In 2007, Ben Gordon rejected a 5-year, $50 million deal from the Chicago Bulls.
In 2008, Ben Gordon rejected a 6-year, $54 million offer from the Chicago Bulls.

On July 1st, the streaky Gordon – who just titillated basketball fans everywhere with a memorable 24 ppg series against the Celtics – becomes an unrestricted free agent. His hard-driving agents seem to want Luol Deng money – 6-years, $71 million – even though Deng does everything well, and Gordon’s just a pure scorer.

“I love playing with Ben,” said Luol Deng. “We all want him back.”

Don’t see it happening. The Bulls can’t afford Deng, Hinrich (5-year, $47 million deal in 2006) and Gordon, as well as prepare for a financial future that should include Joakim Noah, Ty Thomas and Derrick Rose. So the Bulls will take a small PR hit in July when Gordon signs elsewhere, and then duplicate what happened in 2007-08: a big first-round triumph against the Heat, followed by a massive letdown in 2008 (33 wins in the year Bill Simmons predicted the Bulls would go to the Finals).

So next year, where will the Bulls turn for offense? John Salmons? Ha. Despite a 35-point explosion in game six, he only shot 40 percent in the series (31 percent from three) both of which were way, way down from his regular season numbers (47 and 41, respectively). Deng’s going to take a lot of his shots. One option could be to make Salmons the 6th man, and start Hinrich (who probably is a better all-around player, anyway).

They still don’t have a guy who can call for the ball in the post and make a move; Ty Thomas has zero back-to-the-basket skills, though his jumper is improving. So Rose-Salmons-Deng-Noah-Thomas is the likely scenario, with a decent bench two-some of Hinrich and Miller. Perhaps in the draft they can get a guy with some post game, like maybe Pitt’s Dejuan Blair. If anyone cares – one fan poll is running 60-40 to keep Gordon. Another spirited debate can be found here.

And even though this has nothing to do with Gordon, we had to link up this video of what might be the block of the year: