The 2009-2010 NBA season is quickly approaching. Therefore, here are five bold, specific, quick hit predictions for the 2009-2010 NBA season.

1. The San Antonio Spurs defeat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Finals behind a 17 rebound performance by Dejuan Blair. Tim Duncan wins the Finals MVP, while Manu Ginobili hobbles his wa through the Finals, retiring at their conclusion.
2. Brook Lopez makes his first Allstar game appearance and emerges as the top player from the 2008 Draft Class.
3. All four of the conference semi-final matchups (Cleveland vs. Detroit, Boston vs. Orlando, LA Lakers vs. Portland, and San Antonio vs. Dallas) will be epic playoff series.
4. Ben Gordon takes over the starting shooting guard spot from Richard Hamilton in November. At that point, Joe Dumars simultaneously trades Richard Hamilton for a center (it will be either Chris Kaman or Andrew Bogut). The Pistons combine one of the top producing back courts in the NBA with good interior defense to claim the fourth seed in the East. Ben Gordon has a better season than Derrick Rose and makes his first Allstar game. Gordon goes on to knock the Miami Heat out of the playoffs in Game 6 on a buzzer beating leaner along the baseline. The Pistons give the Cavs a hard fought series in the second round before being eliminated in six games.
5. Michael Beasley puts it all together as the Heat win around 46 games. Miami becomes the clear cut top free agent destination. Dwyane Wade re-signs with the Heat on the first day of free agency. The Heat also sign Lebron James or Chris Bosh on the first day of free agency.

Unrestricted free agent Ben Gordon stretches out on the couch with MOUTHPIECE personality Jillian Jesk to discuss the Chicago Bulls’ playoff series against the Boston Celtics. Plus, BG breaks down Derrick Rose’s first year in the league and Vinny Del Negro’s first year at the helm.

Ben Gordon appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show to talk about the Bulls vs. Celtics series, the future of the Bulls, and his future. Here is a recap of what was said in the interview.

• The hamstring injury was pretty bad.  He had to take painkillers before every game.  But once it got warmed up, he could obviously play.
• The series was an epic battle that will go down in history.  Gordon thinks it was the best series ever.  In it, you saw two teams that really exhibited what pro sports is all about at the highest level.  Had to be amazing to watch, because it was amazing to be a part of.
• He spent most of Saturday and Sunday morning replaying what went wrong in Game 7.    Sunday was more for reflecting on the season as a whole and what they accomplished.  Was happy with the effort and heart the team played with.
• The playoff experience is very important for Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.  For them to go out there and experience the difference between the regular season and post season is important.  The veterans can only tell them so much about it, they have to go out there and experience how many notches the playoffs are above any other level of basketball.  That’s going to be monumental in their careers and the way they continue to develop as players.
• Gordon knows that Luol Deng can become a good player again.  Deng is one of the hardest workersi nt he offseason, and is committed to basketball and getting better.  Gordon is positive that Deng can come back and have a great year because he puts the work in.  He thinks that Deng had some troubles adjusting to the new coach and system.
• Gordon thinks that Vinny did a decent job.  Vinny still has a lot to learn and room for improvement.  For a first year coach, he did a good job.  He ended up getting the Bulls into the playoffs and competing against the defending champs, so that made it a pretty good year for Vinny.
• Vinny needs to improve his game time situations.  That is what really shows a coach’s experience and that is where they make their money at.  The great coaches always seem to make the right substitutions at the right time or draw up a great play.  Vinny needs to get a better feel for when to make certain decisions.
• His future with the Bulls is up in the air.  He has expressed since has gotten here that he would like to be here for 15 years and retire a Bull.  Unfortunately the last offseasons, they haven’t been able to come to a contract agreement.  This offseason, he is unrestricted, but his thoughts and feelings about being here are still the same.  From a business aspect it didn’t happen the past two summers, so now he has to look at his options and just go from there.
• The decision right now is the best decision for himself.  One of his main priorities is winning, he wants to win a championship.  Then after that, it is taking care of his best personal interests.
• With Derrick Rose, John Salmons, Kirk Hinrich, it’s very encouraging.  He’d love to be back playing with these guys, and with Luol Deng coming back 100%.  With a full year under their belts and with Deng coming back, the team will be way better then this season.
• When asked about Barkley calling him crazy and how he responds, Gordon said he doesn’t respond to these comments.  Barkley is not part of the situation.  Everyone is entitled to their own decisions.  Ben doesn’t regret not signing the contract.  Things work themselves out.  A lot of peopel expected him to come out and sulk and cry, not be professional, but that didn’t happen.
• Kevin Garnett was doing a lot of heckling form the sidelines.  Gordon thought a lot of it was unnecessary.  But that is Garnett trying to be the emotional leader and very demonstrative.  That’s just KG being KG.  Garnett did not give Gordon a handshake after the game.
• Ray Allen told Gordon what a great series it was.  Allen was happy how they were both able to perform and represent for UConn.  He told Ben to rally the young guys together and that they could be a good team.
• Gordon just wants Bulls fans to know that he would always want to be here, hopefully retire here after a good 15 year career and a couple of championships.  He also wants them to know that the business side may change some of that, but he is hoping otherwise.

