Comparing The Chicago Bulls Roster With Cleveland

Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Kyrie Irving vs. Derrick Rose

When healthy, these two guards are two of the most exciting point guards in the league. The key part of that statement is “when healthy”.

Derrick Rose has dealt with some excruciating injuries the past several seasons. However, this season, it will be Kyrie Irving who has to start off the year recovering from knee surgery.

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Both guards are listed at 6’3″ and weigh in at around 190 lbs. Although they are both the same size in stature, they have two totally different playing styles. Rose is stronger and will often use his strength to attack the defense strait in the heart. Irving is more crafty with his attack and finishes with an array of circus shots.

The biggest difference between these two is on the defensive end. Irving did improve this past season on the defensive end, but he still has trouble staying in front of the quicker point guards around the league. Some might say that Rose took a step backwards this season on the defensive end, but he was still far superior to Irving as evidenced by their match-up in the postseason. Rose continually blew by Irving until head coach David Blatt was forced to switch Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova onto the re-emerging Rose.

The regular season stats favor Irving, but not without an asterisk stating Derrick Rose’s tribulations the past couple of seasons. Here are the numbers:

Irving – PPG (21.7) APG (5.2) RPG (3.2)

Rose – PPG (17.7) APG (4.9) RPG (3.2)

Irving did play 6.4 minutes more per game (36.4 to 30 MPG) as Rose was on a minutes restriction throughout the season. Once again, things became a little more interesting in the postseason match-up.

Here are the accumulative stats for each player in the series:

Irving – Points (105) FG (31-73) 3’s (9-21) FT (34-38) REB (13) AST (16) ST (8) TO (11)

Rose – Points (130) FG (52-135) 3’s (8-26) FT (18/20) REB (32) AST (39) ST (5) TO (12) 

Once again, another asterisk should be used to point out that Irving was having some knee issues. However Rose, much like LeBron, had more points(21.6 PPG to 17.5 PPG), rebounds(5.33 RPG vs 2.16 RPG), and assists (6.5 APG vs 2.66 APG). Also like James, Rose shot a worse percentage, had slightly more TO’s and had less steals.

In conclusion, Kyrie Irving has made his case to be considered an elite point guard in this league, but let’s not forget he still needed LeBron to make his first ever playoff appearance despite playing in the lowly Eastern Conference. Rose has not yet returned to his MVP caliber of playing, but with a full offseason dedicated to getting back to that level, the odds appear to be in his favor. Apart from possible injuries derailing either of these players this upcoming season, they should both be fun to watch. The upper hand goes to Rose.

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