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Up close with Ben Gordon

Summer is in full swing but the NBA season is just around the corner. Every summer I say that I just want to take some time off for vacation, but I never seem to get around to it. To me vacation is this odd thing that I’ve never gotten used to. Every summer of my life I’ve always been playing. So if I take a couple days off and just go somewhere, I feel odd and kind of guilty, almost like, “What am I doing?” Even if I am in the gym at home working out – maybe not as hard as I can, but working out – I feel like there is so much more to do before I go on vacation.

I had a pretty good year last year, but with my shooting touch and my ability to shoot the ball, I should definitely be shooting at least 45 percent from the floor. But I think playing the two spot at my height, I’m forced to take a lot of tough shots. I have to do a better job this year of getting to the free-throw line so I can cut down on those low percentage shots. Sometimes I try to avoid a guy altering my shot and I end up taking a difficult shot instead of maybe creating contact and getting to the free-throw line.

Ben Gordon knows more is expected from the Bulls this season. Mitchell Layton/NBAE/Getty Images

I just saw that we open the season in Miami, which is a great way to start the season. It’s going to be an emotional night for them getting their rings, but a motivational night for us being that we lost to them in the playoffs last year. I thought we went in there and competed, but they were a good team and obviously they won the championship. You know they are going to want to come out and put on a good performance, so I’m looking forward to it.

The last two seasons, everybody has gotten caught up in the fact that the Bulls have always played people and that we’re in games. But the team is completely different this year. The great thing about it is we still have the core guys that we had my first two seasons -- Andres Nocioni, Kirk Hinrich, Chris Duhon, Luol Deng -- and obviously we added Ben Wallace, our two rookies, Tyrus Thomas and Thabo Sefolosha, and some veteran guys like P.J. Brown and Adrian Griffin, so I think it's going be a completely different team. We’re going to be way better than last year.

The main thing we were lacking last season was a low post guy who could really score. We still technically don’t have that, but with the addition of Ben, he is going to make us that much better on the defensive end that low post scoring is not going to be our liability. I think we are going to be so good on the other end that we can make up for that on the offensive end somehow. And Ben isn’t as bad as everyone likes to say. He can finish down there. He has good hands. He’s very good around the basket. P.J. is a skilled veteran guy who knows how to finish and can hit the 15- to 18-footer. We still have our pick-and-pop game with Malik Allen and Mike Sweetney is a very good low post player when he gets a chance. Depending on how Tyrus comes along, I think we have some good offensive weapons.

Outside of injuries, I would say us not having chemistry and guys not fitting in well and complementing each other are the only things that might be able to hold us down and keep us from accomplishing what we want to accomplish. One thing you know about the Bulls from the last two seasons is that we’re going to defend every night. With the pieces we’ve added in addition to what we already had, I think we’ll be that much better.

There is no question that it will be a disappointment and an underachievement if we don’t get past the first round. The last two seasons, it was easy to say the Bulls were undermanned. This year, there is no excuse.