Its good Rose is playing at the high speed level of an all-star team. You could see some typical rust and adjusting to game speed and antipation jitters...he muffed that dunk and was a little hesitant finishing the lay-up, but overall it was good to see how much athleticism he has, and that he has made a full athletic recovery.
I think we are in for a special season from him as he gets going blending with the low intensity shots he has improved in practice with the explosion of game speed and his old street ball skills finishing off the glass. I think he is going to be ok, and we have a real shot to be in a glamour series against Lebron at the end of the season in the East Championship game as the #2 seeded Bulls play the #1 seeded Cavs.
We might even be the #1 seed depending on who can gel first, where we have the edge given the superstar we are adding has played with each of them some before. We are ok....and the Cavs will be one injury to Love away from being in trouble the same way we are one away from trouble with loss of Rose. Gasol gives us much better loss of Noah insuarance then we have had in the past, while offering intriguing bench combinations and a potential large lineup with Noah at PF or power point on offense.
I hope we see Noah/Gasol paired to marvel at their incredible passing ability to get easy shots between themselves and others. Gasol used to pass over the top with Odom and Bynum and it was beautiful to watch. If Mirotic could play SF alonside those two we could be exceptionally large. Or McDermott for that matter is somewhat protected from this arrangement. We have quite the plattoon at SF so I see Butler playing much more in a much rested back court. Rose-Butler-Moore-Brooks-Heinrich is some good backcourt minutes to share around, I wish we had Augustine or Nate Robinson instead of (Brooks-Henrich) but alas. Dunleavy-McDermott-Snell all seem more like SF to me, while Mirotic is only intriguing as SF if he can outshoot those 3.
