NBA Playoffs 2011: Are Derrick Rose's Bulls the Same As LeBron James' Cavaliers?

This NBA superstar, perhaps the best player in the league, can’t seem to catch a break. Coming into the league, he quickly built his team into an NBA playoff force, taking them further than anyone imagined in such a short period of time.

Unfortunately, he kept running into buzz saws. First it was a championship team with the grit and moxie necessary to grind out playoff series and wear the opponent down with defense. Then, just when he seemed primed to get a championship ring, three stars aligned in a rival city and his dreams of grasping the Larry O’Brien Trophy were put on hold—seemingly indefinitely.

Stop me if this sounds familiar.

If you thought I was talking about LeBron James, you are correct. If the title didn’t already give it away, I’ll award extra points if you recognized I was also talking about Derrick Rose.

I’m experiencing some “déjà vu” in these NBA Playoffs. It’s not really the same tired old story, since these playoffs are some of the most exciting and unpredictable in years, but it may paint an undesirable vision of the future for fans of Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls.

And even if the time lines somewhat overlap and each story has its quirks, the message is clear: no matter how hard you work, how far you’ve come, and how many expectations you’ve exceeded, history and circumstance have a way of derailing your dreams and forcing adversity into an otherwise storybook tale.

Lottery Luck

The differences are either minute or explicable. After a year in college Rose was the No. 1 pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, going to his hometown Chicago Bulls—a team with only the ninth-worst record the previous season. The franchise was in the country’s third largest media market and had a storied history, and because of their lottery luck, they were ready to compete for the playoffs the very next season. Still, he exceeded expectations in leading his team to 62 wins within three years.

Conversely, James went to one of the NBA’s smallest cities straight from a nearby high school and to a team in total disarray having gone 17-65 the previous season, tying them for the league’s worst record. Because of it, he couldn’t will the team to the playoffs until his third year in the league—despite averaging 23 points, six assists and six rebounds a game in his first two campaigns.

They were both recipients of the Rookie of the Year award. In their second seasons, they both made the All-Star team. In their third, James was named the youngest All-Star Game MVP in history, while Rose became the NBA’s youngest regular season MVP. It was also their first year winning a playoff series, with James’ Cavs eventually losing to the Pistons—who were fresh off two NBA finals runs.

Talent wise, the comparison is pretty spot on. I’ve ignored, to this point, other more superficial comparisons between Rose’s Bulls and James’s Cavs. Let’s detail some of those right now:

Impressive team defense. Reliance on a single player for most of the team’s offense. Front office inability to make a game-changing move at the deadline (strikingly similar discussions of continuity and team chemistry). Adding an offensively efficient but defensively oblivious power forward to the mix. Even the appearance of the team’s best interior post defender come to mind.

All these things make for interesting parallels between the two MVPs. But both have maintained that the goal has always been to win a championship.

James made it clear winning was “at all costs” when he sacrificed money, proximity to family and reputation to take his talents to South Beach. Rose has proven his commitment with his play on the floor—and I believe James did the same, even when considering the final games of the 2010 Boston Celtic’s series.

The fact was, none of those teams was ready to beat the competition at hand.

James had missed the playoffs two seasons and then was blocked by a veteran, defensively oriented Pistons team that was better in most facets of the game. It took a superhuman performance the next season, including a Game 5 where LeBron scored 29 of Cleveland’s last 30 points, to get to the NBA Finals. Even then, they were swept by a defensive-minded Spurs team that had played big brother to Detroit two seasons prior.

Then, as if the basketball gods were “un-anointing” the King, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett made their way to Boston. Along with Pierce, the Green Team defeated the Cavs in both their NBA Finals appearances. Those years bookended a Cavaliers loss to the Magic that almost certainly would have been against their northeastern rivals had Kevin Garnett not been injured during the regular season.

Now take the Bulls. The Celtics were returning everyone from their Championship run when Rose made his NBA debut. Even without Garnett, they had a defensive-minded coaching tandem in Doc Rivers and Tom Thibideau and were the team to beat coming out of the east. While they gave them a run for their money in the playoffs, it was clear the Celtics would be in the way for the forseeable future. The next year they were bounced by the top seeded Cavs, though it certainly could have been the Celtics (or Magic) had seeding intended.

