[ed. note: From the FanPosts. I agree that this is taking substantial liberties with Paxson's notoriously vague comments, but Pax's mentioned 'leadership' enough in his media tour to make it seem he's at least initially leading Rose. Now it's just waiting until they get both to the Berto Center and getting their basketball information. If only Skiles was around to stare at them both. -m ]

Unless I'm reading this entirely wrong, ESPN's Chris Sprow and Scott Powers just reported that Paxson is all for getting Derrick Rose.

[Schanwald] used his mic time on ESPN (after being introduced incorrectly, because, who the hell was this guy? He handles the vending accounts.) to give the Bulls season ticket number a national plug, then practically lobby for Chicago hometown star Derrick Rose on the conference call, before Bull VP John Paxson said "Ahem," and then basically did the same.

Just how many ways can you say "Rose" fellas, and still claim to be looking at other flowers in this draft class?

"I think you always take a look at that, but so much can happen between now and the draft," said Paxson. "We will look at what we can do to balance our roster out better, so when we do make the selection, our roster is a better equipped. I think you look at everything. Need is obviously important, but we have a lot of different needs. We need leadership on our team."

To describe "leadership" Paxson clumsily waxed about how quickly Chris Paul has taken New Orleans to where they are, and how he's a great leader. And that's what you need. And point guards are natural leaders. And … you get the point.

I don't know how much I trust the paraphrasing, but I can't imagine Paxson would want to "balance our roster out better" if he were intent on drafting Beasley.

I'm happy about this.