Gordon finding his place in Piston's small-ball unit
While the Bulls took Thursday off after returning from London, it was a good time to look around the NBA, where plenty of ex-Bulls are in the spotlight during preseason:
Pistons like small ball: Ben Gordon's Detroit debut didn't go well, with 2-for-9 shooting and 6 turnovers against Miami.
But the Pistons provided a glimpse of three-guard glory during Wednesday's 113-104 win over Milwaukee at the Palace. Gordon, Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey combined to score 68 points and the Pistons shot 56 percent from the field overall.
It will be up to first-year coach John Kuester to divide playing time between the trio mentioned above, along with Richard Hamilton, who has been laying low in preseason so far.
"Those are three guys who can explode," Kuester said in the Detroit News. "That is a nice problem to have."
"I think it will be great with how athletic we are," Hamilton added. "When you have guys who can shoot, you always keep the floor spaced out."
Bucks coach Scott Skiles was on the bench for Gordon's first three-plus seasons with the Bulls and had some interesting comments on Wednesday.
"You could make a case, I may not be sitting here if it wasn't for Ben Gordon," Skiles said. "His rookie year, he single-handedly won so many games. I'm a huge, huge Ben Gordon fan.
"He's the most unique player I've been around. He can be out there for several minutes, and it seems like something's not going right for him. And bam, he can just score in bunches."
Artest in L.A.: One thing that hasn't changed about Ron Artest since his early years with the Bulls is he's always saying and doing crazy things. He's so genuine about it all that it's fun having him around.
Artest mentioned a few times recently that he has been training to become a heavyweight boxer and expects to be ready for his first fight in four years. His Lakers' contract runs for five years.
Coach Phil Jackson found great success with Dennis Rodman in Chicago, but Jackson talked about the vast differences between Rodman and Artest in SI.com.
"Dennis was interested in defense and rebounding and he worked in our triangle very well," Jackson said. "But he would pass up a shot when he was wide open and give someone else a shot. Ron is a guy who likes to score and will score and so it's a different role he'll have on this team.
"Personality-wise, Dennis was a guy who could probably go through the day without talking, while Ron is very verbose. There's quite a difference."
Artest produced 12 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists in the Lakers' preseason opener against Golden State.
Other ex-Bulls: Knicks center Eddy Curry has been declared out indefinitely to work on his conditioning. In the past month, he's pulled a calf muscle and hamstring. - After two years out of the NBA, Michael Sweetney is on Boston's training camp roster. He had an interesting stat line on Wednesday against Houston - 10 points and 5 fouls in 9 minutes.
Rookie power forward DeJuan Blair isn't an ex, but he was passed up by the Bulls twice in the draft. The league was buzzing about his preseason debut for San Antonio - 19 rebounds and 16 points in 22 minutes against the Rockets.