I just saw it on ESPN (2:00 am-ish), but I'm assuming that he made the announcement earlier. He stated that the first pieces to fall in free agency are expected to be Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to the Pistons. C: K. Brown, ??? PF: C. Villanueva, J. Maxiel SF: T. Prince, A. Daye, W. Sharpe SG: R. Hamilton/B. Gordon, A. Afflalo PG: R. Stuckey, W. Bynum If this is true, than I am willing to bet Joe-D already has a trade partner in line for Rip Hamilton. I'm hoping that it's something like Hamilton and Maxiel for Bosh, but we'll have to wait and see.
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Roscoe is not going to like this thread. Ask him to move it together with the all of the free agents thread.
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons I believe that this is a new and important breaking story. And it spells out what we've all been wondering the last 6 months.
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons I would love it if we signed both of these guys and was able to trade Rip and Max for Bosh! Bosh is a player I really want.
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Yeah, as of now this is just speculation.
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons I changed the thread title. The title was written in a manner that implied deals are done. Please take the time to separate facts from speculation so as not to confuse or mislead people. At this point, the Pistons have done nothing, and none of the rumours (in my 20+ years experience) seem remotely solid yet. No hard feelings and thanks for listening!
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons I'm the opposite; as long as Gordon comes with a reasonable price tag and a willingness to be a great potential 6th man, i'm for it. Villanueva i pray we don't sign. Even if that means he ends up on the Cavs.
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Gordon is a starter. He won't be content to play the 6th man role if he is going to be leaving the Bulls. And I won't be content paying someone 10 mil a year to come off the bench.
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Yep. Only rumors so far. I don't know if there will be any quick signings this year.
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons This thread is speculative, so it doesn't really add much in the way of news. The FA thread is already messy, I was trying to keep it very clean for the purposes of updates and notifications of movement. There is nothing wrong with posting this stuff, as long as it is not misleading. And I need to get people to cut down on making a new thread out of every story because there is too much duplication of topics, so I merged some threads together. More than one person has remarked on how hard it is to keep up with all of the posts being made right now (a good thing) which makes organization all that much more necessary. So no hard feelings (to anyone) if I merge or edit threads.
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Replacing Rip w/ Ben IMO is a lateral move. I'm not sure if there's a point. Ben has the 3 point shooting Rip doesnt, but he can guard SG's and is small. They both have weaknesses just different ones.
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons I say age is an advantage. Maybe cheaper contract as well.
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Ben has upside. He's younger. And he doesn't tell coaches he doesn't respect them (as far as I know).
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons IMO, He is what he is. I don't think he's going to get tremendously better. And I'm assuming he's not going to get taller either. Gordon's actually had run ins w/ Skiles and Del Negro; some of the pouting on the bench kind, subtly taking shots in the paper, etc. and some behind the scenes stuff (talking about maybe wanting a trade). He has a very big ego (as do most players) Attitude wise it's a wash. I'm all for injecting new blood, but we are far more in need of talent at the PF/C position. And i don't think a Rip trade will get us a great one. If it can, then by all means . . .
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Like him or not, Gordon is one of the few players that is proven at creating his own shot and closing out games.
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons I like Gordon but don't see him much of an improvement over Rip. If he can accept the role of the 6th man I'm all for it.
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons We're on the same page with that. He has flourished, but maybe that's too expensive of a bench player. Then again Manu does it, but that's a unique situation.
Re: Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Ben Gordon is simply too good to be a sixth man. He has his shortcomings, but with Rip's attitude and his age, Ben is just the better choice right now.
Re: [RUMOR] - Ric Bucher Reports - Gordon and Villanueva to the Pistons Gordon is an upgrade over Rip AND younger. There is a HUGE difference in the player that can get you 20ppg and the player that gets you 18.5ppg, on paper it only looks like 1.5ppg, but on the court it's bigger than most folks realize. Let's assume Gordon IS NOT going to get any better, Rip is going to get worse. I'm no Gordon fan by any means, but he is an upgrade and he will make Rip expendable, which could land us a pretty good player.
