The Return of Ben Gordon
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009Ben Gordon will return to the United Center tonight for the first time as a Detroit Piston in his first career game against the Chicago Bulls.
The results have not been good for either party since the split. Ben Gordon, while still having a good season, has seen his scoring average drop to 19.8 points a game (from 20.7 points a game last season) and his scoring efficiency drop to 55.6 TS% (down from 57.3 TS% last season). His Detroit Pistons have struggled early in the season, standing at 6-11 on the season.
The Bulls, meanwhile, are standing at 6-9. The Pistons can pass the Bulls in the standings with a win tomorrow.
The reasons for both the Pistons and Bulls struggles so far this season are clear. The Pistons are losing, simply because they have been without two of their top three players (Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince) for nearly the entire season. Most teams would do as poorly as the Pistons have if they were missing their second and third best players.
The Bulls struggles so far this season are a result of Ben Gordon. In losing Ben Gordon, the Bulls lost around 20 points of efficient scoring. Not only did the Bulls lose that valuable asset, but the Bulls also lost the focus of the other team’s defense. Every moment Ben Gordon has stepped on the court in a Chicago Bulls’ uniform from the 06-07 season onward, he has been the focus of the other team’s defense. Gordon drew defensive attention away from his teammates, giving them better scoring opportunities.
In losing Gordon, the Bulls also lost a leader, the main leader of the team. He was never voted in as a team captain during his tenure with the Bulls, but he still remained the team’s main leader. The way that Gordon led the Bulls was much more valuable than leading by having a C attached to his name on the roster. Gordon led by example, by taking over games single-handedly when the situation called for it. He didn’t always succeed, but he did more often than not.
The effect of Gordon’s absence on the offense can easily be seen through stats. The Bulls are ranked 27th in the league in Offensive Rating, with an O-Rtg of 99.5. O-Rtg is how many points a team scored per 100 possessions. The Bulls offense is broken. There is no space for Rose to drive, which is a result of the Bulls shooters bricking wide open shot after wide open shot, which has allowed opposing defenses to pack it in, instead of staying out on shooters. The Bulls also lack an effective post player, although Joakim Noah has shown some nice post moves so far this season.
The Bulls offensive problems rest solely on the players. Vinny Del Negro is running the same offense as last year, and as seen by the Bulls in the second half of last season, Vinny’s offense can put up a lot of points. The Bulls’ offensive problem is a lack of offensive talent. Currently, only Joakim Noah at 56.6 TS%, is scoring above the league average in scoring efficiency. The Bulls collective low scoring efficiency is a result of not getting to the line a lot and also not making three point shots.
Ben Gordon’s replacements have been especially poor. John Salmons is scoring at 46.4 TS%, Kirk Hinrich at 45.3 TS%, Jannero Pargo at 46.3 TS%, and Lindsey Hunter at 17.9 TS%. Players who score at that low of an efficiency really shouldn’t be seeing much court time as there is very little possibility that they can be contributing enough in other areas of the game to make up for how much of an offensive liability they are.
The Bulls of course were supposed to be winners, even with a worse offense, because of their new and improved defense. That looked to be the case early on, however, the Bulls defense has completely collapsed. The Bulls are currently ranked 16th in defensive rating (and going down after every passing game), only a two rank improvement from last year’s 18th rank. The Bulls are in the same boat as they were last year defensively. Going from Ben Gordon to John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich has done nothing to improve the Bulls’ defense.
The Bulls have decided to combine some of the league’s worst offense with mediocre defense, and the results are exactly what should be expected, and that is losing. The complete lack of quality offense and the Bulls’ staying the same defensively shows exactly how valuable Ben Gordon was to the Bulls. In losing Gordon this year, it is becoming clear that the Bulls made a very poor basketball decision, as far as this year is concerned.
And so it looks we move on to 2010 free agency to see if the Bulls made the right decision in letting Ben Gordon go. If they land Lebron James, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, or Dwyane Wade, it will clearly have been a good decision, as the Bulls will end up with a much better player than Gordon in the end. However, even if they do land one of those elite players, it probably still is a bad decision, as a good management would have found a way to keep their best player, while gaining the financial flexibility to sign one of these players who thrust the Bulls into championship contender status.
When Ben Gordon returns to the United Center tonight he will probably be booed by the crowd. But it is the management who lost their best player for nothing who should be booed. It is the owner who is too cheap to pay his best player what he is worth who should be booed. It is the Chicago sports media, who covered Gordon’s contract negotiations from Jerry Reinsdorf’s point of view who deserve to be booed.
If you are going to the game tonight, do not boo the player who worked hard everyday he was with the Bulls and who was the central cog in lifting the Bulls from their status as NBA bottom dwellers. Instead let your discontent be known for the management and ownership who are responsible for the Bulls currently being a 6-9, losing basketball team.
