Two Superstars, the same shoe deal, but the same team?

It could happen.

The Magic’s four-time Defensive Player of the Year winner wants out of Orlando, which we already know. He’s made that statement public a few times and listed his top destinations as either L.A. (the Lakers, not the Clippers), the Dallas Mavericks or the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets. But what about Chicago?

Sure, they already have the reigning MVP in Derrick Rose — who is a superstar, by the way — but what else? They don’t have another go-to guy but they have a bunch of role players that mesh perfectly and are easily the best defensive team in the entire league right now.

Dwyane Wade passed on the opportunity to come home to Chicago and bring the city another championship in the Post-Jordan era, but he chose to stay in Miami with ‘Bron and Bosh. Carmelo Anthony said he’d love to play for the Bulls, but his heart was really in New York. Rose hasn’t tried to lure in any players because he feels like the team is perfect where their at now, but what happens when you never get passed the 2nd round in the playoffs and you keep getting older, and older, and the team you once felt could win a title is no longer intact?

That’s when you wish you had another superstar right by your side.

Early Wednesday morning, Charles Barkley joined ‘The Waddle & Silvy Show‘ to discuss the Bulls and Heat, Joakim Noah and the possibility of Dwight Howard coming to Chicago:

“You want to play with another great player if you possibly can, but the thing about wanting to be the man, that’s just silly,” Barkley said Wednesday on “The Waddle & Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000. “He should want to play with Derrick Rose. That would be a beautiful combination for the city of Chicago.”

Barkley has a real point: Why doesn’t Dwight want to play with Rose? Every big man in the history of the NBA needed a point guard to pass to them. For some crazy reason, there has been speculation that since both stars are sponsored by Adidas, the company doesn’t want both of their players in the same market (Okay? Rose you take Nike and Howard stays with Adidas. There, everyone’s happy. Just get this done).

Barkley, who isn’t exactly the sharpest tack, doesn’t even get these guys:

“I don’t understand what these guys are thinking,” Barkley said. “Him and Derrick Rose would make the Bulls a championship contender for the next 10 years. You just want to play with as many good players or great players as possible. I think him and Derrick Rose would make a fabulous combination. I don’t know what’s going on with [the Howard situation].”

To me, I believe that in Howard’s mind he thinks that if he leaves Orlando he’s going to continue to be “that guy,” but he’s sorely mistaken. The only reason he’s “that guy” with the Magic is because who else do they have? A bunch of 3-point shooters? Yeah, about that ..

If Howard somehow ends up in a Bulls uniform this season, he’ll learn to be second fiddle because you don’t want to fight over shots with the guy who runs the show. Another big problem with Howard is that he continually disappears in big moments of the game because he’s a such a terrible free-throw shooter, which means teams give him the ‘Hack-a-Shaq’ treatment. So if Howard’s smart, he’d grow up and realize that most need help.

After squeezing out a win at the Staples Center on Christmas Day, Derrick Rose led his troops yet again into ‘Tinseltown’ to battle who many believe is the best point guard in the game, CP3, and the new-faced Clippers.

Shot after shot, speed after speed and dunk after dunk, both Paul and Rose went at it tonight. Period. But in the end, it was Rose and his Chicago Bulls who walked away with the victory and a ridiculous stat-line for the former league MVP: 29 points, 16 assists and 8 rebounds to Paul’s 14 point, 15 assist outing.

Oh, and don’t think Rose didn’t get some get-back on CP3, either:

Basketball fans are hyped that the NBA returned to action yesterday and what better way to be welcomed than this amazing TNT commercial, “NBA Forever”. Derrick Rose giving daps to Michael Jordan?! Dirk going heads up against Larry Bird?! So many classic shots!

Shout outs to whatever agency (I believe it was the work of Goodby & Silverstein) produced this commercial because it’s just an incredible piece of work.

We all knew this was coming, it was just one of those situations of when it was going to happen. Derrick Rose, the NBA’s reigning MVP, blew up last season with career highs in nearly every statistical category, minus FG percentage (25 points per game, 7.7 assists, 85.8% from FT line and 33 percent from 3s (still mediocre).

According to the Chicago Tribune, both Rose and the Bulls agreed to contract terms of a five-year, $94 million extension to stay in Chicago making roughly around $18.9 million a year (the Tribune also reported that by becoming the youngest MVP in the league history, an additional $10 million was added).

Luckily for Rose, he’s going to benefit from his own rule — the Derrick Rose Rule –, which allows a player to receive a larger percentage of his team’s salary cap money if he has been voted to an All-Star game twice, twice been voted All-NBA, or won an MVP award during his rookie deal. He might have deeper pockets, but he’s also going to have a lot of work to do this season in hopes of coming out on top in the Eastern Conference because as of right now, the Knicks have the best front-court in the league with the addition of Tyson Chandler while both Miami (who relatively stayed the same but still have their Big Three) and Boston (who upgraded, but lost Jeff Green for the season), remain in the Top 3 out east.

