Gordon vs. Hinrich? I think not!
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.
> 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
Aren’t you worried at how undersized this lineup would be? Gordon and Deng would be extremely small for their positions, Salmons has enough height for small forward but not the frame and Noah wouldn’t be particularly large for a center. Only at point guard would the team have good size.
The scoring and passing of the lineup would be pretty nice, but despite Noah’s rebounding prowess (which would be matched against one of the opposing team’s best rebounders) that lineup seems like it would be crushed on the boards most nights and have serious defensive problems.
I do agree with you that Chicago should probably retain both Gordon and Hinrich, if they can. Both are solid/good players and give the team a nice three-guard rotation. If Deng doesn’t bounce back next year, an interesting possibility would be to play Tyrus Thomas at small forward, with Noah and Miller at power forward and center. Size, defense and rebounding would be strengths then, and the team would still have strong scoring and passing from Rose, Gordon/Hinrich and Miller.