M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!

There has been a LOT of talk around the NBA "circles" (are these crop circles because I haven't seen any circles labeled NBA) about our own Derrick Rose for MVP. Derrick tried to nominate himself for the title in the pre-season by asking the question "why not me?" when asked about the MVP. Most people laughed it off, but take a look folks...he's doing it...he's right there in the mix. And we've been hearing the chants when he steps to the free throw line at the United Center...I thought it was a little premature back in November, but apparently not. Heck, he's hearing those chants on the road too! The Bulls are #1 in home attendance (#2 in home percentage) and #4 in road attendance...so lots of people are seeing this team and more specifically, this kid of ours play some ball.

For me the MVP must be the answer to the following question...can Player X' team win without him? Obviously any player on this list is affecting his team's win total so I'm not asking...can his team win at the same rate, but rather can they win at a decent rate...say .500 or so?

The top 3 guys this year in my opinion are LeBron, Dirk, and Derrick Rose...so let's talk about each of them one at a time...

So can the Heat win without LeBron? I would argue that YES, the Heat can win without LeBron as they have another superstar (and NO, I am not talking about "fake tough guy" Chris Bosh!) on their team that can and has already carried them at times even with LeBron in the lineup. LeBron has only missed two games this season as he continues to prove that he's a pretty durable player...he's never played in all 82 regular season games, but he's never played fewer than 75 either. The Heat are 0-2 in those two games which occurred back-to-back against the Nuggets (as a side note, Wade has never beaten Carmelo in Denver) and Bulls. While that's obviously not .500, it's hardly a large enough sample size to call that record a determining factor...the Heat also lost the game before with the Clippers while LeBron played nearly 40 minutes and the game following against the Hawks while LeBron played 44 minutes in an OT loss.

So can the Mavs win without Dirk? Well, Dirk has missed 9 games this season and his Mavs went 2-7 over that time frame so the instinctual answer is NO. They also lost Caron Butler in the middle of Dirk's absence although they had already lost the first two with Butler. The Bulls swept the season series with the Mavs this year and Dirk played in both games; Derrick played in both games; Butler played in the first game in Dallas, but missed the second at the UC; no Boozer for the first, and no Boozer and no Joakim for the second as Derrick was the only Bull in double figures in that second game...result - Bulls 2; Dallas 0.

Can the Bulls win without Derrick Rose? Ummm...I really don't think so especially in this first part of the season with Boozer out, Joakim out or even both guys out. Can they scrape together a win or two out of 10, maybe. The Bulls lost the only game Derrick has missed this season (knock on wood!) although it was in heartbreaking fashion when Melo hit that fade-away J over Luol at the buzzer. But let me explain by bringing up a situation from last season...the Bulls lost Joakim Noah for a 10 games in the second half...they went on to lose ALL 10 which seemed to end their playoff hopes in March (luckily Chris Bosh had already given up in Toronto so the Bulls were able to slip into the playoffs with a bit of a late season surge going 10-4 to finish up 41-41). That was last year...this year, Joakim has already missed the last 28 games, but this is Derrick's year...he's not only kept the Bulls going, but they are 21-7 in those 28 games. Of course, the Bulls have played the entire season with either their #2 or #3 players hurt or out or even BOTH out at the same time (Derrick's Bulls are 2-1 with both out) and yet, they still have the 5th best record in the NBA! I'm sorry, but THOSE are MVP numbers. Need more...here's a quote from ESPN's Maurice Brooks who does the "Awards Watch" page for them (http://espn.go.com/nba/notebook/_/page/Awards-110215/nba-awards-watch) - "On 13 occasions, the Bulls have trailed in the fourth quarter only to have Rose rescue them. That is another stat on what is turning into a long list of reasons to give him the award." Really...what else is there!

So how will Derrick perform as the starting (and healthy) point guard for the Eastern Conference All-Stars? I don't know...this type of show-off game isn't really his thing as he's not the ego-maniac LeBron, Kobe, Amar'e, and Wade are...I think he's probably going to want to show he belongs so its not like he's going to be cowering in the corner...he still loves to play in front of the big stage...he sure proved that Thu night on TNT in front of a national TV audience, so I expect him to have a pretty good game.

