And he’s done it all while the Bulls have been battling injures that have had them go stretches without Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah. With Noah’s return coming after the All-Star break the Bulls will be a full strength, but still have to be wary of one thing.

“My concern for Derrick right now is health,” Mark Spears, an NBA writer for Yahoo!, said on the Jason Goff Show. “I think he’s a lot more banged up than he’s letting on. I know he’s spent a lot of time in the training room and they have to find a way to make sure he’s not the next guy that goes down.”

LISTEN: Mark Spears On The Jason Goff Show

Rose has already fought through ulcers and a bad back this season. And it’s his aggressive playing style that makes Rose so good, but also makes him susceptible to injuries.

So for the Bulls the key to keeping pace in the Eastern Conference is simple. “If Derrick isn’t playing you have no shot,” Spears said.

And there’s reason to believe that’s exactly what he’ll do.

“PECOTA really thinks that Adam Dunn is going to do really well,” Colin Wyers, of Baseball Prospectus, said on the Jason Goff Show. PECOTA is a Sabermetric that measures the expected production for a player based on the the history of similar players.

LISTEN: Colin Wyers On The Jason Goff Show

“[Dunn] is projected as probably the best hitter in Chicago next year, on either side of town,” Wyers said. “We have a stat called true average, which is on the batting average scale. It takes into account everything a player does at the plate, including hitting for power [and] taking walks. Dunn leads all Chicago players with a .303 true average.”

It’s clear that acquiring Dunn was a big priority for the White Sox. He’ll add a power hitter to the middle of the White Sox lineup and fill a void that the team had last season.

“The White Sox had a big hole in their lineup last year because they let Jim Thome walk,” Wyers said. “But they really went out and filled it this offseason. So they’ve added a lot of firepower to their lineup.”

On the other side of town, the Chicago Cubs are also projected to get good production out of their biggest offseason acquisition.

“[Matt Garza] is one of the guys that could very well be the ace of that Cubs rotation,” Wyers said. “And they gave up a lot to get him.”

Most people didn’t expect that Rose would develop this quickly into one of the elite players in the league. In only his third season he’s earned a starting spot for the NBA All-Star game. He’s the first Bulls’ player to do that since Michael Jordan in 1998.

“I certainly think this summer played a big role in that development,” Bulls’ beat writer K.C. Johnson said on the Jason Goff Show.

LISTEN: K.C. Johnson Talks With Jason Goff

Rose was a member of Team USA in the summer’s FIBA World Championships in Turkey. Throughout the Team USA training camp, Rose and Boston’s Rajon Rondo were considered the top two point guards on the team. Ultimately coach Mike Krzyzewski chose Rose over Rondo and the rest, as they say, has been history.

“I remember writing a story this summer,” Johnson said, “where I talked to Scottie Pippen about his first stint on the Dream Team. People forget that even though Scottie had won a couple championships at that point, that Dream Team was kind of his coming out party.”

LISTEN: 670 The Score’s Derrick Rose Montage

Pippen talked about how playing on an huge stage with a team full of the NBA’s best players gave him confidence. Just as the Dream Team stepped up Pippen’s game and showcased him to the rest of the league, last summer did that for Rose.

“Derrick has expressed similar feelings about what that summer experience on Team USA meant to him,” Johnson said. “So I think it’s just been a progression. Not only from that international exposure, but also just being in the league and going, ‘wow, I am one of the best players in the league.’ And not many people in the league can stop this guy and I think it’s been a natural progression.”

“He can be the best,” Bulls’ guard Kyle Korver told Jason Goff on 670 The Score. “For sure best point guard, one of the best players [in the NBA]. I mean there’s a lot of really good players in the league, but he has such an athletic ability.”

LISTEN: Kyle Korver Talks To The Score’s Jason Goff

Those who have followed Rose’s entire professional career, have seen the third-year point guard make tremendous strides from year-to-year. However, those people like Korver, who weren’t able to watch Rose every night, might find his performance this year surprising.

“I knew he was good when I came here,” Korver said. “I didn’t know he was this good, I know he got a lot better this summer too. But he’s only like 21, 22-years old, so he has a lot of years ahead of him.”

Rose’s development to this point has been beyond the learning curve that many expected from him. He’s started to gain national attention and turn heads around the league. But it appears as if this isn’t a resting point for Rose, it’s just the next step.

“He’s going to keep on getting smarter, and being able to manage the team better, manage the clock better,” Korver said. “But he has all the tools. His shot is right there now. He added a three-point shot to all the tools that he already has, he’s really tough to guard.”