Last year, Jimmy Butler was a better, more effective player for the Chicago Bulls than Derrick Rose.
There is more than one list out there ranking Butler ahead of Rose right now. Butler will be the better, more effective player on this year’s Bulls team too. Butler was asked by a reporter at Bulls Media Day if this team is now “Jimmy Butler’s team” or is it still “Derrick Rose’s team?”
Butler answered in a very predictable way, and in the only way that he practically could answer that question.
Butler said that it’s “everybody’s team.”
He said the right thing, but you can see in the body language of Bulls players how they really feel about Rose. Watch the body language of Bulls players when they answer a Derrick Rose question. The Bulls franchise player has certainly done his part to make himself less than lovable amongst his teammates.
His bizarre and inexplicable out-of-left-field comments about his 2017 free agency is all the potential wedge you need.
NBA on TNT commentators Reggie Miller and Brent Barry did a NBA season preview conference call today. D Rose was one of the myriad topics discussed.
Barry on the fate of the Chicago Bulls this season: “The most interesting thing that hangs over the Bulls is the cloud that is Derrick Rose, and if he can play. If he can’t play and the guys are questioning what they can get from him, it is going to be hard to find that consistency this year.”
Then Barry pointed out what a lot of people know but local media are usually afraid to say, Derrick Rose is not the Derrick Rose that he used to be. Barry also inferred what those who around the team everyday are probably starting to realize, when Rose’s contract is up in ’17, it could be time for the Bulls to take the franchise in a different direction.
Barry on Derrick Rose: “Every former player and everyone who watches basketball is rooting to see Derrick Rose play games and start to find that confidence on the floor, but you have to be realistic. Over the past two or three years, it hasn’t been there. Chicago has to come up with a massive Plan B if Derrick Rose does not ever assume what he could do on the floor prior to the 2011-12 season.”
The fact that it’s “Jimmy Butler’s team” now, instead of being “Rose’s team” is step one in this long, gradual process. Who knows what that “Plan B” will be, but Chicago has two long years to figure it out. The Bulls pretty much changed nothing but the coach this summer. It’s really the same team as last year, except it’s now led by Fred Hoiberg instead of Tom Thibodeau.
Given the gap between the Bulls and the Cleveland Lebrons last year, I don’t see why anybody’s outlook for this season should really change.
Reggie Miller isn’t the greatest announcer or analyst in the game right now, and his Derrick Rose remarks were, not exceedingly enlightening or edifying in any single way:
Miller on the Bulls: “I like Chicago because of their bigs. Between Pau [Gasol], [Joakim] Noah, Taj [Gibson], [Nikola] Mirotic and the rookie Bobby Portis, you’ve got enough bigs [to take on] the hierarchy of the Eastern Conference. I can roll with Chicago if Derrick Rose is playing like Derrick Rose. If he’s faltering and you have to start [point guard Kirk] Hinrich or [point guard] Aaron Brooks, they are good…but they aren’t Derrick Rose. If Rose can’t do that, I think the Bulls are one of those teams that can easily slide to the four, five or six spot…even out of the playoffs.”
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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