Ben Gordon is now entering his 5th season in the NBA and with the Chicago Bulls. Once again, the Bulls failed to reach a long term deal with Gordon, who will return to the Bulls this season on the qualifying offer.
It has been a rumor filled summer surrounding Ben Gordon. At the end of July, Ben Gordon stated that Europe is now an option for him, amidst rumors of Olymiakos offering Luol Deng and Ben Gordon large offers. Later that day, Manos Manouselis admitted to sending overtures to the agents of Gordon and Deng, but said that they never made any contract offer.
It was reported at the end of July, that the Heat, Suns, and Hornets were after Ben Gordon. The Heat were only one of two teams that were persistent in their efforts to coup Gordon. In mid-August, the Bulls rejected a sign and trade based around Shawn Marion. In mid-September, it was reported that a deal involving Gordon, Larry Hughes, and possibly Joakim Noah for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks fell through. A source, strongly biased in favor of the Bulls front office, stated that the Bulls and Heat agreed on the trade scenarios, but the Heat weren’t willing to match Gordon’s salary demands, but of course, this turned out to be false. The Bulls also turned down a trade involving Ben Gordon and Andres Nocioni for Shawn Marion. The Heat will have cap space next summer, and likely will make another run at Gordon. The Knicks also made a play at Gordon, offering Stephon Marbury’s large expiring contract, but the Bulls also turned that offer down.
With the Bulls unwilling to trade Gordon to a conference rival, Gordon had to play the media to try to pry a better offer out of the Bulls. At the beginning of August, Gordon confirmed to Slam Magazine that he has received some contract offers from Europe. A week later, Gordon was telling the Hartford Courant that he didn’t see himself being a Bull this season. On the same day, a rumor broke that stated that the Russian team, Dynamo, was pursuing Gordon. The rumor seems to be credible as Dynamo moved into sign a similar player, Jannero Pargo, to a deal after Gordon wouldn’t commit. Towards the end of August, Gordon said he would like to play for the New York Knicks.
The Bulls played their own hand in the media game. At the beginning of September, a Greek news source reported that CSKA Moscow was offering Gordon a contract. A few days later, CSKA Moscow general manager, Андрею Ватутину (Andrei Vatutinu) stated that this was nothing more than a, “dirty, baseless newspaper rumor”. The original narrative that emerged was that Raymond Brothers, Gordon’s representation made up the deal. This never made a whole lot of sense given that CSKA Moscow was only offering Ben Gordon $5.5 million a year. Gordon’s representation had no incentive to make up a European team offering Gordon such a low, insulting offer. It is more likely that the Bulls front office used a media source to try to smear Gordon, like when they sent their media henchman after Scott Skiles during his contract negotiations.
After Luol Deng signed for a $71 million deal, the Bulls had a little over $58 million before they would hit the luxury tax. Of course, the Bulls in the end, didn’t offer Ben Gordon the full amount they could under the luxury tax, making his decision not to re-sign easy. General manager John Paxson said on the Gordon situation, “I’d like to be sitting up here with Ben shortly,” following the Deng signing press conference, but Paxson’s plans as a general manager were thwarted by the cheapness of Bulls owner, Jerry Reinsdorf.
Reinsdorf refused to give Gordon a substantive offer, despite pleas from Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, and Joakim Noah to general manager, John Paxson, to bring Gordon back. Luol Deng told Sun Sports, “I’d love to see him back in Chicago and here with me playing for Great Britain. I’ve never been on a court without him and we know what he’s capable of. The Bulls and GB will be better with him.”
Money wasn’t the only thing keeping Gordon from re-signing long-term with the Bulls. Gordon was also distraught over the guard rotation. Gordon stated on ESPN’s First Take, that the guard logjam was a hurdle in him re-signing. What exactly the Bulls are doing with their guard rotation still remains a mystery for Gordon.
Despite the disappointing summer, Gordon has remained professional, and worked hard all summer long. Ben Gordon made nightly appearances at the Bulls’ practice facility, the Berto Center, to get in an evening workout with his personal assistant.
Gordon will try to recover from a disappointing season. Gordon wasn’t terrible, finishing with averages of 18.6 PPG and 3.0 APG on good scoring efficiency, but he wasn’t great either. Gordon was actually averaging 20.2 PPG on the season when the Bulls made the Ben Wallace trade. After the Bulls made the trade, Jim Boylan severely slashed Gordon’s minutes, leading to his season averages dropping at the end of the season. Despite being Boylan’d, Gordon was by far the Bulls best player last season.
