The Chicago Bulls Should Trade Derrick Rose

Please understand my key fundamental belief: The thought of trading Derrick Rose in his second season in the NBA is both ludicrous and laughable.

But not as laughable as leaving his development in the hands of Vinny Del Negro.

As long as the Bulls management is going to continue wasting this year, and the development of future cornerstones like Joakim Noah and Rose, the team might as well at least explore what they could get in return for a top-tier player like Rose.

In case you missed it, the Bulls are a waste of television minutes right now, and sponsors should ask for their money back.

In a wide-open Eastern Conference where nothing is settled except ESPN's love for Boston and LeBron, the Bulls have taken a backseat to mediocrity and are now the second-tier team in their own building.

Quietly, Noah has turned into one heck of a rebounder, and to his credit, has put in a lot of long, hard hours trying to develop an offensive game. But he's getting burned out by Del Negro's ridiculous seven-man rotation, as is Rose.

A lot has already been said about the Bulls' biblical loss against Sacramento earlier this week, but the reality that Del Negro refuses to develop one of the team's first-round draft picks, James Johnson, while he's putting Taj Gibson on the floor in every crucial situation, shows how his naïveté is killing this team.

And then, after earning his place in history for blowing the second-biggest lead in the history of the NBA, Del Negro's press conference sounded more like he was referring to a preseason practice that wasn't up to par.

His "ho-hum" approach does nothing for this team, and his overwhelming inability to utilize his roster appropriately is only hurting the young players on the team.

What the Bulls don't seem to grasp as an organization is that the elite free agents this coming summer—LeBron, Wade, Bosh, etc.—will want to see an organization with a foundation headed in the right direction as much as they'll want a king's ransom.

If the free agents want to evaluate where the foundation of the Bulls is being built under Del Negro, guys like Wade need only drive to the beach in Miami and watch the tide erode the sand.

If the Bulls truly want Rose to develop into a premier point guard in the class of players like Chris Paul, then they need to fire Del Negro as soon as possible.

If they're not serious about turning the Chicago native into a superstar, then they might as well trade him while his value is still high.