The Celtics were the class of the east, at least until the Heatles arrived on the scene. After two years of being bullied by strong team defense, they gave Thibideau the head job and figured to improve on that end. The results were spectacular, rolling to 62 wins and the top seed in the playoffs. But the Heat trio, less veteran than the Celtics trio before them and playing with a bare-bones supporting cast, took a little longer to gel than expected.

In fact, take out Miami’s 9-8 start to the season and the two midseason games James missed (both L’s) and the Heat were 49-14 the rest of the way—a winning percentage of .778, good for first in the NBA.

Whether the Heat will see the same success as the Celtics when they added their two superstars remains to be seen, but it’s certainly looking like a possibility. And in this case, the rest of the league will have to live with it for another half-decade.

Historical Perspective

This is why I’ve always taken exception to the forced comparisons between LeBron and MJ, Magic, Bird and even Kobe in some respects. It stands as the most obvious reason why comments by Jordan, Barkley, Magic et al don’t hold water in opining about his, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” attitude.

Magic and Bird landed in the two most storied franchises (and perhaps cities) in professional basketball history.

Bird was taken with the sixth pick even though he didn’t actually go to the NBA that season. When he did play, the team already had Cedrick Maxwell, Tiny Archibald, Gerald Henderson and Dave Cowens. The next year the team drafted Kevin McHale with the third pick after trading for Robert Parish. We all know how that worked out.

The Lakers had Utah’s pick in the 1979 draft from a previous fleecing (they got three first-round picks for Gail Goodrich and one of their own). It ended up being the No. 1 where they selected Magic Johnson. Johnson joined a team that sported league MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and won a title in his first season, never really having to go through much adversity to get there.

Like Magic, MJ was in a big city—though Chicago didn’t have much of a storied franchise at that time—and could be considered fortunate that Scottie Pippen developed into one of the most versatile wing players of his era, in addition to being the best defensive SF in the league.

Kobe found LA in Shaq’s prime and had a chance at a four-peat with NBA legends Karl Malone and Gary Payton on the roster. Then some down years, where he opined about management, tried to force a trade, was mentioned in LA Clippers rumors and started shooting at an historically voluminous clip. Finally, a bailout trade concocted with the Memphis Grizzlies (and reportedly blessed by former Laker Jerry West) allowed Bryant to get another All-Star caliber talent for his most recent NBA Finals runs.

Even Tim Duncan lucked out by going to a team that tanked the year before due to an injury to its best player (1995 MVP and four time All-NBA First team member David Robinson). He’d win the championship in his second season.

Re-Signing Rose

What does this mean for Derrick Rose’s future in Chicago in light of what happened with LeBron this past summer? Maybe nothing. But reports that he, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Love have discussed teaming up (the new mantra that seemingly requires superstars appear in threes) must make the Bulls front office sweat in the night.

Of course Rose has already led his team to the best record in the league in his third year, and he seems to have great chemistry with his teammates (then again, so did LeBron’s Cavaliers). And while a Rose-Westbrook backcourt would be the stuff of NBA Live Franchise Mode lore, it makes even less sense than Wade and James joining forces in South Beach.

That is the biggest wrench in this hypothesis: Rose has a better foundation and location than LeBron ever had in Cleveland, and the kid actually loves his hometown. If anything, I’d expect him to be the Dwyane Wade in any scenario—luring All-Star talent to the United Center in hopes of procuring some NBA jewelry.

Of course some may consider this comparison not much different from the armchair psychology Magic and Jordan felt compelled to make over the summer. However, at least it’s a more kind (and complete) theorizing from a historical perspective.

The fact is nobody wins championships own their own. This is true in any sport, but it’s more the case in the today’s NBA than it ever has been. The league is diluted enough that unless your franchise lucks out through the draft or can lure in some mega-talent to compliment what you’ve developed internally, you’re likely going to lose to one that has.

It’s slowly becoming reality, and while that doesn’t mean Rose and the gang can’t prove me wrong this season, it’s looking like three decades of momentum that will be difficult to stop.