--Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf gave a harsh assessment of his team during an appearance on a Chicago television talk show. Asked to grade the Bulls' season, he reached down as low as he could. "You want the grade up 'till today?" he said. "What's the lowest grade you can give? This has been a disaster. It's embarrassing. But it will get better. ... (general manager) John Paxson is not going to let this situation continue."
While bashing the team's performance, Reinsdorf refused to place any blame on Paxson. "When you have a team that's not performing, it's an organization failure," Reinsdorf said. "But if there's one person that is not responsible for what's going on right now, it's John Paxson. I have tremendous confidence in John Paxson. He's really one of the best people that I know. He's a great general manager and a great judge of talent. I just worry that he might be too hard on himself." --At the start of the season, guard Derrick Rose's jump shot was better than expected. Then it seemed to take a vacation before returning on Wednesday against the Clippers. Rose knocked down 9-of-13 shots from the field in that game, mostly on mid-range jumpers. After the game, the No. 1 draft pick felt confidence played a key role in his outside shooting. "The games that you miss like that, they really do help you," he said. "You go 0-for-6, 0-for-7, you really don't care about missing any more. You just shoot the ball, really. That's what it's all about. I hope it stays like that. I'm not going to stop shooting, because my team wants me to."
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We will build around Derrick Rose. Every player that's added to this team will be a player who can feed off of him. This is not going to take changing 11 players. We do have some pretty good players on this club. Obviously what we lack is an inside presence. That's the biggest thing we are missing and somehow we have to find it." -- Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, on the team's future plans.
