Wilbon's article today placing Rose in the MJ, Kobe lineage has me thinking. If there is an MJ lineage, the comparison that I feel (even more than see) is that the Bulls don't lose close games down the stretch. Rose, similar to MJ, wills the team to victory down the stretch time and time again.
Didn't see the game. My son had another great orchestra concert! Mahler and Bizet. But, just judging from the stats, it seems that good three point shooting won the game for us. Oh, and Derrick Rose
I was thinking about this during the game. If the Bulls were to win the championship this year, it'd put Rose way ahead of MJ's timetable. Similarly if he only wins MVP.
Wow that's a tough conversation. I think the thing about MJ was he basically was the best at everything by his second year. The best scorer (if the shooting came a little later); the best rebounder from his position; the best defender; the best, the best, the best. Rose is still growing. You see him grab these monster rebounds at important times -- that's new. His three point shot -- that's new. His assists -- that's new. There's a whole lot of new in his game. If the Bulls win a championship this year though, I'd have to agree with you. Because the only way that is possible is if Rose is dropping thirty-five points, ten dimes, and making plays every time he touches the ball in the playoffs.
Kobe's game has really declined this year. If Rose were to rebound more and play some better D, he may very well be a top 5 player in this league.
He's on a hell of a run. The thing we don't know is whether it's a run or not. Kobe had that rediculous streak where he was scoring sixty to seventy every night so even great players go on runs. If this is Derrick Rose's level -- if he's really this good and it's not just a streak -- then we're awful lucky to be Bulls fans.
A song cycle based on poems by Friedrich Ruckert. [video=youtube;9aYCCotnNMs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aYCCotnNMs&feature=related[/video]
I think the identity of "never giving up" was a characteristic of Skiles' teams, built on the hope that Gordon could bail us out at the end. We're kind of going back to that, but I think I trust Derrick a little more, and I think our team is more solidly built. Still, it can't stay like this. The playoffs remove the "never give up" mentality as the huge edge it is during the regular season. It still helps, but there are a lot of things to work on in the meantime. My hope in Thibs has been that he won't depend on that edge, but will work to improve the team overall so that "never give up" is the weapon of last resort, not the only hope.
Before Carlos came back this team reminded me of the Skiles era' teams, with the big difference being Derrick Rose creates huge mismatches but no one on those Skiles' teams did. With Carlos healthy, I'm not sure the comparison is all that apt anymore. The difference between two really good guys that you have to game plan for and no really good guys is a gap big enough to render the comparison irrelevant. Games like last night don't fall under the 'never give up' mantra because the Lakers are just a really good team and we were ahead for most of the game. Those Skiles teams usually got mopped up by the elite ones. Games like the Cavs one don't fall under the 'never give up' mantra because they fall squarely under the 'we played like shit the whole game and played hard for about 5 minutes' mantra until we turned it on at the end.
