Bulls' Gooden weighs in on new coach

With his unusual chin beard and free-spirited personality, Bulls forward Drew Gooden is the type who would be comfortable taking the stage at an open-mic poetry night.

Following Monday's practice at the Berto Center, Gooden riffed on the coaching style of first-time coach Vinny Del Negro.

"He has great patience for a first-year coach, probably the best I've seen at working with young guys and kind of giving us a longer leash than sometimes we need, I believe," Gooden said. "I'm just saying that I played for some coaches that were zero tolerance, real strict. Vinny's not like that. He earned the respect from us right away. He respects us and we respect him."

Del Negro doesn't seem to get red-faced in huddle like a certain ex-Bulls coach now working in Milwaukee. But the longtime NBA point guard does have trouble hiding his emotions when the team messes up on the court.

"Vinny's animated. He's a funny guy," Gooden continued. "He was a competitive player, a hard-nosed player. So it's kind of tough being in a suit and not being out on the court with a jersey on and knowing that was probably a play he would have made or a ball he would have dove for."

Rose sees a crowd: Tex Winter invented the triangle offense. Now Derrick Rose has inspired the triangle defense.

Since the start of the season, opposing teams have been keeping extra defenders on either side of Rose to prevent him from getting to the basket. Finding open lanes seems to be getting more difficult as the season progresses.

"I notice they take the help-side corner so they can have like a triangle in the middle," Rose said. "They're blitzing (pick-and-rolls) a little bit, showing high so I won't turn the corner and things like that. I've just been working on that in practice, and the veterans have been helping me out."

Defenses have been willing to give the Bulls more good looks from 3-point range if it means cutting down on Rose's penetration. Sometimes that's been a successful strategy, sometimes not.

"With the way our offense is set up, Derrick is going to get into the lane," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "And Derrick shoots the ball better than I think anybody thought. So if you go under on him, we'll set the screen a little bit lower and make you pay for that. Teams do one thing and we combat it."

Bull horns: Luol Deng and Larry Hughes skipped Monday's practice because of illness. Both players are expected to be available for tonight's game in Charlotte. ... The Bobcats signed veteran power forward and Chicago native Juwan Howard last week. ... Another Chicago veteran, Antoine Walker, may agree to a buyout soon from Memphis, but it's unlikely the Bulls will be interested because of luxury tax concerns.