Beasley vs. Rose

Defying all odds, the Bulls ended up with the first pick in the draft last night. They only had a 1.7% chance of coming up with the top pick. How small is that chance? Let's put it this way...it's twice as likely that Elijah Dukes gets a hit (.038 batting average this season) than it was for the Bulls to win the draft lottery.

Hot on the heels of the "Oden vs. Durant" debate of a year ago, we now have "Beasley vs. Rose". Before the NCAA tourney, Michael Beasley seemed like the sure-fire #1 pick. Not only was he just as good as Kevin Durant stats-wise, he was actually better! And unlike Durant, he can probably bench press more than 105 lbs.

But Derrick Rose stepped up and pretty much steamrolled everyone in his path on the way to the NCAA title game, abusing DJ Augustin and Darren Collison in back to back games so badly, they could have put him on trial for sexual abuse.

So now Beasley and Rose are both at the top of the 2008 draft class. Rose is projected to be a Chris Paul type player, but bigger and more explosive. Beasley could be the second coming of Kevin Garnett if you believe some members of the media. Rose is the "local boy" hailing from the Chicago area. Beasley could be the low-post scorer that the Bulls have needed for the past 3 years.

There are a few obstacles in the way. If you pick Beasley, what if his troubled past (6 high schools in 5 years, multiple suspensions) catches up with him? What if he's more Spreewell than Garnett as far as attitude goes? Picking Rose seems to make sense too, but it seems like the Bulls already have a capable point guard in Kirk Hinrich. Hinrich may have struggled last year, but this is the same guy that shut down D-Wade for 2 straight years in the playoffs, is a point guard on Team USA and made the NBA All-Defensive 2nd team just a year ago. Players don't just forget how to be good. What happened is that most of Heinrich's teammates started off last season trying to get their stats for an eventual $13 million a year contract and things just snowballed.

On the other hand, how can you pass up a talent like Rose?

On the other other hand, how do you pass up someone that's even better than the college player everyone was drooling over last year?

Do you draft Rose? Do you draft Beasley? Do you flip-flop picks with the Heat and let them make the decision for you? Do you trade the pick to Memphis for Mike Conley so they can get their "hometown" guy and we get their #5 overall pick this year and a possible #1 next year too?

The Bulls have the #1 pick and 2 potential superstars to pick from. It seems like they would have no problem shipping off Hinrich, Gordon, Deng, Ty Thomas, etc in a package deal. Once again, the Bulls seem like they have a ton of potential to make a move in the East.

And who's in charge of making this move? John Paxson. Aw fuck.

Just make sure to keep us under the cap for 2010 so we can bring in Dwyane Wade, ok Johnny?