussing Ben Gordon’s new documentary with Daemian Brown, the director, producer, and long time friend of Ben about the documentary. After hearing more about it, I think it has a chance to be very special.

The documentary starts on March 1st, as the Bulls are hoping to make a charge to the playoffs and continues on through his signing with the Pistons recounting the playoff chase, playoffs against Boston, and the free agent wooing process all from the perspective of a star player in a contract year.

It’s such a unique perspective to view a unique period, and unlike a typical documentary, Daemian had unlimited access and the complete trust of Ben. He’ll offer up a candid view of Gordon showing his off-court life throughout the process as well as his on court one. The documentary is being completed prior to finding a sponsor for it, so it promises to be the story Ben and Daemian want to tell rather than the story that ESPN (or whomever) wants to create.

Over the course of the conversation, I also had a unique opportunity to discuss Gordon with someone who gets to see the real Ben Gordon and got to ask a lot of questions about how Ben viewed his teammates, the city, and the organization.

One surprising thing I heard was that Gordon truly loved being in Chicago. In fact, he just left Chicago for Detroit a few days ago, spending his whole summer here. That surprises me largely due to how under appreciated Gordon felt to me in the city and clearly at this point, there’s no PR reason to project out a love for the city which he’s leaving.

Other comments didn’t surprise me. Gordon’s ability to compartmentalize the negotiation process and treat it like any business negotiation. His understanding of where the Bulls were coming from even if it didn’t match where he was. So though he had disagreements over his value with management he maintained strong relationship with his teammates, especially Deng and Noah and any arguments about Hinrich vs Gordon doesn’t extend past the fans.

There were hints that Gordon felt slighted at times though, we discussed Gordon’s rookie season, and how the Bulls didn’t make a strong push to publicize him for rookie of the year, instead pushing all of their rookies in one campaign when Gordon was the only one with a realistic chance to win.

I think, like Doug, that the documentary has the opportunity to be something special, as long as it is well done. The Ben Gordon story is one of the most interesting NBA stories of the past decade, and definitely the most interesting Bulls story since Jordan retired.

It’s still difficult to see how an organization could let a guy like Gordon slip out of their grips. The guy played tremendously on the basketball court, and as seen by him maintaining strong relationships with his teammates, that he was a tremendous guy to have around your organization off the court as well.

Gordon is definitely right that he was slighted in his time with the Bulls. They never publicized him heavily for awards. They never promoted him for the allstar game. Just this past year, the Bulls were promoting Derrick Rose as a potential allstar, not even mentioning Ben, who was having the much better season of the two. They never promoted him for the three point contest as well.

Ben Gordon, in his five years with the Bulls, never once received that player of the year award that the organization gives out. In 2006-2007, they gave the award to the entire team. At the very least, Gordon/Deng should have shared the award. In 2007-2008, they gave the award to Joakim Noah, who Ben was obviously much better than. And this past year, when there was no doubt about whether Ben was the best player on the team, they changed the award to a community player of the year award, and gave it to Tyrus Thomas. Talk about being slighted.

But all of the Bulls’ mistreatment of Gordon are in the past. Now there is nothing to do except wait for this documentary to come out, so we can gain more insight into a major crossroads for the team.

According to Doug Thonus of Bulls Confidential, the New Jersey Nets rejected the Bulls offer for the 11th pick. The Bulls were targeting Gerald Henderson with the 11th pick.

As I stated in a previous post, I am not a big fan of the Bulls drafting Gerald Henderson. I’d much rather they draft they draft a big man with this pick. The big men available seem more intriguing to me than Henderson.

However, Henderson is that elusive big third guard, that the Bulls have been searching for.

Regardless, as of right now, based on this rumor, it looks like the Bulls will not end up with Henderson if they remain at 16.

A lot can change over these next two days. The Nets could change their mind or the Bulls could find a different trading partner.

According to Doug Thonus of Bulls Confidential, Luol Deng has started working out, but his stress fracture is still not yet at 100 percent.

Sources tell me that Luol Deng has started his summer workouts, but he’s still not 100% yet. He’s rumored to be going down to IMG to work out with David Thorpe at some point, but he’s presently in Chicago doing what he can while being cautious with the leg.

