"I thought he had a great week. I love Derrick," Krzyzewski said of Rose. "Jerry [Colangelo], myself and Derrick are all from Chicago; that’s not why he made the final 15. I thought he had an absolutely incredible performance in the scrimmage on Saturday. His ability to move the ball down the court and penetrate—he had eight assists—was very, very good. Defensively, he took it up a notch this week. There’s a spirit of defense with the guards now with Rondo and Westbrook. Derrick really pressured the ball very, very well." http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/rose_usa_100728.html
I really hope Rose gets to play most of his minutes at the PG spot for this team as opposed to the SG. That might be a bit of a misuse of his current skill set, but I think it will pay off for him down the road. But I have a feeling Billups and Rondo will get most of those minutes.
The best lineup, at least from watching the scrimmage, would be Rose at pg, Billups at the two, Iguodala at the three, Durant at power forward and Chandler at Center. Odom just looked out of shape. Rondo is really interesting. I think he is the best point guard the Celtics could possibly play in their system. But he just looked like the international ball fail we've seen from the bad USA teams -- lack of shooting ability, and a system player on a team that doesn't have enough time to build a system. Billups is such a smart player that you can put him anywhere and he's going to be conducive to winning, but I wonder if he has too much ego to play out of position. I don't like the team's power forwards and Durant is more than large enough to play the position at the World Championships. If the team wants to win they'll play Rose at the point and Billups off the ball -- but we don't know about the egos involved in playing two players somewhat "out of position."
FWIW, I'm rewatching the scrimmage because I do things like this during the off season. Durant is playing power forward alongside Chandler and Odom at center.
There's a reason Joe Johnson got a max contract and is only marginally better than Deng, if at all. I remember when in the Jordan Era there were few good point guards in the league. It looks like this stuff is cyclical.
