What the Bulls and Derrick Rose Need To Do To Get Back To The Finals.

Derrick Rose: While Rose is a fantastic talent and a good player at the moment, he still has one major facet of his game that needs a good amount of work. The focus of which should be his shooting. With his quickness and speed he can pretty much blow by any other player in the league. Rose's shooting however is by far the least consistent part of his game and if he could consistently shoot a better percentage (not including lay-ups) from mid-range and beyond the arc he would easily be the best point guard in the league i.e. Deron Williams (for now). While Deron is quick and has a "killer crossover" he is able to supplement those areas of his game with his ability to light up the scoreboard with his mid and long range game, and that is what separates him from the rest of the pack.

Rose knows this and has worked on his shooting in his first off-season as a pro. This is what excites me about this young talent; he knows his weaknesses and is willing to work at them in his spare time. Rose is able to get to the rim at will, just imagine if he were able to put up high consistent shooting averages over the course of his career.


The Front Office: Rose is the focus of the franchise and everything that the Bulls do should be to fit his style of play. While there are pieces in place, one has to question whether they bring out the best in the franchises young star.


Joakim Noah is as enthusiastic and fiery as they come and is a positive for the team. Not enough has been said about Noah's willingness to grab all the rebounds he possibly can, and consistently challenge the opposition on every possession. With his $3,128,536 in salary the 10-11 season he doesn't take up enough cap space.


By far the most expensive and least worthy is Brad miller. Miller was a useful back-up center, but now all he does is use up fouls and miss three's. While he isn't a true center he has to play out of his true position of power forward because of a height challenged roster (Noah is 6-11, no one else over 6-9). The Bulls have payed Miller an astounding $12,250,000 on the season. The only positive about his contract is that it expires after this season. And no, they shouldn't bring him back at least not for that amount.

While Luol Deng is a good player, he, for the most part doesn't gel well with Rose. His ability to get to the rim is average at best. His shooting is streaky and sometimes sporadic. He's only averaged about 15 points a game since the organization drafted Rose in 08. Deng's best attribute is his defense. But no one can play their best defense when their "Denged" up (pun intended). The past few seasons he has been injured a few times to say the least. While I like Deng and he is a stand up guy and you never hear anything negative about him off the court, he just isn't a good fit with Rose. Rose needs someone who can consistently make shots when he drives and kicks out to them, Deng has not been able to do that. I also have to question his salary at $10,365,000 this season, $11,345,000 for 2010-11, $12,325,000 for 2011-12, $13,365,000 for 2012-13 and $14,275,000 for his contract year in 2013-14 he is too costly for what he brings to the table. The Bulls should try to get a sign and trade done with a free agent this off-season to get rid of that dead weight.

Kirk Hinrich earns his salary with his three point shooting and scrappy play. Kirk is a solid backup point guard.


The Bulls need to find a shooting guard with excellent perimeter shooting and the ability to consistently get to the rim and draw fouls. Think Joe Johnson in free agency.

No one knows where Lebron is headed this off-season I have a strong inkling that he'll stay put in Cleveland. If he does want to come to Chicago I'm sure he'd want to bring that extra $30 million that only the Cavs can offer along with him, so there would have to be a sign a trade with the out man being Luol Deng. With a sign and trade I'm thinking that will leave a few million in cap space to work with.

They also need a solid back-up for Noah and with Marcus Camby signing with the Blazers the pickings just got slimmer. Here's to hoping they could pull in Bosh from free agency and pair him with a Ray Allen who will also be a free agent this off-season.

All in all the Bulls are headed in the right direction. They have proved that they are a scrappy bunch who can compete with what they have and that is very attractive to the multitude of free agents to be.