Chicago’s former MVP and twice-injured point guard, Derrick Rose, has always remained outside the pale when it comes to recruiting superstars to Chicago. He’s publicly said he’s against it, preferring to battle against the best with his current group of teammates. Except a recent report from the Chicago Tribune might mean he’s directly involved in Chicago’s pitch to Carmelo Anthony today.
Sources tell the Chicago Tribune‘s K.C. Johnson Rose is scheduled to be a part of Chicago’s Tuesday pitch to Carmelo Anthony:
When Tom Thibodeau said “our players will be available to talk” on Monday regarding free agency pitches, the Bulls’ coach wasn’t kidding.
Derrick Rose is scheduled to be part of the Bulls’ Tuesday pitch to Carmelo Anthony, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Whether that involves Rose attending the meeting in person or talking to Anthony isn’t clear yet.
But if Anthony needs to hear from Rose directly, sources said an effort for that conversation to happen will be made by the Bulls of their star employee.
Despite a rumor Rose preferred free agent Kevin Love over Anthony because Love is “more of a team player,” a source told Johnson last week Rose’s camp reached out to ‘Melo’s camp and said Rose would love to play with Anthony.
We already debated the merits of an ambiguous Joakim Noah tweet as possibly a coded message for Rose to get on board with Chicago’s efforts at bring ‘Melo to the Windy City, and even if it wasn’t aimed at Rose at all, D-Rose appears to have done just that.
As Johnson notes, in December of 2011, Rose was pretty clear he wouldn’t actively recruit a player to come to Chicago, but did add he might if it’s coming from the front office:
If it’s not coming from the front office, you’re not going to hear my saying anything about recruiting anyone,” Rose said at the time. “The city speaks for itself, especially for basketball. If you want to come here, opportunity is here. The front office is great. Our fans are the best. We got players who just want to win.”
Chicago’s front office must have stepped in, and now Rose — as well as every other current member of the Bulls — will be available for ‘Melo’s visit today. This isn’t a case of Rose flip-flopping from his previous statements, but more ownership’s nudging him in that direction. If Rose does meet with ‘Melo it doesn’t invalidate his previous comments, or his message to Yahoo over the weekend.
Management has asked him to help, and he is, but he’s not pitching guys at the all-star break or sending them text messages, like Noah has done with ‘Melo and Chandler Parsons did with Dwight Howard during his free agency last summer. Rose is still a man of his word, he’s just agreed to help the Bulls out.
Will Rose’s inclusion help the Bulls land ‘Melo?
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