NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Twitter has taken over. Forget about MySpace, Facebook, I-tunes, or any of that other old fashioned stuff. We all tweet now. Yeah, what are you doing right now?

Charlie Villanueva has used twitter to spill the beans. He is now a Piston. The negotiating is done and Wednesday the contracts will be signed. He will be joining Ben Gordon as one of the new high priced free agents.

Charlie Villenueva tweets and rebounds

Villanueva is already a famous tweeter. This happened while he played with the Chicago Bulls.

Villanueva created a stir last season when he posted a message during halftime of a game with the Bucks on Twitter and got a stern lecture from Bucks coach Scott Skiles, who thought it gave the impression that Villanueva wasn’t focused.

Thanks to the publicity, the list of followers who subscribed to Villanueva’s Twitter feed quadrupled in just over 24 hours, going from about 1,600 subscribers to nearly 7,000. On Monday night, he had nearly 40,000 followers.
source

Ahh, the modern world. You can’t beat it.

Image: Zuma Press

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As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

The word out of Chicago is that Allen Iverson will go to the Bulls in an NBA sign and trade deal with Detroit for shooting guard Ben Gordon. The deal would put high scoring Alan Iverson on the Bulls for probably the end of his career in a pretty good basketball market. This way the Bulls get something for Ben Gordon.

Allen Iverson to the Bulls?

What do the Pistons get out of this deal and didn’t they already sign Ben Gordon? Right now no one can figure out how this helps the Pistons, because they would be seeking salary cap relief. The deal was made in principal, but the free agent market is not officially open for signings until July 8.

The key for the Bulls is if Iverson would come off the bench as a happy camper.

The Bulls also would want to know that Iverson, 34, would be totally committed despite not making the $20 million he’s accustomed to and without playing the primary role he enjoyed for his entire career until he was traded to the Pistons for Chauncey Billups last season. Iverson did not adapt well to diminished minutes with the Pistons, and late in the season vowed to retire before he would come off another team’s bench.

But Iverson apparently is invigorated by the prospect of getting past the Detroit experience. He wrote on his Twitter account Thursday, “For those of you who thought that I was done, think again! … My only preference will be to play for a coach that knows what I bring to the table and that I am going to bring it every night.”
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Ben Gordon would actually get a bigger contract in a sign and trade deal, but his agent did not even talk to the Bulls before agreeing to sign with the Pistons.

This whole deal seems crazy for Detroit and Joe Dumars takes risk, but does not do crazy.
Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Joe D has done it again. This time he has lured high scoring combo guard Ben Gordon to the Detroit Pistons for a reportedly 55 million buckaroos and 5 years. A hefty price, but well worth it.

So what does Gordon bring to the Pistons? Ben Gordon brings the ability to shoot and score from range in a playoff situation. If you watch enough NBA ballgames, you will notice that some players can accumulate stats in the regular season and not do it in the playoffs. It is actually a rare ability to score when well guarded. Rip Hamilton can do it on the Pistons and now Ben Gordon will also bring that ability to the Pistons.

Gordon, 26, has been nailing three-pointers and creating his own shot since he came into the league as the third pick of the 2004 draft.

He is scorer who is a great shooter and adept at running the pick-and-roll. He stands 6-feet-3 and carries a career scoring average of 18.5 points. His compact body allows him to get into the paint and finish through contact. The only real knock is that he’s too short for shooting guard since he lacks the playmaking skills to play the point. That leads to defensive mismatches when paired against taller and more athletic players such as Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade.

Gordon has been on the Pistons’ radar for quite some time. and he upped his value when he averaged 24.3 points during a classic seven-game series against the Boston Celtics in this year’s playoffs.

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Will Ben Gordon co-exist with Rip Hamilton? Many think so.

With the trade of Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets, the Pistons needed a long distance scoring threat at guard and now they have one. Rip can only shoot threes from a set shot position. Nothing wrong with that, but you do not get a lot of those opportunities in the playoffs.
Image: Zuma Press

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As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

The Chicago Bulls have a tough decision facing them. In fact, they have several tough decisions on personnel. It seems that every single Bull is on the trading block except for Derrick Rose and Luol Deng.

The big question though, has to do with resigning Ben Gordon. He will get anywhere from 10 to 11 million smackers and that is a lot of money for a small shooting guard that often plays sixth man.