I don't know why I didn't think about this before with Michael and Scottie as regulars in the All-Star games, but how will these guys even get along? The East consists of 3 Heat, 4 Celtics, 2 Hawks, 1 Knick, 1 Magic, and Derrick...that's all 12 guys representing the top 6 teams in the East right now. I know Derrick is a very competitive guy, but most of the rest of the guys really seem to enjoy this type of game. Interestingly, he'll be paired in the starting lineup with LeBron and Wade, both of whom spurned the Bulls this summer; otherwise we could have potentially watched the three of them play together every night. In addition to playing with two of the Three Am-EGOS to start, the third Am-EGO is also there as a reserve and then there's the issues with the cheap shots by new teammate Dwight Howard which helped somewhat ruin Derrick's last trip to the All-Star Game. Then there's the 4 Celtics including Rajon Rondo who Derrick beat out in the voting to become the starter. Remember that epic playoff series between the Bulls and Celtics in the first round during Derrick's rookie season? NOBODY that I've ever heard has ever said anything really negative about Derrick so I'm sure he'll do well with everyone.

Other than the 4 Celtics who each won a ring 3 years ago, the rest of the East has just one ring combined. The West have a LOT more rings on their side as the West has pretty well dominated the ring collection since the Bulls second three-peat winning 9 of the last 12 NBA Titles. So what kind of game can we expect to see from Derrick tomorrow? I'd be thrilled to see him throw down a couple of nice 2-handed dunks and dish out about 12 assists...most importantly, I want him to really enjoy the moment and learn from it just like he did with the Team USA experience over the summer.

Let's keep those M-V-P! chants going nice and loud at the UC! Heck, I've even been hearing it on the road when he goes to the free throw line; let's keep em going there too!

By the way, I started writing this earlier in the week before the San Antonio game...if you weren't convinced of his MVP status before that game, hopefully his career high 42 points pushed you in the right direction. He shot 18-for-28 against the league's best team and added 8 assists and 5 boards. It started out as a battle between Rose and San Antonio's Tony Parker...kind of a battle between two of the leagues best PGs. This was the 3rd such match-up in the Bulls last 4 games after matching up with and totally outplaying Deron Williams in Utah (longest tenured coach in US pro sports was gone following that game) and Chris Paul in New Orleans back-to-back the week before.

Charles Barkley (a lot smarter than he makes himself out to be) thinks Derrick's Bulls are the best team in the East now that Joakim Noah is coming back following the All-Star Game tomorrow. I tend to agree, but I'm trying not to get ahead of myself...but I am REALLY excited at the same time.

GO BULLS!

Da End of Da 2010-11 Bears

Well, the Bears certainly over performed WAY beyond anything I would have ever thought for this team especially after a mostly horrid pre-season. The Bears made a big splash (probably THE biggest splash) in free agency this past off-season signing their own version of the Big Three with Peppers (should be up for Defensive Player of the Year), Chester Taylor (under used and primarily addition by subtraction from the Vikings), and Brendan Manumaleuna (saw him about 10 times all season). Peppers was a HUGE pickup, but when you spend what Angelo spent on a new QB, WHY don't you do something, anything really to improve a very suspect O-line or an inexperienced WR group with no clear "go-to guy"?

While Mike Tice (one of 4 head coaches on the Bears coaching staff) worked miracles with the scraps including former first round pick (14th overall) Chris Williams putting together a workable O-line, Angelo's total ineptitude with the draft certainly stretched his coaching skills.

I don't know who the Bears WR coach is, but after watching Johnny Knox AGAIN not go after a ball in tight coverage and allowing yet another interception, he needs to be fired. I know Hester and Knox are not the sharpest tools in the shed, but after two years, you'd think a starting NFL WR would know you cannot just let the defender have the ball on a pass in tight coverage. Would the NFC Championship Game have gone differently if Hester had actually finished his route on that first series instead of beating his guy and then inexplicably slowing down allowing Cutler's pass sail well over his head on what would have been a sure TD.

