Chicago Bulls: Derrick Rose and the Starters vs Elite Players at Their Position

When playoff time rolls around, winning and losing is often about elite players and matchups. A team doesn't have to have the best players at every position, but who they have has to at least be able to hold their own against the likes of LeBron, Kobe, etc.

The Bulls have one elite player, it is obviously the league MVP, Derrick Rose. I thought it could be interesting and possibly revealing to see how the rest of the Bulls starters fare when they have faced the best at their positions, head to head.

For the shooting guard position, to be fair, I couldn't bring myself to compare Keith Bogans to Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade and such. So instead, I combined the three-headed monster of Bogans, Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer and researched how they fared against the best shooting guards in the NBA this past season.

I took regular season matchups as well as postseason where applicable. Some of the results are surprising, some not so much. Here is my analysis.

Carlos Boozer

The group I included as elite at Boozer's position consists of Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudemire, Chris Bosh, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Pau Gasol, Zach Randolph and for a new school flavor I added in Kevin Love and LaMarcus Aldridge.

Obviously, some of these head to head matchups date back to Boozer's days in Cleveland and Utah. That said, Boozer's teams have not fared well against the elite power forwards in the game. Carlos' teams are 61-71 against this group.

The elite power forwards outscore Boozer when matched head to head, 20.6 to 17.4 points per game. These totals include the regular and postseason.

Boozer is noticeably bested by Nowitzki and Stoudemire, who outscore him 27.2 to 18.2 and 23 to 17.9 respectively. Of course, we all know Bosh severely outplayed him this postseason, but Boozer had owned Bosh before then.

Boozer does out-rebound the field, 10.3 to 9.1. Another predictable but unfortunate stat is that all but three players in this group averages more blocks per game when facing Boozer than they do in their careers. The three players that don't average more (Love, Aldridge and Randolph) are at their average and are not shot-blockers by and large.

My conclusion for this is, even though Boozer is a solid power forward, he is not an elite four-man. He can hold his own, but he will need big performances from other positions as he isn't likely to win head to head matchups with big-time power forwards.

Derrick Rose

Rose has performed great against the best point guards in the league. In fact, you could say he has dominated many of them. This is especially the case in the regular season where the Bulls and Rose are 28-17 against the likes of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo, Steve Nash, Russell Westbrook, Chauncey Billups, Tony Parker and a new school-er, John Wall.

Rose has only faced one player in the postseason, Rondo. That was the seven-game thriller against the Celtics in 2009. The Bulls lost that series 4-3. In that lone postseason matchup, Rondo outplayed Rose. Their scoring was equal, 19.4 for Rondo and 19.7 for Rose, but Rondo dwarfed Rose's output in rebounding, assists and steals.

To put that in the proper perspective, Rose was a rookie and has made significant strides since then. Even still, Rondo still holds an edge over Rose in regular season matchups as Rose is 5-6 against Rondo head to head.

He does outscore him by plenty at 21.1 to 11.1, but in assists, Rondo doubles his output in these matchups. I highlight this particular matchup because it is an Eastern Conference rival that the Bulls may see throughout his career.

As for everyone else, most notably Chris Paul, Rose has eaten their lunch. Paul has never beaten Rose, 0-3 in their career matchups. Surprisingly, Rose has averaged more points and assists in those matchups as well.

Rose is 5-1 against Nash and .500 or better against every other elite point guard. Rose scores 22 points per game against the group while allowing 16. He dishes out 6.2 assists and the group drops 8.4 dimes per contest.

The last statistic shows a few things; one is that the other point guards are more traditional ones. The second is that Rose has to carry a bigger scoring load than any of his peers. Finally, he is a more explosive scorer than all of them, except for Westbrook, who he is even with.

Luol Deng

Deng had received the reputation as LeBron James' whipping boy early in his career. He and James were in the same high school senior class and Deng was considered by many a distant second to LeBron as far as the best high school players in the nation.

Head to head, LeBron has eaten Deng alive. He has outscored him 31 to 15 in the regular season and 29 to 18 in two playoff series that James' teams won. He has also averaged more rebounds and far more assists as well.

The remaining small forward group is Carmelo Anthony, Paul Pierce, Kevin Durant, Danny Granger, Gerald Wallace and Lamar Odom. Deng and the Bulls are 60-52 in the regular season but continuing a losing playoff trend, Deng is 6-9 in the postseason.

Deng has only outplayed Granger out of all the players in the group, and he is the only player Deng's teams have been successful against in the postseason. Even though the head to head matchups have been won by the other players, the Bulls only have a losing record when facing LeBron and Odom.

