IN RELATED:The Knicks have extended an invitation to Allan Houston to participate in training camp again this year, giving the Knicks 17 players on the roster. Houston is considered a long shot to make the team, but its expected that if he does not make the team he will join the team as a special advisor, likely in a player development role. Houston tried for a comeback last year and ultimately took himself out of the running after his body did not respond well to the rigors of camp. Houston's shot is said to be falling as crisply and fluidly as ever, but the questions revolve around his knees, and in Mike D'Antoni's system Houston will be expected to run the floor. The Knicks like Houston's demeanor and leadership and view him as someone who can help stabilize a rocky locker room.

The Bulls and Ben Gordon Pt 2 : Make sure you check out Joel Brigham's piece on Ben Gordon, it's fairly spot on with what's going on with the Bulls and Gordon. There were some reports this week about teams having had talks with the Bulls about a sign-and-trade. There have been several teams that have talked about a deal with the Bulls and fans are of course tossing in their ideas of deals that might work. There are a couple of points you have to consider. First, the Bulls are sitting at $63.4 million in salary commitments, which includes the $6.4 million Qualifying Offer sheet for Ben Gordon. Let's say the Bulls go to $10 million for Ben that pushes their salary commitment to $67 million. That's as far as the Bulls are willing to go budget-wise, and that's even pushing it. So signing and trading Ben Gordon means taking on more cash and the Bulls just are not open to that. Every scenario presented this summer has the Bulls taking on contracts or players they do not want in order to get something back for Ben. The Bulls are absolutely in the driver's seat in this situation. Its ugly, it's a distraction and it's not going to go away anytime soon. The one thing you can be sure of is the Bulls are not going to make a deal that brings in more salary; if they were open to a higher salary number they'd give it to Ben. The Bulls will not simply give Ben Gordon away either. The stalemate has no signs of a reasonable conclusion until Camp Gordon understands that what you want in a deal is not what matters, it's what the market says your worth and you having data to back that up. Ben Gordon has neither.

Will Dumars Carry The Water?: Joe Dumars was angry after the Pistons lost to Boston in the Conference Finals this summer. He abruptly fired Flip Saunders' and proclaimed that there would be "significant roster" changes. With training camp set to open on Monday for the Pistons, there was very little roster change. In fact of all the teams in the playoffs last year, the Pistons made the fewest moves of them all. So the question becomes when does Joe Dumars become accountable for the state of the Pistons? Before we go there, let's define the role of the General Manager: assemble a winning team, maintain financial flexibility, develop talent and preserve assets. I have never seen a GM call a play, make a shot, grab a rebound or miss a dunk in his role as GM. Let's set the record straight. The Pistons have won 50 games or more over the past 7 seasons. In those seven seasons the Pistons have gotten to the Eastern Conference Finals five times and to the NBA Finals twice in those seven years, winning the whole thing in 2003-2004. Put a winner on the floor - check. The Pistons have been one of the best in the business at retaining talent at reasonable prices. Look at Chauncey Billups' most recent deal - $60 million for five years - considering Gilbert Arenas just signed $111 million contract for six years. The Pistons have been very good at the financial side of the business as well avoiding luxury tax while being consistently one of the most productive teams in the East. The Pistons have $67.9 million in salary commitments this year, $52.9 next season, and will have as much as $25 million in cap space in 2010, The Summer of LeBron, Dwade and Chris Bosh. Financial flexibility – check. Develop talent - who would argue that Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson have not been outstanding finds? Stuckey and Maxiell are among the best young players in the East. Develop talent – check. Preserve assets – The Pistons own all of their draft picks going forward in both the first round and second round, as well as owning two 2nd round picks in 2009 (Toronto and Minnesota) and a 2011 2nd round pick from Toronto. Preserve assets – check. If the measure of a general manager is simply hardware, you can blame Dumars, but in reality the measure of a general manger should be about building a team that can consistently compete every year, and since Dumars has taken over the Pistons, few franchises have seen the year in and year out success Detroit has seen. Given how flexible their situation is going forward they could remain among the league elite for a long time coming, and that's directly because of Joe Dumars.

NBA Chat Today at 2pm: Well, it's Wednesday which means its Chat time once again. Feel free to swing by and drop your questions in now, I will be back at 2pm EST to start knocking out as many as I can get to. We do block an hour for these, so make sure you get in early. To change things up a bit, I may start grabbing questions randomly from the bottom too, so if you're here at 2pm, yours might be one of the first. Preetom Bhattacharya will host his Saturday chat at 2pm EST this Saturday, and then next week we will start the new "expanded" schedule, with Bill Ingram on Monday, me again on Wednesday, Joel Brigham on Thursday and Travis Heath on Friday, so lots of opportunity to ask your questions and see what our experts have to say.