No Rose...Now what?

First and foremost, my thoughts and prayers go out to Derrick Rose. I can't even imagine what he's dealing with right now.

Being from Chicago, loving the game, and graduating in 2007, I feel a special connection to Rose that I've only felt with a few other athletes ever. It's hard to say he's a role model (he's about 5 months older), but his true passion for the game, competition and success is akin to Howard Rourke in Ayn Rand's classic, The Fountainhead. He is literally everything that is right about basketball, sports, capitalism, and the human spirit. Get well soon, and I hope you come back like so many other athletes have. I think he'll be fine.

Another quick note: there was no outrage like what we've seen against Nike designer Jason Petrie when I posted about how I thought adidas was responsible for Rose's injury woes Is adidas to blame?

His comments were totally inappropriate. I'm a big Nike fan, and I think he's a legendary designer, but wtf bro?

But let's get back to what's going on in this series. We now lead 1-0, with no real competition from Philly in game 1. If you didn't hate Evan Turner before, tweeting nonsense about how he was happy to play the Bulls, how he was "better" than Derrick Rose, and how he was a dick to Mark Titus and the rest of the Ohio State squad: Link to Titus' book, I'm dying to read it... you probably should now. I wouldn't be surprised to see a little scuffle this series.

Anyways, more pertinent, is how can we beat the 76er's without last years MVP. And I think that's fairly easy. Our stable of point guards gives us a bit of everything. CJ's a great 3pt shooter and can facilitate decently. John Lucas III is instant offense when he's hot; we've seen him single handedly swing games thanks to his ability to get great separation and hit clutch jumpers. And my personal favorite: MJ...or Mike James. He is old. He skips when he runs. But the man still has plenty of game. I've never seen anyone so slow cut SO quickly, and take much faster guards off the dribble. Mike has a fairly reliable jumper, and can get to the rack better than any point guard on the team. It baffled me and Bulls Passion contributer Corey Hickman every time they decided not to sign him. Also, why the Heat passed on him, if not to block us from having him, is beyond me, but sae la vie.

Take a look at his stat lines when he ACTUALLY got playing time: Wow, they're pretty good. It'd be ignorant to think that he'll really push CJ for too much playing time, but he is certainly a valuable contributor who's been completely overlooked.

I'll have another post up on why we're still the best team in the NBA...and how we'll go about beating the Heat.

Why Wilbon and Broussard are wrong about Sunday's Loss

Let's get this out of the way... the loss to Oklahoma City on Sunday was easily the worst game the Bulls have played all season. Not only did the defense look mediocre, but the offense showed us what it is in big games without D.Rose....and that is complete shit.

I won't hate on my main man John Lucas or CJ "one of the best back-up points in the leauge" Watson. Both have defined roles on the team. JL3 is a volume scorer in the ilk of Ben Gordon, but the problem is, he can't defend and kills the offense. Once he hits a difficult shot he turns into a chucker and we get the old stand around and watch phenomenon. It reminds me of a few of his friends...Stevie Franchise and Allen Iverson...curious.

CJ didn't play well either, nor did anyone for that matter. Having Korver in the starting line-up against an offensive juggernaut proved to be  poor decision. I'd much rather have Ronnie Brewer in to make switches.

Speaking of switches, the Bulls didn't even try to defend Russell Westbrook on the pick and roll. He had 27 points on 10-18 shooting and didn't even commit a turnover! Westbrook! He was popping wide open jumpers consistently.

The game really got away in the 3rd quarter when Durant and Westbrook scored and set-up their teammates. Unfortunately, the Bulls couldn't even score, let alone counter.

After the game, talking head Chris Broussard was adamant that we shouldn't discount this win. Hell, Magic Johnson said OKC is the best team in the league! Even Wilbon seemed to support this thrashing of his hometown team. All I could think was...WTF is going on?

For one, it's impossible NOT to discount a game where the team with the best record was missing their top scorer and the league's MVP. Would you have discounted the Bulls losing to the Jazz without MJ in the line-up? Hell yes you would have. This team isn't even the same without Rose in the line-up. No one creates like him, nor can anyone else on the team get a bucket whenever he wants. I wouldn't really discount that skill...

Best team in the league? You can't be serious Magic. Everyone likes riding the KD train; he's a great scorer and super fun to watch. But, he still cannot defend, and you have to question if he's seen the Spurs, Heat, and Bulls play. San Antonio could run out of steam, but I can't see OKC hang with Miami or the Bulls in a 7-game series. Not playing defense was an anomaly, and Miami is fricken' good. Don't believe me? Well, they have LeBron James and Dywane Wade...


Bottom line: don't panic about this little loss. We won't remember it in a month when Rose is out there scoring 30 points per game in the playoffs. Also, OKC is likely the 4th best team in the league. Don't count out Kobe!