Gordon, Villanueva May Be Pistons Soon

by Jeff Clark on Jul 1, 2009 11:19 AM EDT in Rumors Comment 24 comments

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports:

Chicago Bulls guard Ben Gordon(notes) and Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva(notes) flew to Detroit on Wednesday morning for a mid-day meeting with team president Joe Dumars and indications are both are moving rapidly toward deals with the Detroit Pistons, league and sources close to the two players told Yahoo! Sports.

Gordon and Villanueva, both unrestricted free agents, would be significant strikes on the first full day of NBA free agency.

Gordon and Villanueva have history together, and are good friends. They played for the University of Connecticut, although never together. The Pistons have nearly $20 million in salary-cap space and it’s thought that the offers to these two players would come close to expending that money.

In other free agent news, it looks like Hedo is the Blazers top priority.

“The Trail Blazers’ summer agenda was revealed late Tuesday night at the minute the free agent market opened. That’s when general manager Kevin Pritchard and assistant general manager Tom Penn called agent Lon Babby to begin the courtship of small forward Hedo Turkoglu. `Kevin Pritchard and Tom Penn called me at the earliest possible moment and expressed enthusiasm for engaging in discussions about Hedo becoming a Trail Blazer,` Babby said late Tuesday night. `We have begun that process.`”

I think teams that have money to spend and are willing to spend it will do so quickly. After that, players will be fighting for MLE money.

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Sounds good to me!!

That means Cleveland and Orlando don’t get them….

Now lets wrap up Sheed, a SF (Unless Bill Walker is ready to be this years Big Baby), and Stephon and call it an offseason…

by BuckeyeCelt on Jul 1, 2009 11:21 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Gordon and Villanueva

They did play together on the ’04 championship team.

by Jay P on Jul 1, 2009 11:27 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Rip and Prince

Uh… don’t BG and CV play the same positions as their current ‘core’ players? They are going to have 5 guards starting next year….

Stuckey
Gordon
Rip
Prince
Charlie V

by D Dub on Jul 1, 2009 11:33 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

yeah

and how are they going to find minutes for Ray and Rondo too? :)

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" Henry V

by Jeff Clark on Jul 1, 2009 11:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Gordon + Rip = Redundant no?

Rip, Prince, CV are headliners on the all-skinny team as well…

When Perk was asked what he thought of Howard winning the gold medal this summer, he responded: "What’s his impression of me after I won a ring?"

by Green17 on Jul 1, 2009 11:52 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

also

if these two go to Detroit and Hedo goes to Portland, who has money left to throw at Milsap?

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" Henry V

by Jeff Clark on Jul 1, 2009 12:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hopefully the team that wants to offer Davis the MLE.

by Wide Load on Jul 1, 2009 12:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Memphis and Oklahoma

by Who on Jul 1, 2009 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

that's right

I think I read that one or both of them was interested in him

agree with Wide Load, hopefully one of them signs Milsap and thus has no room for Big Baby

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" Henry V

by Jeff Clark on Jul 1, 2009 12:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yep, OKC is supposedly preparing an offer for Millsap

by Berkcelt on Jul 1, 2009 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

What Happened to Dumars?

A couple years ago he was looking like a genius. He’s either lost it, or he’s going to have to package some players to make room.

by amenhotep04 on Jul 1, 2009 12:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dumars is rushing things. He needs to slow down. Stop panicking.

by Who on Jul 1, 2009 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Maybe it’s not panicking. Maybe it’s just conceit. Perhaps he thinks he’s building another sum is greater than its parts team.

Although sending Rip to the Clippers for one of their big guys might make it look more reasonable.

by Berkcelt on Jul 1, 2009 12:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Boozer-for-Rip still works straight-up, if Utah wanted a better swingman and if Detroit thought they could sign Boozer to an extension. I could see Rip playing quite well for Sloan, and Boozer would be able replace ’Sheed at the PF/C spot. Split time at the PF spot with Charlie V, but get most of his minutes at the 5.

by theBird on Jul 1, 2009 12:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think it’s fear of last season repeating itself again next year.

I think Joe feels the need to try and fast-track his team’s development, despite next summer having more + better opportunities for the Pistons.

by Who on Jul 1, 2009 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Snag the Matrix!

Shawn Marion needs a new home and has to realize that mailing it in for a few seasons likely cost him the big contract. Sign him, Steph and a center, then call it a season.

by funkstarrdeluxe on Jul 1, 2009 11:33 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

good point, he’s going to have to start considering MLE money now, with Portland and Detroit going in different directions.

by D Dub on Jul 1, 2009 11:35 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Detroit

what the hell are they doing? I like Gordon, but with Deng back, I think CHI can sort out a good rotation without him. Sigining 8-10 million dollar free agents doesn’t get you the elite talent – and pulling off a Rasheed trade to add the missing piece will be harder this time around. I think Dumars has lost it – I’d recommend he clear space for next year instead, but he’d probably pass on signing Bosh and Melo, and sign Darko instead.

by Brendan on Jul 1, 2009 11:40 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs

If you think...

AI ruined the team, think about how bad Gordon will.

Only The Strong Survive

by RsEaVeY95 on Jul 1, 2009 11:41 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

so these are the big free agents detroit is after?
bwa ha ha..

it will be interesting to see the 2nd and 3rd best shooting guards from uconn on the same team though ;)

by orr on Jul 1, 2009 11:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

It will be interesting to see Villanueva trying to play center

These signings, plus Portland’s pursuit of Hedo, are bad news for guys like Artest and Marion. The number of teams with cap space is dwindling.

by Brickowski on Jul 1, 2009 12:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

exactly

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" Henry V

by Jeff Clark on Jul 1, 2009 12:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can't believe I am actually in favor of...

pursuing Sheed and Artest. I think they would offer a terrific SKILLSET to the Celtics, hopefully the MINDSET is acceptable.

by VtCeltics on Jul 1, 2009 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t get it. I like Ben Gordon, but considering their total games, offense and defense, I’m not sure he’s better than either Rip or Tayshaun. Charlie V doesn’t do anything for me, he can score but that’s about it. He kinda reminds me of Marcus Fizer before he got hurt, someone who’ll put up some points but doesn’t really scare you all that much. If they’re expecting Charlie V to play center…. well, that’ll be interesting.

Rip or Tayshaun (probably Rip) has to be on the block now. No way Gordon signs without an implicit guarantee that he’s starting, and Rip was, well… ripped when he was coming off the bench behind Iverson. He’s got to be pissed that he signed that extension last year, before Chauncey got traded. Honestly, I think if they traded ‘Sheed (who wore out his welcome) instread of Billups, they’d still be one of the better teams in the East. They basically unloaded Billups for the cap space to sign Gordon and Charlie V, which sure as hell isn’t a trade that I would have done.

by theBird on Jul 1, 2009 12:27 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs