Derrick Rose Is Ready to Lead Chicago Bulls to NBA Title

From Rookie of the Year to All-Star starter and finally to league MVP, witnessing Derrick Rose’s ascension up the list of individual accolades has been simply breathtaking.

No player plays the game with more passion and as humbly as Chicago’s own and his maturation as a player speaks volumes to how much he truly cares about his craft.

In Rose’s first two seasons in the NBA, he led his Bulls to back-to-back playoff appearances as the seventh seed in 2009 and the eighth in 2010.

In both series, Rose and the Bulls fought valiantly, and in fact took the Celtics to seven games in which Derrick really showed his true colors.

Last year, a new-look Bulls team under head coach Tom Thibodeau battled its way to the best regular season record in the league, and eventually all the way to the Eastern Conference championship.

Let me remind you that in every season Derrick Rose has played in the NBA he’s achieved new heights—not only individually but as a leader for the Chicago Bulls.

Who says he can’t get even higher?

I know the East is stacked at the top, but this kid has no quit in him. He simply knows how to make plays.

A year ago when the Bulls were eliminated from the NBA playoffs in five games by the Miami Heat questions instantly swirled regarding Keith Bogans’ contributions to the Bulls and if we could do better.

Well, clearly any who watched the Bulls in the playoffs realized that it was a lot of Derrick Rose, a little Luol Deng and pretty much nothing else. Derrick is a point guard, and when he get’s the chance to play more like a true point guard he’s only going to be that much better.

Richard Hamilton does that for this team. He requires you to guard him on offense, which is something that teams could get away without doing against last year’s Bulls. It’s something the Heat took advantage of.

Now don’t get me wrong, Hamilton is nowhere near the talent he used to be in the early 2000’s with the Pistons, but in a shortened season with a team as deep as the Chicago Bulls, he’s the right piece.

He allows the Bulls to maintain the same level of on and off-court chemistry because he’s not going to demand the ball but will make shots when called upon—something that was obsolete in the Bulls offense last year.

Miami is good. New York is good. Boston is good. The Bulls have as good a shot as any of those teams to represent the East in the NBA Finals and it’s even more realistic with a shortened, more condensed schedule.

It’s odd to say that Derrick Rose is going to become a better player because he’s going to do less. But that’s the fact of the matter, the Bulls are a better basketball team because Rose isn’t required to shoot the ball 30 times per game so when Derrick’s numbers are down this year, don’t be upset.

If you look at his numbers from the beginning of his career on, his point and assist numbers have both risen while his field-goal percentage has dipped as a result of shooting the ball more. He only recorded 22 double-doubles while comparable point guard, Russell Westbrook, had 31 because he has a reliable scorer to make baskets.

Expect more of that from Rose this season.

As he gets older, he becomes more of a leader and he is currently leading the deepest team in the NBA. Taj Gibson starts on basically every other team in the NBA and when your leader Rose comes out, there’s barely a drop off in scoring in CJ Watson.

Tom Thibodeau is as good of a coach as any in the league and the Bulls buy into his defensive brand of basketball, making them one of the most difficult teams to run an offense against.

With Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer manning the middle, the Bulls are also one of the best rebounding teams in the league and will find ways to get second chance points from offensive rebounds.

The Bulls have formed a team that can have sustained success for years to come, and I would like to believe that started last season.

It’s tough to look at the loss to the Heat and say, “Well, I’ll take it,” but at the end of the day, the team can only get better from here.

Derrick Rose is a superstar in every definition of the term, and he’s growing into a bonafide leader.

The 2011-2012 Chicago Bulls are a championship caliber basketball team led by the league’s reigning MVP, just waiting to join the likes of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and give the Bulls a seventh franchise championship.

It’s just a matter of time before we construct a statue on Madison Avenue of Chicago’s one and only No. 1 player.