Last season he was Big Ben.
This season he doesn’t seem to know what time it is.
“Right now I’m trying to get to the level I was playing at last season when I should be at a level two times that,” Ben Gordon said after practice Tuesday. “This year I’m struggling. So far I haven’t been having the success I pretty much envisioned for myself over the summer. But I’m trying to be patient. It’s all I can do. It’s a long season.”
It’s getting shorter, however, as the Bulls, who play the Bobcats on Wednesday, fell a season-low three games under .500 and to ninth place in the Eastern Conference after the loss in Cleveland.
It was the team’s fourth straight loss, and coach Scott Skiles said Tuesday he is again contemplating a lineup change.
“I might,” Skiles said about trying to overcome continued slow starts. “But I’m not going to tell you today. We’re still talking about it. We’ll see. We may make a change. I’m not sure.”
Neither is Gordon, the star of last season’s improbable rise to 47 wins and third in the East. It’s perhaps unfair to judge the Bulls against that season. Almost everything broke right and major competition, like the Pacers and Cavaliers, stumbled with changes.
Perhaps the same is true for Gordon, the first rookie to be voted best sixth man. He was likely responsible for a half-dozen or more wins with last-second shots and had 21 double-digit fourth quarters.
This season Gordon has none as he finds himself in a Catch-22 while trying to figure out which came first, the chicken or the eggbeaters.
“If I don’t feel like I’m in a good shooting rhythm, I’m looking to do something else,” Gordon said. “Sometimes I’m just trying to get someone else an easier shot or move the ball until I feel I’m in an opportune position to get a shot.
“The way I played last year I’d come in and be in the game for 25 minutes and rattle off a bunch of points. This year, in my eyes, I think I’m evolving as a player, so I shouldn’t be on the court just to solely do that.
“Maybe if I played more minutes, I’d have a chance to do more out there than just shoot. You can’t play 30 minutes and try to score every single time down the floor.”
Teams are preparing better for Gordon, like with all rookie sensations. They know he is not a great ballhandler or passer.
So they play up on him, trying to force him to dribble, put bigger players with longer arms on him, try to run him into big players.
So Gordon tries to expand his game, handling the ball, passing, moving.
But then he doesn’t shoot enough or score enough, so he comes out of the game. He’s shooting 31 percent the last six games, including three with five or fewer points. His season average is 13.3 on 38 percent shooting compared with 15.1 last season and 41 percent.
Gordon thought, perhaps, he was back with an 18-point first half Thursday against Cleveland, but then he had only four points in the second half.
“Last year if I’d had that kind of quarter or half, (in) the next half people are looking for me,” Gordon said. “I’m not saying I’m selfish or anyone’s being selfish or the coach is not thinking about me. But it seems like last year when I had that kind of run we’d force the issue, `OK, the next three plays, let’s try to do this for Ben,’ or, `Get him going because he has a hot hand.’ That night I thought that was what should have happened. But it didn’t.
“As teams are adjusting, you have to deal with adjustments as a player. The kind of shots I’m getting (also) have to change, the way plays are running. We have to give teams a different look so you’re not as predictable.
“Last year, OK, I wasn’t handling the ball that much. OK, maybe I should be handling the ball more at the top of the key and giving defense different looks. Maybe it would give me easier shot selection or things like where I can get my team easier shots. It’s just a matter of adjusting and figuring it out and making it a snowball effect and once I do that I’ll be back playing the way I’m capable of playing.”
Until then, the Bulls struggle.
There’s a direct correlation between Gordon’s woes and the team’s because Gordon is the team’s major scoring threat.
“I’m not panicking or anything like that, but it’s tough,” Gordon said. “Not starting, not finishing (games), it’s like you’re in limbo. It is frustrating sometimes, but I can’t put the blame on anyone else. Myself as a player, I’ve got to find a way to be valuable enough to the team that I’m out there those times of games. It may seem unfair, but people have short memories.
“I’ve got to go every day in practice and in games and do the stuff to remind people when we need a shot to look for Ben Gordon, or when we need somebody to make a play offensively, Ben is the guy to go to.”
“I love the game and whether I have two points or 30 points, every night I come out I’m excited to play and that’s a motivating factor that any night can be your best game.
“In these kinds of times, when you’re not playing as good as you want, you remind yourself of the hard work and the past success and know you’re not going to be stinking it up much longer and eventually those games will start bunching together and this interview would be different.”
Where ya Ben?
Ben Gordon scored just two points in Monday’s loss in Cleveland and has seven points combined in his last two games. Not exactly what Gordon–or the Bulls–had in mind after a stellar rookie season in which he was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year. A look inside the numbers:
%%
2004-05 2005-06
15.1 POINTS PER GAME 13.3
24.4 MINUTES PER GAME 26.9
41.1 FIELD-GOAL PERCENTAGE 38.3
40.5 3-POINT FG PERCENTAGE 43.2
86.3 FREE-THROW PERCENTAGE 72.1
———-
sasmith@tribune.com
%%
%%
%%
