NBA Rumors: Chicago Bulls Must Trade for Pau Gasol to Get Past Miami Heat

Over the past few days, there have been rumors circulating regarding Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose's desire for the team to acquire Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol. While Rose has said that it isn't the case, the Bulls need Gasol to overtake the Miami Heat as the Eastern Conference's elite team.

According to Neil Hayes of the Chicago Sun-Times, Rose said that he never went to management to suggest a trade of forward Carlos Boozer for Gasol. Rose insisted that he would never throw a teammate under the bus and that he was happy with the team the way that it is currently constructed.

While Rose may be telling the truth, it's clear that Chicago needs to make an improvement in order to compete with the Heat. Chicago is currently just a half game behind the Heat in the race for first place in the Eastern Conference currently, but Miami did eliminate the Bulls from the playoffs last season.

Both teams are largely the same this year, and the Heat easily took care of the Bulls earlier in the season. Both teams are excellent defensively, but the Bulls simply cannot keep up with the Heat offensively, as they have three elite scorers in LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

The Bulls have Rose and the emerging Luol Deng, but aside from that there isn't much support. Boozer is supposed to be a top-notch power forward, and his numbers of 15.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game are solid, but they aren't enough. Boozer came up small in the playoffs last season, as he averaged just 12.6 points per contest.

Gasol, on the other hand, has been great this season in the face of constant trade rumors, putting up averages of 17 points, 10.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks. Many blame him for the Lakers' shortcomings in last year's playoffs, as he averaged only 13 points per game, but he was dynamite in previous years and is a two-time NBA Champion.

One area in which the Heat are lacking is their all-around play on the interior. Bosh is fantastic, but he tends to drift away from the basket and hit mid-range jumpers on offense, while his defense tends to be questionable. Aside from that, the Heat have Joel Anthony and Udonis Haslem—both are solid contributors, but neither are anything special.

With a potential tandem of Gasol and Joakim Noah, the Bulls would be far better than Miami in the paint on both ends of the floor. The Heat would still have the better overall offensive team, but it would be very difficult to stop the duo of Gasol and Noah, especially with Rose and Deng to worry about as well.

There is no guarantee that dealing Boozer for Gasol would get the Bulls past the Heat, but it would be a total improvement for sure. The Bulls are a very good team, but it just so happens that they have to contend with one of the best teams the league has seen in a long time.

Because of that, a drastic maneuver needs to be made in order to shift the balance of power. Rose can say that he is happy with the team until he's blue in the face, but even he probably knows that nabbing Gasol would be a major coup for Chicago.