Speaking of Cutler, what a HORRIBLE job of reporting by Fox on Cutler's condition coming out of halftime. Granted, I'm sure Lovie had a lot to do with that which is understandable, but late in the 3rd quarter shouldn't it have come out that he had a serious knee injury and the Bears doctors had ruled him out of the game? Personally, I'm stunned with the reaction particularly by all the NFL players sitting home on their couches watching this game just like the rest of us. I know Twitter is fairly new to the NFL and particularly the players but just because you have an account doesn't turn you into a journalist requiring you to report on anything football related. Isn't there some type of brotherhood out there amongst players? Too bad the Bears don't get to face the Jaguars this year as that bunch of LOSERS seemed to be the most vocal regarding Cutler's injury although the only guy I had honestly ever heard of was Maurice Jones-Drew. WHAT are these guys even talking about? At the point of their Tweets, they have ZERO clue what's going on so why say a word? Like I said, too bad the Jags aren't on the Bears schedule for 2011...I'm sure Urlacher who REALLY came out swinging about these "critics" would have LOVED to have a shot at him.

So what have we learned and what's the plan for 2011? Here's my list of rhetorical asked and answered questions:

• What happens with the Bears coaching staff?

What started out as one of the "hottest seats" of all head coaching positions following 3 straight seasons without making the playoffs turned into a pretty good situation for Lovie Smith. Going into the bye week, it didn't look too good as the Bears were 4-3 after a couple of horrible home losses to Seattle and Washington.

Well, there was a meeting of the minds during that perfectly timed bye week and the Bears turned things around quickly and made it all the way to the Championship Game playing for their namesake's trophy (George S. Halas Trophy). Even though the worst nightmare happened as the Bears were forced to watch their northern rival Packers take "their" trophy on the Bears home field, my hope actually is that they keep the big name guys completely intact BUT do NOT extend Lovie until he can do this again. My fear is that Lovie has earned himself (at least in the eyes of the inept owner and more inept GM) an extension even though he still has another year on his contract.

• What happens with Jerry Angelo?

He too escapes the hot seat with the team's run to the NFC Championship Game...unfortunately. The scary similarities between this guy and the Cubs Jim Hendry is unreal and gives me a very uneasy feeling regarding the future of this team. The number of gaffs this guy has made during his tenure really should have set this franchise back several years. It is primarily thanks to the will of a few players like Urlacher, Briggs, Devin Hester, and Kreutz. There are a few other players that have helped out of course too. Johnny Knox is one for sure as a 5th round pick as the Bears picked him up as part of the Jay Cutler trade.

• What about a QB controversy in Chicago?

Yes, Caleb Haney played quite well under horrible conditions starting with the fact he was unbelievably named as the 3rd string QB. This isn't unbelievable because he's so good but that Todd Collins had been so unbelievably bad. Collins' 2-to-1 ratio doesn't relate to TDs-to-Int; rather this is completions (10)-to-interceptions (5). By the way, he had the same number of TD passes you had - ZERO but in many more attempts.

Most people said "Cutler better be hurt" considering he sat out of the second half of the biggest game of his entire life and it turns out that yes, he indeed was hurt with a strained MCL. He will be back next year and there is no QB controversy going into next season.

For me, it's all about talent evaluation on BOTH sides...pre-draft and then on the team itself. I mentioned Johnny Knox both positively and negatively above. Did you know Johnny Knox was on the practice squad last year before Devin Aromashodu got hurt in the preseason? Well Knox finished with 5 receiving TDs which was good for 2nd on a pathetic 7-9 Bears last year. This year he was 400 yards ahead of the next closest Bears receiver in yards (yes, even ahead of supposed #1 WR Devin Hester) and this time led the team in receiving TDs. If Aromashodu hadn't gotten hurt, he could have ended up on some other team's roster.

So I started writing this shortly after the NFC Championship Game and now I'm finishing it up after the Super Bowl. How do you think the Bears "brass" are feeling about their decision to let the Packers win that game in Week 17? The Bears starters played the whole game so the only thing the team didn't do was apparently game plan for the Packers. HUH? That means it wasn't about the safety of the players or keeping them healthy for the playoffs rather just giving the coaches a week off from doing their jobs...makes sense and worked out great guys...THANKS! So let's extend Lovie and watch as even the Lions pass up the Bears next season. The NFL has never looked so winnable in my eyes and the Bears BLEW their opportunity to REALLY make something of it...instead they watched their division rivals work through 14 guys including 6 opening day starters go on IR and STILL win the Super Bowl. Do they think it will easier next year? The Vikings will be done with the circus that is Brett Favre, the Packers will almost certainly be healthier, the Bears will almost certainly be less healthy, and the Lions are another year removed from Matt Millen's "reign" as GM. I see three more years similar to the three years we had between Championship Game appearances.

GO BULLS and GO HAWKS!