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Was pretty good his first 5 seasons in the league with Da Bulls.

I had to look to see what happened when he left. And it's really hard to judge. Rose came in and was an instant star PG, they had Hinrich so the three of them in any combination could produce. They could have gotten by with Salmons and not needed Pargo or Flip Murray who scared no one. Deng, Miller and Noah would have been the same, Gibson too. Would the added scoring from Gordon taken pressure off Thomas or made him press to try and do more? Just no way to tell

ChettheJet wrote:I had to look to see what happened when he left. And it's really hard to judge. Rose came in and was an instant star PG, they had Hinrich so the three of them in any combination could produce. They could have gotten by with Salmons and not needed Pargo or Flip Murray who scared no one. Deng, Miller and Noah would have been the same, Gibson too. Would the added scoring from Gordon taken pressure off Thomas or made him press to try and do more? Just no way to tell

I wonder how Gordon would have fit into the 2011 squad. Started? Came off the bench? Would Thibs have discovered some defensive strengths in him like he did Ray Allen? Would Rose scoring dip a bit but assists go up with Gordon's scoring? Would he have still won the mvp?

Who knows. But I always feel obligated to say that Ben was the most exciting Bull in the era between MJ and Drose. The Celtics series in 09 is arguably an all time great NBA playoff series and easily (for me) the most fun I've ever had watching a Bulls team ultimately lose a playoff series. I'm glad he got paid even if it didn't work out the way I'm sure he had hoped production wise.

I'm a big fan and would have loved to have him on the team. But it seems like he just went off the deep end. It's sad.

I enjoyed watching Gordon since his title year at uconn.

Anyway what were the contracts that he was offered? I was always told it was 50, 55, and 59 in three straight offseasons but he wanted 60 mil like Deng got.

Ben was probably the best offensive threat Rose ever played with lol.

His game would be perfect for today's nba.

I know that lot of people will hate to hear this, but BG had his bet years playing for Vinny Del Negro.

At the same time Vinny had worked very hard with Rose to develop his mid-range game. Vinny was a great developer of talent.

It's interesting to watch Rose play today because he has gone back to a lot of the things that he was doing when he was playing for Vinny.

Most people would probably disagree, but IMO BG's career took a nose dive when he had to play for a different coach.

TeamMan wrote:I know that lot of people will hate to hear this, but BG had his bet years playing for Vinny Del Negro.

At the same time Vinny had worked very hard with Rose to develop his mid-range game. Vinny was a great developer of talent.

It's interesting to watch Rose play today because he has gone back to a lot of the things that he was doing when he was playing for Vinny.

Most people would probably disagree, but IMO BG's career took a nose dive after Vinny left.

Gordon could have stayed and probably help the bulls win the title in 11. He was clutch as they get during his 5 seasons with the bulls.

Kurt Heimlich wrote:Who knows. But I always feel obligated to say that Ben was the most exciting Bull in the era between MJ and Drose. The Celtics series in 09 is arguably an all time great NBA playoff series and easily (for me) the most fun I've ever had watching a Bulls team ultimately lose a playoff series. I'm glad he got paid even if it didn't work out the way I'm sure he had hoped production wise.

He won 6th man of the year in his rookie season.

Don't know how many players have done that.

It was weird because at the beginning of that season BG was starting and Deng was coming off the bench.

Then Deng and Kirk Hinrich were put into the starting lineup with BG going to the bench and then things really took off.

Just seen that Bogans played around 18mpg for the bulls as their starting 2 guard in 2011 playing in all 82 games. Gordon still could have gotten 30mpg off the bench if he was on that team.

Man if Gordon's career was 10 years later he would be so valued. Underrated defense tbh

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Loved Ben Gordon's shot making clutch ability. In today's era, he would be averaging around 26-30 points.

Probably the same. His issues were injury related I believe, and no one has ever thought a player would do better with his health if he had stayed in Chicago.

ThreeMileAllan wrote:Man if Gordon's career was 10 years later he would be so valued. Underrated defense tbh

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Absolutely agreed on underrated defense. He wasn't a strong defender but wasn't at all the liability that many say he was.

Who is better, Ben Gordon or Kirk Hinrich?

and other questions we've asked 1000 times that haven't been relevant in over a decade...

But, if Gordon had stayed here, who knows, we know now his career tailed off at least partially due to mental illness. If he had stayed with the Bulls in lower pressure role and didn't have to adapt to the change in Detroit, that may have lowered his stress levels enough to where the mental illness could have been kept under better control.

At the same time, perhaps he was heading for this type of meltdown regardless and it just would have happened here.

I guess there are two separate questions here:

(1) Would staying in Chicago have arrested Gordon's quick decline? As others have said, mental health was part of it. One could argue that 07 was his actual peak (best advanced stats - PER, WS, BPM), so maybe it was unavoidable. It's really hard to tell.

(2) Assume he didn't decline, would 09-level Gordon have fit with the Thibs Bulls? I'm still a bit skeptical. I'm not sure Thibs defense works with a Gordon-Rose backcourt. Would Gordon have been worth more than Brewer and Korver? He made more in 11 than those guys combined. Would he have gotten minutes? Thibs was stingy with Korver because - I assume - defense.

It is hard to say what happened to Gordon. Sometimes the big paydays come with too much stress...that could have contributed to his mental illness.

I was never a huge Gordon fan. He was a scorer, but his handle and defense would always limit his upside.

Kurt Heimlich wrote:Who knows. But I always feel obligated to say that Ben was the most exciting Bull in the era between MJ and Drose. The Celtics series in 09 is arguably an all time great NBA playoff series and easily (for me) the most fun I've ever had watching a Bulls team ultimately lose a playoff series. I'm glad he got paid even if it didn't work out the way I'm sure he had hoped production wise.

Hands down, just as Nate Rob was the most exciting Bull between Rose and Butler/LaVine. I will never forget that one game from the Nets series. May have been the best game I've ever seen and I've watched MJ