One team made a move last night that could help vault them to a title in 2012. And no, it wasn’t the Clippers. The Chicago Bulls brought Richard Hamilton on board with a three-year deal (two of which are guaranteed) worth about $15 million to help shore up an offense looking for some help on the perimeter.
The Bulls were in desperate need of a scorer to take some pressure off Derrick Rose. Last season, Coach Tom Thibodeau’s defensive phiilosophy culminated in a top-ranked defense, but the Bull’s offense was middle-of-the-road. Rose’s MVP season was necessary to lead an offense that lacked a reliable second option.
Here’s how up-and-down Rose’s teammates could be: Luol Deng had scoring nights of 7, 20, 9 and 26 in one four-game stretch. In the Indiana series, Carlos Boozer had 12, 17, 4, 15 and 2 point nights. Yes, he got hurt, but he got hurt in Game 5.
The point is the Bulls need someone else to step up and take the load off of Rose’s shoulders, and Hamilton can do that. He is a legitimate 2 on a team that needed one. He challenges defenses not just by hitting open jumpers, but by running off 50 screens to get those jumpers. Chasing Rip Hamilton around the court is no fun. And with a deadly jump shooter hanging around wherever Derrick Rose can find him, lanes for Rose to get to the rim will open up.
While some teams are making big splashes, the Chicago Bulls are just staying quiet and biding their time until the season starts. But their signing of Rip Hamilton addresses a glaring need on a team that finished last season as the league’s number one overall seed. We haven’t been paying attention to the Bulls at all until now. But a simple move like this may ensure we could all be paying attention to them in June.
