Bulls Draft Rose With Top Pick

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jun 27, 2008 3:09PM

Overcoming huge odds against them, the Bulls landed the NBA draft's top pick in last month's draft lottery. On Thursday night, the Bulls used that pick to draft point guard Derrick Rose.

A Chicago native and Illinois's 2007 Mr. Basketball, he'll return home after a year playing for University of Memphis -- where he led the Tigers to the NCAA Championship game. In the NBA, the Bulls hope that Rose can develop into the type of game-changing point guard that the likes of Chris Paul and Deron Williams have become in recent years.

After weeks of speculation about whether the Bulls would take Rose or Kansas State power forward Michael Beasley, GM John Paxson did what most people believe he'd do. While Beasley's combination of scoring and rebounding awed many, the "character issues" were enough to dissuade Pax from drafting him, especially with a rookie coach and a number of free spirits already on the roster.

With the addition of Rose to the Bulls roster, however, somebody's going to be the odd man out. The Bulls add the point guard to a backcourt already containing Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Larry Hughes and Thabo Sefelosha. There's just not enough playing time for all of them. Can they dump Huges's huge contract on somebody else? Work a sign-and-trade with restricted free agent Ben Gordon? Or is Hinrich the most easily moved piece?

We questioned the Bulls drafting yet another guard -- Arkansas's Sonny Weems -- in the second round, but the Bulls sent him to Denver in return for a 2009 second round pick. They then sent two future second round picks, to the Portland Trail Blazers in return for Omer Asik. The skinny seven-foot center from Turkey still has two years remaining on his European league contract, so we won't be seeing him in Chicago for a while yet -- if ever. And the guy only shoots 50 percent from the free throw line. Sure he's worth giving up two future picks, Pax?

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II