Even if he does not become a defensive stalwart by the end of the year, Rose probably will still deserve the award, especially if he's the only major ROY candidate to push his team to the playoffs. So far, so good on that count.
Rookie of the Year race
1. Derrick Rose, Bulls. Needs to translate his offensive aggressiveness to the other end of the floor.
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Rough loss in front of President Obama -
You know when Aaron Gray, Anthony Roberson and Lindsey Hunter come off the bench to play the final few minutes of a game, things have gone either really well or else very badly. In this case, it was the latter, as the Bulls were humiliated 113-90 by the Wizards — otherwise known as “The Worst Team in the Eastern Conference” — in front of “First Fan” and Chicago denizen Barack Obama.
Yeah. Sorry ’bout that, Mr. President. No we can’t, apparently.
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Playoff odds show the Bull in 7th, but they seem to keep losing games they should win.
Johnny "Red" Kerr Photo Tribute
Norm Van Lier Photo Tribute
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Second trimester report -
Rookie of the Year, Two Trimesters In
Derrick Rose, Chicago Bulls
Interesting claim made recently by Suns coach Alvin Gentry, who loudly anointed the Clippers' Eric Gordon the league's best rookie.
"And I don't care who else you mention," Gentry said.
Gordon, though, has the same problem as Memphis' O.J. Mayo or Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook when it comes to dislodging Rose from his status as the league's longstanding Rookie of the Year favorite: Chicago's record is a lot better.
That usually swings things when the statistical comparisons are fairly level.
When the difference between the top two rookies is vast, as seen last season when Atlanta's Al Horford was never really in Kevin Durant's zip code in the ROY race, voters might be more willing to stray from the team-success doctrine so many of us employ.
The gaps we see now don't compare. Gordon, Mayo and Westbrook have all had some gaudy games, but none of them -- not even Mayo -- can claim any meaningful separation from Rose, not even with the Bulls' guard subjected to a couple of recent fourth-quarter benchings after his big start to the month.
Westbrook is certainly gaining with all that athleticism. And Mayo, no matter what you think of his shot selection, remains the best pure scorer in a deeper-than-usual draft class that also finds Brook Lopez and Kevin Love making notable contributions in Year 1.
Rose, though, should be able to hang on as long as he maintains his season-long levels of production and Chicago continues to contend for a playoff spot.
And assuming that crunch-time exits are not the new norm for June's No. 1 overall pick.
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Interesting / sad view of finances in the NBA.
This season? We talked about money. Constantly. We didn't even know about the line of credit on the horizon; that didn't leak until the Monday after the All-Star Game. (On Thursday, we learned that 12 teams will accept the league's offer to borrow $200 million from JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, with between $13 million and $20 million available to each team.
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