NBA Season 2009-2010

[Philberto]

This sounds bad:

Chicago Bulls guard Ben Gordon(notes) and Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva(notes) flew to Detroit on Wednesday morning for a mid-day meeting with team president Joe Dumars and indications are both are moving rapidly toward deals with the Detroit Pistons, league and sources close to the two players told Yahoo! Sports.

Hope everyone enjoys the 90-ppg, 33-win Bulls next season.

Who cares. What's the difference between 33 wins with no playoffs and 41 wins but losing in the first round? Yeah I was sucked into the Celtics series, but it was pretty meaningless.

A potential #1 draft pick

[Ivy6]

I've been reading quite a bit of KD today, and this paragraph got my heartrate up:

Portland needs a defender, and it needs a point guard. Chicago's Kirk Hinrich would seem to be the obvious fit, but if the Blazers sign Hedo, they'd have to ship Outlaw to Chicago for Hinrich. The team plays great for a year, but by the time Turkoglu reveals himself to be a seventh or eighth man as a 32-year old in 2011, where's the relief? Where's the payoff, from all that cap space? The ability to plug in Nicolas Batum? You have that right now!

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie, for those unenlightened.

The tone of the article doesn't sound like it's inevitable or anything, but sign me up.

[PenFoe]

I've been reading quite a bit of KD today, and this paragraph got my heartrate up:

Portland needs a defender, and it needs a point guard. Chicago's Kirk Hinrich would seem to be the obvious fit, but if the Blazers sign Hedo, they'd have to ship Outlaw to Chicago for Hinrich. The team plays great for a year, but by the time Turkoglu reveals himself to be a seventh or eighth man as a 32-year old in 2011, where's the relief? Where's the payoff, from all that cap space? The ability to plug in Nicolas Batum? You have that right now!

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie, for those unenlightened.

The tone of the article doesn't sound like it's inevitable or anything, but sign me up.

Are you trying to get us excited for Travis Outlaw?

[Ivy6]

yes?

I was more excited before I looked up his stats.  I thought he was a better rebounder.  Turns out he's he wasn't what I thought he were.

On the plus side, however, he's younger than Taj Gibson.

[PenFoe]

That was fast.

The Pistons have reached agreement with free agent guard Ben Gordon on a five-year contract worth around $55 million, according to Yahoo! Sports.

[Slaky]

That was fast.

The Pistons have reached agreement with free agent guard Ben Gordon on a five-year contract worth around $55 million, according to Yahoo! Sports.

You are fast, my friend. Wow this offense is going to suck.

[PenFoe]

That was fast.

The Pistons have reached agreement with free agent guard Ben Gordon on a five-year contract worth around $55 million, according to Yahoo! Sports.

You are fast, my friend. Wow this offense is going to suck.

That contract seems ridiculous.
I don't understand what the Pistons are doing at all.

If they sign Villanueva, I understand it even less.

[Waco Kid]

That was fast.

The Pistons have reached agreement with free agent guard Ben Gordon on a five-year contract worth around $55 million, according to Yahoo! Sports.

You are fast, my friend. Wow this offense is going to suck.

Two words on the Bulls here: Marian Hossa.

[Slaky]

That was fast.

The Pistons have reached agreement with free agent guard Ben Gordon on a five-year contract worth around $55 million, according to Yahoo! Sports.

You are fast, my friend. Wow this offense is going to suck.

That contract seems ridiculous.
I don't understand what the Pistons are doing at all.

If they sign Villanueva, I understand it even less.

Get ready to be perplexed:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4301111

[air2300]

Well, that sucked.  I don't know what the pistons are doing, but what the hell are the bulls doing?  I don't get why the bulls couldn't give him the same deal. 

[Old Style Man]

That was fast.

The Pistons have reached agreement with free agent guard Ben Gordon on a five-year contract worth around $55 million, according to Yahoo! Sports.

You are fast, my friend. Wow this offense is going to suck.

That contract seems ridiculous.
I don't understand what the Pistons are doing at all.

If they sign Villanueva, I understand it even less.

Revenge for the horrible deal the Bulls gave Ben Wallace?

[Slaky]

A friend of mine, who is intelligent, believes that we should wager 100 dollars on 2 of the 3 happening and 200 if all three happen (I win if they don't):

1) Bulls win more games in 09-10 than in 08-09

2) Bulls have a better pt differential in 09-10 than in 08-09

3) John Salmons averages more ppg than Ben Gordon in 09-10

I'm more than happy to take those odds - am I crazy? I don't think Salmons will average 20 or more ppg. And considering how the Bulls had to fight and claw to get to the number of wins they had last year with a better team, I like my odds.

Thoughts?

