All I Want for Christmas is D.Rose

The last few days in Bulls basketball have been relatively solid. After a tough loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Bulls bounced back with a big win against the Cleveland Cavaliers, highlighted by a double double from D.J. Augustin and fantastic shooting from Tony Snell. I love Jimmy Butler as much as the next guy, but Snell has easily outplayed him this season, and I think Tom Thibodeau may experiment with moving Butler to the bench for a while.

We can talk about fundamental performance, Luol Deng's contract, and the draft all year--but today is two days before Christmas, so I wanted to touch on the importance of empathy.

I linked to Dan Bernstein's article about Derrick Rose last week, not because I agreed with everything, but because it is definitely an important story within the realm of sports fandom. Major market sports fans are notoriously terrible. I say that as someone who has been around Chicago his whole life. Let's admit it: Chicago sports fans can be miserable. Philly, New York, LA, Boston -- you name a large market, and it probably has a lot of miserable fans. I'm not precisely sure about why this happens, but it probably has a bit to do with living in a city where you can get everything you want with little effort, cynicism, and "unbiased" sports columnists and radio hosts who spew negativity at every turn.

We don't all suck. There are folks in Chicago who are like Packers fans and support players no matter what. The boldest of us believe the Bulls are championship contenders (OK, I'm not quite that bold), while others remain fixated on the offseason, draft, free agency, and insane trades. Most of my professional life, I've worked extensively with forecasting. It's great to have an eye on the future, but I think many times, sports fans think too much about the future and not enough about the beautiful games we all love and enjoy.

To quote a Chicagoland hero:

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

I write about the future too, and I understand how interesting it can be. The future is full of hope, optimism, possibility, agony, suffering, and incompetence. It is a dramatic place to be and writing and talking about the future can be as fun as writing a movie. Plus, from experience, people don't remember your predictions well enough, so if you were wrong, you can just never mention it, but if you were right, you become an "expert."

As great as the future is, I think I've had enough of the future. I can reflect easily on when the future didn't mean a lot to me. During my senior year of high school, I did not play on our team, but two of my best friends did. I went to damn near every game, and I loved watching them play. Our team had a great season, but my friends' playing time was not what it should have been, and I would give up that success to have seen my friends getting significant playing time. 

Still, I watched every game intently, and I loved it. Some players grew on you when you noticed that little things they did on the court, others continually disappointed you, but at the end of the day, they won ball games. It was about watching a team grow and mature more than caring about "will XYZ sophmore be the guy who takes them to the state finals."

Basketball isn't a boring game about stats and playing time, it's a dynamic journey between teammates and coaches that rarely ends in championships, but often ends with fantastic life experiences. Almost all of my favorite childhood memories are sports-related, but it might not be the time I hit a homerun, but rather hanging out with a bunch of guys all the time.

This is why I feel so bad for Derrick Rose. He's not old--25--in fact, he's the same age as I am. Our high school team was a game away from playing him, and as a diehard high school basketball fan (from 03-07), I've known about Rose for a long time.  More than any NBA basketball player ever, he's a person to me. Michael Jordan was one of my childhood heroes, and I still consider myself inspired by his drive to compete. Rose is not someone I idolize. Heck, he doesn't even live that far from me, and I know people in his social circles. He's a guy that's amazing at basketball and makes a lot of money, not my hero.

The hardest thing for me as a Bulls fan isn't the loss of championship title contention (I watched the Baby Bulls religiously), but rather a human being suffering a terrible setback on his life journey. You can say he might make $30 million this year, but I don't think that matters. He's from Englewood, and assuming he manages it even somewhat responsibly, he's set for life. Money doesn't matter for him at this point. It's about realizing his goals in life, which I'm sure include championships, the Hall of Fame, and a terrific legacy. All three of these look to be in jeopardy. If it hurts me not to see him grow and achieve his goals on the court, I can only imagine the pain he feels on a daily basis.

Instead of worrying about the Bulls lack of championship potential this season, I'm going to enjoy Tony Snell finding his way in the NBA, achieving a lifelong dream as he's thrust into action. I'm going to watch a savvy veteran like Mike Dunleavy bust his ass coming around screens and working every day to become a better defender. I'm going to enjoy the 2013-14 Bulls like I have every other Bulls team: by watching them and enjoying good people try to accomplish goals.

So next time you think about ripping on Luol Deng for not being better than LeBron James, or you think about "tanking," consider what it would mean if people were rooting for you to fail at your job so you could be fired to find another replacement. Next time you want to call Derrick Rose soft or "unmotivated," think about what would happen if you had your dream job or you owned your own company, only to have it taken away by a freak accident.

"The journey is the reward."

All I want for Christmas is a healthy D.Rose.

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Positives from the Bulls Loss to the Magic

It's been a very tough few days. Not only did it take the Bulls a last second shot to beat the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, but now the Bulls have dropped consecutive games to the lowly Raptors and the mediocre Magic.

Even worse, Taj Gibson is back to earth, no longer looking like an all-star power forward. Jimmy Butler capped off his return by shooting 1-11 last night. Marquis Teague looks like his time with the Bulls is dwindling, and Carlos Boozer scored just 6 points on 3-10 shooting. Tony Snell, who had shown some promise, played just 5 minutes, shooting just one time.

So what the heck went right?

