Chad Ford: Thunder Interested in Gordon

[??? ??????]

Mitchell (Chicago): Please tell me Ben Gordon is staying in Chicago.

SportsNation Chad Ford: If he can find a team willing to give him the money he wants ... he 's gone. I've heard OKC has interest. And the Pistons do too if they can find a way to pay him and a big man like Boozer.

http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/chatESPN?event_id=26749

 

[Newskoolbulls]

Thanks for that. Man it will suck if Ben leaves, he has come up big for us many times. Thunder trying to be like the Blazers in the next few years.

 

[jsain360]

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low, my main concern is if the Bulls land Amare or Bosh effect Gordon, will Gordon be willing to be the third option, personally I don't think he will, even w/ D.Rose he still thinks this is his team

 

[??? ??????]

Newskoolbulls wrote:

Thanks for that. Man it will suck if Ben leaves, he has come up big for us many times. Thunder trying to be like the Blazers in the next few years.

Thunder could be great. Sign Gordon, draft Hasheem Thabeet #3.

They'll have

PG-Russell Westbrook
SG-Ben Gordon
SF-Kevin Durant
PF-Jeff Green
C- Hasheem Thabeet

That is a pretty solid starting lineup. You have plenty of offense with Durant and Gordon, a versatile power forward with Green, and then defense from the point and center spots.

 

[Newskoolbulls]

??? ?????? wrote:

Newskoolbulls wrote:

Thanks for that. Man it will suck if Ben leaves, he has come up big for us many times. Thunder trying to be like the Blazers in the next few years.

Thunder could be great. Sign Gordon, draft Hasheem Thabeet #3.

They'll have

PG-Russell Westbrook
SG-Ben Gordon
SF-Kevin Durant
PF-Jeff Green
C- Hasheem Thabeet

That is a pretty solid starting lineup. You have plenty of offense with Durant and Gordon, a versatile power forward with Green, and then defense from the point and center spots.

That is quiet a lineup. With top teams getting older in the West Thunder and Blazers can take over.

 

[Newskoolbulls]

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low, my main concern is if the Bulls land Amare or Bosh effect Gordon, will Gordon be willing to be the third option, personally I don't think he will, even w/ D.Rose he still thinks this is his team

Its so sad that people thing of Ben like that.

 

[Diddy1122]

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low, my main concern is if the Bulls land Amare or Bosh effect Gordon, will Gordon be willing to be the third option, personally I don't think he will, even w/ D.Rose he still thinks this is his team

Welcome to the boards, jsain. Always good to see new people on here. But I gotta say, you didn't pick the best response for your first post.

The whole Gordon is selfish-thing is plain rubbish. It's been proven on this, and other fan sites, that it just isn't the case. You need only peruse the articles section of this site, or check out some of the other threads on the subject. It's unfortunate that most of the main stream media has brainwashed many fans into believe this selfish tripe almost as much as the "BG is a 6th man" mantra.

Now don't get me wrong I don't think BG is the greatest player in the world, and he certainly makes some boneheaded plays with the ball from time to time, but he is such a rare commodity in this league. No one, and I mean, NO ONE can light it up like BG does when he gets going. You simply do not let a guy with BG's prolific scoring ability walk away for nothing. If the Bulls do, it will go down as probably the dumbest decision in team history.

And if by some miracle we do land Bosh or Amare, I'm pretty sure BG would be just fine hitting wide open 2's & 3's, something he hasn't been able to do his whole career due to constant pressure and double teams. He could be our "Ray Allen". Ben wants to win more than anything else, which is not something you can say about every player in this league.

 

[PJ Brown]

I'm starting to worry that Gordon is gonna walk. I don't think the league will be beating down his door to pay him more than the Bulls, but all it takes in one interested team. It is at least conceivable that either OKC or Detroit could pay him what he wants, if either of them is inclined to do so.

 

[mlewinth]

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low, my main concern is if the Bulls land Amare or Bosh effect Gordon, will Gordon be willing to be the third option, personally I don't think he will, even w/ D.Rose he still thinks this is his team

Thanks Jsain360! Thanks alot! Now I got Fred calling me, off the hook, screaming "we gotta make a podcast, just wait till you read what all these Drones wrote on the boards....we gotta make a cast tonight, this is just disgusting". Poor guys gonna have a heart attack if you keep posting nonsense like this!

Last year Ben Gordon was the BEST player on this team. The year before that, Ben Gordon was the best player on this team. You doubt his ability to not be "the man", but quite frankly, so far, no one has stood up and put this team on their backs offensivly like BG7. Gordon works hard and has had as good of an attitude as anyone on this team, even though I feel he gets the least amount of respect of anyone on this team. Ben is a winner. He wants to win. I guarentee if we had another PROVEN option on offense on our team, Ben would have no problem deferring to him. (please don't call Derrick Rose "proven", he had a nice season for a rookie, but he was hardly the catalyst that made our offense go..that was Ben Gordon) Now, so far we havent had that, so it is unfair to label Ben as unfair, because he has HAD to shot 20 times a night on this team.

