As a longtime Bulls fan and follower of the team.... This trade makes too much sense for both teams. Hinrich is far better a PG than many of you seem to realize. He'd immediately become your starting PG and play as many minutes as Roy. Your backcourt is really set for the foreseeable future. His stats for last season are down because he had a poor start - consider how good he was to bring his numbers up to where they ended up. That and he's played out of position (at SG) a lot of the time and spends his time chasing around much bigger players who are almost always the opposition's best player. This season, his PER at PG is 16.6 and that's with those "down" numbers and his minutes cut. Last season his PER was 15.1 on a team that sucked. He's one season removed from 19.1 PER. Sergio's PER last season was 9.5. Yikes. At least it's up to 14.7 this season. However, I suspect he'd be cut after the season by the Bulls, or at least I hope so. I'm not a big fan. The reason the Bulls give up their 3rd guard in the rotation is because they are stuck with Larry Hughes' bigger contract (unless you want to trade LaFrentz for him!) and they're right at the LT threshold. They would basically be making two decisions: 1) Rose is the real deal (Hinrich expensive backup), and 2) they would rather lose Hinrich and sign UFA Ben Gordon to a pretty big deal (he is the real deal). For the Bulls, this is nothing but a salary dump, and of a pretty good 27 year old player. Maybe Portland fans think the team should hold out and see if there's a fire sale on some superstar (like Pau last season), but you might turn blue - and worse - waiting for that to pan out.
I talked to someone who works for the Blazers and he said there could be substance to this. Only time will tell.
I understand Denny that your not a big fan of Sergio but I think KP really likes him. At least from everything I have heard. I think KP even put pressure on Nate to play him. I could only see this trade only having some truth to it is if Sergio who said he wanted more time or be traded is a real problem and KP needs to really trade him soon. I doubt the Bulls would cut Sergio there are a few teams that are very interested in Sergio and they could at least trade him for draft picks. Sergio has a very good contract and has played well this year. I have never been a big fan of Sergio but his rookie year I thought he had upside and he didn't play very well last year but has me back to thinking he might be a good PG on a uptempo team.
The Bulls are already deep at the G spots. They'd have a short rotation of Rose, Gordon, Hughes, and Hunter - making Sergio their 5th guard. Again, the only reason the Bulls do this is because of that depth, they can't afford to pay Hughes and Hinrich big bucks to sit as reserves, and once Hinrich went out with his injury the team has beaten Dallas and then Indy (in a blowout) with Gordon taking over as the team's goto guy. Gordon is now at 21.3 PPG on 47% shooting/41% 3pt and near 4 assists/game next to Rose and is leading the team in scoring. The Bulls and Gordon could not come to terms on a contract extension this off-season because the Bulls did not have enough room under the LT threshold to sign both him and Deng. This trade would give them the ability to match any offer for Gordon (though he can sign anywhere he wants) and even pay him more than any other team should they choose. Or minus LaFrentz (or Hinrich) and Gordon, they'd have a lot of room to be a player this summer. Gordon's 82games.com stats are stunning as well. 50 PER at PG, 21.2 at SG, and 24.7 at SF in the smallball lineups. Even more stunning are his defensive numbers - opposing PG's PER at 8.1, SG's at 9.4, and SF at 4.6. This deal would mark the end of the Hinrich era in Chicago - "the right way to play" - and the admission by Paxson that he picked the wrong guy to sign to the big deal (big being $10M/season) in Hinrich over Gordon.
I'm pretty sure he's been saying Kirk Hinrich will be traded by Nov 15th or something. My post was more sarcastic than anything. Kirk is hurt now though.
I'm warming up to the idea of this. I think some people are over value Raef-Laferentz's-expiring-contract. We're essentially getting Hinrich, who will in his prime, 28, for a backup PG who we probably aren't going to keep. He's basically a better version of Steve Blake who fits with the current team very well. I wouldn't be upset if this went down... there aren't too many marquee names that are realistically out there this year or next summer now that guys like Paul, William and Deng got locked up.
Yikes... So basically we would be opening up playing time for Bayless. Then, once Kirk gets back, we would see how things panned out. Two players that intrigue me: Kirk Hinrich Andrei Kirilenko They were both once considered very good players. I think they could both recapture their game and I would love to see them help us win a championship. Hinrich Roy Kirilenko Aldridge Oden Call me crazy but I like it.
I'm probably in the minority but I was thinking we might use our cap space next summer on Gorden. I think he would fit great playing with Roy. I still think Bayless is our future backcourt with Roy but Nate might like the veteran Gordon and we would have the money to make him a great offer next summer. I would think KP/Nate would rather have Gordon then Hinrich and we have as much cap space as anybody next summer. If we trade for Hinrich that would mean we would like Hinrich better then Gordon which I'm pretty sure KP is smarter then that.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I've never thought Gordon quite has the handles to play point guard, and he's a straight up two, not really much of a one at all, except being 6-3. Hinrich on the other hand has the ability to play both guard spots, and is a much better defender, although not nearly the shooter or scorer that Gordon is. What we're looking for here is complementary skillsets that will fit in well with both Roy and Rudy. Cap'n Kirk seems to fill the bill admirably in my mind.
No thnx to Gordon. The guy is a 6'2" SG that would only cut into Rudy's playing time. Kirk makes a lot more sense.
Gordon is a SG not PG but with Roy he would fit just as I think Bayless would. Gordon/Bayless bring the ball up court and guard the smaller fast PG's but Roy plays the PG position. I have been watching close the last 4-5 games and Roy basically is our PG. Blake/Sergio bring the ball up and guards the PG but Roy is the half court PG. At first I didn't think it would work but I think it will after watching the last few games. I don't care who is our PG Roy is going to demand the ball after it goes over half court and it should be that way unless we could get Paul.
Before I would trade for Hinrich or sign Gordon I would really like to try Roy and Rudy backcourt. I'm not sure it would work all the time but it is our two best guards and both have some PG skills. I still think Bayless might be our future starting PG but not if Roy and Rudy can start and play together.
Gordon is not a 2-way player. He's a (very short) SG through and through. His handles are mediocre at best. He'd be a nice spark off the bench though in the mold of a Vinnie Johnson. From what I've read in this thread, Ben's defensive 'ability' is vastly overrated here.
