The trade for Indiana Pacers star Jalen Rose and point guard Travis Best is the first evidence in almost four years that the Bulls have a plan with a reasonable chance to succeed and regain some credibility for the franchise.
That’s not to dismiss Ron Artest and Brad Miller, who are productive players. Artest is an excellent defender, and Miller figures to be a competent center for years. They will help make the Pacers a better team. But you have to give something to get something.
Rose gives the Bulls the franchise leader they need, a scorer on a team lacking offense. The Bulls are gambling Tyson Chandler will develop into a better player and combine with Eddy Curry to be the most potent big-man duo in the conference.
If they’re wrong about that, it doesn’t matter whom they keep or trade–the franchise would be doomed. But the organization remains confident in the future with the teenage draftees, and even with the addition of Rose, the Bulls have young talent to develop.
There’s Chandler and Curry, Eddie Robinson, Jamal Crawford, Trenton Hassell, Marcus Fizer and the No. 1 pick in this June’s draft, which will be no lower than No. 4. That’s six youngsters. What they most need is guidance, someone to take the pressure off them.
Rose can do that, and if no one can convince him within 15 minutes that Chicago is a great place to be a professional athlete, the Bulls have more problems than they think.
Teams like the Nets and Wizards demonstrate how top veteran talent can transform a young team. There’s no reason to believe the Bulls cannot seriously compete for the playoffs next season with Rose, and perhaps free agent Best, in the lineup.
But who will rebound with Miller gone? Who will defend the other team’s best scorer? Who cares!
This Bulls season should have been about finding out what the team has in its kids and giving them experience. Now they’ll get it, and at a time when they don’t have to make the last shot, be the focus of the offense, answer questions about why.
That’s a veteran’s job, and Rose can handle it. He’s a wonderful spokesman, on and off the court. He has never been in trouble, and he’s known for his charity work in the Indianapolis community. He has long fancied himself a Magic Johnson-type player, and while that may be a stretch, he has performed impressively on the biggest stage, leading the Pacers in scoring in the 2000 NBA Finals.
The Pacers would not have gotten there without big shots from Best in previous playoff series that season. No pun intended, but he’s the best point guard the Bulls have had in years.
Best and Rose will more than make up for the lost scoring of the Bulls’ Big Three, who had the team on the way to another 18-win season. Sure, you hate to break up that kind of group, but the fact is the Bulls were going nowhere, riding some vague fantasy that with salary-cap room and flexibility some great star was going to fall into their lap. It wasn’t going to happen, and the summer of 2000, when free agents ran from Chicago as if it were on fire, should have been proof enough.
The Bulls had to trade for a star to begin the climb back, and Rose is a star. He’s also a start.
There are no major free agents available this summer, and who believes the top free agents of 2003–Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan, Jermaine O’Neal and Antonio McDyess–have their eyes on Chicago?
Teams composed solely of top draft choices don’t succeed, and two decades of Clippers futility–until they traded for Elton Brand (ouch!)–demonstrate that. In addition, when kids know nothing but losing, they become losers.
Rose has known the sweet smell of success. It’s time it blooms again in Chicago.