So why was the Bulls’ best player unable to secure a long term deal? Despite being the Bulls best player, Gordon still took a step back from 2006-2007. In 2006-2007, Gordon averaged 21.4 PPG and 3.6 APG with one of the top scoring efficiencies in the league. To build on his already impressive season, Gordon averaged 25.5 PPG and 5.5 APG as he led the Bulls over the Miami Heat in the Bulls’ first playoff series sweep and win since Michael Jordan retired. Gordon was expected to take that big leap forward towards stardom rather than that baby step backwards. Still, it is encouraging that Gordon only took a baby step backwards when the rest of the team took multiple steps backwards.
Gordon looks poised to be the Bulls’ best player again this season and he is expected to play a large role on the team. Vinny Del Negro told 670 the Score, that he would welcome Ben back with open arms, even if he is on the qualifying offer. Vinny said that he really wants Ben on the team, that Ben will be a big part of what the Bulls do, and that he expects Ben to have a big year to show what type of player he is on both sides of the court. It seems that Del Negro wants to use Gordon, who will want to play extraordinarily well to secure a lucrative contract, as a catalyst to get the Bulls back into a winning basketball team. The $59 million…$54 million question is whether Gordon will be playing his ~32 minutes as a starter or off the bench.
There is very little chance that Gordon will disrupt the team’s chemistry this season. What is Gordon going to do to hurt the team, shoot the ball over and over again? That’s what Ben Gordon does, so the Bulls probably get better as he shoots more.
Next to Derrick Rose, Gordon should be really really good. There are some concerns about the size of the backcourt as Gordon will be a “defensive liability”, but the attacks on Gordon’s defense are overstated. Gordon does the small things on defense that you want out of your players, such as closing out on shooters. The one time where Chauncey Billups posted Gordon up in the playoffs sticks out in people’s minds. (Even though, if you look at the box scores, Billups didn’t score more than you would expect from him in that series). The Jason Kidd-Vince Carter scenario sticks out in people’s minds, as so many people watched that game where we blew the #2 seed against the Nets in 2006-2007, although that back court no longer exists in the NBA. Gordon getting abused on defense has never been a regular occurrence, Gordon has been on some of the best defenses of the past 10 years. What was a regular occurrence last season was the Bulls weak interior defense repeatedly being abused.
Offensively, there is not many better shooting guards to put next to Rose than Gordon. Rose needs a great shooter next to him, and pairing him with the 10th best three point shooter would be a logical idea. Kirk Hinrich is not a very good shooter and Larry Hughes and Thabo Sefolosha are horrible shooters, so Ben Gordon should be the starting shooting guard if we are starting Derrick Rose. There is an argument that Hinrich’s shooting percentages aren’t that low. Here’s the deal, Ben Gordon was a more efficient shooter than Hinrich while fielding double teams, while Hinrich took his shots wide open. Gordon’s ceiling next to another player who can draw defensive attention away from Gordon is very high. There is no use playing Kirk Hinrich, Thabo Sefolosha, and Larry Hughes big minutes next to Derrick Rose as they have a 0% chance of ever being the long term solution for shooting guard next to Rose. Gordon, however, could be the long term solution next to Derrick Rose. If you have watched summer league and the early preseason games, it is clear that Rose can set up guys for good looks. The problem is that these guys keep missing those wide open shots. For the sanity of Bulls fans, Del Negro should put the one guy on the Bulls roster who can actually make those shots consistently next to Rose.
Gordon will likely be a very good player throughout the course of an entire game, but will he recapture his clutch heroics from his first two seasons in the league. In his first two seasons in the league, Ben Gordon was one of the most clutch player in the league, and also one of the best players at hitting game winning shots, behind only Carmelo Anthony. These past two years, Gordon has remained one of the league’s top clutch players, but he has had difficulty converting on those game winning shot attempts. If Derrick Rose can draw some defensive attention away from Gordon in the clutch, Gordon will probably return as one of the best player’s in the NBA to have the ball in their hands as the final seconds tick down on the game clock.
Bulls fans should expect a circus around Ben Gordon this season. Every time he has a bad game, the loaded words of “midget” and “defensive liability” will likely find their way into the narrative. If he has an 8 point game after having 9 straight 20 point games, he will still be lambasted. Despite this circus surrounding Gordon and his contract uncertainty, Ben Gordon should have a big season for the Bulls next year.
