Bosh is a Texas boy.

I wonder would he go play with an old Tim Duncan?

Aside from Martin and Dwayne Wade, I don’t know of any other great up and coming shooting guards that would be willing to leave their team in free agency. No way Roy leaves Portland, too long to wait on Mayo and I don’t think Joe Johnson is a cornerstone.

As I said, Wade and Bosh have the same agent and its become a fairly wide spread rumor that they want to play together. Personally, I say getting Bosh, Smith and holding off until 2010 is the best move.

A bit more risky, but lets be honest, a team built around Gordon would be like the Suns all over again, high pace with little defense. Just look at the Boston series, tons of offense, little defense. And how do you prevent bosh from going to Miami? Stoudemire would be a good replacement, but he basically stated he refuses to play defense in a press conference about the coaching changes.

I didn’t know that Gordon had denied a $10 mil offer this year, I thought that it was two years ago when the economy was good and he turned down those big contracts

Rip works best within a half court offense and I think Pistons fans are ready for a change. With Stuckey as our focal point for the future, I think the tempo should be picked up some.

@John I’ll give you a tuna sammich. Meow.

YUP!

Its for the greater good of the Pistons!

Anyway I’m I the only fan in the world that doesn’t wanna see RIP go?

Ali, nobody plays in the NBA without shoes. That measurement of height is beyond useless.

As Richard said, Ariza is wanting to stick firm. I never imagined he’d leave considering he was just part of the championship team. Wishful thinking I suppose.

I think we’ve got enough depth at the two guard. I’m happy with Afflalo, he doesn’t make many bad plays, plays good defense and has space to grow.

Of course if we trade Rip, we’ll need legitimate scoring threat to replace him.

We really should be looking at forwards & centers. Besides the aforementioned Boozer/Okur, Bosh or Turkoglu, who else are we eyeing up?

@Hosts: Is there going to be a draft episode (in detail) at any point?

Breaking down prospects.

Hope he won’t be a piston….

He is definitely not taking 8 million from the Pistons.

He’s going to want his 11 million. Its just that simple.

The Question is does Ben Gordon deserve 11 million dollars a year for a long tern contract?

As for the $11 million, look at my first post. I stated that $11 was too much, $8 million is a much better number with the economy in mind

I think history likes to disagree with you about stars off the bench. Unless if you don’t consider Manu Ginobili a star, then San Antonio has proved it 4 times in the last 10 years. Or how about Vinnie Johnson when he hit the game winning shot in the 1990 finals. Kevin McHale is seen as one of the greatest 6th men in history, as is Bill Walton. Robert Horry definitely went under the radar, but look who’s smiling with 7 rings at the end of the day?

Richard having a guy with Gordon’s talent coming off the bench is a good thing because it shows the depth of your team, that you’ve got that much talent that you can place a possible all star on the bench. Just think of how much of a difference it made having Rodney coming off the bench in the 2008 playoffs, no way the Pistons get to the conference finals without him - even if Chauncey didn’t get injured.

You’re forgetting that he has been awarded the 6th man of the year and this was truly his first year as a starter. All others years he spent a good amount (sometimes the majority of the year) coming off the bench.

He’s a closer, not necessarily a starter. I don’t know the exact numbers but he’s got to be top 5 in 4th quarter points. Great guy to have coming off the bench to finish games, not the guy to get consistency at the start.

But here’s where you misunderstood me. I said Gordon could be a great 6th man, thinking Vinnie Johnson, instant offense. That’s still an impact player, just within a smaller role (hence why I initially incorrectly him a role player). I simply prefer the idea of him coming off the bench rather than starting because of defensive liability and that he’s very streaky.

Regardless, unless if you plan of having Smith play small forward (which to be honest, I think he can do to a decent degree), the Pistons have a large hole at small forward and way undersized center. Should Smith excel at small forward (which once again I think that he is a natural 3 playing the 4, similar to Richard Lewis), that would be something I could live with. You’d have a lot of size to make up for Gordon’s height if your front line consisted of Smith, Bosh and Brown.

And about Smith, how long has it been since the Pistons had a player that viciously attacked the rim? He would be a valuble asset on a championship team not to mention his great shot blocking ability.

Bosh does play the high post, but that isn’t a huge problem. He’s the leader and that this team needs, not to mention his scoring touch and rebounding abilities. He’s another guy that I don’t think Joe can pass on because a guy like him is only available once in a while. My only hesitation with Boozer is that he is unloyal and he would be bad for our team chemistry.

As Smith, I’m not quite sold on him just yet. He needs to stop taking so many outside shots (at least Sheed could hit them) and do a better job rebounding for a guy with his build and athleticism before I see him winning a championship. Either way how do you afford both him and Bosh?

Speaking of which, another concern that has not been addressed even with Bosh is the low post. Bosh plays the high post because he doesn’t have the frame to go low. That’s one area that Boozer has him trumped (which is also why he gets more rebounds). It’ll be interesting to see if Kwame Brown can fit that role.

To recap for those who don’t feel like reading the entire thing (which you really should since rants are always fun):
No Ben Gordon
Get Ariza
Swap Tay + etc for Bosh
Swap Rip + etc for T-mac + possible draft pick
Hold the fort down until 2010 (which should be very doable with that team)
Sign Wade in 2010 since Wade and Bosh = pals