Our weekly check-up on the situation of Ben Gordon leaves us further from resolution than ever before. Shoals of The Sporting Blog expresses dismay over Gordon's self-delusions of grandeur, as Gordon seeks to be the highest-paid Bull after Luol Deng's massive contract was finalized. How far off-base is Gordon, though? I mean, is he good enough to hold out for $11-12 million a year?Two players: Man A and Man B. Man A is 25 years old, and the other will soon turn 23. On their four-year careers, both shoot a lot -- more than 15 FGAs per 36 minutes. And both score a lot: Man A scores 21 points per 36, and Man B scores 18. Man A has a substantially higher usage rate, and is a better passer. Both stroke the long-ball well (over 40% last season). Man A is a 6'3 two-guard, Man B is 6'6.
Man A is the better player right now, but it's close. As he's older and hasn't improved the last two seasons, you could make the case Men A and B deserve similar salaries. Well, Man A (Ben Gordon) wants to be the highest-paid Bull. Man B (Denver's J.R. Smith) will probably get a $5 million contract from the Nuggets. Beyond the differences are documented above, the only disparity is in minutes: Gordon has played a ton -- almost twice as many minutes as Smith.
Kelly Dwyer -- a Bulls fan who knows stuff -- doesn't think Chicago will end up caving into Gordon. I think that's a good thing. He's a good player, but he's J.R. Smith good. Not Luol Deng good.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-02-2008 @ 3:24PM
LB said...
Ben Gordon doesn't deserve 12 but he should get 10 million.
Kirk Hinrich makes 9 million a year. Ben Gordon was 6th man of the year and has hit many clutch shots. He has also been the leading scorer the last three seasons. His defense and height concerns brings him down to 10 million.
JR isn't a real comparison. (Legal issues, maturity)
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8-02-2008 @ 6:56PM
Redpill said...
Bulls should do sign and trade enough games by gordon. i think deng is better than gordon and deserves the money. gordon will have to grow up and face what he's worth. NBA is no place for whiners you should be glad you get $10 mill there people like doctors work there tail off don't get no where near what you have.
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8-03-2008 @ 11:05AM
... said...
Yes JR Smith's per minute numbers are ridiculous. But, then again, you wonder why Byron Scott had no use for him in New Orleans, and he still doesn't crack more than 20 minutes a game on a team that does nothing but score. Who's holding him back? Anthony Carter? Smith is talented but a major headcase, Gordon on the other hand is a far better player, and has been forced for 4 seasons now to be the primary option on an offensively inept team. He's hit countless game winners, and often times been the only guy on the Bulls to keep them in games. Yes, he's small and bad at defense, but his talents are no worse than a Michael Redd, someone who's just as bad on defense. If you're the Bulls and just drafted Derrick Rose, why the hell wouldn't you want to keep Gordon (one of the best outside shooters in the league)? PG dominated teams need a player like Gordon, a spot-up shooter who can just destroy teams who decide to trap the PG. See Okur, Mehmet, or Stojakavic, Peja.
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8-03-2008 @ 5:47PM
KD said...
Context matters, here.
Every Bulls fan worth his or her salt saw 2007-08 as the "year of the big man screening for Gordon," and that big man was always Ben Wallace (for the first 55 percent of the year), or Joakim Noah (for the post-trade deadline run). It made no sense, and it always led to Gordon having to deal with a double-team, 27 feet from the hoop, with a shot clock running down. It was miserable, and Skiles (and his acolyte, working toward the "Achieve Martyrdom for Scott Skiles Movement" Jim Boylan) never seemed to get that it didn't work.
And yet they kept calling for that screen.
Why they didn't let bend curl off or go in a 1-4 set, a la 2004-2007, made no sense to me. I never understood why they decided that Ben needed the traffic that far from the hoop, especially in these days of the heavy hand-check calls. But they went with it. While we howled, at home.
I don't think he's worth 13 million, I barely even think Deng is worth the 12 million, but this is a team that gave Nocioni eight million for no reason and is now struggling to make up for it while playing by the same rules the Pacers or Grizzlies have to. That makes no sense. No team has come anywhere close to making the sort of money the Bulls have since the lockout year, Clippers included, and they need to pay the luxury tax for at least a year.
To take Ben Gordon OFF of the league's 26th-best offense? Wow.
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