D.J. Augustin

D.J.  Augustin is the Bulls backup point guard of the future. For now, he'll log 37 minutes per night and make the Bulls wish they never waived Mike James. Augustin isn't a great shooter by any means, but he can at least occasionally hit open jumpshots, and he is a fantastic passer. He almost always makes the right pass, and he's shown the ability to make things happen off the dribble. He's quickly becoming a valuable member of the rotation, and while he doesn't quite score as easily as Nate Robinson, he's the best playmaker this side of Derrick Rose.

Mike Dunleavy 

Mike Dunleavy has emerged as a very valuable scorer. He's no stranger to being featured; in fact, he spent much of his early career as a featured scorer for the Golden State Warriors.  Dunleavy isn't he best three point specialist ever, but he does a great job of getting open off screens, and he definitely has the range to create ideal spacing on the floor.

Dunleavy's now scored in the double digits for 6 straight games, and he's shown that he doesn't mind being the man on offense. Believe it or not, that's a huge problem for the Bulls, and it's borderline embarrassing to see Dunleavy and Luol Deng have to shoulder the burden as the ONLY confident offensive weapons.

With the team struggling, it appears Derrick Rose is unhappy. Allegedly, Rose thinks the Bulls are going to start tanking and embark on a massive rebuilding effort. We all know Rose "just wants to win." But, what we don't know, is why Rose would complain so much about the release of Mike James. In reality, that's the only change this team has made. Deng, Boozer, Noah, and Butler all remain under contract, though a Deng contract extension is a matter of the salary cap. Management recently met with Nikola Mirotic and seem excited to get the ball rolling with him.

Rose might be more upset that the Bulls are tanking (unintentionally) and may be poised to acquire another star. It is overwhelmingly clear that Rose doesn't care about recruiting any friends or stars to this team. He wants to win a championship "on his own."

He might feel threatened by the arrival of another elite NBA player, perhaps even feeling expendable. We all know that's not the case. Rose is the face of the Bulls and Chicago sports. While I think he makes a 100% recovery, it's just smart business to diversify into less risky assets. If I'm Michael Reinsdorf, I want a team that's competitive without Rose and a team that can crush the Heat with him.

I understand why Rose may be upset, but he shouldn't be. His job is safer than Jay Cutler's.

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5 NBA Stories You Need to Read

I'm not sure it's even worth previewing tonight's game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Just know that the Bulls have looked awful recently.

The Bulls sign D.J. Augustin

I think this will be a great signing, though it may take him a while to get some playing time. Welcome DJ!  

The New Pippen

Jonathan Lowe over at Grantland does an excellent job profiling Andre Iguodala. I have a new found respect for AI 2.0, and I'd love to see him win a ship with Golden State this year.

Is Anyone Willing to Pay for Omer Asik?

We know the answer is yes, but will the rest of the league agree? Him going to OKC is actually quite scary for the rest of the NBA, in my opinion.

Gilbert Arenas: #TheReturn

Gil was one of the most exciting players to watch in the early 2000's, but I personally think his career is over. Still, it'd be fun to watch him gun up shots off the bench for a contender.

Lakeview Man's 'Legendarily Awful' Fantasy Football Score Nearly Impossible

 This has nothing to do with the NBA, but I can't help but laugh at this ridiculous story. 

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DJ Augustin to the Bulls?

Now that the Toronto Raptors have kinda sorta broken up their team, former Derrick Rose torcher D.J. Augustin has been released. Rumor has it he'll be coming to the Bulls when he clears waviers. 

This is actually a sneaky good signing for the Bulls. Obviously a released journeyman point guard won't cost anything, so that's a huge win for the Bulls. More importantly, I think D.J. can be the Bulls' Josh McCown.

Let's take a look at McCown: he was a journeyman quarterback for over 10 years until he found Marc Trestman and a system that perfectly utilized his skillset. I don't think McCown became great overnight, and it's even likely that he had enough talent all along. However, McCown was on some pathetic teams. His "best team" featured a 35 year old Emmitt Smith, a 21 year old rookie in Larry Fitzgerald, and other great receiving options like the legendary Bryant Johnson and Freddie Jones. Anquan Boldin missed half of that season with injury.

Or was it his 2007 season with the Oakland Raiders, in a system designed for two guys with cannons: JaMarcus Russell and Daunte Culpepper. He was accompanied by a great two headed monster of Justin Fargas and Lamont Jordan, with Jerry Porter and Ronald Curry Split out at wide receiver.

Augustin has suffered a similar fate. After showing flashes as a rookie, most memorably for torching Derrick Rose (who cannot guard him), the Bobcats neglected to develop the double-digit scorer, instead focusing on making the playoffs by giving Flip Murray heavy minutes.

Augustin was named the starter the following season, surrounded by an over-the-hill Stephen Jackson, a terrible shooter in Gerald Wallace, and an obese Boris Diaw. Augustin didn't have a chance.

After making stops in Indiana and Toronto, Augustin probably realizes this could be his last chance in an NBA flush with solid point guards. This might be the best situation for Augustin to succeed because he will be given ample minutes, he doesn't turn the ball over much, and most importantly, he has several great players around him to make him look good. Aside from his rookie year, Augustin has been a mediocre three point shooter, but he should get far more open looks than he has in other cities.

If Augustin succeeds, I expect to hear the common Chicago sports fan praise him and suggest the Bulls dump Rose.

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