By Sean Mackey
According to a Real GM wiretap, Ben Gordon's agent, Raymond Brothers is telling people that his client has a $11 million annual guarantee from the Detroit Pistons.
Considering that the Pistons are also rumored to be shopping Rip Hamilton, there's probably a lot of truth to this. The Bulls offered $9 and $10 mill to BG last season and this is obviously going to be his best offer on the table this offseason. However, I'm not convinced that a team devised of Rodney Stuckey, Tashawn Prince (who will probably be dealt), BG and possibly Carlos Boozer is a team that's going anywhere. I'm very curious as to what Joe Dumars' other plans are.
With all this being said, the Bulls probably aren't going to offer Gordon the same number. Reinsdorf is a well known cheapskate and well, there aren't a whole lot of takers for Kirk Hinrich with Minnesota out of the picture now.
Ben Gordon is detrimental to this Bulls team succeeding, losing him would be a huge step backwards. John Salmons is great and all, but he's 30 years old this year and has had one breakout season. There's no guarantee that he's going to come back and make the kind of impact BG has. Luol Deng is also a big question mark. He played decently in the games he actually played and showed improvement in his rebounding but is he gonna live up to that $80 mill contact....you know the one we PROBABLY should have offered Gordon? Most likely not but I'm willing to give him one more chance.
The Phoenix Suns were reported to be interested in Deng but according to sources close to the Bulls, he's still for some reason untouchable. Deng/Thomas/Other Player for Shaq? I'd do it in a heartbeat. Sam Smith with Bulls.com has argued that Shaq doesn't play any defense and that Chicago wouldn't be interested but isn't that what we have Noah for? It would just be for one season, then we could use all the money we saved to throw at Bosh, Wade or....Lebron (yeah, I said it) next summer.
The other big rumor of the week was a twitter post by Ohio State draftee BJ Mullens that stated that he had a guarantee from MJ town. His agent also shut down a workout with New Jersey and stated they had a promise from a top 16 team in the draft.
Since Tyler Hansbrough (the guy who I want) and DeJuan Blair will probably be off the board by the time #16 rolls around, this is probably the Bulls best option. He's a guy who's athletic and quick on the throw downs but has problems defending and has low level post skills. In other words, a total project. However, his size and quickness might work well in VDN's fast paced offense. Frankly, to me he looks like a high flying version of A-Gray. If the Bulls draft Mullens, it also probably means that T-Time is over in Chicago.
In other NBA news, Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves leaked via twitter that Kevin McHale is out as coach. Bill Laimbeer randomly resigned as the defending WNBA champion Detroit Shock's coach two days ago. Coincidence? I think not.
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