NBA Predictions 2011: Derrick Rose Will Repeat as League MVP

With all the hoopla surrounding Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers, Kevin Durant carrying the Oklahoma City Thunder to the top of the Western Conference and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade once again gunning for the NBA title, it's all too easy to forget about reigning MVP Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls.

Not that the lack of attention will necessarily deter the Bulls from once again standing tall atop the Eastern Conference or Rose from raising his second Maurice Podoloff Trophy in as many seasons.

After all, Rose will once again be the best player on what may well be the best team in the league.

A Rose By Any Other Name

First and foremost, as great as D-Rose was for the Bulls last season, he's got a long way to go before he hits the proverbial talent ceiling. The kid's only 23 years old and hasn't played fewer than 78 games in a given campaign so far. His stats have improved across the board each time out, to 25 points, 7.7 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 33.2 percent shooting from long range in 2010-11.

In other words, he's only going to get better as he continues to develop and expand his game.

All the while, Rose has essentially been a one-man team, carrying a Bulls squad without a stable rotation and a second reliable scorer to the most regular-season wins in the NBA.

Of course, Chicago came up short in the Eastern Conference Finals, though the Bulls' failure to beat the Miami Heat was much more a function of the on-court dysfunction around Rose than anything he did or didn't do.

Steer-ing the Team in the Right Direction

The Bulls will be better this time around, bringing additional attention from the media, both good and bad, to go along with the flood of followers that Rose had already picked up on the way to becoming the youngest MVP in league history. The signing of Rip Hamilton, a legitimate second scoring threat and a true backcourt buddy, should help tremendously to open things up for Rose while giving the Bulls someone else to lean on in crunch time. Finally, Rose will have himself a teammate who can convert some of his passes to the perimeter into assists on the stat sheet.

And let's not forget about Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah, who combined to miss 57 games while alternating injuries throughout the 2010-11 season. Those two guys should be back at full strength to lend Rose a hand from the get-go and pull the Bulls back to the top.

What's more, the Bulls should only improve as a collective unit now that Tom Thibodeau, the defending NBA Coach of the Year, has had a full season of benchwork under his belt.

Who's Down With MVP?

As far as the MVP conversation is concerned, the improvement of the roster around Rose shouldn't harm his candidacy. He's still the best player on Chicago's roster by a mile, something to which the other major contenders for the award coming into the season (i.e. LeBron, Kobe, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Durant, Chris Paul) cannot lay claim.

Awarding the Podoloff Trophy to a point guard in consecutive years isn't exactly unprecedented either—Steven Nash did it with the Phoenix Suns in 2005 and 2006.

So before anyone gets too wrapped up in the Durantula's pursuit of a third straight scoring title or LeBron's Gollum-like obsession with rings, consider Derrick Rose, a Chicago native looking to become the first back-to-back Most Valuable Bull since Michael Jordan.

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