You will be eating your words and your shorts next year if Ben doesn't come back. We will suck.

 

[Kush77]

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low

How so?

I disagree with your opinion, but it's your opinion. I just like for fans/media to back up their claims on Gordon with something more than the typical Ben Gordon talking points.

- He's selfish
- He can't play D
- He's like Vinnie Johnson
- He shoots too much
- He's too short

Any others?

 

[clonetrooper264]

Kush77 wrote:

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low

How so?

I disagree with your opinion, but it's your opinion. I just like for fans/media to back up their claims on Gordon with something more than the typical Ben Gordon talking points.

- He's selfish
- He can't play D
- He's like Vinnie Johnson
- He shoots too much
- He's too short

Any others?

Don't forget he's inconsistent and he's a 6th man Can't forget those. I think we may need to hide this from Fred or he's going to go drone crazy again...

 

[Kush77]

clonetrooper264 wrote:

Kush77 wrote:

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low

How so?

I disagree with your opinion, but it's your opinion. I just like for fans/media to back up their claims on Gordon with something more than the typical Ben Gordon talking points.

- He's selfish
- He can't play D
- He's like Vinnie Johnson
- He shoots too much
- He's too short

Any others?

Don't forget he's inconsistent and he's a 6th man Can't forget those. I think we may need to hide this from Fred or he's going to go drone crazy again...

Yes, inconsistent, even though he's been consistent enough to lead the Bulls in scoring 4 straight years.

6th man thing too, but that could be tied in with Vinnie Johnson. Assuming all of us know he was a 6th man.

 

[dougthonus]

The thing with all of those points, except the Vinny Johnson one, are based in fact even if they are exaggerated.

He is short.
He doesn't play good defense.
He does frequently dominate the ball for long stretch of the shot clock trying to go isolation on someone and forcing up a bad jumper (ie selfish)
Throughout his career, he has been inconsistent
He does shoot one of the highest volumes of shot per minute in the nba (shoots too much)

So while I think a detailed debate about those things and how important they are is possible, and I'm not sure how important these flaws are, by just naming them off as "cliche" things people say doesn't make them all irrelevant all of a sudden.

There is somewhere between a little and a lot of truth with all of those points.

 

[Diddy1122]

clonetrooper264 wrote:

Kush77 wrote:

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low

How so?

I disagree with your opinion, but it's your opinion. I just like for fans/media to back up their claims on Gordon with something more than the typical Ben Gordon talking points.

- He's selfish
- He can't play D
- He's like Vinnie Johnson
- He shoots too much
- He's too short

Any others?

Don't forget he's inconsistent and he's a 6th man Can't forget those. I think we may need to hide this from Fred or he's going to go drone crazy again...

It's too late. Fred already knows, and just about had an aneurysm. Hopefully this thread doesn't dominate the discussions on the next podcast. Needless to say, I don't think Fred will be inviting jsain360 to dinner anytime soon.

 

[Kush77]

dougthonus wrote:

The thing with all of those points, except the Vinny Johnson one, are based in fact even if they are exaggerated.

He is short.
He doesn't play good defense.
He does frequently dominate the ball for long stretch of the shot clock trying to go isolation on someone and forcing up a bad jumper (ie selfish)
Throughout his career, he has been inconsistent
He does shoot one of the highest volumes of shot per minute in the nba (shoots too much)

So while I think a detailed debate about those things and how important they are is possible, and I'm not sure how important these flaws are, by just naming them off as "cliche" things people say doesn't make them all irrelevant all of a sudden.

There is somewhere between a little and a lot of truth with all of those points.

There's a difference between "he doesn't play defense", and "he isn't a good defender." Peopel who bash BG make it seem like he's the worst defensive player to ever stap on a court. Then never want to give him credit when he might have done well. Example - Ray Allen goes 1-12 in Game 1. Does anyone say "hey, good defensive game BG?" No. But when Ray Allen score 51 "oh God, Gordon is so bad on defense." Can't have it both ways.

He dominates the ball because who else is gonna score? That's what people seem to forget.

I don't think he's been that inconsistent throughout his career. He's been the best player on the team the last 5 years. If that's inconsistent, then it doesn't say much for the rest of this team.

He shoots a high volume. Okay, and he shoots and a solid percentage. So what's the issue, right?

 

[Frank Breakfast Styleham]

How on earth did BEN GORDON ever get compared with VINNIE JOHNSON?

