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.

Ben Gordon appeared on ESPN First Take to discuss him signing with the Pistons. Here is a recap of what he said in the interview.

• The Bulls didn’t pursue him much once free agency started.  Once free agency started, Detroit showed him the most interest.
• Him and Charlie Villanueva visited together, and right form the jump, they realized that Detroit was the place to be.
• It is accurate that the Bulls never made an offer.
• He is not sure why the Bulls never made an offer.  It is what it is.  He’s moving on and happy with his decision.
• He wasn’t surprised that Chicago didn’t make an offer,after how things went the last two summers.  His whole goal this offseason was to get things wrapped up and move on from this issue.  It just so happened that the team he was most excited about palying for also pursued him the hardest.
• He would probably choose Detroit over Chicago, even if the Bulls had made an offer.
• His decision was about winning, not about money.  It was about trying to put himself in a position to win a ring.  Just watching Joe Dumars over the years and how he assembled teams, Ben thinks he is one of the best, if not the best, at putting together a team full of guys who can really play.  Trying to compete for a championship is definitely one of his priorities.
• It was fun having Charlie there.  It reminded him of when Charlie came for his recruiting trip to UConn.  Kind of like the same thing all over again.  He has known Charlie since they were 12 and 13, playing basketball in Detroit.
• He is not going to ask Joe Dumars to let him wear #4, which is retired for Dumars.  He is going to stick with #7 in Detroit.  It’s a coincidence that his old number is  retired wherever he goes.

Ben Gordon appeared on the Waddle and Silvy show on ESPN 1000 today, to talk about him becoming a Detroit Piston. Here is a recap of what he had to say.

• He is happy about the situation he’s going into.  Joe Dumars is really focused on winning and his priority is winning a championship.  That’s also Ben’s main goal as a player.
• He first knew he was going to sign with the Pistons right after he met with Dumars.  Dumars exuded winning, and everything he talked about was building a team to win a championship.  Dumars convinced Ben pretty easily to sign, and it was a no brainer to sign with the Pistons.
• The Bulls didn’t pursue him at all, they didn’t even make an offer.  It was pretty much a one team race.
• On whether the Bulls were lying when they said it was a top priority to re-sign him, Ben said that it is what it is.  There was no offer made.  You have to put it together.
• He felt that he always got a lot of love and respect from the fans that really followed the games.  When walking down the street, people always showed him love.

(more…)

In 2006, the Chicago Bulls stole away Ben Wallace from the Detroit Pistons. There weren’t any early rumors saying that the Bulls would pursue Wallace, but there were rumblings from fans that it would make sense.

Could Ben Gordon become part of Detroit basketball tradition? (photo by femaletrumpet02 on Flickr)

This time, the roles are reversed. The Detroit Pistons are the team with cap space and the Bulls are the team with a Ben hitting free agency. That is, Ben Gordon, the Chicago Bulls leading scorer, who will become an unrestricted free agent this summer after the Bulls failed to re-sign him two summers in a row. Could the Pistons sign Ben Gordon? Pistons beat writer A. Sherrod Blakely thinks they can.

Blakely appeared on The Huge Show to talk about the Detroit Pistons and the trade deadline. When asked about what players the Pistons could bring in within the next year and a half, Blakely had this to say:

“The more I watch him play, the more I could see Detroit making a run for him this summer, and that’s Ben Gordon of Chicago. Ben Gordon, if you look at the guys Joe Dumars has brought to Detroit, who’ve done well, they’ve been in their mid twenties, they haven’t really had the kind of success that maybe their talent might suggest they have, and they really are in need of a new home, an new location, and they seem to thrive in Detroit. I definitely could see Ben Gordon being one of those guys that Joe Dumars and his staff targets this summer and mak a really strong push for.”

One of these players is Chauncey Billups, who is now with the Denver Nuggets. In his five seasons before coming to the Pistons, Billups averaged 11.3 PPG and 4.2 APG, and did not look like much of a point guard. Billups, who was taken third overall just like Gordon, came to Detroit and resurrected his career.

Could Ben Gordon do the same, and fill the void that was created when the Pistons traded Chauncey Billups? Ben Gordon, who is averaging 18.3 PPG 3.0 APG in his first five years in the league, is obviously doing much better than Billups did, but also isn’t looking like much of a point guard. Gordon recently told Jillian Jesk of Mouthpiecesports.com, that he would rather be a point guard than a shooting guard. Could Ben Gordon learn to run an NBA team from the point guard position, just like Billups did prior to him in Detroit?

Today, with the trade for Tyson Chandler, the Oklahoma City Thunder effectively took themselves out of the Ben Gordon sweepstakes. Unfortunately, it looks like a new team, the Detroit Pistons, who no one thought of as a potential landing spot for Gordon because of Rodney Stuckey, may be entering the Ben Gordon sweepstakes. Detroit has a ton of cap space this summer, and if they truly are interested in Ben Gordon, then the Bulls are going to be in a world of hurt, either talent wise from losing Gordon to a division rival or financially, for ponying up to keep Gordon.

In an interview with Chuck Swirsky, Lindsey Hunter described Derrick Rose’s upside as being endless.

“He is one of those special talents. He posesses that ‘it’ factor, that a kid can raise his level. I think it’s been proven time and time again with him, he raises his level to the level of the competition, and not many young guys can do that. I think he has an endless upside, and that’s scary.”

Hunter, when signed by the Bulls, was expected to receive minimal playing time, with his main task being the education of rookie point guard, Derrick Rose.

Hunter has experience playing with some of the best guards of the league. He played with Sam Cassell in Milwaukee and Chauncey Billups in Detroit. Hunter played with Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars in his first year in the league, although both players were in the twilights of their career at that point.

That rookie season, where Hunter’s Pistons went 20-62, was a growing up experience for Hunter. It helped Hunter understand the business and perseverance aspect of the NBA. Rose will need perservarance to survive the Bulls’ current roster that lacks talent in the front court as a result of business decisions by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

“It was a humbling experience,” Hunter said, “Coming out of college most of the guys that make it to the league, you won your last year in college, you had a great senior year.”

Hunter also had some advice that appeared to be targeted at the Bulls other talented young guard, Ben Gordon.

“It will always be a game and I tell young kids that to this day. The business part will take care of itself and that’s off the court issues, and you try to keep it separate in your own mind, because you don’t want to tie that into each other, it affects you.”

It is important for Gordon to keep his passion for the game burning. After this season, if he gets his new contract with the Bulls, he will be expected to be the Bulls’ second star until they make a major acquisition.

“The ultimate goal of basketball is to stop the opponent from scoring and you score more than the opponent,” Hunter said, “I tell kids from grade school until you’re in the NBA, it will always be basketball, it will always be a game, and it will always be something that if you love it, you have fun doing it.”

You can listen to this interview online, exclusively at Bulls.com.

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