Maybe one day Dwyane Wade will play for the Bulls. Until then, his presence on the floor is a constant reminder of what his hometown team is still lacking: A playmaking superstar who can create and make shots for himself late in games.
The Bulls played fairly well on Sunday night against Wade and the Heat, but in the end they could not make a big stop when it counted. They did not have an answer for Wade in a 95-87 loss. The Marquette alum had 25 points but that doesn't begin to tell the whole story. At the end of the game, he got the ball on almost every possession. He made a jumper with just under three minutes to play to give the Heat the lead for good. He also had two key assists in the last couple of minutes.
Wade has the ability to draw the entire defense to him and create open looks for the rest of his teammates as he did several times at the end. Bulls point guard Derrick Rose has the same ability; the difference right now is that Rose is still learning how to consistently take and make that final shot. He hasn't been asked to do that up to this point in his career. Ben Gordon took most of the clutch shots last season, but he didn't usually create a look for himself. He needed another guard's help to do it.
That's what separates Wade and the elite-level superstars from everybody else. They can completely take over the end of games when they want to. I have no doubt that Rose will become that type of player for the Bulls one day, but until he does (or until Wade signs as a free agent with Chicago this summer) that is going to be an ongoing issue for this team.
Rose's health: After Thursday night's Bulls win over the Spurs, I asked Joakim Noah if he was worried about Rose, especially given that the team would be playing in a back-to-back against Boston the next night. "Do I worry about D-Rose?" he said. "Not at all."
Despite the fact the point guard scored just eight points and was 4-for-15 from the floor, it's easy to see where Noah was coming from. Rose played 35 minutes and is slowly starting to look like himself again after sitting out the past three weeks with an ankle tendon injury.
Although he still doesn't have the type of explosiveness that he showed throughout last season, it cannot be overstated how important his presence is on the floor. As stated above, he has the ability to create shots for his teammates -- just ask Luol Deng who racked up 26 points against the Heat.
Once Rose starts taking and making the shots that Wade does, his game will be even better.
http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog ... e/friedell
And once Joel Anthony starts posting up like Hakeem, his game will be better.
And I love how their solution for Rose not being able to take/make big shots right now is bringing in a guy who can. Would young-Wade have become the player he is if he was constantly deferring to current-Wade?
