NBA Rumors: Pistons pay Charlotte to take Ben Gordon

Former Bull and BlogABull hero Ben Gordon was traded to the Bobcats late Tuesday. Corey Maggette goes back to the Pistons, and it’s the 2013-14 salaries that make the difference: Maggette is off the books that season, while Gordon will still has a player option of $13.2m. So to get the Bobcats to incur the (likely) risk that Gordon picks up that option, the Pistons sent them a protected first round pick.

Now, set aside the fact that the Charlotte Bobcats are now my League Pass team with Gordon and Tyrus Thomas (if he’s not amnestied: Tyrus had a career-worst season last year). Heck, they may be more fun to watch than the home team if the Bulls are led by John Lucas III. The point of examining this deal is that It’s an example of a team willing to take on salary to get an asset.

Doug Thonus at ChicagoNow swiftly and forcefully hammered the point home that it’s the type of move the Bulls should be doing, and can definitely achieve with the non-guaranteed deals of Korver/Brewer/Watson. Those could’ve been used in combination with eachother or Rip Hamilton’s 1yr, $5m salary (which Detroit could’ve hilariously bought-out again) to beat Charlotte’s Gordon package, and figures:

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