Rose thinks adjusting to Hamilton will be easy
Coach Tim Thibodeau hasn’t made a commitment yet, but Tuesday’s home preseason game figures to include the debut of Richard Hamilton in a Bulls uniform.
Why wouldn’t he play? There hasn’t been much time to learn the new system and get used to playing with Derrick Rose, but that’s what preseason games are for, right?
“He looked pretty comfortable today in the scrimmaging,” Thibodeau said Sunday at the Berto Center.
Rose doesn’t think it will take long to get used to Hamilton. Known as someone who moves constantly without the ball, Rose said Hamilton got out in front of him on the break a few times during Sunday’s practice.
“It’s easy with him,” Rose said. “He’s just running off screens the whole time. I love it. I tell everybody, when he’s on the floor, we’ve just got to be able to knock down open shots, because people have to go to him and show him respect. We’ve just got to learn how to do that and we should be good.”
Hamilton agreed that the adjustment period should be brief.
“The good thing about me is I don’t dominate the ball,” he said. “I’m not the type of player that wants to dribble the ball 10, 11, 12 times and the offense has to get stagnant and things like that. (Rose) can still do whatever he wants to do. He can control the team, and I’ll just help out.”
Bulls feeling foul:The Bulls won their preseason opener at Indiana, but one negative issue was too many fouls. The Bulls finished with 30, including 5 each by Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer and Omer Asik.#147;I want us to cut down on our fouling, the reach-ins,#148; coach Tom Thibodeau said. #147;I thought there were times we had pretty good position defense and we just recklessly fouled. I don#146;t want to see that.#148;NBA referees have had a long-standing tradition of calling more fouls in preseason than they would in regular-season games. The theory is, they try to crack down on bad habits in exhibition games.#147;I think we were just being overaggressive,#148; said Derrick Rose, who picked up 2 fouls in less than two minutes at the start. #147;I think they weren#146;t fouls, other than the charges.#147;Swiping in and things like that, I usually don#146;t get fouls like that. Usually I go through a whole game with (no more than) 1 or 2 fouls. So that rarely happens.#148;Around the league:Perhaps proving he#146;s serious about a trade demand, Orlando center Dwight Howard produced 5 points and 6 rebounds in 30 minutes as the Magic lost a preseason tilt at Miami by 33 points on Sunday.Bulls target Jason Richardson hit 5 of 12 shots for 11 points for Orlando.