Now it is time to play who makes more in the NBA as provided by Hoopsworld. The answers will be at the bottom of the blog.

Are you ready?

A) Who makes more Boston Celtics… Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, or Kevin Garnett?

B) Who makes more Cleveland Cavaliers… LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neil, or Mo Williams?

C) Who makes more Denver Nuggets… Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups, or Kenyon Martin?

D) Who makes more Los Angeles Lakers… Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, or Ron Artest?

E) Who makes more New Orleans Hornets… Chris Paul, Emeka Okafor, or Peja Stojakovic?

F) Who makes more San Antonio Spurs… Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, or Richard Jefferson?

G) Who makes more Dallas Mavericks… Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, or Dirk Nowitzki?

H) Who makes more Orlando Magic… Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, or Vince Carter?

I) Who makes more Miami Heat… Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, or Jermaine O’Neal?

J) Who makes more Detroit Pistons… Ben Gordon, Charlie Villenueva, or Rip Hamilton?

Tim Duncan makes a lot of cash!

Answers from Hoopsworld:
A) Paul Pierce $19,795,712.
B) Shaquille O’Neal $21,000,000.
C) Kenyon Martin $15,613,636.
D) Kobe Bryant $23,034,375.
E) Peja Stojakovic $13,392,000.
F) Tim Duncan $22,183,220.
G) Dirk Nowitzki $19,795,714.
H) Rashard Lewis $18,010,791.
I) Jermaine O’Neal $23,016,000.
J) Rip Hamilton $11,625,000.

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

How strange it felt last night flipping through the channels on the big screen while waiting for my wife to come downstairs. We were going to watch the season ender for Warehouse 13 that was recorded on the DVR. Then there it was, a NBA basketball game. The Detroit Pistons against the Miami Heat. It did not seem right. The game was only exhibition and it just seemed too soon. Pro sports seasons are so long the off seasons seem too short.

Most of my friends don’t even watch basketball until January, when football switches over to the playoffs and bowl games. But there it was.

Dwyane Wade led Miami in scoring

It was a nothing game and Detroit and Miami are two teams that are going to race up and down the court to make up for some defensive deficiencies and some lack of height and that is what they were doing.

It was a good night for Dwyane Wade.

Dwyane Wade led Miami with 18 points.

The Pistons led by as many as 17 in the second half, but Miami came back in the fourth quarter. The Heat comeback was helped by a mistake by the replacement officials with 1:21 left. Bynum made two free throws to apparently put Detroit up 87-78, but the Miami players pointed out that Bynum hadn’t been fouled on the play.

After a discussion, the points were taken off the board and Maceo Baston was sent to the line, where he missed both shots.
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Chris Wilcox and Ben Gordon each scored 11 points and will play a big part in the Pistons this season.

The game was hard to watch, because there is just no intensity in a preseason game.

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Just listen to Tayshaun Prince tell it like it is concerning the next season for the Detroit Pistons. He claims they will have plenty of firepower from the top to the bottom of the lineup.

On how the new pieces will fit: “As a coach, the more firepower you have, they say the more problems you have. But I’m pretty sure he’ll love that problem. … With Ben (Gordon), his ability to score the ball at will, almost, will be helpful to us. And Charlie (Villanueva), being able to play inside-out, will cause some problems, being able to put him in pick-and-rolls. We’ll definitely have a lot of firepower on the perimeter.
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The real key was picking up Ben Gordon. Most of my friends just don’t seem to understand how valuable Ben can be to that team. Over the years of watching teams go into the playoffs one thing has become very clear. The level of defense in the playoffs is way greater than the level of defense during the regular season.

Ben Gordon and Rip Hamilton will have the same jersey now!

You will see players that can score at will during the season and can’t get their normal shot off in the playoffs. This is where Ben Gordon can pay dividends. He can get off his normal shot in the playoffs and be a dependable high scorer. If you look at the Pistons roster, Rip Hamilton has that ability and has proven it. Charlie Villanueva will also be expected to produce in that manner, so the Pistons could have as many as 3 playoff type scorers on the team.

Now they have to get into the playoffs.
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Post from: NBA Obsessed

The Detroit Pistons are the Joe Dumars Pistons and Joe Dumars has kept the Pistons at the top of the heap for a long time, until last year and the Allan Iverson cap clearing deal led to an eighth place finish and quick sweep by Cleveland in the playoffs.

