Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade have joined LeBron James with the Cleveland Cavaliers as they try to make it back to the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive season. This is the second time that Dwyane and LeBron have played together, as they were NAB Champions with the Miami Heat. However, Derrick wanted to put this team together eight years ago.

Rose and the Chicago Bulls

Derrick Rose was one of the best players in the NBA back in 2010. In the season that Rose averaged 25 points-per-game and won the NBA MVP award, Rose had designs on the NBA Championship with the Chicago Bulls.

Before that season started, both Dwyane Wade and LeBron James were free agents. LeBon left Cleveland and joined Dwyane in Miami.

However, Rose said he put a video together at the time and tried to recruit LeBron and Dwyane to join him in Chicago. The Bulls had a great young team with Rose, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng and Taj Gibson in the lineup. That team was good enough to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals and lose, ironically, in five games to the Miami Heat.

If Derrick Rose had his way, the two stars that led the Miami Heat to the NBA Finals (where they lost that season to the Dallas Mavericks) would have played with him in Chicago. As Derrick told ESPN on Tuesday, too many people have accused him of never recruiting players to Chicago but, in 2010, he did what he could but LeBron James and Dwyane Wade went elsewhere.

2017 Cleveland Cavaliers

Sadly for Derrick Rose, he suffered major injuries the very next season and was never able to lead the Chicago Bulls to the NBA Finals. He ended up returning from his injury and never regained his MVP-level play. After the Bulls finally let Derrick leave, he went to the New York Knicks and was unable to help turn that team around.

Now, Rose is with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he has the best chance to make it to the NBA Finals since he was the MVP back in the 2010-11 season. He joins Dwyane Wade, who was unable to lead the Miami Heat back to the NBA Finals after LeBron James left town. Add in Isaiah Thomas, who looked like he was ready to lead the Boston Celtics to the Promised Land last year, and this looks like the best Cavaliers team of the last three NBA Finals candidates.

LeBron James said that Derrick Rose made it clear that he wanted him and Dwyane Wade to come play with him in 2010, regardless of what the media said. James said that Rose just wanted to win. This year, he gets that chance.
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