by crying luxury tax, they’ll pretend they cannot offer any more than the ~$8m starting salary. They won’t take any extra money back in a sign/trade, making that option even more complicated and unlikely for Ben and his agent to pull off.

If you read the quotes, he really doesn’t sound like he wants the qualifying offer though. So maybe he ‘caves’ and accepts 3/$27 (or $2/19 with a player option – whatever is max allowed under the tax). and tries free agency some other time.

Then Paxson can move on to trading other guys and freeing up salary. that, uh, could’ve gone to Gordon (huh?)

I don’t care if he’s crazy, there’s no reason why we should watch a team that is going to average 85 points a game.

JR smith could very easily be more productive than BG or Kirk and cheaper. I am a huge fan of signing smith. i see massive potential with him. and him maturing is not a matter of if it happens but when it happens. i say give him a two year 11 million contract and negotiate a sign n trade with gordon…....for a solid big with offensive skills….start hinrich, thabo, deng, post we acquire, and noah…...off the bench, rose, smith, noc, gooden, gray…....first squad should be able to keep games close, second should be able to beat up on second unit of pretty much any other team in the league…. probably not gonna make much sense to alot ofyou….but im kinda tipsy right now, and it makes sense to me!!!!!!!!

at a higher salary. Paxson wants to to see what the Bulls will be like with Rose and Gordon. Gordon has no offers and doesn’t want the QO. Folks somehow this is going to work out.

I remember the 12/31/2007 game at the UC against the Magic. The Bulls had changed coaches, were 2-0 under Boylan and this was as big a game as we had last year. The Magic played really well. Lewis, Turkaglu, Arroya and Nelson were on fire. Gordon was a monster. The Magic were all over him and he scored 39 points. I write about this game because it was an important game and BG is one of the few players that can step up in these key situations. What stands out to me is we were down by 3 in regulation. The Bulls had the ball and the Magic swarmed Gordon. The knew he was going to take the shot. Gordon got some space, with Magic players all around him he made an unbelievable three with 6.7 seconds left to tie the game and send it into overtime. My other memory is that we had two chances to ice the game. We were up by 4 or 5 with a few minutes left in the game. Both Hinrich and Duhaon had wide open threes that would have given us the win. They were wide open because the Magic were double and triple teaming Gordon. Both choked and missed. I want to see Rose and Gordon on the floor during crunch time. My feeling is this will get done. I don’t know how but it will get done.