Ben is going to meet with the Bulls later today ( Sat July 1 ). According to Mlive.

http://www.mlive.com/pistons/stories...030.xml&coll=1

Blakely and I am sure the rest of the local papers will try to brush it off but I don't like it. The Bulls were not supposed to be interested - were they?

Article goes on about a possible sign and trade for Chandler if Ben agrees to terms. Ben is an unrestricted FA and the Bulls have the cap space. Unless they want to dump Chandler I cannot see why they would want to give us something.

A guy that really wants to be here would not visit another team on day 1. He obviously is thinking about leaving or he would not waste his time. He would have just mailed in an agreement with Dumars.

What would really burn me is if the Bulls sign him for 45mil over 3 years as the article suggests and Dumars does not budge over the 12mil mark for lux tax concerns.

This is not good so far. Lets see how it plays out. Ben would put Chic over the top and kill the Pistons in the same blow. It would be a good move for them.

It's reasonable to expect Ben to do his due diligence to drive up his value.

It's how the game is played. I would rather Ben visit teams now, and get it out of the way ASAP than screw around until July 11th.

Once his market value is determined, things will get easier for Joe.

I just don't want Wallace/Tellum dragging this out until the 12th or later. Get an offer, see where the Pistons are, and dig right into negotiations. Ben did instruct his agent to "get it done quickly".

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

I suppose. This is not the 2000 Bulls with no talent and that fat GM. They have a lot of potential and just got a decent rookie.

The question is if the Bulls are all set to offer Ben 15mil/yr are the Pistons going to match? I would hope so. Can make up that 3 mil by not signing guys like Davis to multi-million yr deals to sit on the bench.

The thing that has always bothered me about the Bulls interest in Ben is that they could be a contender to go deep into the playoffs in the next five years. I don't see Ben being willing to go to a really lousy team and think he has said as much. That's why the Bulls are the most dangerous interested party to me. I don't think it's a good sign that he will meet with them the first moment possible in free agency.

But as Roscoe pointed out, now he's in that free agent game. And his agent knows how to play it. So he could be going through the valuing phase of the game with this "testing of the waters."

Ben could have the best intentions of re-signing, but if the right offer comes and it looks like he might get to play Big Ben ball instead of Flip ball...I dunno, I think all bets are off.

Count me down as moderately panicked at this point.

Is it common to fly down to another city on the very 1st day? I would buy that argument if his agent was fielding the phone.

You guys are probably right. His agent probably is trying to ruffle the Pistons into increasing the offer. Who knows. I have a feeling we are not going to know until sometime next week.

This is the same thing they were saying when Alen Hounston flew down to NY back in 05. I know its going back a stretch but we haven't had too many high profile FA's.

If you were the Bulls, would you want to make an offer to Ben without talking to him? Without him meeting your coach? Without showing him your facilities?

It's all a prelude to an offer, or an expedition to gauge interest. I think it will be very unlikely that Ben comes out of this meeting today with a contract unless Joe made a lowball offer and turned off his cell phone.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

Remember Ben was the guy last year who stated that when his free agency period arrived, teams were given notice not to woo him, wine & dine him because he is a pistons for life.

I may be able to find this article somewhere in the detnews archives.

I agree it's not a good sign at all that Ben is visiting the Bulls.

I'm starting to think that Ben is gone. Given his positive statements earlier in the year and the more recent comments/actions regarding Flip - this may be a "it's him(Flip) or me" situation. Ben was extremely frustrated in the second half of the season and he has made it clear that he has little respect for Flip's coaching which puts Joe in an impossible position - he just can't fire another coach. Hopefully Joe can salvage the situation.

Our last three major FA's (Sheed, Rip, and Tay) were all restricted, so the situation is different, but they did not visit any teams to my knowledge.

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Pecan Log Rolls for everyone!

Ben deserves to go where he wants to go. The Pistons will survive. Ben will weigh his options. He has already won a ring. I am sure he wants another one, but he will go where he thinks his abilities and leadership are needed. That's it.