"Ask Derrick Rose and/or Rip Hamilton how long until their skills mesh, and they'll tell you they already have.

They say their games are so complementary that it's as if they've been playing together for years.

"There's no adjustment," Rose said. "I love it."

It was a lack of backcourt scoring that allowed the Miami Heat to collapse on Rose time and again while eliminating the Bulls from last season's Eastern Conference finals. Hamilton was acquired to remedy that. While everybody agrees they appear to be a good fit, the two most convinced of that are Rose and Hamilton themselves."