Thibodeau giving Rose more freedom

After Tuesday's win over Milwaukee, Bulls guard Derrick Rose talked about how coach Tom Thibodeau gives him freedom to call plays and run the offense.

Some NBA coaches expect the point guard to look over at the bench every trip down the court to get the play, but the Bulls are doing things differently.

Asked Thursday, though, what sort of in-game communication he has with Thibodeau, Rose veered in a different direction.

“It's always, ‘Try harder,'” Rose said with a laugh. “It can be where the guy's coming off a pick-and-roll and I contest the shot and they hit the shot, he'll look at me and I'm like, ‘I contested it.'

“He's like, ‘Try harder.'

“I'm like, ‘Man, you come out here and try.'”

The point is, Thibodeau is placing the offense in Rose's hands and trusting him to run the team. If a player gets a hot hand or hasn't had a shot in a while, it's Rose's job to get the ball to the right teammate.

The Bulls rank near the middle of NBA teams in scoring, but their offense has been efficient. They're averaging 99.7 points and shooting 46.5 percent. If it stands up, this would be the Bulls' highest field-goal percentage since the 1996-97 season.

“To me, he has the ability to read (the defense), and if he sees something he likes, we're in constant communication through the game,” Thibodeau said. “He's telling me the things he's seeing. I'm telling him the things I've been seeing. In preparation for each opponent, we know what we're trying to attack and what we're looking for.”

When Rose played in college at Memphis, coach John Calipari ran the dribble-drive motion offense, which didn't always have set plays. During his first two years with the Bulls and Vinny Del Negro, Rose looked over to the bench more often.

“In Memphis, it was like a motion offense where I really didn't need to call (anything). Or if I did the other players on the court, they would call something because they were older than I was and they'd been in that system for a long time,” Rose said.

Rose's assists are way up this season, moving from 6.0 last year to 8.5. The third-year guard believes his job is easy now that the Bulls have added power forward Carlos Boozer and other pieces.

“Last year, Vinny really made all the calls,” Rose said. “This year, I'm learning the system a little bit more, studying. Especially when you've got a guy like Booz, where you can come down and tell the coach to sit down. You can just pass him the ball and let Booz do his thing.

“Or come down and do pick-and-roll, or you see Kyle (Korver) in the game and he's hot, call a play for him or Lu (Deng). It's easy when you've got options on the court.”

Bulls game day

Bulls vs. New Jersey Nets at the United Center, 2 p.m.

<B>TV: </B>Channel 9

<B>Radio: </B>WMVP 1000-AM

<B>Update: </B>Don't count on this being an automatic win. The Bulls lost two of three games to New Jersey last season, even though the Nets finished with a 12-70 record. New Jersey (9-23) has made some changes, but center Brook Lopez (19.3 points) and guard Devin Harris (17.2 points) are still the top scorers. Anthony Morrow, Travis Outlaw, Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar are among the newcomers making contributions.

<B>Next: </B>Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday at the United Center, 6 p.m.

— Mike McGraw