SoxFan1

QUOTE (rangercal @ Jul 2, 2009 -> 12:21 PM) Doesn't start? Who cares if he is going to average 35+ mins a night. I don't see your point. Minutes played> "role" Rip Hamilton makes a similar amount of money. Last I checked, you can't play 70 minutes worth of shooting guards with Stuckey and Bynum at the point. Not to mention their clusterf*** of forwards.

It may not be an entirely stupid question, but since I'm 6'6, I ALWAYS get the "Do you play basketball?" question. Man that aggravates me.

If Quentin comes back healthy and hits like last year, then yes.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 10:43 PM) I doubt you meant to quote me there Slav, but I agree 100% with you here. No, I absolutely meant to quote you. EDIT: Nevermind. Thought you meant Alexei, my bad.

QUOTE (JohnCangelosi @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 10:09 PM) If someone is ready, does it matter? Do you think that extra 2 months in AA helped him at all? No, it didn't. He struggled when coming up just as he would've in April. He's a stud and he is ready. Period. He's playing well right now and so is the team. There is no reason to be arguing this. You should sleep this off.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 10:29 PM) I adore Slayer at the 2 hole. That Barons lineup should be a blueprint on what Ozzie should do. Slayer is a gap to gap machine. Alexei's inability to hit behind the runner, low baseball IQ and low OBP are not optimal for the 2-hole. He's MUCH better suited to be a 6 hitter IMO.

I thought this thread would be about signing Gordon to a Longoria-like deal. That's a better issue to discuss.

TheFourthPeriod: According to a source the Hawks went to the wire with Khabibulin, offered 2-yr, $8M deal. Also came close to Havlat, but didn't like term

Am I the only one having issues with the picture ratio for WCIU?

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 05:24 PM) I value it as well as scoring. Salmons is a very good defender and I much prefer him to Deng as he's a better defender than Deng at SF and he's a much better scorer. The debate is Gordon vs Salmons as you said. Gordon is a better player though. His strength is offense and IMO, it far outweighs Salmons strength of defense. That's not to say Gordon sucks on defense because he doesn't. He hasn't sucked on defense since his 2nd year in the league. He's slaighty above average at it. People think he sucks because he's 6'3 playing SG, so there's no way he can possibly be good, but honestly the only players who torch him at elite SG's of the league like Kobe, Vince Carter, etc. His positives outweigh his negatives moreso than Salmons. I will probably always disagree with you on Gordon's defense. He's not slightly above average, he's not even average, but thats for another time. However, if you think Salmons' biggest strength is his defense, then you are REALLY cutting his offensive abilities short. He averaged 18.3 ppg last year, shot great field goal percentages, has the ability to shoot 3's and also great driving ability. He scored 2 points less a game than Gordon and plays far superior defense. If Gordon's offense is a strength, than how is Salmons' not a strength as well? What are the "negatives" to Salmons' game? I don't think there is anything he can't do very well. If anything, the negative is that he's 29 and not 26.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 04:54 PM) You realize Salmons is 29, right? And he'll be 30 this coming year? He got hot for an ok stretch, and if you remember he was injured and woeful in the playoffs. The Bulls and their fans sure jumped on that bandwagon quickly, but Salmons ain't all that and a bag of chips, and as far as playing basketball goes, Ben Gordon is the better player and it's not very close. At all. Way to ignore the rest of my post. QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 04:56 PM) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ And I'm not a BG fan. QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 04:57 PM) Bingo. Plus keep in mind, paying Ben Gordon at the age of 26 is much smarter than extending Salmons a contract at the age of 30 in which you'll be regretting it after 2 years, or you'll end up not giving him a contract because he sucks and you have to keep the rest of the "core" in Rose, Noah, Deng. Salmons played very good last year. Career type ball. He's not that great though. He's a much better scorer than Deng though, that's a damn fact. If Bulls were smart, they would trade him now while he has maximum trade value. Pretty sure I made it clear I'd much rather have Gordon, but that gap isn't as big as people make it seem, all things considered. Maybe I'm the only person who values defense and height.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 04:47 PM) And yet all you have to do is look at PER and you are able to see their careers in a nutshell. Gordon has a 16.0 PER, Salmons a wonderful, bousterous PER of 12.8. Kinda hard to compare careers considering last year was Salmons' break out year. Don't go around touting Gordon as one of the best shooting guards in the league because he's not. He scored a whole 2 points more than Salmons last year but Salmons had better FG% than BG for 2's and 3's. Obviously I'd rather have Gordon, but Salmons has legit size, actually plays some defense, and isn't too shabby of a scorer.

QUOTE (JFields27 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 04:17 PM) Havlat to the Wild on a multi year deal possibly So Hossa replaces Havlat. Havlat replaces Gaborik. Will Gaborik replace Hossa?

Tallon talking about Hossa/Kopecky on CSN right now. Seems like Havlat is a goner. Says that the Hossa deal will effect re-signing Toews, Kane, and Keith. Basically said that they couldn't re-sign Havlat due to length of the deal and not due to money.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 03:50 PM) I know it, but here's the thing...does Ben Gordon want to risk that he'll be the one who winds up being the backup? And is that a situation the Pistons will be willing to tolerate for more than a few months? Who knows. I honestly don't know why he'd ever want to go there in the first place outside of the obvious (and huge factor) money. - Detroit, the city, sucks. - The Pistons attendance has plummeted. - They have no head coach. - They have a clusterf*** of guards if he joins (Rip, BG, Stuckey, Bynum) and forwards (Prince, Jerebko, Daye, Green). - He's better than Rip but doubtful he'd start over him, depending on the coach. - The Bulls have a far more promising future than the Pistons.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 03:45 PM) Do they really want a $10 million a year + shooting guard coming off their bench? They had an 11 mil a year shooting guard in Hamilton coming off their bench last year behind Iverson, so I wouldn't put it past them.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 03:43 PM) Then what happens to Prince? Does he play the 4...? He would get his ass kicked. DET isn't very high on him at all anymore. They're been wanting to move him for a while now, hence they drafted 3 SF's. Right now, it seems that Detroit doesn't know who they like anymore.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 03:35 PM) Salmons isn't close to a top 10 SG in the league. I'm pretty sure Ben would not worry about him. And guys, if you thought Ben's 15FGA a game were bad(I don't know how you would), wait until you see Salmons realize he is the best shooter on the floor. Ya, Gordon's .455 FG% is way better than Salmons' .472...oh, wait.

4 years, 15 million for Khabi.

Uh oh, Khabi to the Oilers...

DarrenDreger: Hossa will make $59.3 mil in the first 8 years and $3.5 over final four.

Djokovic lost.

So is Skille going to be ready for this season? I'd imagine if we don't re-sign Havlat he'd be up. Anyone got any info on him? What can we expect?

QUOTE (MurcieOne @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 01:09 PM) I don't know how Dale is going to be able to trade Huet. Huet sucks Show every team a video of that leg save on Franzen...

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Jul 1, 2009 -> 01:07 PM) Matt Walker to Tampa...YES Fantastic. He was horrific in the playoffs last year.