As for the stress fracture itself, the last update my sources have given me says another three to four weeks before it’s 100%.

Hopefully Luol heals soon, so he can go more full charge into his summer workouts. If Deng is back at 100 percent in four weeks, I would also think that he is planning to participate in the European Championships this summer.

According to Doug Thonus of Chicagonow.com, the Bulls’ will trade Kirk Hinrich some time before next season, and that trading Hinrich will be independent of whether Ben Gordon comes back.

Sources close to me have told me that Kirk Hinrich will be traded sometime before next season starts. His status seems to be independent on whether the Bulls are able to bring back Gordon.

Kirk Hinrich actually played pretty well this year, so it would be disappointing to see him go. If the Bulls trade him, it is likely to help position themselves for 2010 free agency. The Bulls seem as they may have the attitutde that we will either re-sign Ben Gordon, or replace him with a shooting guard in free agency next year.

The other possibility is that Kirk Hinrich has asked for a trade, after spending last season on the bench.

The one scary thought is the Bulls without both Gordon and Hinrich. That would be a really, really bad team.

On the latest episode of The Bullsbeat Podcast, Jonathan Givony of Draftexpress.com comes to discuss the NBA Draft, and Givony brought with him two great rumors.

The first rumor is that the Bulls are looking to trade Tyrus Thomas.

The second rumor is that the Bulls are working out guys that you would not expect, and that they could be looking to move into the top 10.

I could see the Bulls seeking to get some value for Tyrus Thomas, as they might not be planning on paying him the amount he will want in an extension. If you can use Tyrus Thomas and your two draft picks to move up substantially in the draft, it’s probably worth it.

There aren’t many guys I would necessarily move up too much for in this draft. Blake Griffin, if made available, obviously go out and get him. Stephen Curry is another guy I would like, but he would just be a sixth man, so I wouldn’t want to give up a power forward in Tyrus for him. Hasheem Thabeet is another guy I think the Bulls might have an eye on. Our interior defense was horrible, and Thabeet would substantially improve our defense.

Another possibility of course is that the Bulls are going to be trading Tyrus Thomas, simply for the fact, they will be bringing in an Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, David West, Chris Bosh. There is no real use for keeping Thomas around when you’re getting one of those guys, and he is probably involved in that trade anyhow.

It will be interesting to see what comes of these rumors as we approach the draft.

You can listen to this podcast at thebullspodcasters.com

Doug Thonus has released the 90th episode of the Bulls Beat Podcast, entitled The Depression Part 2.

Everything that Doug has heard behind closed doors says there is a huge disconnect between the coach and the players. He has heard that none of the players care for Vinny Del Negro and that Del Negro is trying to get the players respect, bt he doesn’t have it.

From Doug’s perspective, Vinny doesn’t run any offense or defense to warrant the players’ respect. He thinks that Del Negro is not doing his job.

“Vinny Del Negro is dead on arrival as a head coach in the NBA,” said Thonus.

Doug has heard that Vinny is not using the staff around him to improve the situation.

You can listen to the podcast in its entirety at bullsbeat.com

Doug Thonus has released the 89th episode of the Bulls Beat Podcast.

Vinny Del Negro has to go. That is what Doug is yelling these days. Del Negro is gone a the end of the year. Doug thinks the Bulls should just fire Del Negro right now since they have three legit NBA head coaches sitting on the bench in Bob Ociepka, Bernie Bickerstaff, and Del Harris.

The players have completely tuned out Vinny. During the summer, Vinny made a bunch of promises to the players on how he was going to run the team that he failed to keep.

Vinny is a players coach who the players don’t like.

Vinny was just being spiteful when he fined the guys for eating in the locker room. The team provides food to its players in the locker room. This was a team rule, but no one has followed it in the past. (Apparently not even the Bulls staff, who provides the players with food).

So far this season, Vinny has not been leaning on his assistant coaches. The assistants have just been working on player development.

If there is one thing to take away from this is podcast is that Doug thinks that Vinny Del Negro has to be fired, and has to be fired soon. I completely agree.

You can listen to the entire episode at bullsbeat.com