Bulls Rumors: Lonzo Ball a better option than Derrick Rose

Most of the talk surrounding Bulls rumors of late has to do with filling a need at the point guard position. Chicago’s executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley have free agency coming up in just a couple of weeks, and the start of the 2021 NBA Draft is just a few days away.

With that in mind, the idea of who the Bulls could find to fill a need at the point guard position continues to develop. Two names that keep getting tossed around at the outset of this week are the New Orleans Pelicans two-way point guard Lonzo Ball and New York Knicks veteran and Chicago native point guard Derrick Rose.

Most Bulls fans would find it ideal for Karnisovas and Eversley to go after someone like Lonzo. That could put the starting unit in the best position moving forward for head coach Billy Donovan. And signing Lonzo could fill a plethora of other more detailed needs in this rotation heading into next season.

Recent Bulls rumors have both Lonzo Ball and Derrick Rose potentially landing in Chicago

In a recent segment on ESPN, NBA insiders Adrian Wojnarowski and Adam Lowe talked further on the matter of who the Bulls could sign to be the next starting point guard this summer. Woj and Lowe reportedly mentioned that Lonzo could be a good fit with this team in a “perfect world”.

And those two also noted that the Bulls would actually be a potential landing spot for the hometown kid and former MVP D-Rose.

This could be really interesting with the prospect of D-Rose returning to Chicago much earlier than most would’ve anticipated just two or three years ago. But D-Rose at least found more success with a big market team for the first time since leaving Chicago, running with the Knicks down the stretch in the season that was.

That doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s hard for the Bulls to find a better fit at the one over the long haul than Lonzo. It’s still the same D-Rose that is injury prone and might need to hold a role with more limited minutes to ensure his health over the course of an entire season. D-Rose could still contribute at a high level, he just doesn’t have that same endurance he had during the All-Star years earlier in his career.

The one major advantage that the Bulls would get to signing D-Rose over Lonzo would be the save in cap space. The Bulls might be able to sign D-Rose for half the amount of average annual value compared to Lonzo.

Nonetheless, it would still be a much better fit for the Bulls to sign Lonzo over D-Rose. It would be nice to see a good hometown reunion between D-Rose and the team he started out his career with more than one decade ago.

The timing still doesn’t seem quite right for the Bulls to sign D-Rose. He could be more of an insurance policy in case the pursuit of other top point guard targets such as Spencer Dinwiddie and Lonzo doesn’t work out this summer.