You can listen to the interview online, here.

The Chicago Bulls’ great second half of the season ended Saturday night as they were ousted from the playoffs in Game 7 of their First Round series with the Boston Celtics.

The Bulls looked good early, jumping to a 18-11 lead with about seven minutes left in the first quarter. Gordon came out of the gate looking focused and on fire, scoring 10 points in the first 5 minutes of play. The Bulls would lead 27-23 at the end of one.

The Bulls would open the second quarter opening up a 32-32 lead behind two jumpshots by Ben Gordon. But those were Gordon’s last points of the half, and Boston would jump to a 52-38 lead.

The Bulls would whittle down the Celtic’s lead to 7, as Ben Gordon capped off the third quarter with a three point shot to make it a 78-71 games, but the Celtics never let the Bulls go on a commanding run to completely get back in the ball game.

Kirk Hinrich scored the Bulls first 6 points of the fourth quarter to cut the lead down to four, 81-77, but that was as close as it was going to get. Eddie House promprlty made a three pointer to put the Celtics back up by 7. He was called for a taunting technical, as he felt obligated to say something to the Bulls’ bench. The Celtics never let the Bulls get within 5 from there on out and pulled through with the victory.

Ben Gordon was great given that he had a hamstring injury. The way he went out and scored 17 points early on, I thought he might be getting ready to drop 50 on the Celtics to match Ray Allen, but then Gordon went cold. He still finished with a phenomenal 33 points. He shot only 7-23, but made up for it by going 15-15 from the free throw line. Gordon did a great job getting to the line, and overall, a great game given the hamstring injury.

His UConn counterpart, Ray Allen, also had a good game, scoring 23 points. Like Gordon, Allen did a good job getting to the line, drawing 9 free throw attempts.

Joakim Noah was very good again, finishing with 7 points, 15 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He would foul out of the game. This was Noah’s fourth 15 rebound game of the series. His hard foul on Rondo was great, someone had to send a message to Rondo, and Noah stepped up and did it.

Kirk Hinrich did a good job scoring 16 points off the bench, scoring all but 2 of them in the fourth quarter. He really gave all he could to keep the Bulls from getting eliminated, but it wasn’t enough.

Derrick Rose finished with 18 points and only 3 assists. He started the game off good, and was part of that initial charge, but quickly faded. Next year, he will have to be more aggressive, and have prolonged excellence throughout the game, instead of just in spurts. We have already seen Gordon make the leap from a spurt player to a full game impact player, so hopefully Rose wil lbe able to do the same.

Eddie House was big off the bench, scoring 16 points, going 4-4 from three. In past games, the Celtics weren’t getting production from their bench. Tonight they did, and that was the difference.

The Bulls really god beat up by the Celtics’ big men tonight. Kendrick Perkins had 14 points and 13 rebounds. Glen Davis had 15 points, and even Brian Scalabrine got in the action scoring 8 points.

Paul Pierce scored 20 points for the Celtics. John Salmons had 12 points on 3-12 shooting.

With the victory, the Celtics win the first round series 4-3, advancing to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals where they will take on the Orlando Magic.

Closing Comments

Before the series, I predicted Celtics win the series in 7 games, because we would lose the front court battle, giving up too many second chance points. That is exactly how the Bulls ended up losing this series in 7 games, by getting beat by the Celtics’ depleted front court. Make no mistake about this, Joakim Noah was the best big man in the series. It’s not debatable. But Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis, throughout the entire series, outplayed Brad Miller and Tyrus Thomas by a wide margin. Tyrus Thomas in particular was a big problem for us in this series, as he got killed on the glass.

It was a pretty good season for the Bulls. They played in one of the most intense playoff series of all time, featuring 7 overtime periods. Hopefully they can take the intensity from this series, while keeping largely the same team, and applying that intensity to the regular season next year, for a much better regular season and an easier playoff matchup.

I usually end by saying “Go Bulls!”, but I will end this season by saying: Re-sign Gordon!