The Sports Bank, NBC5 Street Team
When our hometown Bulls defied the odds (probability was a mere 1.7%) and snagged the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft lottery, a debate began immediately. Should they take Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, a power forward who averaged 26.5 points and an NCAA-leading 12.5 rebounds during his “one and done” college career? Or pick Derrick Rose, the excessively athletic playmaker from Memphis? Check out any local publication and you’ll see that all the polls are heavily slanted (usually about 67%-33%) towards picking Rose. I find this fascinating because our home team currently has a guard surplus and a severe lack of frontcourt scoring. Taking Beasley over Rose makes utterly perfect sense, yet most casual fans and my fellow sports geeks voice their desire for the opposite. Why you may ask? Derrick Rose is a hometown hero. He owned the courts of the Chicago Public League while attending Simeon high school, a hoops factory that produced stars like Nick Anderson, Deon Thomas and Calvin Brock. Rose has electrifying quickness that even a video game couldn’t exaggerate. Bringing this franchise player back to ‘the Chi’ brings excitement back to a franchise filled with negative emotion.
Like Poison told us in the 80s, “Every Rose has its Thorn,” and in this case the thorn (a glut of guards) is the Bulls current roster. If the Bulls draft Rose they should (MUST actually) trade away some of their extra guards for a proven low-post scorer. In the league’s “Bull Market” Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Larry Hughes and forward Tyrus Thomas are the most dealable commodities. The player they would need to shop most is Hinrich, the current starting point guard and a serviceable player who regressed somewhat this past season. However, he’s an excellent defender and a decent passer who would still be regarded as an upgrade at the one position for many teams. To look at some possible deals and how they would build a lineup around Rose go here.
From a marketing perspective, a #1 overall pick playing pro ball in his hometown is HUGE! It hasn’t happened in my lifetime, and the closest we’ve seen is Akron, Ohio native LeBron James playing for Cleveland. You’ve seen what he’s done for branding the Cavaliers. Here, a similar situation is possible.
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Count my vote for Rose!
From the perspective of GM John Paxson, I’m sure the proverbial “character issues” will need to be assessed in Beasley’s case as well. Rose does not appear to have any such forseeable issues, as his brothers have kept him in check and ensured his success would not be prematurely tainted by slimy agents (a la O.J. Mayo).
Unfortunately, this situation was largely precipitated by Ben Gordon and Luol Deng foolishly declining the long term deals they were offered prior to last season. Had either or both taken the deals (which probably look rather enticing now), the Rose/Beasley conundrum just might have more clarity. However, it is hard to complain about having such a dilemma, when the lottery percentages initially had Bulls fans agonizing over a Kevin Love/Brook Lopez choice.
I heard that Derrick Rose and Jeffery Jordan (MJ’s kid who plays at U of I) are dating a pair of twins… those must be attractive girls… here’s an interesting article about possible trade scenarios like you mentioned Paul…
http://www.thesportsbank.net/2008/05/26/being-john-paxson/
Me, I just enjoyed the Poison reference. You can never go wrong by bringing up 80s hair bands. Especially in connection with sports.
I liked the clever usage of Rose and Blooms.
I have to think no one will take Hughes and his albatross contract and it will be tough to trade Gordon with his BYC status, Duhon is a free agent, thus the most likely to be traded are Hinrich and Sefolosha. I personally think Thabo will be our starting SG next to Rose, so its goodbye Captain Kirk.
Finally! A sports column worth reading!
Whats interesting about Deng, Gordon and Hinrich (and therefore their contracts) is how each of them shot well below their career average from the field last season, after shooting above those %s in ’07. Which is good partial explanation for how go from 49 wins to 33. but I agree that Luol and Ben probably wish they had taken the offers they were given before last season now. The real elephant in the room is Hinrich’s contract. It’s large and will affect his ability to be shopped
I like Thabo a lot and think he could make a good two-guard someday. Yeah I picked Poison over Kanye West and Outkast “Roses” songs…because “Every Rose has its Thorn” was what Bill & Ted quoted when they got to heaven and met St. Peter in their second movie.
Robble Robble
Bull need alot more than #1 pick.
Robble Robble
Beasley has the higher ceiling and is the type of talent you take regardless of what you have in the cupboard. What, nothing on the Sex in the City movie? I’m anxiously waiting for someone to write something frothy about it?
Beasley all the way. We’ve spent the last three years trying to trade for a low-post scorer and the best we could come up with was Drew Gooden. We don’t have that much to trade that people want and Hinrich’s salary makes his trade value way lower.
Rose is going to be a good player, but I don’t think he (or anyone) will be as transcendently good as Chris Paul and for all the talk of his court vision, I don’t see that Rose is (at this point) the type of passer or playmaker he’s being compared to. The Jason Kidd comparison comes about because he’s strong, athletic, and big for a point guard with a questionable outside shooting touch, but Rose didn’t even average 5 assists a game last year playing with some pretty good talent around him. I think he’ll be good, but there’s no way he’ll be better than Jason Kidd, Chris Paul or Steve Nash, who are Hall-of-Fame talents.
I’m down on Kirk Hinrich, think he’s overpaid, all that. But he’s still a decently good (if overrated) defender and has finished in the top 10 in the league in assists in previous seasons. The “poor man’s Steve Nash” comparisons seem laughable now since Kirk’s nowhere near the passer and is the rare “heady” white player who really can’t shoot very accurately from the outside, but he’s still an above-average NBA player and can get the ball to a scorer like Beasley.
Who’s Derrick Rose going to throw the ball to? Is he going to take over a game with his scoring from the backcourt?
I don’t know how good Beasley will be, have questions about his size and whether he’s truly a low-post presence, and I suspect Pax will take Rose based on character (I’ve liked Rose since his high school days and feel the local pride angle), but I think with the current roster, you have to take a chance on Beasley and aim to win now. I think Beasley will prove to be a better rebounder and take better shots than Kevin Durant last year and Kevin Durant had a decent rookie season.
Bottom line: he’s no Tyrus Thomas. I see no reason why Beasley couldn’t deliver 15 – 20 points a game and almost 9 rebounds per game next year. I can’t imagine Rose will score that many points. That kind of production would look pretty good and help the Bulls make a playoff run — even without this pick, I’d bet they were due back in the playoffs. But as I see it, Beasley helps the Bulls win in the short term (lack of scoring was the biggest problem last year) and has a higher ceiling in the long term in the areas the Bulls are weak.