John Jackson's been converted, and Ben Gordon update

“Gordon still isn’t totally confident his toe can handle back-to-back games.” so i guess vinny decided he def wanted him to play tonight instead and didn’t want to risk it.

VDN just doesn’t want the hassle of having both Gordon and Hughes if it can be reasonably avoided.

So why is Hughes still here again?

Hughes can play only once every 83 regular season games, which means we won’t see him until next year….since he played our last game of the season last year I believe.

If Negro had any doubts about whether Gordon was sincere, this is a great way to make the point. It’s like when your kid says he’s too sick to go to school. You say, we’ll, ok, if you’re that sick, we better take you to the doctor. “No, I’m not THAT sick! I don’t want a shot!”

I’m not saying Gordon wasfaking it!
I’m just saying that VDN’s strategy was can’t lose. If Gordon’s really hurt, it’s the right thing to be cautious with him. If Gordon’s not really hurt, it changes the dynamic by exerting his authority as coach.

just maybe

that’s definitely what i would do, i want to see them start together. i haven’t gotten to see them play together yet, i couldn’t find a feed for fri’s game.

Del Negro knew that Rose would not be starting last night and BG would not be available to play in back to back situations, so he held him out of last night’s game to start him next to Rose…it makes sense.

Now if he will only start Noah instead of Gooden.

Both Sam and KC were on CTL this week and they both mentioned there is no splash deal in the works involving anyone.

Also, it would make more sense for Ben to be playing than not to be playing…gets his value up.

no.

he cant be traded until january, right?

Gordon and Rose look incredible together and VDN wants to wait to surprise teams a bit in the start of the season to snatch a few early wins for our confidence.

Of course that’s the most Homer post I’ve ever made….but it would be nice :).

“He’s not that great, but, hey, at least he doesn’t look as bad as that other guy”

that he’s certainly not making this easy on Vinny. Maybe Pax needs to suck it up and ‘lose’ a deal to simply get one done.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-22-bulls-bits-chicagooct22,0,569376.story

I mean how much more clear can this be?

That belief prompted Vinny Del Negro to stop calling plays and merely hand the car keys to the NBA draft’s No. 1 overall pick.
"We just opened the floor for him," Del Negro said. "He’s so athletic and can break guys down off the dribble. We just said run the team and have players run the lanes and have some fun."

D’Antoni designed tons of plays for their offense, having Nash just allowed them to be executed without fail, and also gave them an extra edge of improvisation. And that’s Nash….we have a rookie PG. I’m all for giving him freedom to operate, but you still have to give him some kind of offensive structure, not every game is going to give him the chance to lead some kind of herky-jerky comeback.

Del Negro should be worried about having on offensive philosophy, but he should be panicking and losing hair and weight over his defense moreso.

If you don’t start Rose this season, you thwart his development, undermine his confidence, foster claims that he is a "bust," and sabotage the team’s future.

do you REALLY expect someone on the Bulls staff to say they don’t want to play Hughes because of his contract and/or because he stinks? Let’s be realistic.

NOBODY in the Bulls organization will come close to saying anything like that, even when Hughes is gone.

Here’s how I think we could trade Hughes:

1. Take back committed salary in 2010. EG Hughes for Eddy Curry. Unless we’re getting something amazing back, we’d be better off buying him out.

2. Package him up with something really good. EG Hughes and Tyrus/Noah/etc from some good player on a big, long contract.

3. I used to think it’d be possible to trade him for someone else’s garbage, but I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s the smelliest garbage around. For example, if you’re the Knicks, why would you trade him Q Richardson and Jerome James to get Hughes? Q at least has a track record in D’Antoni’s system, whereas Hughes is showing he can’t possibly handle it.

4. On a similar note, because we’re so close to the luxury tax threshold, we don’t even have the possibility of offering financial relief to another team to take him. For example, that Q Richardson/Jerome James deal actually has another rationale.

Those two guys make 14.9M this year and 15.3M next year. Hughes only makes $12.8M and $13.7M respectively. So even if the Knicks liked Q better, they might have a reason to make this trade. It would save them $4.7M in salary, plus $4.7M in luxury tax over the next two years. That’s $9.4M they’d save! Put it that way, and they probably would make the deal, right?

But it turns out the Bulls can’t make that sort of deal, because trading Hughes for those guys would actually put the Bulls over the tax threshold. So how much do the Bulls want to be rid of Hughes? They’d have to pay an extra $4.7M, plus some amount of luxury tax penalty, just to be rid of him.

So when I look at that, I think it’s extremely unlikely the Bulls are going to come up with a deal that’s better than just letting him sit out.

not because he would really help us at this point after last year, but I would LOVE to hear his press conference quotes on Larry Hughes.