Which FA best suits Rose's development?

Derrick Rose has steadily developed for the past two years into an allstar-caliber player. For this success, we need to give our hearty thanks to Mr. Rose for working so hard, and also to the coaching staff, particularly Lindsey Hunter. While I hated VDN's aimless offense and cheerleader coaching, I have to admit that just throwing Rose out on the court while yelling "Attack!" from the sidelines allowed Rose to figure out how to play "his way." Rose seemed to thrive in the inefficient chaos that was the VDN offense, revelled in being the team's primary scorer, and often enough - the team's sole chance of winning a damn game. He became a much better outside shooter, switches speeds well, can outmaneuver defenders, find lanes, and get to the basket. He is also more than willing to pass to open teammates, and would have had a much higher number of assists if his teammates could shoot well. Derrick Rose, however, is still a work in progress: he still needs to develop his outside shooting, particularly from the 3 point line, I would love to see him become a better defender (tho he has gotten much better, and I doubt he will ever be more than a solid defender), he doesn't get as many assists as I would like (tho not having another scoring option is partially responsible), and finally, he needs to learn how to make contact and get foul calls...he absolutely sucks at this. In my opinion, losing BG last season (and the subsequent roster turnover) affected Rose's development in two ways. First, his development as a PG suffered - he had fewer assists than he would have, and his role as a passer and creator of offense did not develop as well as it should have because 1) he no longer had a primary scoring option to dish the ball to, and 2) because he had to learn to play with a rotating cast of teammates (chemistry takes time) 3) Our offense was just not going to be that great no matter what he did. Second, his development as a scorer improved, because he had to do as much as humanly possible to win games (Thank you VDN!), BUT because (In my admittedly biased opinion) the coaching staff encouraged him to develop the way he wanted to develop, he did not advance as well as he could have in certain areas (e.g. causing contact, 3 point shooting). He learned to do what it took to win games in the short term, but did not develop skills that would be of benefit to him a few years down the line (Lousy VDN!).

Another issue is whether Rose is developing the leadership skills that he will need to march a team to (repeat?) championship glory. He seems like a shy guy, at least in front of the media. While he may be a solid locker room influence and occasional playoff guarantor, he does not appear to be in charge of the team to the same extent that Hinrich was when he was the starting PG. Right now, I expect that Noah and Hinrich are the team leaders (I love how Hinrich always wants to throw down after one of the Bulls gets a hard foul), with Miller and Hunter providing solid veteran influence and Deng workmanlike professionalism. What about Rose? no one really knows, but in my opinion, it seems like he is a good influence, has a winning mentality, but is more of a respected teammate than a leader. I would like to see him become a leader, if not THE leader of the team.

 Now we are a few short weeks away from the prophecied free-agentpalooza of 2010. We will have a new coach next season, and will also have a few new players on the team. Hopefully, at least one of them is one of the Big 3 Stars. All of them would affect Rose's game and development, both as a player and as a team leader, but I am not sure that all of that influence will be positive.

Dwyane Wade - His presence would definitely open things up for Rose, who would respond by continuing to score the way he always has. On one hand, Rose would be very successful with Wade as a teammate; his shooting percentage and assists would go up, and he would be allowed to refine his skills as a passer/creator. However, he would have to learn to work with his third primary scoring option in three years (which would screw with him a bit), and I suspect that he would not accrue the skills he would need to be an elite scorer - he would just keep on doing what he is doing now. Rose would be the second option, so he would score if open, pass if not open --> not learning to score in crunch time while well guarded (him getting easy baskets is not a bad thing, but I know he can become a semi-undefendable scorer). Rose would also not have to take a leadership role on the team. The team leaders would be Wade, Noah, and Hinrich (if Kirk is still around). Rose would likely be a respected and beneficial influence on the team, he would have a voice, but I just don't see him stepping up to be as strong of a leader as he might be without Wade - he just wouldn't have to.

LeBron James - Similar to Wade, except that I suspect that Rose would have his playing time deliberately stacked to fall whenever James was having a break, so that it would be Rose's team for 10 minutes a game (same thing would happen with Wade, but it would be even more exagerated with James). On one hand, Rose would suffer the temptation to just pass the ball to James and get the hell out of his way, on the other, he would have more time on the court as the primary scoring option, would have to develop as an outside shooter to complement James' driving prowess, and James' ability to draw fouls would counterintuitively increase the urgency for Rose to draw fouls - If both Rose and James regularly drew fouls, the other team = screwed. Also, the mere presence of Lebron would create wide open looks for everyone not named Rose or James (and James does not mind spreading the wealth), so Rose would have an opportunity to regularly practice creative offense. James' rebounding would definitely help too. As far as devloping as a leader goes, any (non-olympic, non-Kobe, non-Wade) team with James is James' team, BUT I think it has been established that James is simply not a leader of Jordan's or Nash's caliber. There is a need for other guys to step up and be the locker room voice that screams "We do not give up in the sixth game of a playoff series!" As with Wade, Noah and possibly Hinrich will be those guys, but there is room for Rose to be one of the team's leaders to a greater degree than would be possible with Wade.

Chris Bosh - Low post scoring would complement Rose's driving and gunning. Rose would have things opened up for him as with the others, but since Bosh is a completely different type of scorer, Rose would not be directly competing with him for offensive chances. Moreover, Rose would not be the second scoring option so much as scoring option 1B. Rebounds would help too, as would the fact that Rose would still have to develop as a shooter. I think the Bulls would obviously be a better team if we had James instead of Bosh (we are contenders with Bosh, Eastern Conference favorites with James), but I think Bosh actually complements Rose the best. Anything one doesn't do well, the other excels at - together, they make an almost unstoppable combination. Rose would still be required to be a dominant scorer, but wouldn't be called upon to force bad shots, his assists would go up, and the offense would become relatively simple to work - which means that it would be easily mastered (tho this may hurt Rose's floor creativity). I also suspect that it would be easier for Rose to learn how to work with Bosh than with the other two. I expect that if we got James, it would take Rose a season to learn how to play with such a dominating (and unpredictable) player and three years before the full potential could be reached (admittedly a wild guess) - they would be good off the bat, but it would take a bit before they would be GREAT together. Working with Wade would take a shorter period of time, but there would still be a learning curve. Bosh? I have always thought that low post scoring is the simplest kind of offense (may be wrong). If you are well-covered, does Bosh have good position and a good matchup? Yes? Pass it to Bosh and set up for a rebound. As far as being a leader goes, if we got Bosh, the Bulls would be Rose and Bosh's (or, if you prefer, Rose and Noah and Bosh's) team - Rose would have to cultivate leadership skills - Bosh has shown that while he isn't a bad teammate, he wants attention, stats, etc. Rose would be put in charge of maintaining team chemistry, diplomatic relations with Bosh, and willing the team to win - he would become the floor leader that he needs to be. I am sure there will be a lot of disagreement - let me know what you think.