Rajon Rondo is already winning over Chicago with his stellar play. After watching Derrick Rose for several years play at a level that was a mere shell of his 2010-11 MVP season, Rondo has brought life back to the point guard position, and it’s made all the difference for the Chicago Bulls. Rose is a Chicago kid and that was enough to excuse a lot of his inefficiencies for many fans. Although, through only two games, the Bulls look better on both ends of the court than they did with Rose in the past five seasons. Even though Rondo doesn’t score as efficiently or as often as Rose, his pass-first style of play has worked well for the Bulls. His playmaking sets up his teammates wherever they are on the court, and it puts less of a focus on outside shooting, an area where the Bulls struggle in. Besides, it’s not like Rose’s scoring couldn’t be replaced. He averaged 16.4 points per game last season, but hasn’t shot above 43 percent from the field since the 2011-12 season and shot under 30 percent from three for the second straight year. Read more http://hoopshabit.com/2016/10/31/chicago-bulls-rajon-rondo-upgrade/
I think if anything else, the beginning of the season shows how much of a residue Rose's presence was leaving on the team, and that it was good to move on from him. His style of play was never good at utilizing the talents of others, and once he lost his dominant athleticism his game no longer warranted the usage he requires to play it. Guys seem to be playing a lot harder knowing they'll touch the ball on every possession and be able to shoot if they're open. Doug and Taj are off to terrific starts to the season and I think a lot of it is due to increased involvement in the offense compared to years past.
The Bulls are clearly better without Rose. As was stated here many times last season, Rose was bad at basketball last season and made his teammates worse, not better. Rondo is a facilitating PG. His reason for being is to make his teammates better and he's good at it. No surprise here.
