Derrick Rose: Team USA, injuries and his unexpected journey
By Bryce Olin
What’s next for Rose and the Bulls
Assuming Rose makes Team USA, and he should based on what everyone is saying about him, how he plays in Spain will be a great indication of what he will bring stateside this season.
The Bulls upgraded their roster with Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic, and Doug McDermott this offseason. All of those players are weapons Rose can utilize within the offense, only if Thibs decides to run one with Rose in the lineup. If anything is different than when Rose tried to return back to basketball this season, it’s that the Bulls actually have talented offensive pieces around him.
Last season, Rose returned to a team that couldn’t score. The Bulls were the worst offensive team in the league last season without Rose. This offseason, the Bulls have made the necessary upgrades to the roster, and now, Rose has a team around him that he can default to, instead of shouldering the entire scoring load game after game.
| Season | Age | MP | FG | FGA | FG% | TRB | AST | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-11 ★ | 22 | 37.4 | 8.8 | 19.7 | .445 | 4.1 | 7.7 | 25.0 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/31/2014.
During Rose’s MVP season, he averaged 25.0 points per game and dished out 7.7 assists per game. His usage rate, which is the estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor, was 32.2 percent, the 72nd highest usage rate in NBA history.
When Rose returned from injury at the start of the season, his usage rate was 31.5 percent, almost exactly what it was during his MVP season. Rose returned to the exact role he had when he was fully healthy. This time, hopefully, Gasol and the rest of the Bulls can help take some of the pressure off Rose to ease his transition back into the everyday grind of the NBA. It’d also help out if Thibs would cut back some of Rose’s minutes, but let’s not count on it.
I really like what the Bulls did this offseason for Rose. Getting Carmelo Anthony, at this point in his career, would have given the Bulls another scorer, but I’m not sure Anthony was the player they need.
With Gasol and Joakim Noah in the post, the Bulls can get the ball out of Rose’s hands and into the hands of two of the best passing big men in the game. They can work a lot of high-low, two-man post action to get the easy buckets they haven’t been able to get in years past, because of Carlos Boozer’s height disadvantage. That takes a lot of pressure off Rose to create offense by himself when he can dump it into the post.
The Bulls also now have shooters who can space the floor to give Rose options in the pick-and-roll and when he drives. Rose is, probably, still one of the best players in the game at finishing at the rim. When Rose draws extra defenders to the key, he now has more options to kick the ball to for threes, instead of forcing tough shots in traffic and opening himself up to possible injuries.
It’s not like Rose will change his game completely because of his injuries. He’s very good at slicing and dicing people off the dribble. But like LeBron James did when he went to the Miami Heat, Rose can start to pick and choose his spots more carefully with better players around him. He doesn’t always have to be the guy taking the shot at the end of the shot clock anymore. The Bulls have more offensive weapons than ever before, and it’s up to Rose to figure out the best way to utilize them. Sorry, Bulls fans, I don’t have much confidence in Tom Thibodeau coaching offense.