Bulls Trade Rumors: Why Dwight Howard to Chicago Is Dream NBA Scenario for Rose

The Chicago Bulls are being named as a sleeper to pick up the services of Dwight Howard, according Adrian Wojnarowski. Certainly that is going to have some Chicagoan's looking at the rumor mill:

"

The Chicago Bulls are still a sleeper for Howard, several league executives believe. “Chicago may tell Orlando to take any two players – or three – besides [Derrick] Rose,” one GM said. Howard isn’t keen on the cold weather, but the Bulls would have the best point guard-center combination since Magic and Kareem.

The Bulls have Omar Asik developing fast as a potential replacement for Joakim Noah should the Bulls include Noah in a package. Noah would have to be a part of it, but would a combination of Noah and Luol Deng or Carlos Boozer—bringing back Howard and one of those bad Orlando contracts—be enough? The Magic need a force to replace Howard, an anchor.

"

It's been argued that the two most important positions in basketball, if you want to win a championship, are the point guard and the center. While I've long resisted the idea of the Bulls overhauling the team for anyone, the notion of adding Howard has been a tough one to not at least speculate around. 

Let's just, for the sake of argument, entertain that the Magic take back Noah and Deng in return. I know some Bulls fans are going to want to make Boozer the player they got rid of, but the reality is that the Magic probably won't go for that. 

In fact it would probably take Kyle Korver or Ronnie Brewer as well. While most teams would prefer Brewer in that scenario, knowing Stan Van Gundy and his love for the three-point shot it's not a given. Still, for the sake of argument, we'll go on the Bulls notion of "worst case scenario" here, and figure that the three players the Magic would take would be Noah, Deng and Brewer in exchange for Howard and Hedo Turkoglu. 

That would leave the Bulls with a starting five: Rose, Bogans?, Turkoglu, Boozer and Howard. 

Now one thing that is probably true is that the Bulls would rather get rid of Boozer and have Gibson move into the starting power forward spot, and then their defense would just be flat out ridiculous. But we're going worst case scenario here and that's not that bad. 

For all his problems, Carlos Boozer would be a better player next to Dwight Howard. Howard would be better at protecting him from his defensive weaknesses and in terms of scoring in the paint, not even the tandem of Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum would be able to hold a candle to the Bulls. 

Additionally, in spite of his faults otherwise, Carlos Boozer is a heck of a rebounder. He and Howard together would dominate on the boards. That's not bad for a worst case scenario. 

They would, without question, have the best duo in the paint in the NBA. And on top of that, they'd have Derrick Rose passing them the ball. With his ability to penetrate and get to the rim, it's hard to envision how teams would defend the three of them at the same time unless they just camp out in and around the paint. 

Enter Hedo Turkoglu and Kyle Korver. Both are excellent three-point shooters and both are specifically very good in catch-and-shoot situations. Say what you want about Hedo, but "he do" shoot that three—to the tune of .410 last year if you want to be specific about it. 

Additionally, in Thibs defensive system both could be somewhat masked defensively, and in some ways could actually work fairly well. Neither is going to stop penetration, but with Howard to back them up and patrol the paint, there'd be a bit more forgiveness. 

In addition, Rose really started to emerge as an elite perimeter defender last year. 

And again, if anyone gets by, there's always Howard. 

Out in front, though, if they stop and pop, Korver and Turkoglu are both long players. No, neither is really much of a shot blocker, but they can altar shots. Opponents made just 39.3 percent of their spot-ups against Korver last season though and they shot just 41.2 percent against Turkoglu while he was with the Magic. 

Offensively, what they would offer in terms of spreading out the court with their threes would give Rose room to move, and having both Boozer and Howard to pass the ball to underneath would make the Bulls an almost obscenely difficult team to defend. 

On top of that they could still acquire a player like Grant Hill through free agency to fill the role that Luol Deng fills now. 

The main thing, though, would be having the top two vote-getters in last year's MVP voting playing together. Rose and Howard are already friends, and they would compliment one another immensely on the court. In fact, you could make the argument that the tandem of Rose and Howard is on par with Dwyane Wade and LeBron James, although at more complimentary positions.