Gordon Goes to Detroit

Noooooooooooooo!!!

"The Detroit Pistons have reached agreement with free-agent guard Ben Gordon(notes) and forward Charlie Villanueva(notes), a source with knowledge of the talks told Yahoo! Sports Wednesday evening."

And your friendly Bulls Blogger rants about it.

There goes my 2010 and beyond scenario (more like dream) with LeBron, Derrick, and Ben leading the Bulls to a number of championships.

Bummer.

Fade Away

Turns out my forecast last week that Cleveland will win the Eastern Conference finals in 6 games was a bit off.

Oh, it ended in 6 games alright, but instead of LeBron and the Cavs facing the Lakers starting this week, it'll be Dwight and the Magic.

There's next year, I suppose, if Cavs management will finally get a player that'll play Pippen to James' Jordan. Mo Williams was touted as such all season long but where the fuck was he during the Cavs-Magic series? And the year after that if they still fail to break out of the East and win the NBA championshiop, who knows? Cleveland can offer James a contract extension in July and it's up to him if he signs or not. If he does, Cavs management will have to do whatever they can to get LeBron a championship caliber team. If he doesn't, LeBron's off to freeagency and greener... no, not greener for that'll imply him going to Boston which I hope never happens. And no to New York too, please. Um, for bullish pastures perhaps?

And now we go to fantasy land...

Think about it--and a little bit of caveat for I've no idea how much cap space the Bulls have or how much cap space they will have come 2010 and like I said, it's a fantasy--but all the support LeBron needs to win a championship is in Chicago. Players to share the scoring load? There's Ben Gordon (if he gets renewed), a budding star in Derrick Rose (though he still has lots of room to improve, defense-wise mostly) and John Salmons (though he tends to get a bit erratic sometimes but when he's on, he's fucking on). Kirk Hinrich can also score when needed, though he's more of a defensive player lately. Maybe he can be Steve Kerr. And for the frontcourt there's the duo of Joachim Noah and Brad Miller who brought some much needed swagger and badassery during the classic Bulls-Celtics first round series. Trade either Tyrus Thomas or Luol Deng but keep one as back-up to LeBron. If they do not want to keep Brad Miller, acquire another center who won't be afraid to get bruised while defending the goal, and maybe also score.

Oh yeah, and I guess they need a better coach. Or hope that Vinnie del Negro improves. And, most important, that Jerry Reinsdorf will open up his wallet.

So, LeBron, in 2010 if you still haven't won a championship with the Cavs and you become a free agent, go to the Bulls. They have the talent and have regained some of their lost swagger and all they really need is a bona fide star.

Shots Fired

Everybody's talking about it. I wasn't even sure it happened when I saw it during the live broadcast for I thought my pre-caffeinated brain was just playing tricks on me even though they replayed it a couple of times and I had to rewatch the late-night replay of the game--the closing minutes, at least-- just to make sure it did happen. And yeah, it did.

From Adrian Wojnarowski's column:

“Whatever happens,” James yelled to Williams in the huddle, “I’m going to come get the ball.” Whatever options fall apart, James insisted to his point guard that he would find a way to get open and promised him, “I’m going to knock down the shot.”

Turkoglu had made an immense shot over Pavlovic to take a 95-93 lead, but he made one grave mistake:

He left a second on the clock.

He left LeBron life.

Great article and all and I liked his storytelling about that final second (I felt compelled to watch it again, dammit!) but there's just this eerie feeling I get when he gets to the part where he paints LeBron James in a messianic way. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan (until he heads to New York, which I hope never, ever happens) but there's just something eerie about it that I can't explain.

And of course, comparisons to His Airness' The Shot is inevitable (it celebrated its 20th anniversary a couple of weeks ago, I think) but I'll leave it to more knowledgeable basketball pundits to debate on which one is better or whatever. All I know is that they're both incredible, unbelievable, awesome shots that one can't help but watch over and over and over...

So, Cavs in 6.