Jimmy Butler, not Derrick Rose, is the best overall player on this Chicago Bulls team that tips off the season tonight. Butler is more reliable, consistent, and a way better “two way player” than Rose. We’ve discussed this detail before here, as the Bulls are proverbially “Butler’s Team” now. In years past, yes, this was Derrick Rose’s team, but those days are over.
That said, the conspiracy theories flying around this team right now are far from believable. I find it very difficult to fathom that Jimmy Butler and Derrick Rose don’t get along.
Just because one supplanted the other as the team’s alpha dog, doesn’t mean they’re enemies. Another, and wilder theory out there poses that a Bulls player injured Derrick Rose in practice on purpose. This narrative holds that said unidentified Bulls player wanted to roughhouse Rose to “scare him” or “send him a message,” but certainly not to injure him.
Some people buy this theory because the latest Rose injury happened the day after Rose made his inexplicable and not easily defensible “I’m just really concerned about planning to make/handle all that money I’m getting in free agency two years from now” comments on Media Day.
While Rose obviously lost the hearts and minds of….well, everybody, by saying such odd things, it’s quite a leap of faith to then speculate..well, that’s all it is speculation. I’m not buying these theories.
ESPN NBA analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson appeared on a media conference call to discuss the start of the 2015-16 NBA regular season. One of the questions that they received was:
I had a question to follow-up on the Chicago Bulls controversy. Are you guys buying into any of the Butler/Rose feud when they talked about guys buying into the new roles in the system?
JACKSON:
I don’t really buy into it. Both of those guys financially secure, both of those guys very successful, Butler coming off his best season many his career, Derrick Rose obviously a former MVP and a proven basketball player. It’s about being healthy. There is plenty of spotlight for both of them, and in order for the Bulls to be successful, both of those guys will have to play integral parts of their success.
VAN GUNDY:
Listen, there is so much noise and so many sources that it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. So I go by what I see when they play together, and I’ve never seen when they’ve played together, even though it’s been infrequently because of Rose’s injuries recently, I’ve never seen anything that would point to they can’t play well together.
Van Gundy is no stranger to going “studio gangsta” on the Chicago Bulls. And although it certainly makes JVG a less than beloved figure in Chicago, it doesn’t mean that he’s wrong. In this case though, Van Gundy thinks that there is NO controversy. He’s not believing the rumors either.
Some takes from the game last night from TNT’s Reggie Miller
Miller on Derrick Rose’s role on the Bulls: “People keep asking, are we going to see the same Derrick Rose as when he won the MVP? He doesn’t need to be that efficient and that good. What he does need to do, is be aggressive and continue to take the ball to the basket. Now that you’ve inserted [forward] Nikola Mirotic into the lineup and the Bulls are in this motion, read and react, pace and flow offense, Rose can’t settle for outside shots. He has to be aggressive in taking the ball to the basket.”
Miller on Bulls guard Jimmy Butler: “He is one of the better two-way players in the game. Every night he takes the floor, he knows he’ll be guarding the best opposing wing player. Not only does he deliver at the defensive end, but he really has improved offensively.”
Miller on who is considered the face of the Chicago Bulls: “I think it’s evolving. In year’s past it was coach Thibodeau. Now with a rookie coach coming in, a lot of people around Chicago feel like it’s [guard] Jimmy Butler because of his play…or maybe someone else emerges?”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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