Pistons Promise Gordon Contract?

Gordon's agent supposedly flaunting rival's offer

By EAMONN BRENNAN

Updated 2:30 PM CST, Wed, Jun 17, 2009

Print Email Share TWITTER FACEBOOK

Getty Images

Perhaps it's familiarity. Maybe playing against him so often during the regular season, and occasionally in the playoffs, has tarnished the Pistons's ability to evaluate talent objectively. Maybe that's why.

Some sort of explanation is warranted. After all, do the Pistons really think so highly of Ben Gordon -- more highly than any number of potential mid-level free agents that will available this offseason -- that they're willing to do something we haven't heard of an NBA team doing, well, maybe ever: promising a free agent a contract before his negotiations process really begins?

That's what former Chicago Tribune basketball writer and Bulls.com blogger Sam Smith is floating today. Smith is known for tossing out unlikely, never-to-materialize rumors, but this one is something of a whopper:

I haven’t heard they are, and General Manager Gar Forman has not come off his stance that he wants to bring Gordon back. But I also heard that Gordon’s agent allegedly has been saying he has an $11 million promise from the Pistons. This could go with the promise I received to play giving me a chance to win the lottery.

Smith writes his column as if he doesn't really understand what he just wrote, but if it's true, it means Ben Gordon's agent is telling the Bulls Gordon has an $11 million promise from the Detroit Pistons. The next question is: But what about Rip Hamilton? According to Smith, this rumor includes the helpful caveat that the Pistons would trade Hamilton to make room for Gordon.

This doesn't seem to make a ton of sense. Gordon is a good player -- you could generously call him a young Rip Hamilton -- but he's one with a lot of flaws. In the meantime, the Pistons just traded away Chauncey Billups, their star sharpshooting veteran guard, leaving them with Rodney Stuckey. A backcourt of Stuckey and Gordon would be woefully undersized and maybe too shoot-first. It just doesn't seem to add up.

Either way, it's hard to see the Bulls going offer-for-offer with a team that would promise Ben Gordon $11 million per on a long-term contract. Thanks, Ben, but no thanks.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.