Look at the ages of the Bulls players (thanks to blogabull) Thomas20 Deng21 Sefolosha22 Gordon23 Duhon24 Khryapa24 Sweetney24 Chandler24 Hinrich25 Nocioni26 Allen28 The addition of Ben Wallace could transform this young team into contenders.
As much as I'd hate to see Ben go, if the Bulls wanna give him crazy bucks...Joe's gotta let him go. $12M & 4 years tops for Joe
What are you talking about? Ben EARNED every penny of that contract with his play. He didn't have that 6 yr 30 mil to start with because he came here under contract in the sign and trade. Ben got that deal because he busted his ass and worked harder on the floor than anyone else in the teal meal deal.
Ben was S&T to match the salary with Cheeser for Grant Hill in the S&T. But it is very hard to argue that Ben has not been a bargain over those 6 years. I heard Eric Pate says something similar about how Ben owes the Pistons for giving him an opportunity last weekend on the radio. I was so furious I didn't try to call in. That's slave owner talk. You take the boy out of the wilderness, work his ass off on the farm as your best worker, and then tell him that he received his food, clothes and lodging as a mercy. It's wrong. Again, with everyone talking dollars and cents, the real question is what happens to the Pistons if Ben walks. We have $5.5 million (approx.) to replace him, and that leaves only $1.7 million in the BAE to sign a free agent. I have a sneaking suspicion that Kelvin Cato is part of the contingency plan. Joe hold's Cato's Bird Rights so they could theoretically re-sign him at a healthy $6~$7 million and still have the Mid-Level and Bi-Annual Exceptions to shop for fresh blood.
The day the Darko experiment failed was officially the day Joe would overpay for Ben because the alternatives are almost too horrible to think about.
Damn Bulls. I went to nba.com before i went here today. In the news article it said "Bulls Think Big: Big Ben". That scared the crapp out of me. It only talked about how Ben and Paxson met yesterday though.
We are screwed!! Either way this goes it is bad. If Ben resigns he is going to be grossly over paid and is basically being paid for past performance. If he leaves we will have a great void in our defense and teams will drive the lane at will like they were starting to do near the end of the season. The Pistons this season started to have problems with teams with young atheletic bigs. We have come to a cross roads. With that 2007 1st round pick of Orlando in our pocket and with a deep draft class of Centers and PF's coming out I think if Ben leaves Joe D. falls on his sword and signs Cato and tries to get Florida's Noah in the draft or the 7ft 2 kid from Georgetown.
Thats 12 mill a season and would make him the highest paid Piston by a small margin. The Pistons offer looks like a joke though compared to 5 years $75 million. I guess we are going to see what Ben is all about. He claims it is not all about money. As other Pistons have realized they can't get all the money they deserve if they want to keep the team intact. The Bulls may screw us now and take Ben from us but they still have to resign guys like Ben Gordon and Hinrich in the coming years and I know we will be waiting with an open check book.
Neither side owes the other anything. Both sides benefitted equally from the other. Ben got a long term contract, a chance to prove himself , a ring and now, the opportunity for a big pay day. The Pistons got one of the most dominent defenders to ever play the game, an unselfish team player, a workmanlike Detroit icon and the face of the franchise. Ben earned his minutes and his money. Sure he was "underpaid" (relatively speaking of course, I'm sure he was still able to feed his family just fine, unlike poor Spreewell) from a production standpoint. But he was also undrafted and unknown. Ben wouldn't have signed that deal if it wasn't good for him at the time. Tremendous job security and more money than I'm sure he ever thought he'd make after going undrafted. Since then, he's taken his game to the next level and deserves an even bigger pay day. When you look at the contracts teams have been throwing at unproven/overrated "bigs" the past couple of years, Ben is more than deserving. However, Ben doesn't deserve "backpay" to make up for being "underpaid" for years. That's just the way it goes. Joe D. bought long term while the price was low. High Risk, High Reward. I hope to heck that Ben is back. But he doesn't owe Detroit anything or vise versa. How ironic that for the first time in his career, Ben's offensive game (playing the free agency game) will dictate the D (the direction of the Pistons).
