The shooting guard was Kirk Hinrich, who habitually dribbled the ball until the shot clock was near zero. He's gone, Rose steps up. No surprise. Next to Gordon, though, Rose was ROY. As far as Wade at SG goes, Wade seems to get his (25.5 PPG, 6 RPG, 5 APG, 25.6 PER) while LeBron is the guy with the ball in his hands as much or more than it's in Rose's hands. LeBron gets his (26.7 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 7 APG, 27.3 PER). I think if we had Wade, Rose would still be the primary ballhandler. The future is Rose, since Wade is 29. But it would sure be nice to have our starting back court scoring 50+ PPG instead of 25.
I think you're right about Wade. He's probably the best two guard in the league. I don't think you can necessarily say the same thing for Kobe though. I can imagine many ways that the Bulls wouldn't be as good with him paired with Rose. I'm in favor of a talent upgrade, and that talent doesn't have to be in the model of Bogans. But I think you have to be careful and evaluate how it all fits together.
The Rose-Wade hypothetical is fascinating. I have no doubt that, if the Bulls had gotten Wade (never a real possibility IMO), Rose would not be in the MVP discussion, much less the mortal-lock favorite he is. This said, and Rose would be the first to agree, the MVP isn't the object of the exercise...winning is. Would a Rose-Wade pairing win? Yeah, I think it would, despite the fact that they have very similar games. I think that they're both big-time players and they'd find a way to make it work because they both hate losing. This doesn't mean that it's good construction of a team, 'cause it's not. Yeah, Rose won the ROY paired with Gordon, but they were redundant at the end of games and it stunted Rose's development as a late-game assassin. The Rose-Wade pairing would have the same problem, though since Wade is worlds better than Gordon, it would be a "higher class problem." In the end, the Bulls got to the right place, whether on purpose or by accident. Rose has become an elite late-game closer...maybe the best in the game. Boozer is an easy-offense and highly-skilled post threat. They also have some very talented specialists in Korver and Brewer. They're very well constructed.
I don't get the "redundant at the end of games" bit. I remember Pippen hitting big last minute shots and Kukoc, too. The point being that having more than one such weapon in the arsenal makes it tougher for the opposition to figure out who to double.
OK, take you're thinking to its natural conclusion...you can never have too many last-minute killers. Doesn't work. Yeah, Scottie made some. So did Bobby Hansen. Doesn't change the fact that there's only one ball and so there's only one guy who makes it happen (or doesn't) for you at the end of games. Ben Gordon is a special player because he can get it done at the end of games. That's why he's worth $10+MM. Until then, he's in the realm of ordinary. Rose is one of the league's best late-game assassins...better than Gordon ever dreamed of being. Because of this, the Bulls have no use for Gordon and in fact, Gordon's special gift would be a waste. I understand that you're both a Gordon fan and a "more is better" fan. I can only say that it's not that simple and you should never pay $10MM for someone when $7MM of that value is something you don't really need.
Gordon's special gift with the Bulls was lots of 10+ pt quarters, and he didn't need the ball in his hands full time to do his thing. He's also an outstanding 3pt shooter who demands opposing SGs guard him instead of being free to double Rose. He also hit is FTs in the final 4 minutes of games when they counted. So he's worth at least the $5M we pay for Korver's part time minutes, and then the $4.75M we pay Brewer to also play part time minutes. And yeah, I do believe that having the best basketball players, even playing roles less than they're fully capable of, is better than playing end of the bench type talent.
The real kicker is that Ben Gordon is pretty close to the improved version of Keith Bogans that many of us are looking for. The one exception is defense. Ben was never as bad as his people made him out to be, but I don't think he is as good as Keith Bogans either.
Collison could have lit up Gordon instead of Rose, while Rose would have had a much easier time guarding George, no?