They SHOOT differently. They PLAY differently. One was called the MICROWAVE the other...um....isn't...? One averages 20 points a game the other...um...didn't...?

I mean, they're both men. There's a similarity. They're both African Americans. Oh, there's another similarity! They both wore jerseys on the court...

But how did they ever grow to become SO compared as players?

What is this all about?

If you're going to say Ben Gordon is Vinnie Johnson you may as well say Pepsi Cola is tea; that Romeo and Juliet is Dumb and Dumber; that Jason Kidd is Priest Lauderdale.

Where did this come from!? They're an apple and an orange.

 

[??? ??????]

clonetrooper264 wrote:

Kush77 wrote:

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low

How so?

I disagree with your opinion, but it's your opinion. I just like for fans/media to back up their claims on Gordon with something more than the typical Ben Gordon talking points.

- He's selfish
- He can't play D
- He's like Vinnie Johnson
- He shoots too much
- He's too short

Any others?

Don't forget he's inconsistent and he's a 6th man Can't forget those. I think we may need to hide this from Fred or he's going to go drone crazy again...

You forgot the best one. "Ben Gordon can't be the starting guard on a championship team."

 

[clonetrooper264]

??? ?????? wrote:

clonetrooper264 wrote:

Kush77 wrote:

jsain360 wrote:

I think its time for Ben to go, he is selfish, his basketball IQ is very low

How so?

I disagree with your opinion, but it's your opinion. I just like for fans/media to back up their claims on Gordon with something more than the typical Ben Gordon talking points.

- He's selfish
- He can't play D
- He's like Vinnie Johnson
- He shoots too much
- He's too short

Any others?

Don't forget he's inconsistent and he's a 6th man Can't forget those. I think we may need to hide this from Fred or he's going to go drone crazy again...

You forgot the best one. "Ben Gordon can't be the starting guard on a championship team."

Curses I forgot one. We might be able to disprove that right now even. Put Ben on Orlando and they will probably beat LA.

 

[collisrost]

dougthonus wrote:

The thing with all of those points, except the Vinny Johnson one, are based in fact even if they are exaggerated.

He is short.
He doesn't play good defense.
He does frequently dominate the ball for long stretch of the shot clock trying to go isolation on someone and forcing up a bad jumper (ie selfish)
Throughout his career, he has been inconsistent
He does shoot one of the highest volumes of shot per minute in the nba (shoots too much)

So while I think a detailed debate about those things and how important they are is possible, and I'm not sure how important these flaws are, by just naming them off as "cliche" things people say doesn't make them all irrelevant all of a sudden.

There is somewhere between a little and a lot of truth with all of those points.

You're right, these are legitimate points, but each one is made out to be waaay more than it seems. He's a bit short for his position and that causes his defense to suffer a little. Those two points are actually the same point in a way. he does a decnet job considering his height disadvantage, especially since he's very strong and reasonably quick and has shown commitment to get better on defense over time.

He's a scorer, of course he has the ball in his hands a lot. Often it's by design from the coaching staff. Can't fault the guy for doing what he's asked to do.

I don't know how you measure consistency in the NBA, everyone goes through slumps and hot streaks, Players play better when they're fully healthy and worse when they have nagging injuries (and we don't hear about every minor ding that players have so sometimes there's a real injury going on but fans complain that "he's not trying" or "he's in a slump.") I think "inconsistent" is kind of a myth. How the heck do you measure it? But OK, fine, for the sake of the argument he's a bit inconsistent.

I don't know how the player woith one of the highest true shooting percentages on a team can ever be said to "shoot too much" especially if he's generally getting himself open to get his shots off. Gordan shoots a lot, but it's in the flow of the offense or at the end of games as a closer wher the coaches don't trust other players in the clutch.

So I would argue that these are not so much flaws in his game as simply his "style of play" which has strengths and weaknesses just like every player. And if they are "flaws," then he must be extremely good at his strengths if he was the best player on the team for the past several seasons.

 

[Seth]

Hating Ben Gordon is and has been a method of psychological preparation for his departure. And this stance is rendered all the more irrational since he did have a good season, but we must necessarily exaggerate his flaws to make ourselves feel better. And Rose gets the opposite treatment: we praise him effusively as a star and overlook his flaws, despite the fact that he would be an average scoring point guard if taken on his present performance. And I think this harsh kind of player evaluation is a result of Gordon's contract limbo, and the the scary knowledge of how much we are going to depend on a second year PG to carry our team if/when Gordon is gone.

I guess you could say that a good thing to come out of his leaving would be the end of this emotional punditry and a fresh, sobering perspective, as there is a high potential of us being a low lottery team (if we can't acquire a stud).