Recently, the Tribune sports writing staff underwent several changes. The Bulls beat was relatively unaffected, which makes me glad that K.C. Johnson will remain the head man at the paper. When running down the Bulls writers in a staff e-mail, editor Mike Kellams mentioned the team acquiring their top free agent this summer in Derrick Rose. Now, that doesn't sound like it makes a lot of sense considering Rose has been around for a few years, but considering how much the makeup of the team has changed since the ACL tear, it's not so farfetched.
That statement can also be magnified because the only free-agent acquisition the Bulls have made (so far) is Mike Dunleavy Jr. The rest are their two draft picks and the re-signing of Nazr Mohammed. When you count Rose, these faces are more or less replacing the players that walked away from the team for greener pastures these past couple of months. None however are bigger that the former MVP and it could be argued he's the biggest addition to any NBA team this offseason.
We saw during last year's playoffs what this group is capable of even when stripped down to the bare essentials. No, they didn't have the horses to get past Miami, but neither did anyone else, though the Spurs were one rebound away from doing so. At the very least, with a healthy Rose back in the mix, they could challenge the Pacers for supremacy in the Central once more. In fact, the whole division is stronger than it was a year ago, so this will be a perfect test for Rose. Also consider that the Heat have won their last two championships while Rose was out of action. If he thinks he's the best player in the NBA, he'll do all he can to unleash a one-man wrecking crew on the back-to-back world champions. It might not be enough, but LeBron and company better recognize that their usually tough tests against the Bulls are about to become even tougher to pass and no grading curve will help them.
If you think it's been a slow summer to be a Bulls fan, just remember that they don't need to be exciting right now. Come late October, it'll be a whole different story. Rose will be back to what he was and we won't be able to contain our excitement in what we'll be watching.