Ben Gordon can score, but how does he guard the taller shooting guards?

Still if you watched the playoffs it was Ben Gordon that could get his shot off under pressure and it was Ben Gordon that could keep them in games. He has that knack.

If the Bulls resign Gordon, they would be over the luxury tax threshold. This may not be an issue.

If Chicago does re-sign Ben Gordon they’ll be pushing the luxury tax threshold, which means there won’t be a lot of money to spend on free agents. Sources have made it clear that the luxury tax thing is not as big a deal for the Bulls as the media seems to be making it out to be, and while that may be true, it’s also no secret that Chicago is protecting their cash until the summer of 2010, when Miller, Tim Thomas
, and Jerome James come off the books. That’s about $24 million in salary gone in a blink.

source

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

The Chicago Bulls have a tough decision facing them. In fact, they have several tough decisions on personnel. It seems that every single Bull is on the trading block except for Derrick Rose and Luol Deng.

The big question though, has to do with resigning Ben Gordon. He will get anywhere from 10 to 11 million smackers and that is a lot of money for a small shooting guard that often plays sixth man.

Ben Gordon can score, but how does he guard the taller shooting guards?

Still if you watched the playoffs it was Ben Gordon that could get his shot off under pressure and it was Ben Gordon that could keep them in games. He has that knack.

If the Bulls resign Gordon, they would be over the luxury tax threshold. This may not be an issue.

If Chicago does re-sign Ben Gordon they’ll be pushing the luxury tax threshold, which means there won’t be a lot of money to spend on free agents. Sources have made it clear that the luxury tax thing is not as big a deal for the Bulls as the media seems to be making it out to be, and while that may be true, it’s also no secret that Chicago is protecting their cash until the summer of 2010, when Miller, Tim Thomas
, and Jerome James come off the books. That’s about $24 million in salary gone in a blink.

source

Image: Zuma Press

As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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As always, any NBA Basketball related comments are welcome.

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Here is a team that won over 60 games playing a team that won only 41, but that 41 is deceptive, because they added Salmons and Miller to that roster and Derrick Rose just kept on improving.

This is not a blog about the Celtics being one and done, but it does play into my prediction from last year.

Funny thing about predictions, you can always bring up the ones that are correct and just forget the ones that are way off. Even timing just gets in the way of the truth. It is kind of like golf, fishing, or stock investing. Hey, did you hear about my fishing trip last summer? There as this fish and it was so big that it barely fit into the boat and, oh, there was this golf hole, number 5, and using a 7 iron, uh then there was that small company in my portfolio and it just zoomed and , wait, wait, wait…We were talking basketball here.

Last year, my prediction/concern was that one of the 3 amigos would get hurt. They didn’t and Boston won. This year Garnett did get hurt (the 3 amigos are getting old and brittle.) and Chicago may steal the series.

In the NBA, there are few office pools because there are few series upsets. The higher seeded home teams should win handily at home and lose by a bucket on the road. That is not happening here. In Boston these two teams look equal. Chicago may get at home and win easily.

Ben Gordon almost out dueled Ray Allen to win this last game, while Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Shawn Marion shows off his Matrix WWE move with the knee smash from up high

Shawn Marion is an amazing player and if you have ever watched him play for the Phoenix Suns or the Miami Heat, you would have been amazed. Just how does he do what he does? And that jump shot or whatever you want to call it, just where did that come from and how come no coach ever made him change it? Maybe because it goes down even from long range?

Anyway, Matrix wanted out of Phoenix. It was simple math really. Steve Nash was the man and when his time was done, Amare Stoudemire was to be the man. Even Shaq got more pub in his brief stay in Phoenix. Of course, when did Shaq not get max pub?

Matrix took his game to Miami and Shaq went to Phoenix to save the Suns. It did not work out for either of them.

Shaq is old and not quite the force he used to be and Matrix, once again, seems under appreciated. Shawn Marion wants to be the man, instead he is trade bait.

The problem now is that Marion doesn’t appear to have a long-term future in Miami. The team is going through a rebuilding process with Dwyane Wade and rookie Michael Beasley as the cornerstones. Marion, who turns 31 at the end of the season and plays the same position as Beasley, doesn’t appear to be a great fit.

