Daily NBA Fix 3-3-14: Charlotte Bobcats Deliver Unkind Cut To Ben Gordon
By Phil Watson
Welcome to the Daily NBA Fix for Monday, March 3, the morning after the Chicago Bulls made an addition for the stretch run and the Charlotte Bobcats made sure a former Bull won’t be part of the postseason party.
The Chicago Bulls signed Jimmer Fredette in hopes of adding shooting for the stretch run and the playoffs. The Charlotte Bobcats made sure Ben Gordon won’t get that same chance. Gordon was waived Sunday, after the March 1 deadline for waived players to be eligible to play for another team in the postseason.
Gordon is making $13.2 million in the last year of a deal he signed with the Detroit Pistons five years ago, the summer that Joe Dumars turned a ton of cap space and flexibility into dueling albatross contracts in Charlie Villanueva and Gordon.
That’s $13.2 million for a season in which Gordon has averaged 14.7 minutes a game in the 19 games he has played in. Charlotte picked up Gordon along with a top-eight protected first-round pick in June 2012, but he never really fit there, openly feuding with former coach Mike Dunlap last season and quickly falling out of new coach Steve Clifford’s rotation this year.
It’s a dramatic fall for a former Sixth Man of the Year who turns 31 on April 4, to be sure.
On the court, Joakim Noah recorded his fifth career triple-double as the Bulls routed the Knicks, the Warriors played giveaway in the fourth quarter and lost to the Raptors, and the Pacers, Magic, Thunder, Spurs and Suns were winners.
The Daily NBA Fix will still deliver highlights, game capsules, the top and bottom five players, the dreaded Goose Egg, Clean and Sober and Ironman awards, we’ll recap who’s circling the drain, there will be some interesting pieces of relevant (and not-so-relevant) information and we’ll look at today’s daily lines for those people who like to wager a buck or two.
Check out the highlights below from the night that was, then get into the game capsules (home teams in CAPS).