Nice strawman. Nobody said Deng is garbage. I personally think he's overpriced to be a sub for LeBron, should LeBron come here, and his contract prevents the Bulls from being able to bring in a 2nd FA. I think Hinrich is at least starting for us (by default), but roughly the same situation. If we signed LeBron and someone like Johnson, Deng would see limited minutes at the 3, but Hinrich could at least sub at both G positions. The guy to trade to make cap room to sign that 2nd FA is pretty obvious. I can think of several very good players who left their teams as FAs in the past 20 years. Boozer, Harrington, Lewis, Hedo, Nash, and your favorite - Ben Gordon. And your favorite GM signed Ben Wallace as a FA.
Actually, Wallace is one of the few causes that a significant player went to the other team that was losing a star. It's somewhat different in that Wallace was a FA as well. And he only made $4M in his first year. Boris Diaw went to the Suns in the Joe Johnson but he was only making $1.1M a year. Can you name any other players in this category? Or else you may want to rethink your stance that this happens all the time. p.s. Wierd that you think I think that Deng is garbage if you are the one that seems certain Cuban is going to get something much more valuable.
The reason I think sign and trades are rare is that it's unusual for teams to be significantly under the cap. Usually the salaries have to line up -- which makes dotting the Is and crossing the Ts very difficult.
Huh? You're putting Nash and BG in the same category of FA signings? One is a two MVP who never signed a max deal and is probably underpaid by 50%. The other is a one dimensional sixth man/scorer who is currently the third best shooting guard on his team who is overpaid by 50%. How do you put them in the same sentence without words like "opposites" or "contrast" or "I bet Joe Dumars wishes he had that one back..."
Gordon didn't sign a deal even close to a max contract. Only 20 players in the whole league averaged 20 PPG or more during Gordon's last season with the Bulls. Among those 20, Gordon makes the same as Danny Granger (another 20 PPG scorer). The only players scoring 20 or more making less were Devin Harris (who broke out after signing his deal with the Mavs) and Kevin Durant (still on his rookie contract). Aside from this other strawman you put up, you had said "what doesn't happen is franchise players leaving their teams via free agency. Shaq is the only one that I can think of that happened in the last 20 years. " I gave you a list of several that were pretty obvious, and no amount of denial changes the fact that Gordon was one of them.
If you think BG is a franchise player, then in the future do us both a favor and just ignore everything I write because we are talking about two different sports. Nash and maybe Boozer, maybe, if he played more than 60% of the games during his last contract, are franchise players. Nobody else on that list even comes close. And saying BG is a franchise player is one of the dumbest things I've ever read on the internet.
I think a 25 year old who led his team in scoring for 4 straight seasons may well qualify him as a franchise player. He was certainly the Bulls' best player, your denial acknowledged.