Deng's numbers against the group are 16.6 points, 6.1 rebounds per game. The group has tallied 22.3 points, 6.9 rebounds per game. In summary, Deng is a second tier small forward. He has a great reputation as a lockdown defender, but he only holds two of the players from this group under their career scoring average.

This may be why Deng didn't make the All-Defensive team this year.

Joakim Noah

Noah is perhaps the Bulls player most debated about in forums like these. Many people believe him to be on the cusp of stardom. Some believe he is who we've seen so far and not much else.

Noah struggles mightily against bigger more physical centers. The obvious first example is Dwight Howard. Howard has embarrassed Noah continuously in their 11 career matchups. He has outscored him 18.3 to 8.0, blasted him in rebounds 12.4 to 5.5 and dominated him in blocked shots 2.4 to 0.5. To further the supremacy, the Magic and Howard are 8-3 against Noah and the Bulls.

Howard isn't the only big, physical center that gets the best of Noah. Nene has outplayed Noah as well in six head to head matchups. It hasn't quite been to the same degree as Superman but he outscores him by three and blocks more shots. Noah has clearly beat him on the boards, but the Nuggets have won four of the six games.

The other centers in this analysis are Andrew Bogut, Brook Lopez and Tyson Chandler. I left out Andrew Bynum because of his injuries. Even with Bynum, it is the least imposing group of all the positions. This is why many people believe he belongs in the conversation of top five centers in the game.

I'm not sure I can agree with that because the Bulls are only 23-21 when matched up head to head against these players' teams. The Bulls and Noah have never faced any of them in the postseason.

It is close if you consider the Bulls are 18-9 against every elite center minus Howard and Nene. Even still, in these matchups, Noah scores 9.6 points per game and grabs 10 rebounds per game. The other centers are scoring 14.2 points and grabbing 9.3 boards per game. Every center besides the Charmin soft Brook Lopez blocks more shots than Noah as well in these head to head matchups.

Noah can be a top five center in the league, but he'll never be within sniffing distance of Howard. The gap is too wide. Looking at these numbers has me wondering if he is better suited for the power forward spot.

The Shooting Guards

Alright, I know none of the Bulls' three shooting guards is anywhere close to being elite. Let's see how they fared against Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant, Joe Johnson, Ray Allen, Monta Ellis and Manu Ginobili last year.

Collectively, the three amigos outscored Johnson and Ginobili in the regular season. Johnson bested the trio in the postseason, but the Bulls of course won the series.

In total, the Bulls were 10-5 against elite shooting guards in the 2010-2011 season, but again, only 5-6 in the postseason.

In only two regular season games, Ellis tagged the Bulls for 28.5 points per game, but true to his and the Warriors no defensive style, gave the Bulls trio their highest scoring average of 22.5.

Wade blistered the Bulls for 24 points per game, regular season and postseason combined. This accounts for his superstar play in the regular season and slump in the playoffs.

The Bulls won or tied the season series with every two-guard in this analysis. The fact that it takes three players to draw even with one star definitely shows us what we already knew, which is the two-guard position is a problem in Chicago.

The Conclusion

The Bulls have one player that can night in night out win a matchup against an elite counterpart. The other members of the starting lineup can hold their own, but are inferior to the other elite players at their positions.

The Bulls bench and team defense is strong. Fortunately, they don't play these players every night, so the other four starters actually feast on the players that fall lower on the food chain than them.

The problem is, these elite players are often waiting on the Bulls in the postseason. They are bringing their A-games, hence the losing postseason records.

So many ask, why is Derrick Rose shooting so much? Well, because he is the only "special" player on his roster. It is very difficult to win a championship with one special player. It takes outstanding coaching, discipline and the right mix of role players and specialists.

The Bulls have two options if they are to take the next step. They can leave the core alone and try to sign or draft a shooting guard that can have a big enough impact offensively to remove the pressure from Rose. This must be coupled with the development of Tom Thibodeau's offensive strategies.

The other option is too move a player(s) and draft picks from the current core to obtain a true difference maker at another position besides the point guard spot. This path is the most risky when you take their recent success into consideration, but it will be very frustrating to watch a team that consistently gets to the edge but never makes it over the hump.

Bulls Nation will wonder what might happen if management makes that big deal for Dwight Howard, Ray Allen or Monta Ellis to pair Rose with another "special' player.

Either path can be successful, now all we have to do is END THIS DAMN LOCKOUT SO WE CAN FIND OUT!!!!!