[Eli]

A friend of mine, who is intelligent, believes that we should wager 100 dollars on 2 of the 3 happening and 200 if all three happen (I win if they don't):

1) Bulls win more games in 09-10 than in 08-09

2) Bulls have a better pt differential in 09-10 than in 08-09

3) John Salmons averages more ppg than Ben Gordon in 09-10

I'm more than happy to take those odds - am I crazy? I don't think Salmons will average 20 or more ppg. And considering how the Bulls had to fight and claw to get to the number of wins they had last year with a better team, I like my odds.

Thoughts?

You're pretty safe with the Salmons bet, I think. He'll be 30 next year and only four over-30 guys average more than 20.7 points last season -- Kobe, Dirk, Jamison and Vince Carter.  Obviously, Salmons isn't any of those guys.

There's always a chance that Rose could develop enough to somehow help the team squeak out more wins than last season.  But I still feel pretty confident saying they won't win more than 41 games.  If they do, it'll be because Rose vaulted himself into a top-10 player.  And if that happens by next season, we're all winners.

Point differential is a slightly more tricky one.  The early-season Bulls were so terrible last year and got blown out so frequently that they actually had a negative point differential for the season (-0.3).  They'll probably be right around there next year, too.

Even still, you probably have better odds than he does.

[Slaky]

A friend of mine, who is intelligent, believes that we should wager 100 dollars on 2 of the 3 happening and 200 if all three happen (I win if they don't):

1) Bulls win more games in 09-10 than in 08-09

2) Bulls have a better pt differential in 09-10 than in 08-09

3) John Salmons averages more ppg than Ben Gordon in 09-10

I'm more than happy to take those odds - am I crazy? I don't think Salmons will average 20 or more ppg. And considering how the Bulls had to fight and claw to get to the number of wins they had last year with a better team, I like my odds.

Thoughts?

You're pretty safe with the Salmons bet, I think. He'll be 30 next year and only four over-30 guys average more than 20.7 points last season -- Kobe, Dirk, Jamison and Vince Carter.  Obviously, Salmons isn't any of those guys.

There's always a chance that Rose could develop enough to somehow help the team squeak out more wins than last season.  But I still feel pretty confident saying they won't win more than 41 games.  If they do, it'll be because Rose vaulted himself into a top-10 player.  And if that happens by next season, we're all winners.

Point differential is a slightly more tricky one.  The early-season Bulls were so terrible last year and got blown out so frequently that they actually had a negative point differential for the season (-0.3).  They'll probably be right around there next year, too.

Even still, you probably have better odds than he does.

That's some damn good ammo - and fast. How the hell did you find that so quickly?

[Poon]

A friend of mine, who is intelligent, believes that we should wager 100 dollars on 2 of the 3 happening and 200 if all three happen (I win if they don't):

1) Bulls win more games in 09-10 than in 08-09

2) Bulls have a better pt differential in 09-10 than in 08-09

3) John Salmons averages more ppg than Ben Gordon in 09-10

I'm more than happy to take those odds - am I crazy? I don't think Salmons will average 20 or more ppg. And considering how the Bulls had to fight and claw to get to the number of wins they had last year with a better team, I like my odds.

Thoughts?

You're pretty safe with the Salmons bet, I think. He'll be 30 next year and only four over-30 guys average more than 20.7 points last season -- Kobe, Dirk, Jamison and Vince Carter.  Obviously, Salmons isn't any of those guys.

There's always a chance that Rose could develop enough to somehow help the team squeak out more wins than last season.  But I still feel pretty confident saying they won't win more than 41 games.  If they do, it'll be because Rose vaulted himself into a top-10 player.  And if that happens by next season, we're all winners.

Point differential is a slightly more tricky one.  The early-season Bulls were so terrible last year and got blown out so frequently that they actually had a negative point differential for the season (-0.3).  They'll probably be right around there next year, too.

Even still, you probably have better odds than he does.

That's some damn good ammo - and fast. How the hell did you find that so quickly?

Ok, first off the contracts Piston handed out are ridiculous.  I think that's only a million more a year than the Bulls offered Gordon and he would have made up for that with other deals playing in the 3rd biggest market in the league along side Rose.  I guess he doesn't want to be the second fiddle to Rose but he's certainly not going to lead the Pissed Ons very far with how much he turns the ball over.  They're shaping up to be the Bulls under Skiles that relied on the outside shot to do anything.  Streaky shooter is streaky.  I'd love to still have him here, but screw it.  If Rose can get that 3 shot working he's going to be much more valuable that Ben.

I comletely agree with the 3 bets to make on the bulls according to a certain unnamed interweb friend.  this team is bigger, younger, and they've got a good season together under their belts.  Scoring in the paint and the 10-15 footer will be the main weapons and that's good basketball.  Screw relying on the 3 to win every god damn game.

I'm in Detroit right now and look forward to all the shit talk about this trade all weekend.