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Did he watch our game last night? He might want to sit out until the next game...
Derrick Rose to Start in Season Opener
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Tonight, the Chicago Bulls kick off their season opener with a match up against the San Antonio Spurs. The Bulls will find out if an injury to one of their star players will hurt their game.
Bulls' Derrick Rose was out for a few weeks with an ankle injury. But Rose says that won't stop the star point guard from starting in the season opener tonight.
ROSE: I'm feeling good. My ankle, I told you, is warming up. I'm feeling a lot better out there. Now I'm just ready to play.
Ready to play, but no exactly in top shape like he was last season.
ROSE: I'm still not explosive like that. It's still going to take awhile.
Rose says it might take until the end of the first month of the season to completely recover. Tonight, the Bulls face off against the San Antonio Spurs, a team that's made it to the NBA playoffs 12 years in a row.
The game starts at 7 at the United Center.
Did he watch our game last night? He might want to sit out until the next game...
Can Chicago Bulls show progress without Ben Gordon?
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Losing top scorer makes this season one of transition
When last we saw the Bulls in a game that mattered to more than just the Taj Gibson Fan Club, they teased us with possibility.
That Bulls team made the Celtics look older than the set shot by taking them to seven games in a classic playoff series that included an NBA-record seven overtimes.
That Bulls team ultimately lost Game 7 by 10 points but won respect harder to quantify.
That Bulls team talked on the flight home from Boston that night in May about wanting more and taking the next step.
That Bulls team isn't this Bulls team.
This team never replaced Ben Gordon, that team's leading scorer.
You may remember Gordon, Chicago's most unappreciated athlete over the past decade. Over the summer, there was a louder outcry over whether Derrick Rose cheated on a college entrance exam that has no effect on the Bulls than over Gordon signing a contract with the Pistons that could sting for years to come.
Especially this season.
Gordon averaged 20.7 points per game last season, including 24 a game in the defining Celtics series. He had shortcomings -- defense and ballhandling -- but when the Bulls needed a big shot, Big Ben struck regularly enough for everybody to take it for granted.
You may realize how much in the season opener Thursday night at the United Center if the Bulls trail the Spurs by one point with 4.5 seconds left and the ball. Who takes the last shot?
Coach Vinny Del Negro's first option should be letting Rose create off the dribble. His second option could be John Salmons, Mr. Clutch in the playoffs who will get more shots in Gordon's absence. Did someone say Brad Miller was open on the wing?
None of the options Del Negro could draw up will inspire as much confidence as Gordon doing what Gordon did.
Economically, the Bulls easily justified their decision to stay out of a bidding war and let Gordon sign a five-year, $59 million deal with the Pistons. It confirmed what the league already knew about the Bulls' plan to create as much financial freedom as necessary for the NBA's 2010 Great Summer Sweepstakes.
But taking such a stance also made a statement that, as an organization, taking the next step in 2009-10 didn't necessarily mean advancing another round in the playoffs. It meant finding a pen for Dwyane Wade. Or Chris Bosh. Or Joe Johnson.
In that context, this Bulls season already is all about next season. Does that make Thursday the first regular-season game of 2009 or the first preseason game of 2010?
Del Negro stirred it up the other day when he intimated his team wasn't good enough to win the NBA le. Such honesty should be commended because it illustrates that nobody at the Berto Center has any illusions about the purpose of this season. It's not settling in '09 as much as positioning for '10.
You won't see it on billboards or hear it on radio spots but, given where the Bulls are in Year 2 of the Rose Era, the most appropriate slogan for the 2009-10 season is: Maintain.
That motto won't cause anybody around Chicago to run out of vaccine fighting Bulls Fever. But maintaining means staying compe ive so next summer's marquee free agent of choice thinks the Bulls are close enough that he can put them over the top. Maintaining means winning 41 games and returning to the playoffs.
That's a realistic, reachable number if the Bulls recommit to defense without Gordon as an excuse and protect the basketball.
That's reachable because they have Rose, ready to ascend to the next echelon. They have Joakim Noah, who spent the summer bulking up instead of goofing off. They have Tyrus Thomas, who needs the starting spot he whined for to prove he is worth the fat contract he will seek. They have Luol Deng driven to re-start his career.
They have steady veterans such as Salmons, Miller and Kirk Hinrich, professionals who deserve more than to spend one season hearing about the next one.
"We feel like we still have a lot of talent here," Salmons said.
The reality is that talent will be allowed to thrive absent of expectations. If the pressure around the Bulls was any lower, they would be a tropical storm. Failing to replace their leading scorer removed the burden of having to improve. How many people inside or outside the organization honestly expect or demand the Bulls be better?
"Losing (Gordon) is something we have to work on and it's still a work in progress," Noah said. "But we still can do something special."
Maybe, but nobody is counting on the Bulls doing something special until next summer.
ghill will break his ankle....
Hill will also see some minutes against noted Spurs' slayer Jannero Pargo. Maybe Pargo will have playoff flashbacks and try to take over in the fourth quarter, only to sink his team.
Looking forward to seeing GHill match skills with Rose, at some point in the game. I seem to remember he MORE than held his own when he was the interim starter last year and the Spurs played the Bulls at the AT&T Center. It was then I knew the kid could play and wasn't scared of the moment. Pop, obviously, had other thoughts over the course of the season.
First Okafor, then Rose. Never mind.
Yes. he outplayed Rose and stole the show. 19 points with 11 rebounds.
yeah I can see Rose vs. Hill matchup. Hill for his speed on D. But Rose is a bad ass player, one of my favorites. he will kick ass tonight. must see game
/no stopping the spurs tonight/
They'll be a better team in the long run without Ben Gordon. Trying to build around that guy never was gonna work.
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