Rose may prove to be the first point guard in history with his combination of speed, strength and jumping ability, but he's a distributor, and therefore more in the mold of a Jason Kidd with more offensive ability.

That's no knock on him. You can easily build a championship team around a player with Rose's considerable skills, but the nature of those skills may require the second- and third-best players on his team to be better than the second- or third-best players on teams built around some of the other icons of the game.

BATMAN NEEDS A ROBIN

The problem isn't that the Bulls don't have a best player. Rose will more than suffice. It's that they don't have an established second-best player, a player who can be 1B to Rose's 1A. We can debate whether the second-best player is free agent Ben Gordon, just like we can agree that unless the Bulls can convince the Clippers to give up Blake Griffin for the 16th and 26th picks, the player the Bulls need won't be found in tonight's deep but diluted NBA draft.

Questions swish through the nets like balls at a shootaround as Gar Forman tiptoes through an offseason minefield where every critical decision triggers another critical decision. The biggest ones involve Gordon and/or Kirk Hinrich. Most critical of all, how will any moves impact the possibility of landing Chris Bosh as early as this offseason or LeBron James and Dwyane Wade during the free-agent big-game hunt in 2010.

The most confounding of all questions must be answered first, if that's even possible: Who and what are these Bulls ?

Are they the perplexing bunch that failed to show up in the critical final regular-season game or the hungry group that pushed the defending NBA champs (albeit without Kevin Garnett) to the brink during a first-round playoff series that dripped with drama? Are they a team on the brink or did they merely mask a mostly disappointing season with a sizzling playoff run?

Is there any wonder why John Paxson may have felt overwhelmed by the general manager's job?

Regardless of the answers to those questions, what's clear is that the Bulls are at least one player away from joining the Eastern Conference's elite, and Rose needs a more dynamic mix than Bryant and James currently have. He needs more than a ''supporting cast.'' He needs trusty lieutenants, wing men to help him raise another championship banner to the ceiling of the U.C., preferably starting with a low-post scorer to play Mr. Inside to Rose's Mr. Outside.

Forman has said he wants to bring Gordon back. Is that likely with the Pistons reportedly offering $11 million? He also said he will approach the draft without regard to whether Gordon stays or goes. How is that possible? If Forman is willing to let Gordon walk, he might want to acquire a cheaper alternative at guard. If he believes Gordon will return, he may want to draft a low-post project.

Gordon can be the third-best player on a championship team, but he can't be second-best, at least not the way this Bulls' team is currently constructed. If Gordon stays, what to do with Hinrich?

PIECES FALLING INTO PLACE

Slowly, pieces began to fit together. John Salmons and Brad Miller were acquired in a February trade. Ultimately, however, those seven playoff games and seven overtimes, regardless of how entertaining, did little to change the dynamics of the riddle that Forman must solve.

It all starts with Rose. The Bulls have their cornerstone. That became obvious during the regular season and was reinforced during the postseason. Recent charges of academic fraud while he was at Memphis and a photo surfacing of him flashing a gang sign at a college party, while somewhat troubling, doesn't change that.

That he may never have a smile that lights up a magazine cover or facial expressions that make him as photogenic as Jordan doesn't minimize his impact on the franchise and its ability to win a title, but he will need different types of players around him than Jordan did and than Bryant, James and Wade do.

That's why any decision the Bulls make tonight is only a prelude to bigger decisions ahead. They may not be able to solve their biggest problem with a member of the 2009 draft class, but they should now be able to identify it.