No Rose Needed to Block Out the Suns

I've said before that this could be the year that Carlos Boozer makes the large deal he signed with the Bulls in the summer of 2010 worth every penny. While he'll need more of what he did tonight to make that so, maybe all he needed to have his best game of the season against the Phoenix Suns was Derrick Rose missing his second straight contest. I may jump in on the Rose injury in another post, but for right now, let's talk about what made tonight's 118-97 victory possible.

As mentioned, Carlos Boozer easily had his best game of the season and one of the best tonight in the NBA. 31 points, six rebounds and making two out of every three shots is a nice night at the office. Rip Hamilton returned tonight to score 11 points, but what about C.J. Watson, starting for Rose? His 23 points were just two off of Steve Nash's final total. Joakim Noah may finally be getting things into gear as he had a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds. To round out the starting five, Luol Deng scored 15. Off the bench, Omer Asik had 11. I didn't see the game, but I'm guessing most of them were on layups and dunks. The Suns turned the ball over 20 times while the Bulls had just six. Excellent job of taking care of the ball. Say all you want about Phoenix being a shell of its former self, but this was still an impressive victory.

You know what? I've changed my mind. Let me spill my thoughts on the Rose situation right now. The obvious conventional wisdom is to sit him since it's so early in the season and nowhere near playoff time. I'm not going to take sides on this one way or another, but I will say this. Sitting Rose whenever he's not healthy during the regular season isn't necessarily a bad idea. Just ask the Heat regarding Dwyane Wade or the Clippers about Chris Paul. Rose however just wants to play, so if you're not going to play him, at least take his opinion into consideration. It's nice to be rested for the playoffs, but unless it's a serious injury, you don't want to bench him for so long that he'll be rusty for the postseason. I admit it's apples and oranges comparing this to Aaron Rodgers sitting out the final week of the NFL regular season only to not look like himself against the Giants on Sunday, but it does support the argument of playing your superstar, even if only for a little bit.

The good news is Rose has a couple of days to rest his toe before the Bulls play Cleveland on Friday. The potential bad news is this problem could linger. Let's not think that way though. Lot of season left and no need to preach doom and gloom yet.