Bring D-12 To The Bulls

Derrick Rose is “damn confident” in his team, but when Dwight Howard becomes available, the Bulls have to make an aggressive push to bring him to Chicago. D-12 & the MVP?! I’m salivating already.

I don’t know who the guy is who made the “Dwight Howard to Chicago Bulls” promo, but it got me jacked up enough to write this post about it. We’ll get to the video in a minute. I have to first talk about the comments that Derrick Rose made in his first interview since losing to the Heat in eastern conference finals.

Rose talked to Yahoo! Sports and revealed that he basically shut himself down after the game 5 loss to Miami…”Being that close [to the NBA Finals], and not getting it, hurt,” Rose told Yahoo! Sports. “I just stayed inside the whole time. I didn’t go anywhere else. I wore pajamas, watched a lot of movies, drank Powerade and got delivery food. My body was just sore and wore out. Mentally, too.”

I love how much this kid cares. Do you think it ate at LeBron that he pissed away a golden chance at a ring with the loss to the Mavericks? Not a chance in hell. Rose is all about winning, and the fact that he went into a mini depression shows how much he is starving for an NBA championship.

Rose blames himself, and not the walking cripple Carlos Boozer for falling to the Heat. With the swarming Heat defense able to focus all of their attention on #1, his scoring dipped from 29.8 a game in the Hawks series to 23.4 vs Miami. Rose easily could have pushed the blame to his teammates who no showed the Heat series (sans Luol Deng), but that’s not how the MVP rolls.

I just learned from last season where my conditioning wasn’t up to par at the end of the season,” Rose said. “That’s what I’m working on this summer, getting my conditioning right. There was just fatigue. My body wore down. Just going through the rounds, the first time being there past the first round, it was hard. I’m just learning from it.”

I would say please let me know when Boozer says anything remotely close to that, but I’d be waiting as long as it will take for the Cubs to win the world series. Rose doesn’t have to apologize of feel bad about anything. No player did more for his team last year than #1. When you carry your $80 million dollar power forward for 3 rounds, you will get fatigued. I’m shocked that Rose is back to 100% both mentally & physically this quickly.

“I’m just getting over it. …I know my time will [come] soon. That’s how I think about it. I guess you have to pay your dues.”

That is usually how the NBA works. You have to climb the stairs and go through heart wrenching failures before you can reach the pinnacle. However, as the Heat proved, the rules are changing. You can’t go through 3 years of playoff defeats to one team like the ’88-’90 Bulls vs the Pistons without seeing players traded and coaches fired.

As I’ve been writing all summer, 62 wins is nice, but the Bulls can’t rest on their laurels. They can’t assume that whenever next season starts (if there is one) that they will pick right back up where they were. A 2 guard addition would be great, but that might not be enough to get past Miami. With Rose just entering his prime, this team is built to compete for titles for the next 6-8 years. He just needs a running mate. And on top of that, Gar Foreman talked about hitting a “home run,” not a single or double. Who do you think he was talking about?

The Bulls know they need another star, and the biggest one available is the perfect complement to Rose. Dwight Howard is undoubtedly leaving Orlando, and teaming with Rose would give the Bulls Shaq & Kobe 2.0. Guys like K.C. Johnson & Sam Smith have tried to squash the idea of Howard to the Bulls, but neither has acknowledged that Howard will choose where he wants to go.

I can’t imagine Orlando letting him walk next summer for nothing. I mean, what sense would that make? If Howard is made available, he will give the Magic a list of teams that he will sign an extension with (much like Carmelo did in his trade me to the Knicks or I’m walking power play). Sure, the Magic would love to send him out west (Lakers), but with Andrew Bynum’s knees on the fast track to Greg Oden status, why would Orlando want him to build around? The Bulls have Joakim Noah, Omer Asik, & Taj Gibson to offer Orlando, plus the Bobcats pick (that becomes less protected each year until it’s unprotected in 2016). Are you telling me a combo of two of those 3 plus possible Luol Deng will be topped by another team? No way.

Howard will end up with the team he wants, and if he sees this video, he might just give the Bulls a strong look. If he wants to win titles to cement his legacy, teaming up with the MVP is no-brainer. Big ups to whoever made this video. Enjoy & dream big, Bulls fans…

Who would stop that combo? Nobody, that’s who.

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