Kevin Arnovitz of TrueHoop examines how Ben Gordon’s absence will affect Derrick Rose.
Rose stands to improve his numbers — that’s usually what happens with a talent as impressive as Rose. But here’s the rub heading into his second year: It’s going to be much more challenging without Gordon. With no knockdown perimeter threat beside him and nobody else on his squad who demands a double-team, Rose’s path to the rim will be clogged with more traffic. Given the composition of his team, Rose might not improve much upon his 57.7 field goal percentage in the immediate basket area. He’s also more likely to be bothered in the backcourt more persistently by opposing guards, and trapped uniformally on the pick-and-roll.
Rose is a transcendent talent with incredible court vision and sharp instincts. He can improvise with precision — a rare gift. But even a magician needs props, and Rose lost his best aide in Gordon. It’s possible Rose could endure a very rough sophomore campaign with the Bulls. If he does, it might say a lot more about his team’s roster than it does any lack of resolve on Rose’s part.
The piece goes into great detail and is worth a read, especially for Bulls fans and NBA nuts.
The luxury that the Bulls have is that they’re going to get Luol Deng back from injury, and that will help offset the loss of Gordon. John Salmons averaged 18.3 points per game for the Bulls and has really come into his own over the last three seasons. If he can keep up his accuracy from long range (42% in 2008-09, 36% in his career), and Deng returns to his 15/6 form, then there’s a chance that the Bulls won’t miss Gordon much at all. As good as he was offensively, he had as much trouble on the other end of the court and had a reputation for being a defensive liability. Maybe a Salmons/Deng combo won’t quite have the offensive punch that the Gordon/Salmons combo did, but they should more than make up for it on the defensive end.
I also like the idea of playing Deng as a small power forward at time with Kirk Hinrich at the two and Salmons at the three. With Rose leading the way, the Bulls could be really effective pushing the ball and spreading the court, maybe running the pick-and-roll with Joakim Noah and allowing Rose to create with three shooters as outlets.
If Rose can turn in an All-Star caliber performance next season, Chicago will be an attractive place for one of the free agent superstars of 2010 to land. It’s a big market, and with Rose, Deng, Noah and Hinrich locked up for the foreseeable future, the Bulls have a nice core to build around.