Next year will be different, because Joe Dumars wanted it to be different. He already had traded Chauncey Billups for Allan Iverson, and then he released Iverson. Rasheed Wallace signed with Boston and had very little left in the tank. Antonio McDyess signed with San Antonio to clear more cap money for youth. In a final blow, Coach Curry was let go to convince free agents to sign with Detroit.

Rodney Stuckey will have a new cast for support

Joe struck quick with the long shooting Ben Gordon and multi talented Charlie Villanueva. Rodney Stuckey, the future star at point guard was already there.

If this was everything, Piston fans would have been hopeful, but disappointed. More is expected of Joe Dumars and more there was. The draft came and the Pistons were rewarded richly.

With their three selections the Pistons invested in Austin Daye, DaJuan Summers, and Jonas Jerebko. At the time it was thought of as a solid draft for the Pistons, but after summer league it was evident that it was even better than that.

Daye was a curious pick for the Pistons because he’s so undeveloped physically and really struggled during pre draft workouts. Everyone realized what the Pistons saw in him though after he averaged 17 points and eight rebounds in Las Vegas. Daye was by far one of the best players at the camp and what’s most intriguing is the fact that he’s so far away from maximizing his potential. Come three years from now it would be no surprise if Daye is one of the top ten players from the class, but he’s probably only going to help in spurts during his rookie year.

Summers on the other hand looked ready to contribute now and his coaches said as much. He’s got a lot more strength than Daye does at this point and just as much versatility. Rather than settling for the long ball like he did at Georgetown Summers was aggressive, always looking to attack. When it was all said and done in Vegas he was thought to be the biggest surprise and an absolute steal for the Pistons.
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Watch out, the Pistons are on the rise and may surprise!

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

Ben Gordon had no home in Chicago to speak of. How is it a player can literally dominate the playoffs against the mighty Celtics and still not be wanted on the team? What are the Bulls thinking? Sure Ben has some defensive liabilities including not being that tall, but he can get off his normal shot in the playoffs and compared to other shooting guards, it is quite the amazing shot coming from downtown with pinpoint accuracy.

Speak to Derrick Rose about how much Ben Gordon helped his game and you will immediately see why Rodney Stuckey of the Pistons is excited to have Ben Gordon playing alongside him.

The addition of Gordon has the potential to fully unlock Stuckey’s abilities. For proof, look at the impact on Bulls rookie point guard Derrick Rose.
Rose was the runaway winner for rookie of the year and got better and better throughout the season, culminating in a spectacular performance in the first round of the playoffs when the Bulls pushed the Celtics to seven games.
A major reason for his success was the outside scoring ability of Gordon. His deep touch — as reflected by a career 41.5% from beyond the three-point line — demands attention, so his mere presence draws defenders away from the paint.
That created driving lanes to the basket for Rose who, with his athleticism and nice touch around the basket, flourished.
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Ben Gordon and Rip Hamilton will try to help Rodney Stuckey become a star!

With Gordon gunning from outside, it could prove to be a banner year for Rodney Stuckey!

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

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

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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.
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Post from: NBA Obsessed

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.
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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.

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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

Image: Zuma Press

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Post from: NBA Obsessed

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 Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo each had super games.

”I really liked our team’s poise. Obviously, Ben Gordon was tremendous. I love the grit, love the toughness of our team, but we can’t get outrebounded like that and expect to win.”

They nearly pulled it off, though, thanks mainly to a postseason career-high 42 points by Gordon, including the Bulls’ last 12 points. Gordon was 14-for-24 overall and 6-for-11 from three-point range.

”He’s one of the best at hitting clutch shots,” Bulls point guard Derrick Rose said. ”I don’t know how he blocks everything out, but he always finds a way to hit the shots.”

As hot as Gordon was down the stretch, he was matched by Allen, who was able to shake off his shaky play in the first six quarters of the series — a total of six points — to score 28 of his 30 in the second half.

Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo had a triple-double with 19 points, 16 assists and 12 rebounds, while Rose — the Game 1 hero with 36 points — had 10 points and seven assists.

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