Ben Gordon didn't carry the team to the playoffs. He really helped us win games with consistent and efficient scoring, by being the kind of scorer that could shoot us back into a game, and in protecting leads by making a high % of FTs in the clutch. 15.9 is "pretty darn close" to 16, I suppose. If I were Wade, I'd be licking my chops at signing with the Bulls just to play next to Brad Miller.
Its clear the Bulls are a worse team now than they were last season. The lost their best to 2nd best player in Ben Gordon and have nothing in return. The Bulls are going to have a hard time scoring the basketball next season, unless Deng or someone else takes a big step up. Too much is riding on Salmons, who at age 30 has had 1 good NBA season. Some big trades or some miraculous development needs to occur for the Bulls to get back to where they were last season (.500). Could be a rough season indeed.
I think they'll pretty much tread water. They lose Gordon but hopefully get Deng "back". Hopefully Rose and Noah are better versions of themselves. Thing is, they'd still be that much better if all those hopefuls come through and they had Gordon on top of it.
I think mid 30s to mid 40s is the right win total range But that doesn’t exactly excite me as up and coming either, since many of them are on expiring deals or we wish they were (Salmons, Kirk). We’ve also lost the ability to sustain an injury that we had last year. If Deng, Salmons, Hinrich or Rose misses significant time, we’re looking at a lot of Jannero Pargo, or, perhaps more hopefully, James Johnson. But JJ is still a rookie, so that could be rocky. VDN is still the coach.
