Derrick Rose Needs Help. Is Dwight Howard the Man to Give It?

If you are familiar with me and this blog, you will know very well how critical I have been of Derrick Rose.

When I first expressed my dissatisfaction towards the unwarranted love and elevation of the Bulls’ guard, I was a part of perhaps a one many minority. I am proud to say my two favourite sports media figures, Colin Cowherd and Dan LeBatard have since joined the outcasts, but we are still very much that.

That being said, he has impressed me thus far this year and I can say absolutely nothing bad on the character of the guy. From all accounts he is one of the most humble and genuine professional athletes you will meet, and I think that is reflected well by the way he handles himself on the court. No one is disputing that.

I still believe he is tremendously overrated because of his athleticism and his ability to make those SportsCenter Top 10 plays. He isn’t a pure point guard, rather one of these new breed of shoot first, turnover later guards like Russell Westbrook and John Wall. I much prefer my point guard to be like Chris Paul or Deron Williams. But he’s still certainly a top 10 player.

Let’s throw all of that aside and try and move forward with the issue. Derrick Rose needs help, and boy does he know it.

Perhaps we’ve never actually seen the real Derrick Rose. Perhaps this 9/28 shooting hog is not the man Chicago drafted. Whilst his supporting cast looks like the Dream Team compared to LeBron’s merry men in Cleveland, they aren’t even close to being good enough to beat Miami in a best of 7 series.

Joakim Noah is an unhygienic alien who is more interested in insulting the teams and players he is versing than boxing them out. Carlos Boozer is living up to the reputation he earned from lying to the Cavaliers and has proven to be the worst max contract player the league has seen in some time.

The funnies thing is, neither of these two players, who were supposed to be the foundations upon which Chicago would launch their championship assault, are even playing in the fourth quarter of games because their own coach has no faith in them. Instead he is looking to Taj Gibson and Asik off the bench to play around 9 of the 12 fourth quarter minutes. It’s unbelievable. From a Chicago point of view it’s infuriating, but from a Derrick Rose point of view it’s sad.

Rose is having to take 20-30 shots a game against the best teams to give the Bulls a shot. He still has no second option, rather three or four 3rd options.

Everyone was celebrating the fact they signed Richard Hamilton and he was supposed to be the guy to help them beat Miami. This was not just Bulls fans believing this, there were plenty of people at the almighty ESPN who too were on the bandwagon. They should be ashamed. What a ridiculous thing to say. I don’t know how these people have jobs. Hamilton turns 34 years old in 2 weeks.

34 years old! In his prime he wasn’t close to being a top 10 player. He wasn’t even a top 5 shooting guard?! So people are calling an ageing guy who’s best attribute was running around for 48 minutes off the ball, of which he can no longer do nearly as effective, the saviour of a championship contender?

Sad.

Derrick Rose knows it. Perhaps that’s why he averages just 8 assists per game. Perhaps that’s why he takes 8 shots per quarter, making 8 field goals per game.

Maybe my criticism of Rose was unfair. He may well be the pure point guard in the Paul/Williams/Nash/Rondo mould.

Who knows?

We may be able to find out.

Late last year when Dwight Howard officially requested a trade, leading to him releasing a shortlist of teams he wished to be traded to, I was stunned to see one team omitted. The Chicago Bulls.

Supposedly Howard had no interest in moving to Chicago, as he felt it was no more of an image heightening market than Orlando. Clearly the idea of winning was not a real factor for ‘Superman’ (I put that in inverted commas because Shaquille O’Neal is Superman, so basically the commas mean sarcasm).

Surely he would have noticed they have this kid called Derrick Rose who is one good player away from seriously threatening Miami for the title of the league’s best team.

It wasn’t until a few days ago that Howard considered moving into the house that Jordan built.

"“If I could play with Derrick right now and God wanted that to happen, it will happen. It has nothing to do with me not wanting to play with Derrick Rose. I love him. That’s my brother”."

First things first, the religious reference is more Dwight Howard bullshit. No I am not saying he is not a true christian, of course he is, nor am I saying the religion or religion itself is bullshit, but this is typical Dwight Howard. The guy is a phoney as they come. He constantly goes back on his word, like he did through the initial stages of his trade request, trying to save face and ensure he is still loved by everyone. I truly believe he cares more about sustaining a good image and being generally liked than winning. Big call yes, but I say it with 100% confidence. He’s full of it.

There’s two ways of looking at this, but they both may fit. Either Howard is using the religious reference to appeal to the general religious America, almost aligning himself with the Tebow phenomenon. No one is going to argue with him should he cite God.

The other thought is that this is just another Howard cover up to save face and ensure he does not receive blame for fantasising about other teams. He is so concerned with his image that he would use his religion as a shield to he could manoeuvre himself into the team he wished.

Reports suggest New Jersey/Brooklyn are still front runners to get Howard, and are his no.1 preferred destination. I wonder why…cough biggest market.

One thing is for sure, he will not be traded until after the All Star game. How devastating would it be if Dwight Howard returned to Orlando for the All Star game wearing the uniform of another franchise. There’s no way the Magic will let that happen. Also Brook Lopez will be back from injury around this time, meaning every team will be loaded to make their final bids for the game’s best center.

If I am the Chicago Bulls, I am offering everything but Derrick Rose. I’d give them Noah, Boozer, Deng, the United Center, Michael Jordan’s statue and Michigan Avenue Bridge. We’ll throw in Michael Wilbon and the nice old woman that sews the jerseys on the side and call it a deal.

Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard would make everyone scared, especially the Heat.

As a Miami fan, I am petrified just writing about this.

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