He has been dangled to the Lakers and Jazz, and more recently the Heat tried to work out something with the Bulls that would have brought them Ben Gordon and others.
source

Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Ben Gordon decides a one year contract is like having a birthday

Ben Gordon has signed an offer he said he would never sign.

”I’m definitely not taking it,” Gordon told New York media Aug. 15. ”I’ve already expressed that to them. I mean, that’s not an option.”

It turned out to be Gordon’s only option. His agent, Raymond Brothers, failed to find a sign-and-trade deal or offer sheet from another team after Gordon became a restricted free agent July 1, and negotiations with the Bulls never came close to a long-term deal.

Some signs suggested trade talks with the Miami Heat were revisited the last few days. But by Wednesday, the Bulls had pulled what was believed to be a six-year contract worth about $58 million that Gordon had shunned since July.
source

It appears Gordon is rolling the dice on this one. He turns down a multi-year 50 million dollar deal to stay with the Bulls, which is the team he says he wants to play for and instead takes a one year deal for 6.4 million bucks.

After the one year, Ben Gordon is an unrestricted free agent. In the meantime, he cannot even be traded without his permission.

So fast forward a year when Ben is on the open market. Hmm, he scores a lot, but is kind of small for a shooting guard and not really a point guard and can’t really check most guards, so who is going to want him? Yeah, he did lead the Bulls in scoring for 3 straight years, but that is because their guards struggle to score.

Now the Bulls are bringing in Derrick Rose to share time with Kirk Hinrich and Larry Hughes. That means fewer shots for Ben and that means…well, you take it from there. 50 million bucks, wow!

Photo source Newscom

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NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

This is a monster trade by Cleveland, Chicago, and Seattle.

Cleveland gets Ben Wallace and Joe Smith from Chicago and forward Wally Szczerbiak and guard Delonte West from the SuperSonics.

Danny Ferry, the Cleveland GM, immediately announced they were good enough to win the title.

Hold on, there.

All four players were underperforming, especially Ben Wallace.

Now as a huge Pistons fan, your intrepid author likes Ben Wallace a lot, but he is 33 years old. His best years are behind him. You also gave up Dwight Gooden to get him. Expect Ben to play excellent defense, but will he be able to rebound like days gone by? Most likely not.

Here is a rundown on the trade.

In an 11 player three-team blockbuster trade, the Cavaliers acquired Chicago’s Ben Wallace and Joe Smith, Seattle’s Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West before the trade deadline closed on Thursday, two league sources confirmed.

The Cavaliers sent Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Shannon Brown and Cedric Simmons to the Bulls, and Donyell Marshall to the Sonics. Seattle also gets the expiring contracts of Chicago’s Adrian Griffin and Cleveland’s Ira Newble. source

LeBron James

Still LeBron James has Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

You talking to me?

The Bulls are going no where in the NBA this season.

That means you have to blame someone.

They did. They fired the coach, Scott Skiles.

Oh, it was going to happen sometime anyway. Scotty is too fiery to last too long with any pro team. He probably should be coaching in college where a coach can really rule over the team.

When you have Scott’s attitude and your team begins to lose, you will begin to lose your team. It is part of the package in NBA Basketball.

You hire Skiles as a coach and you get better, like with Brown. He’s smart and demanding. Those are good things. He sees the game more quickly and clearly than most coaches working today. He has a plan and a system of play that’s appealing to watch. He emphasizes the right things: defense, teamwork and accountability.

I’d recommend Skiles to just about any team in the NBA.

Like Brown, he tires of his players, in part because his standards are so high. source

It was not all Scott

Scott was not the sole problem in Chicago. Scott gave his all and wore out his message, but the Bulls have problems beyond Scott Skiles.

First there were the failed expectations of the Ben Wallace deal. Ben was on the downhill slope of his career and fit perfectly into the Pistons roster. Chicago thought it would work for them just as well. It didn’t.

Then there were some major gaffes by the GM John Paxson. Read more

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

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Nobody loves me

The rift between Jerry Buss and Kobe Bryant grows ever wider until it appears like the Grand Canyon.

Kobe must go!

How do you do that when he has a no trade clause, a huge contract, is getting up there in NBA years, and worst of all is displaying a definite attitude problem.

Would other teams want to take on the Kobe act of defiance? Read more