Recently, some posters (commentators) here have speculated that Gordon may be malingering. That is, some believe he might be exaggerating the extent of his wrist injury in order to prove his value to the team and maximize his contract negotiating leverage.  Similarly, others believe he could play, but that he doesn't want to even remotely jeopardize his health prior to his summer as a restricted free agent, because doing so might adversely affect his market value. In an interview with Hanley, Paxson does little to dispel that perception. In fact, if you read between the lines, Paxson appears to indicate that, while Luol's injury is substantiated by MRI's, there is no diagnostic confirmation for Gordon's injury. It's entirely possible I am misinterpreting the quote, which is edited, but I thought it was telling nonetheless:

"I can't answer for them. What I've learned in my 25 years since I started playing in the league is that you have to listen to players and believe what they tell you about their bodies and their injuries. . . .You can't tell a player to play. We do all the medical stuff. . .everything we can do. At the end of the day, we really have no power to tell a player that you have to go out on the floor. Obviously, given the fact that Ben and Luol didn't get their [contract] extensions done, and the fact that we're not playing well this year, obviously fans want to know what the deal is. In the case of Luol, he had swelling in his Achilles. We at the position with him, with the All-Star break coming up next week, that rest was the big thing to get the swelling out and let the tendon heal. He's going to get a repeat MRI when we get back from this trip. But with just two home games before the break, rest was the key. It makes no sense to bring him back. We feel we're giving him the appropriate time off of it. Hopefully, that will allow him to play the last 30 games of the year. Again, there's not guarantee there.

"We have to get healthy first. My target date is right after the All-Star break (Feb. 15-17). I hope that with 30 games left we will have Gordon back, Deng back. My understanding is Ben Gordon is day to day. I'm going to try and touch base with him today and talk to him about what he's thinking."

The remainder of the article contains Paxson's thoughts on the playoffs and trades (Note that Paxson (a) states that Tyrus will get minutes; and (b) admits that Nocioni's large contract makes trades more difficult):

http://blogs.suntimes.com/bulls/

(1) How many times is Gordon going to do the same stupid sh*t at the end of games? Ten? Fifteen? Twenty? How many times is he just going to pound the ball and then try to take an ill-advised three? How many times is he going to get the ball stolen on a key end of game possession? He committed fatal turnovers in both the Orlando game and the Portland game. I know he kept us in both those games with his offense, but Jesus Christ man, use your brain down the stretch. Try something different. Protect the ball;

(2) Nocioni has lost his offensive touch. I don't know if he is hurt, tired, or just in a slump, but he is useless when he can't knock down open threes;

(3) Yes, Aldridge can shoot a jumper off the high screen and roll. But that is just about all he can do. He can't rebound well for a man his size. Defensively, he did absolutely nothing to prevent the Bulls (especially Joe Smith) from scoring in the lane. Offensively, he can't finish under the rim (rejected several times). And finally, he has no post game to speak of at all. So if the Bulls were looking for a post presence, he isn't it;

(4) Tyrus once again didn't get much of a chance to play. Did he perform so poorly in his stint that he didn't deserve any additional minutes?;

(5) Smith is playing extremely well, but I don't know if his body can withstand all of the minutes he is absorbing;

(6) Most importantly, how bad is Luol's injury? What did they say on TV? If Lu is out for any extended period of time, the season is essentially over no matter what else happens.

The Bulls seem incapable of beating a decent team. And they can't protect the home court, which is really beginning to erode the patience of the UC crowds.  

I saw a picture of Noah on the ESPN.com basketball home page with the caption "Noah's Development Arc continued upward in his NBA debut."

It turns out the teaser is just an indirect link to Matt's postgame thoughts from the first preseason contest.

Pretty cool.

It's in the Spotlight section (It'll probably be gone tomorrow, so enjoy it tonight.)

http://sports-ak.espn.go.com/nba/index