Announced late Wednesday night by the Bulls front office; they’ve officially signed veteran and former NBA champion shooting guard, Rip Hamilton. Rip’s deal is a guaranteed 2 years/$10 million with a third year team option with partial guarantees on $5,150,00. Bulls fans should be ecstatic right now; the Keith Bogans era is officially over and Hamilton will be competing for the starting SG spot on Thursday against Ronnie Brewer at the Bulls practice facility in Deerfield, Il (it really shouldn’t even be a competition since Brewer isn’t starting material. Plus, Chicago will need his defense for a quick 6 to 10 minutes).

Now that Rip is signed, the question that everyone seems to be asking is whether or not he’s the final piece to Chicago’s puzzle? Well, if you’re familiar with Bulls.com beat writer Sam Smith, you’d know by now that he was thinking the same thing. Here are a few samples from Sam’s piece on what areas he believe Rip will help Chicago the most:

Hamilton is in the mold of Reggie Miller running around screens to get open and is one of the clever masters of using screens and all the little tricks you see with players now like Ray Allen to run defenders off or pin them in traffic so he can get open for shots despite his age.

And you need someone like that to play Allen and Wade in the playoffs. After all, those are the players you need to defend and beat. And a player like Hamilton gives you credibility with the referees as well as the opponents. At 6-6 Hamilton has the size to bother the top shooting guards and he is a player known for his energy and an underrated defender.

Sam’s right; Hamilton is going to have his hands full guarding guys like Allen and Wade in the playoffs, but he knows these guys. He knows exactly what they’re capable of and their favorite spots on the court. As far as what those guys will have to lookout for when guarding Hamilton, they better keep and eye out on the three-point line:

Although not a great three point shooter like Miller and Allen, Hamilton did lead the NBA in threes in 2005-06 and is a career 34.7 percent shooter, which is above the average considered necessary to shoot threes, 33.3. Hamilton will shoot the three better from the corner, where it is shorter, much like Luol Deng. Hamilton also is tall enough to swap positions with Deng depending on matchups, giving the Bulls additional flexibility.

I’m actually shocked that a lot of Bulls fans were upset that they didn’t pursue Jamal Crawford or Jason Richardson a little bit harder but there’s a few reasons most don’t pay attention to: 1. Those guys are highly inconsistent and put forth almost zero effort on the defensive end, 2. They’re spot-up shooters, which makes them easier to guard. As previously mentioned, a guy like Hamilton is going to make you work all night long and make you feel like you just ran a 200 meter dash against Usain Bolt. He’s constantly moving and constantly looking for the open shot, which is something Bogans lacked entirely. He’s only signed to a two-year deal which means Chicago has flexibility and options, and if you’ve played close attention to Jerry Reinsdorf, you know he loves having options.

Adidas Basketball’s star endorser Derrick Rose gets the mashup treatment over the infamous Michael Jordan “It’s Not About The Shoes” commercial.

In his new Adidas commerical to promote his second shoe — the adiZero Rose 2 — Rose breaks off a Matador in what seems to be a Colosseum, and right when he busts through the red cape, there are his new shoulder tats in plain sight. Despite them being somewhat hidden beneath his sponsored beater, on the left side is says “19″ and the other says “88,” which is obviously his birth year. I don’t know about y’all, but I think it’s pretty dope. It’s a lot different than most tattoos and I don’t think any other player has those — or the room — yet.

What do you guys think?

Kobe Bryant with the no look alley-oop to Derrick Rose. Kevin Durant with the no look alley-oop to James Harden. These are some of the highlights our NBA All-Stars had over the weekend while playing in a exhibition game over in the Philippines. While the NBA is in full lockout mode, it’s cool to see stuff like this that we typically wouldn’t see until All-Star Weekend in February.

A paycheck is a paycheck! Because I’ve never see Big Sean rocking any Adidas sneakers before. In fact, he sure does a lot of rapping and talking about his favorite Jordan’s and Nike’s. Dear Derrick Rose and management, please drop the three stripes and come on over to the swoosh!

The Chicago Bulls lost the game and are headed back to Chi-Town down 3-1 to the Miami Heat but Derrick Rose got some vicious dunks off last night. The one that stands out was his CRAM all over Joel Anthony’s head. A few seconds before that he showed his brute strength and speed by blowing past a defender for the continuation and-1 dunk. I don’t think the Bulls have enough fight in them to take this and win the series in seven games so until next year D-Rose…Enjoy fishing!