I’m very unsure we’d see much difference in W/L record if he wasn’t here and I’m pretty sure we’d see a difference without Gordon.

I agree that in some sort of abstract sense, Deng, who’s younger and more well-rounded ought to be considered “better”, but when the rubber hits the road it’s all about who helps you win games.

There are always two sides forcing an issue. It’s speculation to assume he wouldn’t have taken a better deal. Or reacted differently if his last couple years with the Bulls (and their public statements) had been handled differently. At this point my belief is that he’s simply willing to take a chance of a significant loss of cash to be out of that situation.

I don’t know what to believe about the Bulls. Everything indicates they seems to want Gordon a significant amount. But they’ve pretty consistently jerked him around on the court, and at this point the odds of his return look extremely slim. The odds of enduring a bunch of nonsense this season look very high. What do the Bulls expect to get out of it?

I think if I were Pax, I’d say hold on to the QO for a couple more days, and I’d probably try to mount a firesale sign and trade. The Knicks have made an S&T offer involving Marbury, and I think if I were the Bulls, I’d rather get a future pick or some cap relief than go through a lame duck season with Gordon.

Of course, my first preference would be to keep him, but given that they don’t appear inclined to up their offer, the smart move is to go ahead and pull the bandaid off instead of letting this fester for a year.

The “6th man” year he actually had a productive supporting cast (even Noc commanded limited attention on defense at times). Last year he was mostly on an island with the clock running down, and the “coaching staff” did little to nothing to ease that situation. Plus, they weren’t nearly as good last year as the year before so there simply weren’t as many “last second” moments available. If memory serves me we were usually in the process of blowing a lead, or too far behind in the 4th qtr anyway. If however there was another player you feel that should have been taking those last second shots last year I sure didn’t see it. Who do you think it should have been?

tax!

it would’ve been nicer for Paxson not to openly talk about needing a taller backcourt, and then offering him a long-term deal. Or allowing Boylan to give Hughes his minutes. That’s jerking around. Maybe Gordon doesn’t want to be locked in here, at any price, if he doesn’t know how the team sees him?

• The Bulls got S&T offers from two different teams. The “fact” that it was Gordon who turned them down doesn’t make sense in the context of a restricted free agent who’s surely been in contact with the offering teams. Said fact was also, as best I can tell, mainly promulgated by the Bulls’ in-house rumor monger.

• Even putting aside the various benchings prior to it, the Bulls spent the last couple months of the season running down his value. Pax ran his mouth on Gordon’s size making him a sixth man. They played him fewer minutes over the last two months of the season that all the other guards.

• Then they turned around and offered a contract that was scaled down from the one they offered previously (which, of course, they said was below market to begin with and was based on the expectation that Gordon give something up for “security” purposes). I mean, if you think that doesn’t matter, I think you’ve never been in a normal work environment. And the Bulls did come back (and never sway from) a salary cut. They offered him $10M last year and less than $10M this year. In my experience (and I do have some in figuring out how to compensate people) that’s a guaranteed way to lose an employee in short order. Even if they still work for you for a while, they’re guaranteed to mentally check out and have both eyes on the exit. It’s just human nature to take that as an insult.

• So Gordon goes into the off-season with every reason to think they’ve screwed with him, and he sees a variety of guys who (be honest now!) you spent the last several years you wouldn’t trade Gordon for. Maggette gets 5/$50M. Monta Ellis gets 6/$66M. Iggy gets $80M. “We can’t possibly trade Gordon for Pau Gaol! No freaking way!” Maybe some of you guys would quibble on a particular guy, but you know perfectly well that was the general sentiment, and probably John Paxson’s too.

So why on earth would Gordon turn around and accept a deal that pays him less per season than he was offered before, and than was offered to a variety of guys he’s heard (in practice from the team itself up until it was time to negotiate!) that he’s better than?

I suspect he looks at those guys and thinks, OK, even if I don’t make back quite what I would have made with the Bulls, I can go somewhere where the GM isn’t saying I’m too short to start and isn’t allowing my minutes to plummit for the sake of Chris Duhon and Larry Hughes.

I think the QO is pretty shitty for all involved. Hell, I don’t see why we couldn’t do a one year deal with a PO for the second year at $7.5M/yr. Put the ball totally in his court, but maintain our trade flexibility.