A former Chicago Bulls standout is convinced his old team could have won multiple championships had MVP point guard Derrick Rose avoid his the ACL and meniscus tears that permanently altered his health trajectory.
During an interview with Matt Peck of the “CHGO Bulls” podcast, former two-time All-Star power forward Carlos Boozer asserted that his talented Chicago teams could have gone all the way.
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“You can’t replace a Derrick Rose, man. Let’s be honest,” Boozer said. “This guy was one in a million, one in a lifetime, to be honest. If he doesn’t get hurt, he retires with three or four championships and obviously first ballot Hall of Famer. That’s how much influence he had on the game of basketball and that also speaks to his talent level.”
Boozer was something of a consolation prize free agent signing for the Bulls in 2010, when LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and likely Joe Johnson all signed elsewhere.
A prolific post scorer in his day (he didn’t have much of a jumper beyond the arc, but in his era that wasn’t a dealbreaker yet), Boozer was a consistent double-double machine — although he never matched his All-Star prime with the Utah Jazz while in town. Chicago ultimately amnestied him in the summer of 2014.
Across his four seasons with the Bulls, Boozer averaged 15.5 points on 49.1 percent shooting from the floor and 72.4 percent shooting from the foul line, 9.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 0.8 steals a night.
“Think about his career, right?” Boozer added. “He’s from Chicago, No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. Rookie of the Year that year. Second year, becomes an All-Star. Third year, becomes the MVP… His trajectory was off the charts.”
With Boozer and fellow free agent signings Kyle Korver, Keith Bogans, C.J. Watson and Ronnie Brewer joining Rose on a talented young Bulls squad that also included future All-Stars Joakim Noah and Luol Deng, plus power forward Taj Gibson and rookie center Omer Asik, Chicago stormed to a 62-20 record and the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed under new head coach Tom Thibodeau, with the No. 1 defensive rating in the league and the No. 11 offensive rating.
The Bulls eventually fell to the new-look Miami Heat — with James, Bosh and Mike Miller joining Wade — in a five-game Eastern Conference Finals series. Miami lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals.
Chicago seemingly upgraded from Bogans by signing former All-Star shooting guard Richard “Rip” Hamilton the next summer, and notched the East’s top seed for a second straight season, going 50-16 in a lockout-shortened year.
The Bulls appeared primed to give Miami a run for its money in the playoffs, but was cut down when Rose tore his ACL at the end of the first game of the first round. Rose missed the entire 2012-13 season recovering. He was healthy for just 10 games in 2013-14 before he tore his meniscus. By 2014-15, Rose was relatively healthy again and still more athletic than most opposing point guards, but he was no longer the All-NBA superstar he had been pre-injury.
Sans Boozer and with Noah ailing, Chicago had brought in an aging-but-still-talented Pau Gasol in 2014 free agency. A late first-round 2011 draft pick, swingman Jimmy Butler, had emerged as a legitimate All-Star, and rookie stretch four Nikola Mirotic was an instant contributor.
The Bulls posted a 50-32 record and emerged as a legitimate threat against James’ Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, but fell in six games after some questionable refereeing. Chicago fired Thibodeau that summer, and Rose continued to regress. The Bulls’ window with the 6-foot-2 Memphis product had officially closed for good, and he was traded to the New York Knicks in the summer of 2016.
