Not so one-dimensional

The debate among Bulls fans these days isn’t a new one.  Ever snce the Bulls traded away Jamal Crawford and used the #3 pick in the draft to choose Ben Gordon, fans have argued whether Gordon should be starting, should be a point guard, should be super sub 6th man, or even Hinrich or Gordon should be traded.

Gordon, for his part, has been the most reliable and consistent player on the Bulls, who’ve made playoff appearances three of the past four seasons.  He’s led the team in scoring each of those seasons, and has finally become the full-time starter.

Hinrich, for his part, has been quite good; a jack of all trades but master of none.  As a point guard, he’s never averaged 7+ assists per game.  As a shooter, his career field goal percentage is 41.6 but has a healthy 38 percent mark from the 3 point line.  What he really does better than most is play defense.

The Bulls let Chris Duhon walk after drafting Rookie of the Year, Derrick Rose.  Duhon was good enough to start over Gordon a few seasons ago, and to entice the coaches to play a 3 guard rotation much of the time.  The addition of Rose certainly marks the end of the hope of Hinrich being the Bulls’ full time point guard going forward.

The heat is really on this summer to resolve the situation.  Gordon is an unrestricted free agent, Hinrich has a hefty salary for a bench player.  If Gordon signs a $10M+ contract, which is not far-fetched, the Bulls would have one of the two coming off the bench at a big hit to the salary cap.  A lot of speculation is that one or both might be gone by the end of the summer, or trade deadline at the latest.

My take is that the Bulls’ mistake was signing Luol Deng to a 6 year, $72M contract last summer at Gordon’s expense.  I really do like Deng; when he’s been fully healthy, he’s a solid player at both ends of the court, though not one of the elite small forwards in the league.  Compounding the mistake was the horrible luck that befell Deng, leading to his 2nd inadequate season in a row.

The Bulls scored big in a trade with the Sacramento Kings at the deadline, receiving John Salmons and Brad Miller.  The trade was quite good in the short term, as the Bulls got used to their new teammates and finished the season strong, ultimately taking the Celtics to 7 games in one of the greatest playoff series I remember.

Unfortunately, the trade may not be so good in the long run.  Salmons is 30 years old, and had a career year last season.  He might have one or two more seasons at last year’s level, or he may not.  I am convinced he’ll be fine for at least next season, but is certainly not a long-term solution at any position (that’d be PG or SF).  What he really gives the team is a qualified and inexpensive backup at those positions.  Miller is a grizzled veteran with court smarts, but his best days were passed a few seasons ago.

I am going to take a strong position on the Gordon vs. Hinrich issue.  The Bulls should keep both!  Both players bring a lot as starters or 6th man.  Without either, the Bulls only strength (depth at guard) becomes a huge risk.  Start Gordon and Rose and you have a 40 PPG back court, among the top few combinations in the league.  Start Hinrich and Rose and you have two quality ballhandlers in the back court and a great scorer off the bench.

Let’s look at the three scenarios: Gordon gone, Hinrich gone, both gone.

With Gordon gone, the Bulls have to rely on Deng to be healthy.  This gives Salmons a starting role at SG or a backup role at both SG and SF.  If Deng turns out to be a 13PPG/13PER player again for the third season in a row, or can’t shake his nagging injury problems, the Bulls are going to have Rose and Hinrich and Salmons all starting and someone like Linton Johnson III or whoever is the 16th pick in the draft backing up the SG and SF spots.  Or maybe we’ll see Tyrus Thomas at SF and lots of Aaron Gray at C.  Hinrich hasn’t been 82 game healthy the past couple of seasons, either.

With Hinrich gone, the Bulls are equally thin at the guard spots, and even thinner at PG.  Gordon can play PG, but it’s probably not best to push Rose to 40 MPG and Gordon 8 MPG at the PG spot.  The Bulls have absolutely nobody else.

With them both gone, the Bulls will be scouring the NBDL looking for a full-time guard.  It doesn’t make sense.  The only intriguing possibility would be if they somehow signed Ramon Sessions to an MLE deal, but they’d still be shallow at all 5 positions.

In my scenario, they keep both.  This gives them a strong rotation of the three guards, the same rotation that carried the Bulls to the playoffs.  It gives coach Vinnie Del Negro the flexibility to play all 3 at the same time.

The real debate this summer should be about what to do with Deng, and how to add a quality big man to the front line.  If the Bulls do resign Gordon and Deng comes back fully healthy, the Bulls are a stronger team than last season.

In this scenario, I’d like to see the Bulls play Deng at the PF spot, the lineup being: Rose, Gordon, Salmons, Deng, and Noah.  Hinrich fills in at both G spots and Miller and Thomas fill in at the PF and C spots.  Though the Bulls have nobody in Jordan’s or Pippen’s league, for the first time since the 1970s or early 1980s, they’d have four guys starting who can get you 20 points and three of them can get you 30 or more on any given night.

Gar Forman, left, addresses the media as he is introduced as the new general manager for the Chicago Bulls by John Paxson during a news conference at the Berto Center Thursday in Deerfield. (AP)

The Bulls officially introduced Gar Forman as the team’s new general manager this morning, but the front-office restructuring is more subtle than dramatic.

John Paxson remains with the team as executive vice president of basketball operations and is still at the top of the hierarchy.
Forman, who has been in the organization for 11 years and most recently held the title of director of player personnel, will work closely with Paxson and will assume more of the day-to-day operations.

“The promotion of Gar Forman to general manager of the Chicago Bulls publicly formalizes a successful formula that has been evolving for some time,” chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said. “Over that time, Gar has been assuming more and more of the daily GM duties, freeing John Paxson to spend more of his time and energies on talent evaluation, and on long-term, strategic planning for the organization.” Said Paxson: “The last several years, Jerry Reinsdorf and I have given Gar more responsibility as a leader in the organization and he’s done a lot of things that have helped me in my position. Really, this just finalizes a process that we’ve had ongoing. It finalizes it to where Gar has the title of GM. I’m going to remain with my title of executive vice president of basketball operations and Gar and I are going to work in tandem, as we’ve been doing in a lot of ways, in determining the future of the organization.” Forman came to the Bulls in 1998 along with former coach Tim Floyd. He was an assistant coach under Floyd at Iowa State.

“I’m thrilled that they’re trusting me with this position,” Forman said.

“I’m very excited to be in this position, very excited for next season.

“The ultimate goal that we all have is to hang another championship banner in the United Center and up here at the Berto Center.” Forman said he was especially encouraged by the way the Bulls reacted after their lost to the Boston Celtics in a grueling seven-game first-round playoff series.

“The thing to me that was most exciting was after we lost the seventh game, every coach, every player wanted more,” he said. “They weren’t satisfied to be there. We like where we’re headed.” Forman’s first task will be preparing for next month’s NBA draft. The Bulls have two first-round picks (Nos. 16 and 26) and will begin bringing in potential prospects on Friday.

Forman’s biggest task this summer will be trying to re-sign Ben Gordon, who is an unrestricted free agent.

“We like Ben; Ben’s been a key, key component for us,” Forman said. “Our goal is to re-sign Ben. From the conversations we’ve had, Ben wants to remain with the Bulls.”