A Rose in a Garden of Weeds: Derrick Rose's First Pre-season Game

Last night was Derrick Rose's first NBA game (pre-season mind you), in front of his hometown crowd and with about 40 friends and family in attendance.

Derrick did okay, but his teammates failed to show up. Rose had 10 points and five assists, but six turnovers.

Early in the game, he tried to do too much because his teammates weren't doing enough. He took some ill-advised shots, made some risky passes, drove to lane when he should have stayed up on the key and vice-versa.

But there was a lot of pressure on the young man, here in Chicago (my hometown too), there are a lot of people who expect him to save the franchise, which is too much for any one man to do—even for that guy who wore number 23, and especially with an inexperienced Head Coach in Vinny Del Negro (also his first game), and a General Manager in Jon Paxson, who still thinks he has a great core of young talent. So it needs to be a team effort to correct things, and it will take time and hard work.

Still, the kind of player Derrick Rose is needs to be recognized—he is a point guard, and a good one, but he's not Chris Paul or Deron Williams, at least not now, maybe not ever.

He will not score like crazy (he needs to work on his shot), he sets other guys up, brings the ball up the court, and runs the offense (and he did a good job of that last night.)

But it requires the talent, effort, and execution of his teammates and coaches, too. It also doesn't help that he played against a very good Dallas Mavericks team, which also has good coaching (Rick Carlise made his Maverick debut,) and veteran players.

I was one of those people who thought the Bulls should have selected Michael Beasley with the first pick in this year's draft, (Beasley had 21 points and seven rebounds last night, but missed the final and would be tying free throw,) because it was evident that the Bulls need a big scorer (in size and quantity.)

Don't get me wrong, Drew Gooden did a good job with his shot and with defense, though the team got killed in the post by Erick Dampier, but more than anything, the Bulls need a reliable shooter, not a gun-slinging wild man just chucking shots—they already have that in Andres Nocioni and Ben Gordon, but someone who can create his own shot and and drop that shot with regularity, I still believe Beasley is that guy, but that's a moot point now, Miami will enjoy his work.

Don't get me wrong, I think Derrick Rose is a good player today and was decent last night, but he needs help around him, on the floor and from the bench. He's no savior, sure it's a great story of the kid coming home to bail out his begotten home team, but it's not as simple as throwing him in a game and expecting him to make Merlot out of ditchwater.

Remember the talent that surrounded him at the University of Memphis? Rose made them even better, but he needs the seeds of improvement to start.

He didn't create this bad team in Chicago, so he can't fix it (at least not alone,) but he could be the first piece in getting this team on track and last night was the first baby step on that road to redemption.